Christmas gifts can bring real surprises. Swindoll tells the story of a child who wanted a basketball so bad that he could scream. He dropped all kinds of hints. He made false phone calls to his mother in another voice, telling her that her son really ought to have a basketball. He found the cheapest prices in Christmas catalogues and dropped those on the breakfast table. And finally there appeared under the Christmas tree a box, looked just the size of a basketball. Whew! This boy was relieved. He could just feel himself making shots with it. Christmas day came. He tore into the thing. It was a world globe. Have you ever tried to dribble a world globe? Unbelievable surprise! What this boy actually received didn’t look at all like what he expected.

Like this boy, the followers of Christ experienced an unbelievable surprise. They thought they knew why Jesus came to earth. When they learned the real reason for His coming, it didn’t look at all like what they expected.

Jesus knows full well that hostility against Him is growing. He is aware of what Israel’s leaders intend to do to Him. He knows of the horror that awaits Him in Jerusalem. Even so, Jesus walks in front of the group He is traveling with. He is insistent about going up to Jerusalem. Jesus’ determination provokes a response in His followers.

In light of the looming threats against Jesus, the disciples are amazed at His resolve to travel toward Jerusalem. Earlier, Jesus told the disciples that the elders, chief priests, and teachers of the law would reject Him and have Him killed. The base of operation of these men was Jerusalem. The disciples don’t get it. Why would Jesus want to go to Jerusalem of all places? Why is He marching right into the midst of enemy territory?

His disciples are told of His death

Jesus gives the disciples His third prediction of His approaching death and resurrection. The initial announcement of Christ’s death was met with resistance from Peter, who rebuked the Lord (Mark 8:31ff.). The second prediction of Christ’s death was responded to with confusion and fear (Mark 9:30-32). The disciples didn’t understand what Jesus was saying and they were too frightened to ask. Immediately after Jesus’ second prediction, Jesus caught the disciples arguing about who was the greatest. Jesus corrected them—"If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all."

The disciples didn’t get it. They failed to understand that the way to greatness in Christ’s kingdom is service. They failed to grasp that Jesus would die and be resurrected.

Jesus predicts His death three times, but the disciples still do not get it. How do they respond to His third prediction?

Instead of expressing compassion and empathy, James and John make an ill-timed, selfish request, asking for personal favor and privilege. They act as if they didn’t hear a word that Jesus said. What a woeful lack of appreciation for Jesus’ announcement! And yet, I don’t believe that James and John intended to be cold and heartless as it might appear. They still don’t get it. Jesus’ prediction goes over their heads. They understand that the hostility and threats against Jesus made His death possible, but they don’t believe it will really happen.

They believe that Jesus has come to earth to inherit His kingdom. They are anticipating that all Jerusalem will bow down before Him. They are expecting a throne, a crown of gold, and glory for Jesus. They believe Jesus’ first coming means the fulfillment of passages like Isaiah 9:6-7— "For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on His shoulders. And He will be called, Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s thrown and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this."

Expecting Jesus is about to establish His kingdom rule, James and John make their request.

When Jesus wins and sets up His kingdom, James and John want to be first in line when He divides the spoils. They want the plump, honorable positions for themselves. They want to be Jesus’ #1 and #2 men in His kingdom. While, it is admirable that the disciples trusted God’s sovereignty enough to believe that Jesus would reign as He said, it is sad how they totally fail to appreciate the gravity of Jesus’ announcement.

In reply to their request, Jesus said, "You don’t know what you are asking." This statement exposes the fact that the disciples’ request was made based on a superficial regard for all the factors involved in determining who would hold these positions of honor.

These positions belong to those identified with Jesus

If the disciples want to be identified with Him and receive positions of honor in His kingdom, they have to be willing to pay a price similar to the one He would pay. The disciples mistakenly thought that close identification with Jesus, the King, involved standing alongside a political deliverer who had come to relieve Israel of Roman oppression. They did not understand that Jesus came not to deliver from a political oppressor, but to deliver His people from sin.

Superior positions in Christ’s kingdom would belong to those who modeled Jesus’ definition of greatness—great are those who sacrificially serve following the example of their King. Jesus would have to endure incredible suffering in the process of His service for all mankind. The cross would come before the crown. His disciples should expect to endure nothing less.

