Jesus and a ransom

As the rhetoric hots up for the leader of the Tory party and for the US election, one question of electors might be “we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you“. That might be cutting or raising of taxes, reintroduction or further weakening of the Roe vs Wade ruling, or the removal of “illegal” immigrants/aliens from the shores. If the candidates will promise that, people may well vote for them.

In Mark 10:35-45 we have such a question raised by the brothers of Zebedee: James and John. Well, actually, it isn’t a question, more of a statement. You might have thought that they would have done this out of earshot of the others – Mark 10: 41 says they failed in that respect, for the others were indignant. The disciples are following Jesus on the way to Jerusalem. They know of their destination but not really…why. Jesus, noting the disgust of the other disciples to James & John’s statement, indicates to the all of them to crowd in, listen carefully…

The cup and the baptism

The cup that Jesus speaks of in Mark 10:38 merely refers to a piece of pottery (ποτηριον). It’s nothing special in itself: it’s why which matters.

Jesus speaks of baptism; however, in the Greek, there are two different ways of expressing the word baptism. In Jesus’ case it is in the present tense, it’s happening now and continues to do so. In the case of the disciples, it is a one-time event. So much for those who sought to be baptised twice. Jesus then goes political: Mark 10:42 looks at those who rule over the Gentiles – or they seem to rule. Will our elected officials rule for them or the people?

Ransom

Finally, we get to the verse which is generally emphasised by preachers as a fait d’complex, a ‘given’. Let’s look at this and the preceding verse, and see if we can unpack an alternative meaning.

Slave and service

Mark 10:44 speaks of those who wish to become great…must be the slave to all. The word slave, which we then find Slavonic, etymologically describes the people in Eastern Europe. [The term slave has its origins in the word slav. The slavs, who inhabited a large part of Eastern Europe, were taken as slaves by the Muslims of Spain during the ninth century AD.] In the Greek, the word we read as slave is doulos, which is slave or a servant. Generally, it is seen – quite often – as those who extend the model of Christian life and service. I’m not sure this would be a political vote-winner with some, and, in particular, the US election campaign. Jesus reiterates that the ‘Son of Man’ (Daniel 7) came to serve.

We then read that (Mark 10:45) “to serve and to give the life of him a ransom on behalf of many“. Recall the preceding context – to serve.

The word for ransom is λυτρον. We might hear on Sunday that “Jesus paid the ransom by his death, freeing us from the deserved punishment for our sins“. It is just one of the many ‘atonement theories’: one of which is unpacked here. But this word λυτρον, ransom, is seen, in different tenses, in the Old Testament when viewed in the Septuagint – the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures. It is seen twice in Exodus, 4 times in Leviticus, and 7 times in Numbers.

On the only occasion it is exactly as written in Mark’s Gospel (10:45) we see it linked to Proverbs 13:8:
“The ransom of a man’s life is his riches, but the poor hear no threats”.
No death needed.

The celebrated theologian, William Barclay, wrote that λυτρον implied that “the man was in captivity, in slavery, that there was no conceivable means could this man effect his own liberation or rescue. Nowhere does it say within the New Testament who should receive this ransom. It wasn’t God, as God so loved the world (cosmos); it couldn’t be the Devil – if one existed – as that would have put the Devil on a par with God¹“. Jesus lost his life due to the Romans, but what did he, throughout the New Testament, say to do?

An alternative reasoning

It could be suggested that, contrary to the Ransom Theory derived many centuries after Christ, Jesus was seen as a ransom of service for God. What God wants from all of us is, not death but, the life of Christ, seen in that service for others. In our baptism, we acknowledge that we are something precious to God – already loved. In our service, we listen to the poor, not looking for riches, but how to transform the world, God’s world, so that all are worthy.

Wouldn’t we want our politicians to do that as well?

1. Barclay, William., “New Testament Words”, (London : SCM Press , 1964) ↩︎