Mark 10:35-45

This is one of the more enigmatic/contradictory/paradoxical group of teachings which Mark tells us about Jesus. Some of the simpler teachings are easier to interpret – a farmer sowing a field of mustard, a vine nurturing its branches, a woman searching for a pearl of great price … these are all images of the Kingdom of God which we can readily draw meaning from. There are many others. They all invite us into a confident desire for and engagement with the Kingdom – they make it accessible to us and encourage our faithfulness to be rewarded with full participation in the Kingdom – maybe now, or maybe later.

But today’s ideas from Mark’s scribes seem more designed to discombobulate. They offer no such guarantees. We are invited to work for the Kingdom – to “drink the cup that I must drink … be baptised with the baptism which I must be baptised”, but with no expectation that this will be recognised, or stand in our favour on the “last day”.

Again, the disciples were beginning to shuffle into different leadership roles, the temptation being to consider themselves amongst the “first” and to be those in “authority”. And the Markian scribes dismiss these notions – the first must be a slave; the greatest, a servant. They seem to be offering a faith that is a precipice of service, without any expectation of recognition or reward.

1. Which presentations of the Christian faith reassure you, and encourage you?

1. Which presentations discombobulate or even offend you?

1. How do you engage with these different presentations of faith – which is more engaging? challenging? nurturing?

1. How do you respond to the term “precipice of service”?

1. What experiences have you had of giving all, and receiving no response or reward?

1. How would you describe your own aspirations towards the “left and right hand of Jesus”?

1. What experience of your faith do you use to define your personal success?

1. How would you react if you were asked to throw that into the precipice of service?