Baptism and the Cup (March 3, 2026)
Mark 10:35–45 marks the end of what many readers call Mark’s “Way section,” the lengthy middle part of the Gospel where Jesus is “on the way” to Jerusalem. This section develops the Isaianic quotation with which Mark began his Gospel, clearly showing that Jesus’ journey to the city signals the long-awaited return of YHWH to Zion.
The section is bookended by two miracles where Jesus heals blindness: the blind man at Bethsaida (8:22–26) and Bartimaeus (10:46–52). The Way section then formally begins with Peter’s confession at Caesarea Philippi (8:27–30), and it ends with Jesus responding to James and John’s request. As Jesus is “on the way,” he predicts his suffering and death three times (8:31; 9:31; 10:33–34), and each time the disciples react with similar misunderstandings. They can’t grasp a Messiah whose glory is revealed through a cross, nor can they see discipleship as a cruciform way of life.
That pattern reaches its clearest expression here. James and John come to Jesus with a familiar request:
“Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory” (10:37 ESV).
Their question concerns greatness as the world sees it. They seek power, prestige, privilege, and prosperity.
Jesus knows that his “glory” will come through a Roman cross, and so he says:
“You do not know what you are asking” (10:38a).
He then reinterprets the glory awaiting him in Jerusalem through two images.
“Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” (10:38b).
With both symbols, Jesus is discussing his death. The cup probably represents the cup of wrath for the nations (Jer 25:15), and baptism, because it is a salvation-through-water event rather than a salvation-from-water one, strongly suggests that, unlike Israel at the Red Sea, Jesus will enter the waters of death, be covered by them, and then rise again.
Notice how layered this moment is. At the beginning of Mark’s Gospel, Jesus is baptized as his ministry starts (Mark 1:9–11). By the end, he will take a cup and speak of his blood (11:22–24). Here, on the brink of his passion, Jesus gathers the entire mystery of his life, death, and resurrection into a single invitation. If you want to share in my glory, it won’t be through status and power as the world defines them, but through participation in baptism and the cup.
This clearly sacramental statement shapes the entirety of our Christian life.
Baptism and the Eucharist do not stand hand-in-hand with the world’s definition of power and status. They bury it. The sacraments mark us as people whose lives are shaped by another way: the way of self-denial, self-giving, and self-emptying. Jesus makes the contrast explicit while weaving in multiple allusions to Daniel 7:
“You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them…. But it shall not be so among you” (Mark 10:42–43).
Greatness in the kingdom of God is not about power or domination (like the trampling beasts rising out of the cosmic sea). Greatness in the kingdom of God is defined by servanthood. And this is true for a simple reason:
“For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (10:45, weaving together Dan 7:13-14 and Isa 53:10–12).
James and John wanted power and glory, but a life defined by the sacraments points in another direction.
In the kingdom of God, the way up is the way down.
Jesus knows there is only one road that leads to Easter, and it goes through the cross, which is why he tells his disciples (bringing us all the way back to the beginning of the Way section):
“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Mark 8:34).