Free To Serve

1. Read Mark 10:42-52. What stood out to you in this story about Bartimaeus in a new and fresh way?
2. In unhealthy seasons of life, do you lean more towards unholy ambition or a lack of ambition? Why do you think that's your leaning?
3. What are some voices in your life you've had to shut out that have made you feel unworthy of love or like you don't matter? What is the basis of your value and worth, and where would you back it up biblically?
4. How does it strike you that the biblical reason for freedom given in Galatians 5:13-14 is to serve? What does that mean in your context?
5. What would change if you felt the freedom to serve God and others without needing to earn God's love or secure your own identity or self-image?
6. How would it change the way you serve if you knew you were free to fail? How would it change the way you approach your work and relationships?

Practice: Our primary calling is first to Jesus and then we are given many secondary callings. Have you treated your relationship with God as your primary calling in life? If not, what is one way you can prioritize time with Jesus above every other secondary calling this week? Make it a priority. Put it in your calendar. Give something else up to grab a hold of the one who has you in his grip.

I was driving around with my daughters yesterday. Sometimes we’ll go on these spontaneous drives––just go explore and see where we end up. And yesterday morning, we drove past this store in Alliance I had never seen before called Selfie World. I pulled up and parked to see what it was. They had all these selfie sticks with ring lights for sale in the windows. I got on my phone and looked it up while we were parked there, and it said it’s Fort Worth’s first “selfie museum.” It’s essentially a studio where you buy tickets to go take selfies in front of different backdrops with interactive exhibits. It actually looked kind of fun. A museum where the main attraction is me.

It makes sense because we have this innate need within us to feel loved and valued, to know that we matter in the world. But we get so wrapped up in insecurities about our identity that we obsess over our image, how we’re seen by others. It leads us to do all sorts of things. It drives a lot of our actions, whether it be fear of what others think, or thriving on their praise. It drives how we choose our careers, because we want to be successful or well-known or well-liked, or at least seen as competent.

Sometimes it drives us to unholy ambition, like we talked about last week, seeking an advantage over others or seeking power and control in ways that diminish someone’s personhood.

But sometimes we go the opposite way, we lose all ambition and turn inward to self-loathing, never feeling quite like we measure up, and giving into the idea that we’ll never be enough, never as good as so-and-so. Why even try? When we fall into this trap, it’s easy to trick ourselves to think we’re somehow more spiritual for wallowing in self-pity and not aspiring to step up and lead.

But ambition is not inherently unholy. There are holy and unholy kinds of ambition. Jesus doesn’t throw out every notion of becoming great, he just approaches it in an entirely different way.

The most radical idea Christianity offers. God came near and used his power to serve us and to set us free, lift us up, and join him in service.

This verse, we said, serves as our hinge between two very different stories of discipleship. The first with James and John illustrates a failure of discipleship. They missed what Jesus was saying about greatness and aspired to secure the preeminent roles of leadership in the kingdom.

These are the fiery brothers who often overreacted. Remember, on one occasion they asked Jesus if they could call down fire from heaven to burn up people who had rejected them. Those same brothers wanted free reign to wield that authority over others––to lord it over them.

They provide a perfect example at this point in their lives of unholy ambition.

Bartimaeus, however, will give us a positive example of someone who has been given supernatural discernment into who Jesus really is and perceives that he’s there to serve. Even though his circumstances as a blind beggar made him the lowest of the low, we’ll see he doesn’t wallow in self-pity or listen to the crowd when they tell him to shut up and know his role. Instead, he’ll boldly ask Jesus to make him whole and regain his sight so he can be a contributor and respond to the call Jesus has for his life.

He’ll respond to Jesus’ call with holy ambition and join him on the road.

So, on the one hand, for Jesus, greatness is not something to be secured and grasped tightly. It’s found in giving yourself away. For Jesus, holy ambition, true greatness is found in making yourself the lowest for the sake of lifting others up around you. But lifting others up around you takes effort and creativity and strength. It is an active and participatory role, not something you can do sitting idly by on the sidelines.

The two unholy extremes are unholy ambition on the one hand, and no ambition at all on the other. Where do you find yourself on this spectrum? Are you striving to make a name for yourself or gain power and control at cost to others? Or are you sidelined because you don’t think you measure up?

Wherever you are, Jesus asks this same question in both stories:

What do you want from God? What do you most truly desire? What is your ambition in life, if you have one at all?

We looked at four power dynamics in relating with others last week. We based it on verses 42-44:

To “lord over” means to rule in a way that gains an advantage over people To “exercise authority over” carries implications of ruling in a compulsory or oppressive way.

