Readings:
Job 38.1-7 (34-41); Ps 104.1-10, 26; Heb 5.1-10; Mark 10.32-45
May I speak in the name of God, always creating redeeming and sanctifying. Amen.
Please be comfortable.
This is the third time that Jesus foretells his death and resurrection in the gospel of Mark. We’ve already heard the first two this year, and each time disciples really don’t want the bar of it. The first time that Jesus foretells his death and resurrection they are in Caesarea Philippi. Peter has just correctly said who Jesus is, the Messiah. Jesus then predicts his death and resurrection and Peter says, “No! Stop saying that you can’t say that!” And Jesus says, “Get behind Satan. Because you have your mind set on human things not on Godly things.”
The second time is right after Jesus has healed the son of a man whose son was mute and he healed him, and he predicts his death and his resurrection and the disciples immediately begin to argue amongst themselves who’s the greatest.
This third time is a request for places of honour by James and John.
So, we have these moments of clarity and then moments of denial, always. And Jesus sees them through it. in response to Peter saying, “No,” after Jesus rebukes Peter he then gathers everyone around him and says, “If you want to follow me you must deny yourself and pick up your cross and follow me.” Let’s think for a minute what that means. We’re in first century Israel, the Roman Empire is the occupying force. To “pick up your cross” means to pick up the crossbeam of a crucifix, the implement of terror, torture, and control. Imagine being told to pick up your cross and follow.
The second time Jesus predicts his death and the disciples argue who’s greatest, Jesus responds with, “Whoever will be first among you will be last, and whoever is last will be first.” And this time, again, we have requests for places of honour at Jesus’ right and left hand, and Jesus says, “Whoever wishes to be great will be your servant, because the Son of Man is servant of all.”
So what are we dealing with here? Quite a lot of vanity, I reckon. James and John and all the disciples don’t yet get that Jesus ministry is different. It is not one of military might, but this is what they have in mind. So when Jesus is asked for these places he’s thinking of glory in very human terms. They are thinking of riches, they are thinking of being in positions of power. They want to be right up the front right in those positions of power with Jesus, even though Jesus has just described his death. He’s just said to them, “I’m about to be handed over to the Scribes and the Pharisees, to the leaders of the Jewish community. Because they don’t like what I say, and they will hand me over to the Romans who are going to torture me and kill me.” And they still don’t get that this is a different kind of kingdom. So the places of glory beside Jesus, on his left and on his right, where the two thieves that were crucified alongside him. That James and John have affectively asked for, but they don’t realise.
The ten obviously become angry because they too dream of power. They too have not yet figured it out. So we are given a contrast: The ruler must be servant, not tyrant. We often fail to keep interview the proper object of our striving and we frequently confuse the purpose and goal of our cause with our hope for personal success. We do do that.
The rebuke of disciples reminds us that we should be cautious about expecting too much from our fellow humans, especially those in leadership. Any human saviour is likely to be a disappointment. So, we recognise that even the most convenient leaders subject to vanity and ambition. But that does not mean that we surrender to it. Rather, we need to be self-reflective about our motives. We called to create spaces that are safe enough for us to do this together, to hold each other accountable.
The other day I was having conversation with a young lady who is having some difficulty with her friend at school. Really they’re Frenemies. This girl has been hurt by her friend frequently, and so the group when speaking with Girl A have decided they’re going to exclude Girl B from the group. And then inevitably a couple of weeks later, or maybe even the same day, maybe the same day, the girl is back in the group. There’s no conversation about what’s going on, about why this is happening. And so, this young lady, Girl A, was talking to me and telling me about her role in all of this. She had done the self-reflection, and she saw where she had failed and she is working to bring those two people back into relationship. She realised that in the exclusion of Girl B no one had actually spoken to her about why, about what was going on, and she said to me, “If my friends did that to me, I’d go away and cry too.” She did the self-reflection, she realised where she had fallen down, and she is working to repair the relationship. But not without boundaries because Girl B has hurt Girl A, so they needed to come together (they still need to) and say, “These are the ways in which I am best loved and when we step outside of those boundaries that’s harmful to me, so can we work together to love each other well?”
That takes so much courage! So much humility to be able to have those conversations, even just to do the reflection and notice your own part. It is a moment of God’s kingdom here on earth when those things happen.
So, in service of others, self-sacrifice, the sacrifice is not the end in itself and never ever should become so. Self-sacrifice for a disciple of Jesus Christ must be the service of something higher than the self. The promise of the gospel is in the sacrifice of self for others not only will a higher and better self emerge, but the reign of God will continue to unfold. This is not about self-mutilation for self-extinction. We’re not sacrificing ourselves to harm ourselves, but in service. And we must remember that second commandment that we read earlier this morning. We love our neighbour as ourselves – there two parts to that command – we must let ourselves set our boundaries, and we must continue to show up for each other. Even when that might cost us, even when it feels vulnerable, we still do it.
When we keep our minds on the unfolding reign of God, we love the self-serving self and gain another higher, better self. This higher, better self answers the call of Jesus Christ to be a disciple by serving others in the world.
Amen.