The Bible Is for You: 5 Days in the New TestamentSample

The Gospel of Mark

I have decided that hospital hallways are some of the most hallowed places on earth.

It’s among them that I’ve seen surgeons stoop low to investigate the design of a building-brick castle on the rollaway table across my son’s bed. I’ve watched nurses create a makeshift hair salon out of an office chair and wash pan so he could have his hair washed with shampoo and water like a real, honest-to-goodness shower. I’ve been in the room when the maintenance crew has emptied the sharps container and biohazard can with smiles on their faces, gushing over my boy’s handsome pinstripe pajamas. I’ve witnessed therapists creating scavenger hunts for snacks around the nurses’ station because they know food is his love language.

I’ve spent days and weeks and months in hospital hallways, and I have seen my small-in-stature son treated like an absolute king. It’s the upside-down kingdom in technicolor.

I think of these moments as I read the Gospel of Mark. The disciples were learning what it meant to follow Jesus, and it’s safe to say it took them a while to catch on. They witnessed Him heal the sick, teach crowds, perform miracles—a few of them even saw Jesus transfigured on a mountain in the presence of Moses and Elijah! And yet, they got distracted time and again by their own egos.

Whether they were arguing over who was the greatest or asking Jesus for a place of honor in heaven, Jesus’s response was the same: “If anyone wants to be first, he must be last,” and, “whoever wants to become great among you will be your servant” (Mark 9:35; 10:43). In other words: “You’re looking for greatness in all the wrong places.” They were looking at the top instead of the bottom, looking for the powerful instead of the meek.

The posture of Jesus’s ministry was clear from the moment of His birth, when He emptied Himself of the benefits of His divinity and took on humanity to dwell among us (Philippians 2:6–7).

A carpenter’s son, He lived in obscurity for thirty years. When He did enter the public eye, it was as one who healed and served and taught others, not as one who sought to gather power or wealth or acclaim. Refusing to defend Himself before His accusers, He was executed for crimes He did not commit.

And God called this success. “See, my servant will be successful; he will be raised and lifted up and greatly exalted” (Isaiah 52:13). God raised Jesus from the grave and exalted Him above every name—King of Kings, Lord of lords (Philippians 2:9).

This is our Savior. He is the God who washes feet, who heals lepers with the touch of His hand, who climbs the hill to Calvary with our cross upon His back. To follow Him means to stoop low, to look people in the eyes, to take out the trash and wash hair and treat the least like royalty. “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” (Mark 10:45).

How can you serve in the merciful name of Jesus today?