Then to be a servant is one level of considering others before yourself, but to be a slave is a whole different level of using your strength and energy to lift someone else up, like Jesus is doing.

James and John were primarily looking for political positions of power to lord their authority over others, but we applied this to every way we lord our authority over others, particularly in our most intimate relationships. We saw how this dynamic of unholy ambition plays out especially in abusive relationships.

So, we extrapolated four levels of power dynamics in relating with others. You could apply this to political rulers, to how you manage in your workplace, to your most intimate relationships (spouse, kids…).

Remember, the world moves up on this scale, securing greatness, by exercising power over people. Jesus is calling us deeper into service of others, using your power, influence, and authority to lift them up.

It actually takes the most effort to be on the top or bottom of this scale. It takes effort to constantly power over and control others. It takes creativity and energy to use your power under in a way that lifts others. But the two in the middle are sort of the default status quo. I think someone with no ambition will vacillate between being selfish and selfless but generally will take the path of least resistance.

Jesus’ call to join him on the road to suffering through sacrificial service is far more effort than just giving someone preferential treatment. It’s going to require you to stand up and heed the call.

Mark uses the phrase “on the road” to talk about those who follow the call into discipleship with Jesus.

We began last week with verse 32 and saw that Jesus was “on the road” walking out ahead of everyone. To be “on the road/way” with Jesus is Mark’s way of talking about discipleship. They’re on the way with Jesus, following him, and he is leading in sacrificial service. He’s resolutely marching towards his death to bring salvation to the world. And we’ll see in this story that Bartimaeus starts off, not on the road, but “by the road” and ends up “on the road” when he answers Jesus’ call.

Bartimaeus’ story is ultimately a call story, like when Jesus was calling his 12 disciples to follow him. He called them by name. This is the only healing story in Mark where the person being healed is named. Because Jesus is doing more than healing his physical blindness, he’s calling him by name and enlisting him into service.

Bartimaeus is on the outs of society. Lowest of the low. A blind man wouldn’t be able to contribute in society back then. So, he’s a beggar. Even his name shows that he is likely a Gentile. Bar is Aramaic for “son of,” but Timaeus is a Greek name, not even a Jew. Not only that, but Jesus is on a mission. He has an ultimate priority on this road. He’s nearing the end of his journey. Yet, he is somehow not too busy for the least important person in the crowd screaming for mercy.

Bartimaeus may be blind, but he has been given a supernatural ability to perceive who Jesus is and why he’s come. He may have heard about him and the healings that he had done. But he recognizes Jesus as the “Son of David,” the messianic figure who was prophesied.

Anyone else who has recognized Jesus as the Messiah has been told by him to keep it quiet, because his time had not yet come. But here, we’re at the end of this journey section of Mark, and Jesus is about to make his triumphal entry, so he doesn’t rebuke him. In fact, it’s the crowd that’s trying to keep him quiet.

Imagine the desperation and the faith of this man. Already the reject of society, completely reliant on the benevolence of others to have any coins to live on. But he yells desperately for Jesus because he sees more clearly than any of them who Jesus really is.

Jesus had already been through Jericho, so Bartimaeus had probably heard stories of what he could do. And he knows, this man is my only shot at living a real life. He’s all I’ve got. So, he cries out. He invokes this messianic title twice and begs him, “have mercy on me!”

Jesus stopped. At this point, Jesus has shown us that he’s out in the lead, on a mission to use his power to lay his life down for the salvation of the world. I would call that priority numero uno for Jesus. He has set his face resolutely on that mission. But he’s somehow still approachable. He doesn’t let that overarching mission detract from smaller ways to touch lives and show compassion. He’s here to serve.

You can all conjure up a picture in your head of someone who is so caught up in their “mission statement” that they miss what it was even put there for in the first place.

Sometimes we don’t use our energy to serve because we think it will detract from a responsibility that is more in line with our main mission. And of course, we absolutely have to prioritize our serving opportunities. But often there are many that are right in front of us and we’re waiting for some “greater” task to come along.

Mark is fast paced in the movement of the story, which makes this abrupt stop that much more dramatic. He says in v. 46, they came to Jericho, and then it says they were leaving Jericho. Mark is saying, “Keep it moving, we got somewhere to be!” But Jesus stops for the opportunity right in front of him.

Call. Notice the three times the word call is used. Bartimaeus was crying out to Jesus, and now Jesus calls him personally, by name. The threefold calling is emphasizing this as a call from Jesus to join him on the road to discipleship.

