GREAT THINGS ENTERPRISE
CLAUDE BLACK
Mark 10:42
The Lesson of Galba
Rome faced a crisis following Emperor Nero’s suicide in 68 AD. His own troops proclaimed Servius Sulpicius Galba, governor of Hispania Tarraconensis, as the new emperor. From an ancient and aristocratic Roman family, he was a strict, disciplined commander. He was in his seventies—elderly by Roman standards—when he assumed the emperorship. Summing up one Gentile idea of lordship, Galba reportedly declared that as emperor, he could now do whatever he liked with anyone. He quickly alienated almost everyone by refusing to pay the Praetorian Guard—his closest protectors—their expected bonuses, ruling with harsh authority, surrounding himself with unpopular advisers, and lacking charisma or political flexibility. Within a year, his own Praetorian Guard executed him.
Jesus faced a crisis among his disciples. James and John, prompted by their mother Salome, had requested to sit beside him in his glory. When the other ten learned of it, they saw it as a power grab and grew hostile toward the brothers. According to one early tradition, James and John were Jesus’ maternal cousins. While uncertain, this could amplify the hostility their request generated—a power grab by family felt as a deeper betrayal. Whatever the circumstances, Jesus recognized the crisis: “And having called them to himself, Jesus said to them, ‘You know that those recognized as rulers over the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and the great ones exercise authority over them.’” (Mark 10:42)
Jesus began this teaching by acknowledging a common Gentile leadership style. Notably, he does not initially criticize it but simply describes it. He was laying the foundation for a lesson by beginning with something that they all knew. A key method for teaching is moving from the known to the unknown—building upon a firm foundation of the known. This Gentile model, of course, could go terribly awry—as the tragic story of Emperor Galba illustrates.
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