The first part of our mission in the world is to imitate Jesus as bold prophets with an urgent message: “The kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the good news!” (Mark 1:15). The second is to serve as priests, just as he did.
A priest is a person who serves people in order to reconcile them to God. Jesus died on the cross and rose three days later to take the punishment for our sins that we never could have taken. Jesus predicted this to his disciples:
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.” (Mark 9:31)
Jesus became our high priest – he served us even to the point of his own death – all to reconcile us to God. And he wants us to follow in his footsteps. That’s why he talked about his own death over and over, and told his disciples:
If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. (Mark 8:34-35)
But his disciples just couldn’t accept that. After Jesus mentioned his death again, it says, “They did not understand the saying, and were afraid to ask him.” (Mark 9:32).
Why were the disciples so afraid to ask Jesus what he meant? Probably because they knew exactly what Jesus meant, they just didn’t want to talk about the implications.They didn’t want to think about the fact that the mission of the Messiah included serving through suffering and death – especially if that meant the same fate for the followers of the Messiah!
If you don’t want to be a priest like Jesus, never expect to suffer. Don’t ever accept the fact that following him might be really hard work. Don’t believe the fact that following Jesus just might mean never really fitting in with the rest of the crowd at school. Make sure you settle on the career that’s the easiest path rather than fighting to pursue the more difficult thing you know God has called you to. Rest assured that you can always give up on a difficult marriage to go find happiness rather than working through tough issues.
If you don’t want to be a priest, then always look for the path of least resistance! That’s what the disciples did. Instead of dwelling on such an unpleasant subject as the suffering that might come to the followers of the Messiah, the disciples wanted to talk about the greatness the Messiah would bring to his followers:
They came to Capernaum. And when he was in the house he asked them, “What were you discussing on the way?” But they kept silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. (Mark 9:33-34)
Here’s another helpful hint if you don’t want to be a Christ-like priest: always compare yourself to others. Always take note of who’s making more money than you, who has a nicer car than you or a nicer house than you. In your workplace, notice who’s getting ahead faster than you, and who has a nicer office than you. When you’re at church, make sure you keep track of who gets more attention than you, or who gets more recognition than you.
When we compare ourselves to others, it can only lead to one of two outcomes: pride or covetousness. Neither of which will motivate you to serve as Jesus commands you to. The disciples were constantly arguing over position and greatness, so this time Jesus used their argument to teach them about true greatness:
Jesus sat down and called the twelve. And he said to them, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.” And he took a child and put him in the midst of them, and taking him in his arms, he said to them, “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me.” (Mark 9:35-37).
Jesus was speaking Aramaic to his disciples, and the Aramaic word for “children” is the same word as “servant.” So to make a play on words, Jesus says in order to be a true servant, you’ve got to serve other servants.You need to serve the lowliest people, the kind who have no hope of giving anything back. And the best illustration for that kind of person was a little kid.
You need to understand the difference between Jesus’ day and ours. Here in the 21st century world, we treasure children as our most valuable asset. They have Lo-Jack wristbands slapped on them within moments of leaving the womb. They aren’t allowed to leave the maternity floor until they’re securely buckled into five point rear-facing carseats. They play with toys designed by PhD’s in order to enhance cognitive development from the time they’re 3 months old. They go to soccer leagues and basketball camps and tutoring centers and SAT prep courses to make sure they realize their fullest potential.
But in 1st century Galilee, most kids had a stick for a toy. If you were a wealthy kid, you might have a crude wooden boat. You learned the Torah at the synagogue once a week. And the rest of the time, you were invisible and ignored.
You had kids for one reason: to help push your plow. That’s why girls were even less valued. The Roman Christians Mark was writing his gospel to were accustomed to the sight of dead baby girls lying outside the city walls – they had been abandoned and exposed to the weather and the wild animals by parents who didn’t want them.
Kids were the lowest of the low in those days, and those are the people Jesus was calling his disciples to serve. If you’re a real priest, that means you’ll serve people who could never serve you back. 1 Peter 2:9 says “We are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
We are priests who point people out of the darkness to God, and we do that by loving them, serving them, and by proclaiming God’s excellence to them.