The Same Life Journey, Very Different Experiences

I'm not one who believes you can see the future...but I'm getting there.

A segment of Jesus' journey to Jerusalem in Mark 10:32-45 lays out two very different ways of going through life. While the conversation there happened a couple thousand years ago, what it reveals about us remains all the same.

A person's path has everything to do with their starting point.

Fear as a starting point

We read of Jesus and his followers on their way to Jerusalem. While he was leading the way, his followers were 'astonished and afraid.' Now watch the progression with fear as the starting point:

• Myopic vision - Jesus no sooner reiterates (for the 3rd time now) what would happen to him, and James and John chime in with their concern: "Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask."

• Self-glory - Notice the oversight of all Jesus had told them he would go through? They went straight to glory: "Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory."

• Self-sufficiency - Theirs was a strikingly familiar response to Jesus' question: "Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?" Thinking they fully understood what he was asking, they replied, "We can."

• Jealousy & envy - We read that the other ten disciples 'became indignant with James and John.' Based on other episodes in the Gospels, this wasn't sober-minded correction in the direction of humility. This was envy over the fact they hadn't thought of it first.

I wish this way of living was foreign to me. It's one that unfortunately I've known all too well. Fear can drive any of us to blurred vision and judgment of ourselves and our reality.

Let's consider the alternative.

Faith as a starting point

Faith sees things that fear is simply blind to. Walk back through the passage, and notice what Jesus emphasizes.

• Resolve - Knowing what was before him, Jesus made it clear: "We are going to Jerusalem." Luke tells us that Jesus 'set his face like flint' to go to Jerusalem and what awaited him there.

• Realistic about suffering - Jesus knew what had been ordained for him, and didn't try to insulate himself from it.

• Humility - Jesus kept in sight that those who'd sit to his left and right was not his to grant. He had eyes on the truth that glory is prepared by the Father.

• Servant-hearted - Jesus remembered his aim: "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."

The key to all this? It's found in the subtle statement of Jesus: "Not so with you." While the world we live in offers, tempts, and deceives humanity into fear as the only way, Jesus reminds us:

"Not so with you."

You don't have to accept the picture fear gives you. You don't have to manufacture your own glory. You don't have to fret that someone else's greatness takes away from who you are in your Savior's eyes. You can embrace a different life: the lifted up are brought low, and those who stoop become great.

It's at the same time simple and not easy. It means embracing Jesus' way over ours.

But it's a much lighter way through life.

Nathan