Year 5, Day 157: Mark 10

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Obedience

• Obedience: Genuine and satisfying obedience comes out of our identity.  Our true identity comes only from our Father.

As I read through the tenth chapter of Mark, I noticed that submission to God, and thus obedience to His ways, is the general overarching theme of most of the stories.  For example, take the first teaching on divorce.  If you have two people who are loving each other in spite of their flaws – in other words, loving each other as God first loved us – why would they ever want to get divorced?  So long as a husband and wife live by putting the needs of the other ahead of their own, why would they ever think about divorce?  Although this is a gross over-generalization, the reality is that divorces all have self-centeredness at the heart.  It might be self-centeredness on behalf of one person or self-centeredness on behalf of both.  But divorce happens when we stop being obedient to God and start putting ourselves and our own desires first.

What about the rich young man?  Clearly this is an issue of obedience.  Jesus tells the rich young ruler what he is missing in life.  His money is more important to him than following God.  He cannot bear to part with his money.  He chooses to obey the call to personal wealth and personal gain over and above the call to follow God.  His unwillingness to obey the words of Jesus leads to his downfall.

And then there is the lack of humbleness in the request of James and John.  They want to be the greatest in Jesus’ eyes.  They want to be in charge of the kingdom of God.  They are thinking about submitting to God and obediently playing whatever role He desires of them.  They want their own fame, reputation and prestige.  Jesus rebukes them, and fortunately for them James and John listen!

Look at the story that is sandwiched in the middle of each of these stories.  Jesus tells His disciples a third time that He is going to Jerusalem to die.  This is what obedience looks like.  While humanity in general seeks to get out of its own arrangements when our desire change, while a rich young man chooses not to part with His wealth, while His own disciples are still wrestling for power and prestige, Jesus is marching towards Jerusalem in strict obedience to the Father in order to sacrifice His own life.  That’s an example for each of us to follow.

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