The King’s Cross

Father in heaven, we gather here on this solemn night remembering your passion night that leads into the day of your crucifixion. Father it is a solemn night and yet it is a glorious night for believers, and so Lord as we hear from Jesus the purpose of His life, the purpose of His suffering and dying, we pray Lord that we would be encouraged and drawn to believe and trust in Him, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Please turn with me in your Bibles. I would like to read the last three verses of Isaiah 53 and then our main text is in Mark 10. The last three verses of Isaiah 53 and then Mark 10 will begin at verse 35 and read through verse 45 and 45, that last verse is really our text for tonight.

Here now God’s Word Isaiah 45:10. “Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush Him, He has put him to grief when His soul makes an offering for guilt He shall see His offspring, He shall prolong His days, the will of the Lord shall prosper in His hand. Out of the anguish of His soul He shall see and be satisfied, by His knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and He shall bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will divide Him a portion with the many and He will divide the spoil with the strong because He poured out His soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors, yet He bore the sin of many and makes intersession for the transgressors.”

Then over to Mark 10:35-45. “And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to Him and said to Him, “Teacher” we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you, and He said to them, “What do you want me to do for you?” “And they said grant us to sit one at your right hand and one at your left in your glory.” And Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking, are you able to drink the cup that I drink or to be baptized wit a baptism with which I am baptized”, and they said to Him, “We are able”, and Jesus said to them, “The cup that I drink, you will drink and with a baptism with which I am baptized you will be baptized, but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.” And when the 10 heard it they began to be indignant at James and John and Jesus called them to Him and said to them, “You know that those who are considered rulers of the gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them, but it shall not be so among you, but whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all.” And then this verse, “For even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Well people of God we are gathered here on a sacred night, a holy night, a dark night, the night before Jesus’ crucifixion, the eve of Jesus atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world. Jesus’ death and sufferings, it is something that Jesus spoke often about. When His sufferings and death came along, they were no surprise. Jesus had predicted them, in fact in Mark’s Gospel three times in the chapters just before this passage that we read here in Mark 10, Jesus described what was to come. So, in chapter 8:31 we read that he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and scribes and be killed and after three days rise again. About a week later, chapter 9:31 he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him and when he is killed after three days he will rise.”

And once more in chapter 10:33-34 to the disciples, “See we are going up to Jerusalem and a Son of Man will be delivered over the chief priests and the scribes and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the gentiles and they will mock him and spit on him and flog him and kill him, and after three days he will rise.” I think you can see that it was very clear from Christ what was about to happen. His death was not incidental to His mission, but at the very heart and soul of His mission, the very heart and soul of why He was born, of why He lived, and then would come His death, but what’s unique about our passage tonight is that now for the first time Jesus doesn’t simply describe what is going to happen to Him, but Jesus tells us why it’s going to happen to Him and He put it in very straightforward terms, this verse probably is very familiar to most of us tonight. He said, “I came not to be served, but to serve and to give my life as a ransom for many.”

So, two simple things that Jesus says. First of all, He came to serve. This of course came on the heels of a shocking request. We read about it here in Mark 10 James and John, “Teacher we want you to do for us whatever we ask.” Can you believe it, the disciples would ask such a thing, James and John would make this request of Christ, especially as you can see in your Bibles, Jesus had just gotten done for that third time telling them what was going to happen to Him, that He was going to suffer and die, and it’s almost like the very first thing on James and John’s mind is not the sufferings of Christ, but how can we be great. Jesus one of us wants to sit on your right and one of us wants to sit on your left when you come in your glory. In other words, these disciples wanted to be served, not to serve. They wanted positions of power, they desired greatness and Jesus’ summary exhortation to them and to us was simply this, if you wanna be great, then you must be a servant and Jesus says that’s why I came, not to be served, but to serve. He came and that simple word captures His mission, I came. He’s on a mission with a purpose, a calling, it’s why Jesus was sent, to serve. Jesus illustrated this on the eve of his crucifixion as He gathered with the disciples in the upper room, two different times on that first Maundy Thursday evening. The first is captured in Luke 22 as Jesus was serving the Lord supper and He said to the disciples, “For who is greater, one who reclines at table or one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at table, but I am among you as the one who serves.”

Who was greater, the one who was waited on or the waiter? Which one is greater, it’s the one who gets to eat, the one who gets to drink, and yet Jesus says, “I’m the waiter, I’ve come to serve, I am among you as one who serves.” And so, I want you to think about that when we take the Lord’s supper in just a bit. Is Jesus the honored guest at the supper, well indeed He is, it is His supper. It points to Him to His broken body, to His shed blood, but he is also the servant. He is the one who gives us the bread. He’s the one who gives us the cup. He waits on us here, feeding us with Himself. The other illustration came in John chapter 13 as Jesus washed the disciples’ feet. Nothing more menial, lowly, humble than to wash the feet of another. Jesus said to the disciples, “You call me teacher and Lord and you are right for, so I am, and if I then your Lord and teacher have washed your feet you also ought to wash another’s feet. A servant is not greater than his master.” On that night the master knelt down, the towel and a basin, and he became the servant.

