Let's Make a Deal

Proper 24B; Mark 10:35-45; 

St. Paul’s Smithfield, NC; 10/18/2015

Jim Melnyk: “Let’s Make a Deal”

“Pssst.  Hey Jesus, C’m’ere.  We got a favor to ask of yas.  Me and my brudda, we want to sit at your right and left hands in the kingdom.  You cool wit dat?” 

           

A little “back room finagling” on the road to Jerusalem – with James and John seeming to have no idea what it was they were asking of Jesus, even though we may recall just a few weeks ago Jesus giving all the disciples a hard time for arguing among themselves about who would be the greatest in the kingdom.  They had been hanging out with the guy for quite some time by now – they should have had some sense of how Jesus viewed things like power, status, and authority absent from justice, compassion, mutuality, mercy and grace.  Does it ever change?

           

Now, to be fair, this was only the third time Jesus had told them what his ministry was all about in relation to where his life was headed, and what his teachings would ultimately cost him.  It was only the third time he had told them about going to Jerusalem to die.  And it was only more than a few times that Jesus talked about the first being last and the last being first – talked about being a servant of all. 

I think, perhaps, his disciples just couldn’t grasp what Jesus was trying to teach: that following him “requires surrendering ingrained ideas of honor and dishonor, power and weakness” (Pheme Perkins, The New Interpreter’s Bible Commentary, Vol. VIII, p. 654).  I think, perhaps, Jesus had to keep saying these things because it just goes against the grain for us to let go of being in control – to let go of wanting or needing to be at the top of the heap.

To Jesus’ credit, rather than attacking his disciples or putting them down, he takes time to teach them what true discipleship and the ways of the kingdom are all about.  “…Whoever wishes to become first among you must be slave of all.  For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:44-45).

These are incredibly hard words to live by, my friends.  Being a servant sounds good and altruistic – something to be done if and when we can – on occasion, but how many of us want that as a hallmark of our life and faith?  

And yet…and yet they are words that we, as followers of Jesus, are called to live by if we truly wish to follow the Prince of Peace!  Why else would he keep coming back to those themes?  New Testament scholar Pheme Perkins writes, “We often undercut the exemplary side of the death of Jesus by overemphasizing its unique place in salvation history as an offering on behalf of sinful humanity.  This passage,” she claims, “insists upon the death of Jesus as a pattern in which his followers participate” (The New Interpreter’s Bible Commentary, vol. VIII, p. 654-655). 

This is the foundation of what today’s church calls Servant Leadership.  It means that we find ways to willingly share the power, authority, means, and status we have with those who don’t.  And, it means that we covenant with one another not to demand an “obligation to service” from those who are the weakest or most oppressed; those who have nothing to give up, but rather who have had everything taken from them already (ibid).       

When I was a brand new Christian back in the fall of 1973 – well, brand new in Campus Crusade terms, not in baptismal covenant terms – I constantly heard stuff like, “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life!”  Or I’d hear, “Jesus said, ‘I came that they might have life, and might have it more abundantly’” (John 10:10).  All true.  All true.  We were all, as newly harvested Christians, promised something akin to a sweet smelling bed of roses as our reward for following Jesus.   We were told that as long as we loved Jesus with all our heart, and brought others to Jesus as well, we’d have our great reward in heaven when we walked the streets paved with gold and stood before the Lamb.

It wasn’t until much later – as I began to delve into the mysteries of my newly reborn faith – that I began hearing the somewhat discordant notes of Jesus’ teaching.  Do you remember this one from a few weeks ago? “If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off…” (Mark 9:43), or, perhaps, this one from Luke:  “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:25-27)?  Or, from Matthew: “…I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven…” (Matthew 5:44).  “…whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all.”

           

Ah, sweet Jesus, your definition of a wonderful life and abundant living are just a wee bit different from mine – just a wee bit different from the party line most of us have been fed for most of our lives.  Whatever happened to rugged individualism and looking out for number one?  What do you mean, neither are hallmarks of the gospel?  Ouch! 

Hey Jesus, hey boss, “we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you…grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.”  But they just didn’t get it.  Not yet.  If we’re doing this whole discipleship thing right – if we’re really getting down with what Jesus calls us each to in the gospels – then the cross may well be our ultimate reward.  The abundant life Jesus talks about isn’t about fancy cars, bigger houses, successful business lives, political power, or even loving families.  It may well be a sweet-smelling bed of roses – but don’t forget, a bed pf roses comes with a bunch of thorns!  The abundant life Jesus talks about is about becoming like Christ – and therefore finding ourselves transformed more and more into the image and likeness of our God who creates us to live together in this world as beacons of God’s love. 

 James and John come to Jesus looking for a sweet deal giving them status and power in the kingdom that is unfolding in their midst.  Jesus reminds them that with great power comes great responsibility.  Will they be able to live into that which God expects of those who sit on either side of Jesus in the kingdom?  Are we able to live into that which God expects of us when we proclaim ourselves to be followers of Jesus?

Hey, I realize that it’s hard hearing about this servant stuff so often – and hearing about how the first shall be last and the last first so much.  It’s hard preaching it, too.  But I figure if Jesus says something once, it’s important.  If he says it three times, or half a dozen times, perhaps we should start paying attention – perhaps it really is important. 

The gospel teaches us that love is a living, active thing – it’s a verb rather than a noun – otherwise at the end of John’s gospel Jesus would have told Peter to simply think good things about his sheep, rather than feed them – rather than serve them.

We are invited to participate with God in loving this world – invited to participate in sharing the loving, liberating, life-changing presence of God.  The disciples didn’t always get it along the way, but they came to understand it in the end.  We don’t always get it along the way, but it’s the journey – it’s the challenge and the struggle to be faithful – that transforms us, and in the end, that transformation is what the journey is all about.