Hurtado writes, "Perhaps within only a few days or weeks of his crucifixion, Jesus' followers were circulating the astonishing claim that God had raised him from death and had installed him in heavenly glory as Messiah and the appointed vehicle of redemption. Moreover, and still more astonishing, these claims were accompanied by an emerging pattern of devotional practices in which Jesus figured with an unprecented centrality. . . . . from a surprisingly early point after his death, Jesus' followers were according him at a level of devotion that far exceeded their own prior and impressive commitment to him during his lifetime.. . . . the energetic and sometimes complex early Christian efforts to articulate doctrines about Jesus and God in the next few centuries were practically demanded and significantly shaped by the intense devotion to Jesus that we see already expressed in our earliest evidence of the young Christian movement" (pp. 4-5).

Isaiah 53:4-12

Given this background in history, it is not surprising that early believers in Jesus found Isaiah 53 descriptive of him and them. The passage is the most commonly read OT passage in the traditional Christian lectionary. Perhaps a discussion how the passage "describes" what happened to Jesus and how the passage describes our relationship (the first person plural pronouns in the passage) to what happened to the figure in the Isaiah passage might be helpful to understand the reason for the center of our devotion to this historical person Jesus.

Hebrews 4:12-16

The Hebrews passage begins with a description of the function of the "word of God" before moving to Jesus' role as the high priest. Of course, Jesus is the Word of God incarnate in the flesh. How does the Word of God help us come to terms with our own self-deception, our tendency to get caught up in our own tangled webs of perceptions of ourselves and the social group that gives us our perceptions of the world? How does the fact that Jesus as the High Priest, the one who offers and distributes the goods of this world in honor of God the Father, help us sustain our confession of faith that we made in our baptism? Why does Jesus, the eternal judging Word of God who is simultaneously the High Priest, help us to approach God boldly in our prayers?

Mark 10:35-45

It seems to me that in the Mark passage that James and John focus their concern, not on Jesus, but on the coming kingdom that they abstract away from the person of and devotion to Jesus. Jesus then becomes a means to their own participation in the kingdom, a means to a greater end -- "we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you." As a result, their well-intentioned desire to participate in the kingdom becomes shifted to a desire for influence and status and power within the kingdom. Of course, the "baptism" of which Jesus speaks, having already been baptized with water, was the baptism of blood in his crucifixion -- they ask for status and power, he offers them martyrdom. Then a rift occurs in the body of the twelve, as others resent the open grab for influence and power in the coming kingdom made by John and James. Commitment to the political program of the kingdom separated from the figure of Jesus becomes a means of disunion and controversy amidst Jesus' followers.

In this light we need to hear Jesus' response, a response not adequately translated in the English versions. In the English versions we tend to hear Jesus' response as a reaction against the authoritarian, absolutist tyranny of the Gentiles versus the "service" of Jesus that works as a kind of democratic communitarian sharing. Yet that is much more a modern concern as a reaction against the supposed medieval commitment to authority than the concern expressed in the passage. In the passage it is James and John's concern to place themselves for influence sake at the center of the program of the kingdom separated from the figure of Jesus.

The word for "servant" in the passage is not the Greek word for a slave (doulos), but a representative (diakonos). Diakonos is a word for an office of authority as well. The difference is not between authority and service, action versus reaction, but whom one represents with one's authority -- and we all bear an authority with our lives, even as we live under authority. Jesus demands that among the disciples that the office of authority represents all, rather than a segment, of his disciples for personal agendas within the kingdom. His words are a call to the unity of the kingdom in all times and in all places in the practice of authority within his disciples (i.e., the necessary of the catholicity of the church). He therefore links the office of the authority amidst his disciples -- and the kingdom -- to his own self, and to his crucifixion. "The Son of Man came not to be represented, but to represent [the will of the Father] and give his life a ransom for many. Jesus represents God the Father completely faithfully even if it means his crucifixion -- and in this faithful representation, gives his life as a ransom. The key here is again, not a program of the kingdom, but the person of Jesus who is the embodiment of the kingdom in its fullness. The text ends up giving a rationale why we are Christians live our lives in devotion to Jesus, and why the martyrdom of which Jesus refers in the passage becomes the highest form of authority and "representation" amidst his followers.

If this above interpretation is helpful, it helps connect with the Isaiah and Hebrews passage as well. It focuses our devotion on Jesus but also raises concretely how authority functions in our lives to shape who we are. Given Isaiah, Hebrews, and Mark, how do we hold fast to the confession that we have made amidst the various tugs and pulls that we face in the world and church today?

Have a wonderful evening and discussion!