Jesus asks James and John whether they are prepared to drink the cup He drinks or be baptized with the baptism He is baptized with. Essentially, He is asking, "Are you willing to identify with me and go through whatever I go through? Are you willing to suffer as I will suffer?"

The disciples assert their willingness to identify with Jesus. However, they don’t have a clue as to what they are agreeing to. They still don’t understand that identification with Jesus will involve suffering. Just the same, Jesus predicts that they will in fact suffer for His sake.

The disciples did not live up to their promise to stay with Jesus to the death at first. When He is crucified, they flee for their lives. Later, however, emboldened by the resurrection of Christ from the dead and the presence of the Spirit in them, they eventually do experience what Jesus predicted they would. James was martyred when Herod Agrippa beheaded him. John was not martyred, but he was persecuted for Christ and eventually died in exile on the island of Patmos.

The desire of James and John isn’t satisfied

The other ten, like James and John, are not upset for the Lord’s sake. They are upset that someone else might get what they wanted for themselves.

Just as James and John had already done, the other ten disciples fail to see that the path to greatness in Christ’s Kingdom is one of service and sacrifice. Another occasion presents itself where Jesus needs to take the disciples aside for important instruction.

Prominent leaders in the world dominate, oppress and exploit their subjects. Pastor Ray Pritchard captures well the world’s perspective. He writes, "The world’s view of leadership can be summed up in three words: perks, power, prestige. In the world, you are a leader if you have power, a title, some delegated authority, if you can tell people what to do." While these values will get a person somewhere in the world, it will not get us anywhere in Christ’s kingdom.

The Caesars of Rome are examples of how world leaders act. They placed their likeness on coins to remind people of their self-proclaimed divinity. They did not rule their subjects with benevolence, but they required them to bow down in worship, and serve them.

Power politics to climb to the top is not the means of receiving prominent positions in Christ’s kingdom. The greatest under Christ’s rule are those who serve. Those who serve others in Christ are great, and those who are slaves of all are first. It is admirable when we sacrifice to serve one another in Christ, but even more significant is when we are willing to live the life of a slave of all.

Did you notice here that Christ didn’t criticize the disciples for their quest for greatness? He didn’t have a problem with the disciples desire to be great. His problem was with the path the disciples were choosing in their search for greatness. They were pursuing greatness like the world does, pushing away and if necessary trampling over those who got in the way of their efforts to be #1.

Jesus points out that their pursuit of greatness is the exact opposite of what He had in mind. When we pursue greatness God’s way it is we who will most often be the one’s trampled on. It will at least feel like we are getting trampled on when we live the life of a servant of all.

When it seems like we are getting walked all over, when our service does not seem to be appreciated, when we are called to make great sacrifices for others, when we are led to relinquish what we would like to do or what is best for us so as to help someone else, we should not complain, or be discouraged! Why? We are on the path to greatness. True greatness in Christ’s kingdom is found in the servant.

What an example to set before self-serving, self-seeking people—the eternal Son stooping from Heaven to earth on our behalf, acting and serving our interests.

Have you ever taken a moment to consider all that Jesus left behind in heaven and all that Jesus came to here on earth in service to you and to me?

He left "Creator comforts" and came to a place of discomfort. As God, Jesus experienced no limitations in heaven and yet He voluntarily became a man and took on human limitations—He accepted hunger, fatigue, physical pain, suffering, and temptation.

He left a sinless and perfect place and came to an earth full of imperfection and sin. He left a place of perfect love, understanding, communication, and acceptance to a place where He would encounter hatred, misunderstanding, and rejection. He left the place where all is in harmony with God’s perfect will to come to a place where God’s will is violated often as people are trying to find meaning and existence apart from Him.

Jesus left a place of glory and exaltation to come to a place where He began life in a lowly manger. Jesus, who had ten thousand angels at His disposal, who is the Creator of all that exists, who shared the glory and splendor of the Father and the Holy Spirit, who deserved to be called Lord and had every right to order people around and have them serve Him, instead placed himself in humble service. He touched the unclean, healed the multitudes, fed the thousands, and eventually even washed His disciples’ feet.

Jesus lived the life of a bondservant, in which He did nothing, spoke nothing, and knew nothing by Himself. All was left under the power and direction of the Father through the Holy Spirit. Jesus has all of the attributes of God the Father as He is God, and yet He only exercised those attributes when it was the Father’s will that He do so. Jesus lived in complete submission to the Father.