And how does Bartimaeus respond? He throws aside his cloak, possibly his only possession. The cloak is what he would have laid in his lap to gather the coins being dropped. And the word “jumped up” is used only here in the entire New Testament. He doesn’t have any regard for the cloak any longer. He flings it aside and answers Jesus’ call without hesitation.

And leaving behind his only possession shows that he managed to do what the rich man in the beginning of this chapter couldn’t. Remember the rich man who couldn’t give it all up? Jesus told him to sell it all, so he went away sad, because he couldn’t do it. We never even learned the rich man’s name. Bartimaeus’ name went down in history, while the rich man who failed to give up his greatness, power, and possessions, remains anonymous and is left in obscurity. Once again, the least becomes the greatest.

Every example of a call to discipleship in Mark is a call to leave something behind on the way to follow Jesus. The disciples had to leave behind boats, nets, fathers, and livelihoods. Bartimaeus had nothing but this cloak and knew Jesus offered far more. He didn’t even have to give it a second thought.

It’s ironic that the blind man sees so much more clearly than the disciples at this point. They made an illegitimate request, but he made a legitimate one. They were blindly confident that they could drink the cup that Jesus was about to drink, saying “we are able”; Bartimaeus sees how frail he is and asks for mercy.

Here’s the question Jesus has asked James and John. What do you want me to do for you? Bartimaeus calls him Rabboni, “my master” when he asks to be made whole.

This term is more intimate than just Rabbi. This is “my master.” It’s something you would call a Rabbi you had been following for a while. He already sees himself walking down the road on this journey.

The blind man is the one who sees most clearly in this passage and asks to regain his sight. He wants to be made whole and join Jesus on his mission to restore others.

This is what it looks like to be ransomed, to be set free. Jesus uses his power to lift the least out of a pit. He restores Bartimaeus and makes him whole. He gives him the ability to contribute to society, then he frees him to go on his way. But rather than be a bystander for the rest of his life like he had been, sidelined “beside the road,” he enthusiastically joins Jesus “on the road.” He wants in. Wherever you’re going is where I’m going to be!

Imagine if Bartimaeus had wallowed in self-pity or assumed Jesus was too important to approach. He never would have joined in on Jesus’ mission. We would never know Bartimaeus’ name. Instead, he’s yelling his head off and embarrassing himself in front of this crowd in order to get his attention, because he perceives Jesus in a different way than they do. He somehow knows his very heart is to serve.

So, Jesus tells him, your faith has healed you. Bartimaeus refused to sit on the sidelines any longer. He reached out and grabbed hold of the only one who could pull him out of his condition. The same should be true of us. There’s such a contrast here in these two stories between James and John trying to seize power for themselves to lord over others (unholy ambition), and Bartimaeus seizing the person who was going to make his life whole and let him join in on the mission––that’s holy ambition. Seizing the Person, Jesus, who came to serve and to save. Philippians 3 calls that pressing on toward the goal of the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. That’s holy ambition. It starts with him.

Os Guinness says in his book The Call that there is a primary and secondary calling for each of us. The primary calling is being called to Someone (Jesus). The secondary calling is really made up of many callings in your life that have to do with how you will join Jesus on this mission to serve others.

When you hear the question, “What do you want me to do for you?” Is your answer a thing, a position, a new house, a career, a spouse, a child, or any other great calling in life? Or is your greatest ambition to attach yourself to the person of Jesus, to be known by him and join him on the road?

Your primary calling is to a person, not a position, not a talent, a particular task or project. It’s not to gain power and control to exercise authority over someone. It’s not even to the work of the kingdom. Your primary calling is to Jesus Christ, and no other calling will make sense until you follow that call. Throwing aside your cloak, whatever you have in the way of getting to him and jumping at the opportunity to join him on the way. That is the beginning of holy ambition.

I love what James K. A. Smith says about ambition in his book On The Road with St. Augustine. He says, “Ambition is a many-splendored, much-maligned thing. Your take depends on what demons you're trying to exorcise. If you're surrounded by prideful, power-hungry egomaniacs bent on making a name for themselves [power over]… ambition looks ugly, monstrous, and domineering. But if you're surrounded by placid, passive, go-with-the-flow, aw-shucks folk who are leaving unused gifts on the table and failing to respond to their calling, then ambition looks like faithfulness.”

Unholy Ambition and No Ambition are both pits. It’s not what discipleship looks like on the road with Jesus.

James and John at this time in their walks would rather stop along the road to make a monument to themselves and secure their own greatness rather than be on the road in service to others. Somebody once said, you can’t wash feet when you’re up on a pedestal. They want to build the pedestal.

