Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - The Definition of Winning | New Testament | Mark 15

Episode Date: October 19, 2023

Do you love winning? What does it look like for you to win? Would you consider Jesus a winner or a loser? In today's episode, Patrick discusses Mark 15, when Jesus doesn't look like a winner, to share the definition of winning according to the Bible. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Join the TMBT community in reading the entire New Testament in one year. Get your FREE reading plan here. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Mark 15

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Patrick Miller. We love to win. It doesn't matter whether it's in business, politics, sports, or just our internal race to have a little more than our neighbor. Winning is so alluring that politicians use it to win our support. During his 2016 presidential run, Donald Trump famously won over an entire audience by telling them, we are going to win so much you get tired of winning. We love to win. Another story, Elon Musk, who owns Twitter, or I guess I should say, it's called X now, and Mark Zuckerberg, who owns Meta, they got tired of fighting in business,

so they challenged each other to a literal cage match. It never happened, but neither man tired of bragging that he would be the winner, not the loser. We love to win. Or here's another one. Travis Kelsey, a very famous tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs, mostly famous now because he's dating Taylor Swift, I guess. He was recently interviewed about whether they would win as much. in 2023 as they did in 2022. And people are asking the question because it's a rebuilding year.

Now, the interview is happening in front of a big crowd on TV. And so catch what he says. He says, let me take you back to 2022 in the month of maybe April. Guys were getting signed left and right. The haters were saying the chiefs would never make the playoffs. The haters were saying the chiefs were done. If you knew the chiefs were going to win the division, let me hear you say, heck yeah and the crowd goes wild yelling he says if you knew the chiefs were going to get the number one seed let me hear you say heck yeah and the crowd goes wild again okay now his language might have been a bit more colorful than i just lit on but he kept going on bragging about how much they had one and how much they were going to win in the future and the crowd is eating it up we love to win so let me ask you a

question how do you define winning even though all those examples come from different fields of battle they all share a few things in common. They all agree that winning is beating your opponent. Winning is being better than your opponent. Winning is taking the trophy, taking the power, taking the glory. Winning is being on top. Winning is being in charge. Is that how you define winning?

Do you want to win like that? Well, Travis Kelsey and Donald Trump weren't the first people to get a crowd riled up over winning. In Mark 15, we read the story of Jesus' crucifixion. When the story begins, Jesus is standing on trial in front of Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea. And Pilate questions Jesus asking him if he's a king, like people are saying, if he's a winner. And Jesus answers him cryptically. He says, you have said so.

It's almost as though he's saying, yes, I am a king, but not in the way you think. Pilot keeps asking Jesus questions, and the reader is thinking, Jesus, defend yourself. These are all false charges. You can easily win this. but Jesus doesn't win. He stays silent. And Mark tells us that Pilot was amazed. But that didn't stop him from carrying forward with the crucifixion. Let's pick up the story in verse six. Now, it was the custom at the festival of Passover for Pilate to release a prisoner whom the people requested. A man called Barabbas was in prison with the insurrectionist who had committed murder in the uprising. The crowd came up and

asked Pilate to do for them what he usually did. Then Pilate says this to the crowd. Do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews? He's talking about Jesus. He asked this knowing that it was out of self-interest that the chief priest had handed Jesus over to him. And now let's pause for a moment. The crowd has a choice here.

They can release Jesus or release Barabbas. Who would win? Well, here's the truth. The crowd wants winners to win. Barabbas was a violent insurrectionist. He was boldly leading the fight against the Romans. He was willing to kick and kill anyone. who stood in his way. He was a winner ready to take the power, take the trophy, and stand on top

of his enemies. If they went with Barabbas, maybe they'd win so much they'd get tired of winning. And what about Jesus? Well, Pilate mockingly calls him the king of the Jews. Jesus won't raise a hand to harm anyone, only to heal. When his enemies came after him and one of his disciples cut off their ears, he not only healed the ear, but he turned to his disciples and said enough of this. He wasn't starting a revolution against Rome. He wasn't leading any soldiers. No, Jesus just sat there like a loser during his trial and said almost nothing. Compared to Barabbas, Jesus is a total loser, a weak man, no fire, no violence, no will to conquer and take what's his. We pick up in verse 11. But the chief priest stirred up the crowd to have Pilate release Barabbas instead. What shall I do then

with the one that you call the king of the Jews? Pilate asked them. crucify him they shouted why what crime has he committed asked pilate but they shouted all the louder crucify him wanting to satisfy the crowd pilot released barabbas to them he had jesus flogged and handed over to be crucified and that's exactly what happens jesus is a loser in this story he's mocked he's scorned by soldiers he's flogged he's so weak he can't even carry his own cross most of his disciples abandoned him. He's crucified outside the city. In verse 31, we read how the people and priests came out to mock him on the cross like the loser he was. He saved others, they said, but he can't save himself. Let this Messiah, this king of Israel come down now from that cross

that we may see and believe. Those crucified with him also heaped insults on him. And now, finally, Mark tells us that Jesus cries out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Maybe Even God thinks that Jesus is a loser, and Jesus dies. But then something extraordinary happens. Verse 37, with a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last. The curtain of the temple was torn into from top to bottom, and when the centurion who stood there in front of Jesus saw how he died, he said, surely this man was the son of God.

The curtain of the temple separated God's holy presence from sinful people, and when Jesus dies, God's presence rips through the curtain, as though he's about to fill the whole earth with his glory. The watching Roman centurion is so moved by something that he calls Jesus something greater than a king. This man was the son of God. And as we'll see tomorrow, Jesus doesn't stay dead. He rises victorious over sin and death.

And this entire series of events radically restructures the worldview of everyone who followed him because he opened up a new definition of winning. You see, we can only win the way Jesus wins. true winning is only winning the way that Jesus won. We win not by taking power but by laying it down. We win not by enacting violence, but by receiving it. We win not by defeating our enemies, but by dying for them. We win not by declaring our rights, but by leaving our vindication to God.

Jesus puts it best earlier in Mark. You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. not so with you instead whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all 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 the son of god became a loser so that we could win he died so that we can live he was abandoned by god so that we could be received this is not just good news it's a reversal of reality Christians should always be the biggest losers in the world's eyes because we've seen that our greatest

victory came on the back of the greatest loss. Do you want to win? Are you drawn to power and victory? That's the way of Barabbas, not Jesus. We are called not only to receive the gift of Jesus' death on our behalf, but also to walk in that death ourselves.