All that Jesus gave up in coming to this earth and all He did on earth is an amazing display of servanthood. However, the most amazing display of service is what Jesus did for you and me on the cross. Jesus’ death was by crucifixion—an abhorrent, shameful death. The person crucified was regarded as cursed. Crucifixion was so horrible that the Romans outlawed it for all but the vilest of criminals.

While the means of Christ’s death was horrible and involved unimaginable suffering, even more horrific was the moment when Jesus breathed the words, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me." God forsaken of God, who can understand it, but that is exactly what happened. For the first time in all eternity, there was a separation between the Father and the Son as Jesus bore our sins and endured the penalty of death for you and for me.

From eternity past, while Jesus was with the Father in heaven and up until the point where Jesus died on the cross, there was no disruption of the fellowship between the Father and the Son. At the moment of His death, Jesus experienced the most horrific thing a person will ever have to endure—being forsaken by God the Father. Why did Jesus have to go through this? He did nothing wrong!

Jesus came to give His life as a ransom for many

Jesus died instead of us, giving us the supreme example of what it looks like to be a servant.

Illustration: A 58-year-old woman who served as a traffic guard in Massachusetts was directing seven children across the street when a car veered out of control. Disregarding her own safety, she immediately pushed the children onto the sidewalk. The car struck the woman, killing her instantly, but the children lived. She died in their place. She died that the children might live.

God, in His love for you and me, sent the Son to take the punishment for our sin and die in our place. Jesus died instead of us, paying the price we deserved.

Jesus gave Himself as a ransom for us. A ransom is the price that needs to be paid in order to effect the release of a slave or captive. As sinners, people are slaves under sin’s bondage and they are under the penalty of death. In order to be delivered from captivity and death, a ransom must be paid.

The ransom God requires is death—the death of a sinless, perfect man who is also God. The required ransom is death because the wages of sin is death. The man being sacrificed had to be perfect because only a perfect man could take someone else’s place. Otherwise, he’d have to die for his own sin if he wasn’t perfect. The one being sacrificed also had to be God because the value of His death would have to be infinite in order to cover all mankind. Jesus fully satisfied God’s requirements. His shed blood was offered as payment for our sins and accepted. Jesus gave Himself as our ransom to effect our release from sin’s penalty and bondage.

The apostle Peter wrote, "For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver and gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect" (1 Peter 1:18-19).

Gordon replied, "I'll give you $2 for the cage and the birds." "Okay, it's a deal, but you're making a bad bargain." The exchange was made and the boy went away whistling, happy with his shiny coins.

Gordon walked around to the back of the church property, opened the door of the small wire coop, and let the struggling creatures soar into the blue. The next Sunday he took the empty cage into the pulpit and used it to illustrate his sermon about Christ's coming to seek and to save the lost -- paying for them with His own precious blood. " You and I are born sinners and held captive to sin, but Christ has purchased our pardon and made it possible for us to be set free through faith in Him.

Why did Jesus come? Jesus came to serve. Jesus came to die in our place in order that we might be delivered.

As we think of Jesus’ death for us, we are quick to accept its benefit. We are glad to receive deliverance from sin’s penalty and bondage. However, we should be just as ready to follow the example of service Jesus has given to us. We too should die to self-serving, self-promoting ways of doing things. We too should lay down our lives through self-sacrificial service to others. If we want to be great in God’s kingdom, we will have to learn from and follow Jesus’ example of what it means to be the servants of all. We must understand Jesus’ conception of greatness if we want superior positions under His rule.

Do you have the attitude of a servant? How do you know when you have a servant’s attitude like that of Christ? Loren Sanny, one of the founding fathers of the Navigators, answered that question this way, "You know you have a servant’s attitude when you react like a servant when you are treated like a servant." Jesus, though He is LORD, was treated like a slave, and the whole time demonstrated the actions and attitudes of a servant.

How do we respond when treated like a slave? Do we act as a servant even then? It’s easy to serve when receiving appreciation, but how do we respond when treated as Jesus was? Do we serve even then? How do we respond when our service involves sacrifice and costs us? Do we grump and complain, or do we consider it a privilege to be involved in the service Jesus modeled for us?

As we think over this holiday season, what has been our focus? Have we been consumed with all the things we need to get done, or have we been focusing on how we might be involved in doing things for others? What has our behavior and mindset been like while out in the community, shopping at stores? Have we been pushing our way in and out of buildings so that we can get on our way, or have we been sensitive to how we might help and serve those around us?

