11th-17th May 2026
The Upward Path vs The Downward Path
A week with Mark 10:32–45
There are, I think, basically two ways to walk through life:
The Upward Path: Pursue status, security, and power.
The Downward Path: Move towards service, self-giving, and the cross.
Almost everything and everyone tells us the first is wise and the second is naïve. But in Mark 10, on the road to Jerusalem, Jesus tells his disciples that the way up is actually the way down. The values of the world are reversed: seeking status leads nowhere and humility is the way the universe truly works.
Each day this week we're going to sit with that passage, meditating on the logic and letting it slowly rearrange us … because if it's true (and it is), it changes everything about what matters in our lives.
Written by Matthew Craig
MONDAY
Fear and amazement on the road
Mark 10:32
'They were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them; they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid.'
Have a look at this scene. As is typical Mark paints a clear picture of who is where and why. You can see three distinct groups on the road:
Jesus is out in front, walking ahead.
The disciples just behind him, amazed.
A wider group further back, afraid.
Before we look at anything else in this passage, it's worth asking which group we're in today. For me, as I'm sure is the case for you, it varies.
Some days, we're near the front of those who follow. We think we're able to keep up, we think we understand more or less where this is all heading.
Other days, we're further back. We’re a bit afraid, not really sure if we want to know what's around the corner … or maybe we do know full well, and we’re not sure we like what we see we’re being led towards.
The striking thing about the picture Mark gives us is this: Jesus is walking ahead of all of them. He hasn't waited for the group to fully understand before starting the journey. He's gone first. And the road remains open behind him.
Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank You that You are already on the road, walking ahead of me. Thank You that You haven't waited for me to figure everything out before You started. I'm not always sure which group I'm in. Some mornings I follow with amazement, other days I follow with fear. Some days I'm honestly not sure I'm up for following at all. Meet me where I actually am this morning. Help me to lift my eyes from the ground in front of me and to look for You, a few paces ahead. And help me to take the next step in Your direction. Amen.
I do not understand your ways
Yet still I know you are the keeper of my days
Though I am lost I know you hold my hand
My precious Lord and God
— 'Keeper of Days', Jon Guerra
TUESDAY
Prayers of the upward path
Mark 10:35–37
'James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came forward to him and said to him, "Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you." … "Appoint us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory."'
Jesus has just told his closest friends, in the most detail yet, that he is going to be handed over, mocked, flogged, and killed. And the response of two of them is to corner him with a request for the best seats in the throne room. It is one of the most tone-deaf moments in the entire gospel … maybe in all history!!!
But before we roll our eyes at James and John, it's worth noticing how easily we do the same sort of thing. The pattern is clear. They have filtered Jesus’ words, hearing 'Son of Man' (Daniel 7, dominion and glory), and jumping straight to the throne room. They have conveniently ignored everything Jesus has said about the path that leads there. They've only heard the bits they wanted to hear.
And, if we're honest, so much of our praying sounds like this. We hear the promises of the kingdom, and we skip to the glory of being in his presence. We would rather not think too hard about the cup and the baptism.
But notice, Jesus doesn't rebuke them for wanting to be near him. That isn't the problem. The problem is that they have misunderstood what it will cost to be near him. And his gentle question, 'You do not know what you are asking', is, I’m sure, one he applies to many of our requests, too.
Prayer: Father, I confess that a lot of my praying looks more like James and John than I would like to admit. I want the throne room. I want the good seats. I want the guarantees. And I am quick to filter out anything about a cup or a baptism that doesn't fit. Forgive me for the half-hearing I bring to Your promises. Teach me to pray for what Your Son actually offers, not for the version I have edited down to a size I'm comfortable with. And thank You that even when I pray badly, You hear me, and You gently point me back towards what I really need. In Jesus' name, Amen.
Who is greatest in the kingdom
The kingdom of heaven
Who would you say?
Not the rich and not the strong
Not the brilliant, but the small
Lowly ones will be made first
To inherit the universe
— 'Who Is Greatest?', Jon Guerra
WEDNESDAY
The cup I drink
Mark 10:38–39
'"You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?" They replied, "We are able." Then Jesus said to them, "The cup that I drink you will drink …"'
The cup and the baptism are two images of the suffering Jesus is about to walk into. The cup echoes the Old Testament picture of God's judgement. The baptism is the image of being plunged into overwhelming affliction, into death itself. When James and John say, 'we are able', they show that they don't know what they're agreeing to. But Jesus doesn't argue with them. He just tells them that they will indeed share in his suffering, but not because they are able (we see very evidently they aren't able when they abandon him later in the Gospel). Rather they will share in the shape of his life because he will make them able.