But on the other extreme, imagine if Bartimaeus had listened to the voice of the crowd and stopped crying out for Jesus. Imagine if he would have been a placid, passive, go-with-the-flow, aw-shucks person. He would have failed to respond to the call and forever been sidelined and lost to history, never living up to his full potential in Jesus.

Ambition is good and holy when that ambition is first intimacy with Jesus, walking on the road with him, set free by him so that you could even have the capacity to bring him glory in service to others.

Last week was a warning to those with unholy ambitions who would use their power to dominate others and diminish their personhood. To those who lord over others in any way––politically, in the workplace, in your most intimate relationships––Jesus said, “it is not this way among you.” To dominate others in that way is to stand outside the present kingdom reality.

This week is a call to those who have been dominated by others, by circumstances, by the world, who don’t think they could ever be truly loved or make a valuable contribution. Maybe others have told you to shut your mouth and go with the flow for so long that you can’t imagine any other way. You are content just sitting by the road and catching whatever benevolent coins are thrown your way. Jesus is calling you to be brave and have a holy ambition, stand up––no, jump up and have your eyes opened to a whole new reality.

The Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many. He has come to give his life a ransom for many. What does it mean to be ransomed, to be set free to serve others? We just celebrated freedom this week on July 4th. What does freedom mean to you?

This is why you have been set free, ransomed in Christ. It’s to serve. What would it look like to serve in your context if you really believed you had nothing to earn and nothing to prove? That you have been ransomed? How does serving others change with that mindset? What would it look like for you to hear Jesus’ call above all the other noise from the crowd and join him on the road to discipleship today?

Maybe you remember the famous Teddy Roosevelt line from history class: “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

That’s the call. Don’t be the cold and timid soul and miss the call Jesus has for you. The only reason we can even strive valiantly and use our freedom to serve others is because he has set us free and given us the capacity to do so.

We don’t know what Bartimaeus went on to do. But it’s significant that we know his name. The fact that his name is given here when it isn’t given for any other healing in Mark means it’s very likely that he was already well-known in the community by the time Mark was written. Bartimaeus is now made whole and free to contribute. Before, because of the way their society was set up, he was bound to his post as a beggar. Now he’s been ransomed and can make a weighty contribution for the glory of God and the sake of others. He responded to the primary call of coming to Jesus and being made whole, and now he can live out his various callings, whatever they may be through his vocation, his relationships, and his place in the community.

James K. A. Smith again says, “Resting in the love of God doesn't squelch ambition; it fuels it with a different fire. I don't have to strive to get God to love me; rather, because God loves me unconditionally, I'm free to take risks and launch out into the deep. I'm released to aspire to use my gifts in gratitude, caught up in God's mission for the sake of the world. When you've been found, you're free to fail.”

How would you serve if you knew you were free to fail?

There was a long time in my life that I felt like I had nothing worth saying. I helped lead worship here for almost nine years and had someone in my life who was always beating me down and mocking me if I ever messed up or said something dumb. It made me feel like I had nothing worth saying. Then one week Pete made the smallest comment after something I had shared between songs on a Sunday morning and just said, “You ought to preach sometime.” It came out of Pete’s mouth, but it was God calling this latent desire out of me. I started preaching, then decided I need to go to seminary, then switched roles to do what I’m doing now, and my life looks completely different than it did because of that one word spoken into me. Heeding that call. If I had listened to the other voice, I wouldn’t be here now.

But even that is a secondary calling. All work, including kingdom work, is a secondary calling. The first calling is to grab hold of the one who already has you in his grip. Join him on the road. Be ransomed and set free to serve others in whatever way you’ve been called to do that.

If that means to make a chair, be the best chair maker you can be. Do it with excellence. If it’s a business owner or a janitor, serve in the best way you possibly can. Maybe you think your work doesn’t have anything to do with serving others. Don’t cut corners. Do the job with excellence. Or if you’re a perfectionist, don’t hold out on everyone so your contribution is perfect, sometimes serving others means just putting it out there even if you don’t look as good doing it.

After last week seeing the impact of unholy ambitions, it might be tempting to just sit out and not strive for too much. It may feel like a holier way of living. That’s why these two stories are told together. Because we can’t be sidelined by the road.

Holy ambition is getting to Jesus, being freed, ransomed in an ultimate sense, and then made increasingly freer from the sin and idols that entrap us so that we can do the most good to others for the glory of God. Hillside, that’s the call. Get to Jesus. Let him change your desires. Get on the road with him.