March 29, 2009
The Fifth Sunday in Lent

Mark 10:35-45
And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to him and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” And he said to them, “What do you want me to do for you?” And they said to him, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” And they said to him, “We are able.” And Jesus said to them, “The cup that I drink you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized, but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.” And when the ten heard it, they began to be indignant at James and John. And Jesus called them to him and said to them, “You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (ESV).

 

  We human beings have a thing about status and rank. If we’re in the corporate world, we would rather be the CEO than a file clerk. If we’re in high school or college, we’d rather be “hot” than not. We’d rather make $100,000 a year than $10,000. That’s the way things are in the kingdoms of this world. We strive for greatness and glory.

   But Jesus, in our text, turns things upside down. He tells us that in the kingdom of God, greatness is not being first but being last.1 In fact, to be last is to be first!2 Moreover, he says, “Whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all.”3 He also tells us that greatness is not ruling with power but in serving even our most undesirable neighbor. Yes, true greatness is being a true servant!

   And Jesus gave us many examples of true greatness in his own life. At his baptism he volunteered to “fulfill all righteousness” in our places.4 On the night in which he was betrayed, he stooped down and washed twelve pairs of dirty feet, Judas Iscariot’s included. When he hung on the cross, he became the servant of all sinners. Indeed, his entire life was one given over to servanthood, for he said of himself, “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”5

   But Jesus’ disciples didn’t get it. I mean they really didn’t get it! Shortly after he said that he was going to Jerusalem to suffer and die,6 they began arguing about which of them was the greatest. In fact, James and John came up to Jesus and said, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you!”7 What incredible arrogance! It turns out that they wanted to sit at the right and left hand of Jesus when he finally occupied the earthly throne of Israel. What utter madness! They hadn’t learned a thing! In them, you and I see something of our own desire for greatness.

   The idea that the Messiah would be an earthly king came from the rabbis and teachers of the day. For centuries the Jews had lived under foreign rule and their current oppressor was Rome. So then, the disciples passionately believed that Jesus would oust the Romans and install himself as Israel’s greatest king. Nothing could derail their thinking. Yes, one day Jesus would do his appointed work--that of establishing Israel as the superpower of planet earth! Or so they thought.

   So, given this kind of thinking, the disciples wanted to be members of his Cabinet. And so they argued amongst themselves as to which of them would be given the most important and influential positions. So now we see it clearly. They wanted to be big shots. There is something heartbreaking in the thought of the Savior going an executioner’s cross and the Twelve arguing about who would be the greatest in an altogether earthly kingdom.

   But Jesus asked James and John a penetration question. He said to them, “Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?8 The cup was the cup of death and the baptism was not a baptism of water but of blood on the cross. Regarding his blood baptism on the cross, Jesus once said, “But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how distressed I am till it is accomplished!9 Of this cup and baptism James and John replied, “We are able.” And Jesus said to them, “The cup that I drink you shall drink; and you shall be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized.”10

   Jesus, therefore, tells them that, one day, they would die for confessing him. James was the first apostle to be martyred in A.D. 44.11 His brother John died on the island of Patmos for his testimony of Jesus. Yes, they would drink the cup of death.

   But the remaining ten apostles chided James and John for their excessive ambition in wanting seats of glory to the right and left of Jesus. The rebuke was appropriate.

   Jesus then called the Twelve to himself and began to teach them what true greatness was all about. If these twelve men were to become the foundational leaders of the New Testament Church--and they were--then Jesus must teach them that his kingdom is spiritual, not earthly. This would mean turning their current thinking upside down. They must also learn that spiritual leadership is not about lording it over people, but about serving them.

   We need to learn these lessons as well because, by nature, we like to bring our earthly ideas about status, power, and rank into the Church of Jesus Christ. I wonder . . .

• Is the pastor supposed to be like a General and demand unquestioned obedience from his troops?
• Are the officers and board members supposed to tell the members the way things are going to be and rule with an iron fist?
• Should the youth director, choir director, or the LWML president demand that their little empires receive preferential treatment in the kingdoms under their control? Should they say, “Unless I get what I want, I’ll make your lives miserable?”
• Should influential members stand up and say, “It’s my way or the highway?”

 

Quite obviously, Jesus says an emphatic no. But does that stop us from imposing our wills upon others? Too often it doesn’t.

   So Jesus insists that things should be otherwise. He says, “But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant.”12 But we have our own ideas about greatness, don’t we? Greatness is having things our way. And it starts early in life. So what does the cute little toddler do? He sticks out his tongue at his mother; at school, children quickly learn who’s bigger and better and prettier; at home a husband screams at his wife and calls her all kinds of vulgar names; a wife ruins her family’s finances by her insatiable credit card overspending. And what does Jesus say to all those who grab for all the glory and gusto they can get? He says, “Not so among you!” He also says, “Repent or you shall perish!”13

   And our Lord shows us what true greatness really is. What does he do? He becomes the servant of all humanity. He serves us by living a sinless life in our places. He serves us by his suffering and death on the cross by which he gives to us complete forgiveness. On the cross he serves us by taking both our earthly and eternal punishment on himself, lifting them from our souls.