What this reminds us of is that the Christian life is not an escape from the cup. To be near Jesus is, over time, to find that following him has cost you things you’d quite like to have had. A reputation here, a promotion there, a friendship that cooled because you wouldn't conform, a dream that had to be laid down. Even in the West, with less overt persecution, none of us walks this road without some version of the cup being handed to us.
But notice what Jesus does not say. He does not say: 'You will drink the cup alone.' He says, 'The cup that I drink, you will drink.' It is his cup. He has tasted it first. And so, whatever we carry, we do not carry it by ourselves, and we do not carry anything he has not already carried further than we ever will.
Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank You that You drank the cup first. Thank You that there is nothing I can be asked to carry in Your name that You have not already carried further, deeper, and more faithfully than I ever could. Help me not to be surprised when following You costs me something. And when the cup is in my hand, remind me that it is Your cup. Remind me I am sharing in something You know well, not bearing something alone. Give me the steady courage to keep walking in the direction You have already gone. Amen.
Father, come take
This cup from me
But do not let
Our wills compete
If I must drink
Then let it be
— 'Gethsemane', Jon Guerra
THURSDAY
Empires that crumble
Mark 10:42
'You know that among the gentiles those whom they recognise as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them.'
Jesus uses two deliberately extreme words here to describe the oppressive, unchecked exploitation of power that has characterised empires throughout history. Ancient Egypt, Babylon and Rome; modern Britain, USA and Iran … they all operate by this logic. The strong climb, and the weak get used.
We've seen the pattern repeat countless times: empire after empire, system after system, each believing its power will last. But history shows that every throne seized by force falls by force. Every empire on the upward path eventually crumbles. While few who pursue power admit it, the upward path is not only morally suspect but also always unstable. Why? Because it is contrary to how God made the universe to work.
Which raises an uncomfortable issue. Wherever we find ourselves quietly admiring the upward path (maybe in politics, in our workplace, in the small kingdoms we try to build for ourselves), we are admiring something that is already, at this very moment, on its way to crumbling.
Prayer: Sovereign God, You have watched empires rise and fall. You have seen every throne that was seized by force eventually lost by force. And yet I still find myself half-impressed by the same patterns, still half-convinced that the upward path might work if only the right people are walking it. Forgive me for my short memory. Forgive me for the small kingdoms I try to build where I quietly lord it over others. Keep my eyes on the one kingdom that does not crumble, and keep my feet on the road that leads to it. Through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.
Blessed are the poor who have nothing to own
Blessed are the mourners who are crying alone
Blessed are the guilty who have nowhere to go
For their hearts have a road to the kingdom of God
And their souls are the songs of the kingdom of God
And they will find a refuge for theirs is the kingdom of God
— 'Kingdom of God', Jon Guerra
FRIDAY
It is not so among you
Mark 10:43–44
'But it is not so among you; instead, whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all.'
These are some of the most revolutionary words in the New Testament. What the world calls strength, Jesus calls the weakness of tyranny. What the world calls weakness, Jesus calls the strength of service. And he isn't just giving the disciples a tip on leadership style. He's telling them that the kingdom he is bringing runs on a completely different engine from the world around us.
Recently I’ve been thinking about how this goes right back to the beginning. God made the world as an act of self-giving service. He didn't need the world. He didn't need us. But he wanted friends, and so he made a world that, when working properly, works in a friendly way. And at the core of friendship is service. It is looking at the other person and saying, 'You are worth me doing things for that cost me.'
Since the fall, we have collectively agreed that this is a weakness, that in order to be safe, we must strain upwards rather than stoop downwards. Jesus looks at that whole assumption and says, politely but firmly: no, that is not how reality works.
The hard edge of this verse is the phrase 'slave of all'. Not just 'servant to the people you like'. Not just 'servant when it's convenient'. Slave of all. Which means there is someone reading this today for whom the application is a specific person you have been avoiding serving … maybe because they are difficult, or ungrateful, or because serving them costs something you don't want to pay.