Friends, what is remarkable in this passage is how Jesus identifies himself in the context of serving. He says for even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve. Son of Man was Jesus’ self-description. Jesus in fact was the only one that uses this in the Gospel 81 times. This is how Jesus would describe himself, the Son of Man, a reference to his humanity, but even more a fulfillment of messianic prophecy. Daniel 7:14, Daniel has a vision, and he says, “Behold with the clouds of heaven there came one like a Son of Man, and he came to the ancient of days and was presented before him and to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him. Here is the Son of Man that all nations, languages, peoples should serve him and that is what makes this so astounding here, that Jesus says even the Son of Man who should be served by everyone has not come to be served but to serve.

Well, how did He do it? That’s the second part of the text. How did He serve. He gave His life as a ransom for many. Friends there is so much love and grace in these Words of Christ for us. Just pull it apart, you see the Gospel glowing in what Jesus said here, he says, “The Son of Man came to give, he gave.” That is the essence of grace, isn’t it? To give a gift and the Scriptures remind us of this over and over and over again that Jesus gave. Galatians 1:3-4, “He gave himself to deliver us from this present evil age.” Galatians 2:20, “The son of God loved me and gave Himself up for me” Paul says. Verse Timothy 2:5-6, “He gave Himself as a ransom for all.” Titus 2:14, “He gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness.” The fact that Jesus gave reminds us that this was a voluntary act of love. He was not coerced into death, He was not forced to die, but He willingly, gladly, joyfully gave Himself. Captured so well in the Words of Christ in John 10. He said, “No one takes my life for me, but I lay it down of my own accord, I have authority to lay it down, I have authority to take it up.” He gave, He gave his life, the costliest thing that he could give.

Just reading an article the other day, following up on the Masters. Rory McIlroy, about Rory McIlroy and the article had this title that huge sacrifices made by Rory’s middle class family. It was all about what his parents had done over the years to help him be a successful golfer, working 100-hour workweeks, no vacation for 10 years and a number of other things. In relationships we all make sacrifices, don’t we? It’s what relationships are about, in fact that’s what love does. But friends nothing compared to what Jesus gave for us. His very own life. We read it earlier in the service, greater love has no one than this, that someone would lay down his life for his friends. He gave His life. He gave it as a ransom. Mark says a ransom is a payment made to obtain the release of something. In ancient times and Biblical times most often, it was used to describe the price paid to deliver a slave, to release a slave, to purchase their freedom. We all gather here tonight on this Maundy Thursday with a great debt, a debt that we owe to God, a debt of sin that must be paid and the only way that it can be paid is by a righteous sacrifice. We need a sinless, spotless, perfect God man to pay our debt. There’s no other way that the debt can be paid than through such a person and Mark says, “Good news because we have Him in Christ, the Son of Man, He came not to be served but to serve, and He gave His life as a ransom for us.” Peter reminds us of this, “You were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ like that of a lamb without blemish or spot, there is only one man who can pay our debt, the Lord Jesus Christ.” And He has done it, gave His life as a ransom and in those last words for many for his own the many who belong to Him who are His whom He has chosen to be his precious possession. And notice that first word, the word for, don’t pass it by because that word for reminds us that He gave His life in our place as our substitute as our sin bearer.

It has been pointed out by some commentators, I think rightly so, that these words in verse 45 behind them are the words that we read in Isaiah 53. It’s not a quote of course of Isaiah 54, but when Jesus spoke those Words, he was making all kinds of illusions. To that great passage, that great passage about substitute, substitutionary atonement about a savior, a suffering servant who would come to die in our place, be wounded for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities. In Mark 10 Jesus talks about ransom. In Isaiah 53:10 He can speak about the soul of the suffering servant made to be a guilt offering, a connection. Jesus can talk in Mark 10 about his life being a ransom for many and the suffering servant He would be accounted righteous, bearing their iniquities for He bore the sin of many Isaiah says and then Jesus in Mark 10 says “I came to give my life.” And Isaiah reminds us, in little different words, but the same message that the suffering servant would pour out his soul unto death. It’s as if Jesus was saying here in Mark 10:45, “Do you know who that suffering servant is, do you know who is the one who would be wounded for your transgressions and crushed for you iniquities and the chastisement of God would be upon Him, do you know who that is, it’s me, I am that servant, I am the one who came to be crushed for you.”

People of God, this was His mission. It sets Him apart, doesn’t it, from the founder of every other religion in the world. When those founders came to live and to be an example for those who would follow him, but Jesus came to die and to be a sacrifice for us. Think of the words as we close with this song that we sometimes sing, as mercy is more what riches of kindness He lavished on us, His blood was the payment, His life was the cost. We stood neath a debt we could never afford. Our sins they are many, but praise God tonight that His mercy is more. Let’s pray.

Father in heaven, we thank you for the precious life and death of our savior the Lord Jesus Christ. We are grateful that He did not come to be served, but to serve, and that He did indeed lay down His life as a ransom for us. What good news we have tonight. And we pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.