   Through his self-sacrifice and service, our debt of sin has been paid-in-full. Through faith in him, his righteousness has become our own, so that we are assured of our victory over death and the grave. He has served us so completely that nothing stands in the way of our fellowship with the Father, not now and not ever. When he cried from the cross, saying, “It is finished!”14 he was saying that he had finished the work of our salvation.

   Indeed, there is no greater service than the death of the enfleshed God! No other blood served us as his did. No other life served us like his has. No other death served us so completely! And all that he earned becomes our own simply by trusting that his death has met all our needs. There is no greater message in heaven or on earth.

   And now, through Word, water, bread, and wine, the Holy Spirit enables us to be great in the kingdom of God by serving others in our various vocations. If you are a parent, you know how much work it takes to just to meet a child’s basic needs. Not only do you care for their physical needs, but more importantly you also take care of their spiritual needs by teaching them about Jesus. And when you do this, dear parents, Jesus calls you great in the kingdom of God. Moreover, he says, “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me.”15 The world may not call you great, but Jesus does! Yes, by putting yourself last, you are first. Things are upside down in the kingdom!

   If you have the responsibility of caring for the old or infirm, it requires everything you can give. The world will not call you great; but God does!

   In the medieval church, one of the holiest works you could do was to become a monk or a nun. Or so it was thought. But this was not at all pleasing to God. It was, in fact, altogether wrong. Whether in the monastery or outside it, God does not need your good works. Ah, but your neighbor does. The Lord has directed you to give your good works to your neighbors. But if you are in a monastery or convent, you are separating yourself from the very people who need your help and good works. Always remember: We give our faith to God and our good works to our neighbor!

   There is, as Gene Edward Veith reminds us, a “spirituality of ordinary life.”16 That is to say, when we go about our various callings or vocations as father, mother, spouse, child, employee, or church member, the people we interact with in daily life are our neighbors. And when we do even common, ordinary things for them, Jesus sees these works of ours as great in the kingdom. In fact, he counts them as though we had done it to him.

   When a mother cares for her child, when a Christian visits a friend in the hospital, when a husband is faithful as a spouse, when a grandparent takes on child-care duties, or son cares for his aging mother, Jesus counts these ordinary things as being done to him. Indeed, he tells us that these are works of true greatness, for Jesus himself says, “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.”17

   These little things are consistent with true greatness. Of course, as sinners, we don’t do them without the defect of sin. But the Good News is that God richly forgives whatever is wrong with them such that they are truly perfect in his eyes! What a wonder the Gospel is! In Christ, you are a truly great servant!

   In the name of Jesus, . . .
   Amen.

 

Soli Deo Gloria!

 

 

Endnotes

 

1        See Mark 10:31

2        In Matthew 20:16, Jesus says, “So the last will be first, and the first last.”

3        See Mark 10:44, NRSV. In the Greek the last clause is in the volitive future and might best be translated, “and shall be slave of all” (as per NASB, NKJV, KJV; the ESV, NIV, RSV, and NRSV read “must be slave of all”).

4        See especially verse 15 in Matthew 3:13-17.

5        See Mark 10:45, ESV. The phrase “as a ransom for many” does not contradict the doctrine that Christ’s death was an atonement for all people. 1 Timothy 2:5-6 and 1 John 2:2 rule this out. The most reasonable explanations are that “many” is a Hebraism for “all” or that “many” refers to subjective justification, i.e., for those who do come to faith in Christ.

6         See Mark 10:33-34.

7        See Mark 10:35, ESV.

8        See Mark 10:38.

9        See Luke 12:50.

10        See Mark 10:39.

11        See Acts 12:2. The ISBE says of James’ death, “James was the first martyr among the apostles, being slain by King Herod Agrippa I about 44 AD, shortly before Herod's own death. The vehemence and fanaticism which were characteristic of James had made him to be feared and hated among the Jewish enemies of the Christians, and therefore when ‘Herod the king put forth his hands to afflict certain of the church .... he killed James the brother of John with the sword’ (Acts 12:1,2). Thus did James fulfill the prophecy of our Lord that he too should drink of the cup of his Master (Mark 10:39).” See http://www.searchgodsword.org/enc/isb/view.cgi?number=T4825.

12        See Mark 10:43.

13        See Luke 13:3, 5 where Jesus says, “No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”

14        See John 19:30.

15        See Mark 9:37.

16        See Gene Edward Veith, The Spirituality of the Cross: The Way of the First Evangelicals, (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1999), p. 71.

17        See Matthew 25:40

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