Prayer: Lord Jesus, You built the world as an act of service, and then You came into it as a servant, and then You died as a servant, and all of it was to show us the way reality actually works. Forgive me for how often I have called service 'weakness' and climbing 'strength'. Show me today the person I am called to serve … not in theory, but in particular. And give me the grace to do it without needing to be thanked for it. Make me, even just a little more than yesterday, someone who looks like You. Amen.
So become like children
And you will be the greatest
In the kingdom of heaven
So don't despise any small ones
I tell you their prayers always reach God
— 'Who Is Greatest?', Jon Guerra
SATURDAY
A ransom for many
Mark 10:45
'For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many.'
Think about what Jesus is claiming in this verse. Jesus is the Son of Man. He is the exalted figure from Daniel 7 who is given dominion and glory and kingship, the one to whom all peoples and nations will be given in service. And that Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve. The one whom Daniel says the whole world will serve is the one who serves the world.
The phrase 'a ransom for many' deliberately echoes Isaiah 53, that precious passage about the servant of God who suffers and dies on behalf of others. This is not a nice illustration about humility in a few isolated cases. This is Jesus telling us the mechanism by which God's kingdom actually operates.
The most powerful act in all of history … the act that ransoms humanity, defeats death, and establishes an eternal kingdom … is an act of self-giving service. Through this act, God declared to the world: 'This is what my kingdom looks like. This is the path to the throne. Not up, but down.'
Everything else this week hangs on this verse being true.
If the cross is just a tragic event that we tidy up with theology, and quietly decline to live in sync with — in politics, in work, in family life, in everything — then this whole week collapses into a pep talk about being a bit nicer. But if the cross is what Paul saw it was, the very power and wisdom of God on display, then the downward path is not just a noble option. It is the grain of the universe. As Paul put it, God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God's weakness is stronger than human strength (1 Cor 1:25).
Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank You that You did not stay at a distance. Thank You that the Son of Man, to whom all nations will one day be given, came to serve. Thank You that You gave Your life as a ransom for many — for me, among many. I cannot add anything to what You have done. I can only receive it and let it slowly change the way I walk. Help me today to live as someone who has been ransomed, who has been served by the King, and who therefore has nothing left to prove. Amen.
The son of man, the son of God
Is seated now at God's right hand
Humility until you die
This is the drink of love divine
To you, it's blood.
To me, it's wine.
— 'Gethsemane', Jon Guerra
SUNDAY
A few paces ahead
Mark 10:45
'… the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many.'
Mark 10:32
'They were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them …'
We end the week where we began it. On a road. With Jesus walking ahead.
For many of us, in the real world, the path Jesus walks and calls us to walk still doesn't quite make sense on a Tuesday morning or a Friday afternoon. The downward path of service, the path where you lose something in order to gain something, looks a bit silly next to what we're told elsewhere. You might have been watching the news this week as the upward climb intensifies in every domain, and some part of you has quietly concluded that Jesus' way is beautiful but impractical in the here and now. Most of us feel that sometimes.
But here is what I keep coming back to. Every empire that walked the upward path has eventually crumbled. But, the kingdom Jesus established by kneeling, by washing feet, by giving his life as a ransom, has not only survived for 2,000 years … it will go on outlasting every empire that comes after.
Why? Because it is shaped after the heart of the God who designed the universe. It runs with reality, not against it. So don't wait until the path makes perfect sense. Don't wait until you feel brave. Don't wait until you can guarantee it won't cost you to follow Jesus tomorrow. Just look for him. He's a few paces ahead. He's walking with that quiet confidence. So you can take the next step.
Prayer: Lord Jesus, as this week closes, thank You that You are still walking ahead. Thank You for keeping the road open. I don't need to see very far down it … I just need to see You. Give me the grace to take the next step, and then the next, and not to wait until I am braver or wiser or more prepared than I am today. Thank You that You have promised not that the path will be easy, but that it leads somewhere … that it leads to You … and that You would be glad of my company. Amen.
Oh, His kingdom is not one of slander or rage but one that is ruled by the Lamb who was slain
And is worthy of wisdom and honour and glory and strength
No pain, no division, no public disgrace will compare with seeing the smile on His face as He welcomes the poor as children with places at the table
Not a death, nor threat, nor power can ever separate us from the love of God forever in Christ Jesus
Everything shall pass away but not the Word that's within us, no, it's the kingdom of Jesus
— 'Kingdom of Jesus', Jon Guerra