The ransom payment has been made, but how is Jesus’ payment for sin made effective in each of our lives personally? What do each of us need to do in order to be delivered from sin’s bondage and penalty of death?

Some think that the way to God is through the good works they do. They believe that if they just do enough good things like going to church or helping the needy or being a moral person, then they will somehow earn their way to God. If we wish to get to God by the works we do, the Bible says that we have to live a perfect life and make no mistakes. Jesus said in Matthew 5:48- "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect." None of us could ever come close to living up to a standard like this. In fact, we have all already blown it.

The bridge to God is not the works we do, but what Jesus Christ has done for us. He died in our place. He paid our ransom for us. As a Christmas card I recently read says, "Jesus came to pay a debt He didn’t owe because we owed a debt we couldn’t pay."

In order for Christ’s ransom payment to be made effective in our lives, we need to put our faith in Him. In order to be forgiven of sin’s debt and penalty against us, we simply need to trust in Jesus. We need to come to the end of ourselves and the end of thinking we can make it to God on our own. Only by placing our trust in Jesus can we be delivered from sin’s penalty and granted eternal life with Him.

Ephesians 2:8-9 says, "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast."

The greatest gift we can ever receive is the gift of salvation. This gift has been extended to us by God’s grace. We don’t deserve it, there is nothing we can do to earn it, but God is willing to give it to us if we will receive it by faith—by trusting in Christ.

What does it mean to trust in Christ? Perhaps an illustration will help. Picture a luxury liner cruising in the Pacific Ocean. It begins taking on water and lifeboats become a necessity for survival. Two passengers find themselves in different situations. The first understands that lifeboats save, but for some reason refuses to step into one. The second passenger not only understands the ability of a lifeboat to save, but also trusts its ability to save by jumping into it. He relies on it as the means of being saved from drowning. The first passenger dies while the second is saved.

A lot of people know about what Jesus has done for them on the cross and know He has the ability to save, but these people are never saved because they refuse to trust in Him. In contrast, those who are saved are those who not only understand Christ’s ability to save, but act on that knowledge by relying on Christ’s sacrificial work as their only means of having a right standing with God. Have you trusted in Christ as your only means for salvation?

For many of us, Christmas is a time to remember. It is a time to reflect on the birth of Jesus Christ who came to serve and give His life as a ransom for us. Christmas is all about the story of Christmas and its eternal impact on our lives.

For many others Christmas is a time when they try to forget. It is a time when they try to remove from their thinking all the things that they lie in bed at night worrying about the rest of the year. In order to mask the deep-seated fears and emptiness in their lives, they busy themselves with decorations, gift exchanges, food, and festivities.

On a TV program that aired this past week, one of the characters said, "I guess I’m just a Christmasite." Christmasites are those who focus on the parties, excitement, and gifts of Christmas, while totally missing the significance of the story of Christmas. For a while, they feel like everything is o.k. They experience a holiday high. But what happens after Christmas? The decorations go back into the attic. Family and friends return to their busy routines. Credit card bills begin to pile in mail boxes. For many, loneliness and depression set in.

As exciting as Christmas was, the days following are gloomier than ever. These people ask, "Why can’t Christmas last all year?" The fact is, the joy of Christmas will last all year the moment you trust Christ. Christmas will take on new excitement. Gifts are nice, parties are a blast, but for those who trust Christ, Christmas never ends.

One of the realities that causes the joy of Christmas to last forever for the believer is knowing that he or she will live forever in God’s presence. When individuals trust in Christ, they experience incredible peace and hope in knowing that the two things people fear most, death and judgment, have been cancelled out for them by Christ.

John 5:24 says, "He who hears My word and believes in Him who sent me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life."

Have you trusted in Christ? If so, you have no need to fear judgment—God promises you will not come into judgment. You also have no need to fear death, as you have been given eternal life.

If you have not trusted Jesus Christ as your personal Savior and received His gift of eternal life, why not do so right now? Consider expressing your trust in Christ by telling God what you are doing in prayer:

Dear God, I come to you now. I know I am a sinner and that nothing I am or do makes me deserving of heaven. I now understand that Jesus came to this earth to die for me on a cross and that He rose again. I place my trust in Christ alone as my only way to heaven. Thank you for the gift of eternal life I have just received. In Jesus’ name. Amen.