Mark 10:35-45
Google, as anybody who has ever touched a computer knows, is a “search engine” that allows you to type in a few words and find anything that has ever been written about or that includes those words on the entire worldwide web.
On Friday, I tried a little experiment. I went to Google and typed in the word leadership. The search told me that leadership is mentioned, in one way or another, on 871,000,000 web sites. Then I typed in servanthood. Only 428,000 sites mentioned it.
To tell you the truth, I was feeling sort of smug when I saw those figures. They seem to convey a certain truth that we Christians often lament about our world: Everybody wants to be number one, but very few are interested in serving others.
My case of the smugs didn’t last long, though. I decided to refine my Google search. For each of two entries, I typed in two words. The first set of words were leadership, Christian. For this, 48,600,000 sites were listed. Then I typed in servanthood, Christian and saw that this combination of words came up in only 278,000 sites.
The subject of leadership is an important one for Christians, of course. But I suspect that those numbers reflect a simple fact: We Christians are just as attracted to being the people in charge and just as turned off by being servants as the rest of the world is.
It’s always been that way. In today’s Bible lesson, the apostles and former fishermen James and John approach Jesus for a little chat. They do so immediately after Jesus has told them and the other ten apostles:
“See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death; then they will hand him over to the Gentiles; they will mock him, and spit upon him, and flog him, and kill him; and after three days he will rise again.”This is the third time that Jesus has said that He will die at the hands of executioners and that He will rise from the dead. What happens next makes clear that neither James or John--or the other ten--get it or even have heard what He’s said.
On Saturday in our junior high Catechism class, we spent some time considering what scholars call the Intertestamental Period, the time between when the last Old Testament book was written and the day Jesus was born. During this time, which lasted hundreds of years, ideas developed about what would happen when God’s Anointed One--the Christ, the Messiah--arrived on the scene. God’s people had been conquered and forced to live under the ruling hands of a long succession of foreigners, among them the Babylonians, the Assyrians, the Greeks, the Syrians, and then, the Romans. Many of God’s people dreamed of the day when God would send a king, a descendant of David, who would forcibly throw the Romans out and establish a strong Jewish kingdom that would be filled with righteousness and prosperity. As I've described it before, they thought there would be a chicken in every pot and a Maserati in every garage. The notion of a Messiah who would serve and die for others was totally foreign to them, even though the Old Testament prophecies said this was what the Messiah would do!
But, filled with religious triumphalism and delusions of grandeur, James and John ask Jesus for places of privilege in His kingdom. Jesus tells them (and us) that He can’t promise anybody special privileges. But He does promise that if we follow Him, we’ll drink the same cup and experience the same baptism He experienced.
Jesus' cup, of course, was the experience of death. It was the very cup He asked God the Father to prevent Him from drinking during His night of agonized prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, even as He submitted to the Father's will.
Jesus' Baptism reflects both the tradition of varying baptisms practiced in ancient Judean and Middle Eastern cultures. For a people who were usually terrified of the water, who saw the sea as a place where the sea monster, leviathan, menaced them, immersion in water represented death. Psalm 69 reflects this view with its cry to God:
Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck.(Psalm 69:1-3)
I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold; I have come into deep waters, and the flood sweeps over me.
I am weary with my crying; my throat is parched. My eyes grow dim with waiting for my God.
For the Christian, baptized in the Name of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Baptism is the place where the old self, with all its sinful impulses, is drowned and the new self rises to live with Jesus Christ. (Paul talks about this in Romans 6.)
Picking up on this theme in The Small Catechism, Martin Luther points out that so long as we're living on this earth, our old sinful selves will still be alive and that each day, we'll need to renew the covenant relationship God initiated with us in Baptism, so that our old selves can die and our real selves--our God-selves--can rise to live with God.
Like Jesus, we who follow Him will taste death. We must die to sin in this life and only after experiencing death itself will we rise again to live in God’s perfect kingdom forever.
After pointing this out to James and John, Jesus says this (I’m reading Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase from The Message):
You've observed how godless rulers throw their weight around...and when people get a little power how quickly it goes to their heads. It's not going to be that way with you. Whoever wants to be great must become a servant. Whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave. That is what the Son of Man has done: He came to serve, not to be served--and then to give away his life in exchange for many who are held hostage.Every person who commits to following Jesus Christ also commits themselves to being servants, even those among us who may be called to be our leaders. That’s because the Savior Who is our ultimate leader has secured our release from the death grips of sin and death by the power of His serving. And He calls us to be like Him.
In our 40-Days to Servanthood readings, we’re going to spend several more days this week looking at the things servants do. We’ll talk about hospitality, listening, sharing, giving, forgiving those who have sinned against us, leaving grudges in the past, and telling others about the new life that Jesus Christ gives to all who turn from sin and follow Him.
Servants may not make it onto the front covers of magazines the way prominent leaders do. But by their serving, they may present opportunities for good lives to young people like Todd Williams, the Clermont County Boys and Girls Club Youth of the Year who has shared his story with us this weekend.
Servants may also let others see Jesus Christ. In my wife's and my home church, there was a woman named Flo. On Christmas Day, 1975, her husband died. The morning after, my wife and I, who were the junior high youth group sponsors for our church, showed up at her door with our pastor for a pre-arranged meeting. (I say “our” pastor, by the way, although I really didn’t yet consider myself a believer. I had been drafted into this job with my wife and went along somewhat unwillingly.) When Flo had learned on Christmas Day, the day of her husband’s death, that not all of our youth were going to be able to go on a long-planned trip New York City because we didn’t have enough cars, she told the pastor that we could use her car. Her husband’s funeral, she said, could be put off until after the pastor and the rest of us returned.
What person has more right to be wrapped up in herself than grieving widow who adored her husband? And yet, Flo reached beyond herself to serve others as she could at that moment. I can tell you, that Flo’s act of selfless service was one more nudge God used to help me to see and to surrender to Jesus Christ. For me, Flo and other servants at our home church who helped me to understand that Christ changes a life are more important than all the presidents, kings, prime ministers, and Fortune 500 CEOs in the world combined!
Like James and John, you and I may be tempted to think that our lives only matter when we have lots of money or lots of power, when we have a seat on the dais or a prominent title. But the most powerful person who ever walked this planet didn’t have a home of His own and died with a single garment as His only possession. But by His serving and dying and rising, Jesus has opened up eternity to the whole human race. All who turn from sin and believe in Jesus Christ will walk with God forever!
Do you know who the second most powerful person is? It’s anyone who surrenders to Jesus, commits to following Him and serving in His Name, and lets God use them for His purposes. Today, I have a simple message for all of you: Be that person.
UPDATE: John Schroeder at Blogotional has linked to and aptly amplified some points in this piece. Thank you, John!
No comments:
Post a Comment