Nineteenth Pentecost
Mark 10:35-45
Teacher’s pet. Teacher’s pet. Funny how’s those
words conjure up an emotional, almost physical, response within us. The one
who is preferred. The one who has special status, gets favorable treatment,
very often for no apparent reason. There’s no doubt in my mind that we
could all, every one of us, conjure up from our past some story of how someone
else was unfairly favored at our expense. Lurking just below the surface of
this polished veneer we present to the world is some incident of chosen ness
where we got aced out. Somebody else got picked to be captain of the team. The
other applicant got the job. He got to be first in line. She got to be homecoming
queen. If you really want to get Pastor Doug started ask him why he didn’t
get to go to crossing guard camp? No, on second thought, don’t get him
started. The injustices of life. Wanting to be special.
Did James and John want the power and the glory of sitting on the right and
left of Jesus, or did they just want to be closest to Jesus, special. Whatever.
We can certainly understand how the other disciples felt when
they heard. They were angry at James and John. Who do they think they are? What
makes them so special? And they were probably worried that Jesus would actually
consider giving James and John special place. The other disciples were more
than a little insecure about their place in the whole scheme of things.
Little wonder then that Jesus takes this opportunity for a
teaching moment. And so it is for us as well. “You know that among the
Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them. But it
is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your
servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all.”
Greatness in servanthood. It trips off the tongue but what
does it really mean. We can affirm it as easily as James and John can say they
will drink the cup of suffering that Jesus drinks but can we do it. Will our
feet walk the walk that our tongues talk? Servanthood…
Many things could be said about it but I have just two this morning.
First, service is it’s own reward. James and John imagined
that service was the way to greatness. Do all kinds of sacrificial things here
in this life and then in the life to come you’ll be great and everybody
will be mopping your brow and curtsying to you. But that is not at all what
Jesus is saying. Jesus is not pretending to be a servant until the time comes
for him to whip off his disguise and climb onto his throne; he is a servant
through and through. He is not in it for the reward. He is in it for the love
of God, which promises him nothing but the opportunity to give himself away.
Service is it’s own reward, there is no other. A story
is told:
Everyday, just outside a village in India, an old man sat cross-legged stirring
ordinary dirt mixed with water in an old pot. After hours of stirring, he’d
reach into the pot and pull out a large gold nugget. Day after day people watched
him stir, and waited for the moment when he would pull out the gold nugget.
When he pulled it out, they would murmur with amazement.
One day a brazen young man approached the old man and asked,
“Will you show me your trick?”
“Certainly,” the old man replied. “It isn’t difficult. All
I have here is an ordinary pot, a simple stick, dirt that you can find anywhere,
and water from the town well. I pour the dirt and the water into the pot and
begin to stir. After a while a lump of gold forms, and I reach in and remove
it.”
Immediately the young man found a pot, stick, some dirt, and a small bucket
of water. He poured the dirt and the water into the pot and began to stir. He
stirred all day long, stopping frequently to see if the gold had begun to form.
He continued stirring the next day, clear into the evening, but no matter how
long he stirred, no gold nuggets could be seen. Not even a small one.
Finally, he went back to the old man for further instruction.
“Tell me, step by step, what you’ve been doing,” the old man
asked politely. Quickly the young man recounted everything he had done. When
he finished, the old master thought for a moment. “It seems I neglected
to include one important detail,” he said. “While you stir you must
never think about the gold.”
Can I have what I want? Yes, I can. But I’ll never find
it looking for the gold, striving for the glory. I’ll find what I want,
serving the master, living in Jesus’ footsteps, living for the Sake of
Christ. It is there that I’ll find the ultimate blessings of the Gospel,
of God, and of life in the kingdom!!
The reward of service is not in the recognition or the appreciation or the honor
that comes from it, it is from knowing that we are about the business of our
Lord Jesus Christ.
Many years ago when I was a chaplain at one of our Lutheran Nursing Homes we
got a new director of volunteers. Now Salem village had a wonderful cadre of
people who came in to do all kinds of different activities. We were blessed
that way. Every year there was a luncheon and the volunteers were thanked. Sometimes
everybody would get a flower or a pen—nothing impressive, just a token
to say thanks. Well when the new director of volunteers came on board, she started
a whole new system. She kept track of how many hours each volunteer served and
set up a whole hierarchy of gifts, a pen for under 20, a mug for 20-50, a tote
bag for 50-100 etc. etc. It wasn’t long before there were all kinds of
squabbling. Comments like “She didn’t count the hours I spent at home
making posters” “So and so cheats when she fills in the book”
“His volunteer task isn’t as hard as mine.” The reward had changed
from the simple joy of providing service to the need to be recognized, to be
rewarded, to be acknowledged above and beyond someone else.
The servant life that Jesus calls us to be part of is not a means to a greater
reward in the sweet bye and bye. It is a style of life that unites us to Christ
in the here and now.
The second point I would make about servanthood is that it
must be freely chosen.
There are all kinds of people whose personalities have been
stunted and whose lives have been anything but abundant because they have allowed
themselves to be dominated by their parents or browbeaten by their spouses or
exploited by their employers or intimidated by their peers. They have heard
the Apostle Paul say that they should "count others better" than themselves
and have heard Jesus say that they should "be slave of all," and they
have concluded that it would be unseemly or un-Christian to assert themselves.
What they have done…what you may have done if you tend in this direction…is
confuse self-denial with victimization. Victimization is something that is done
to you to your detriment and against your will. The kind of self-denial to which
Jesus and Paul call us is intentional, fulfilling and free. Even with respect
to his death Jesus made it clear
that he was not a victim. In John 10 he says, "I lay down my life for the
sheep….No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have
power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again" (Jn 10:15 and
18).
Your decision in a business meeting, or church meeting or political
meeting not to respond in kind to a rude put-down is an example of being victimized
if you are simply afraid or feel that you are powerless to respond. But if your
non-retaliation comes from an intentional, free decision to absorb the hurt
in order not to escalate tension and hostility, it may be an excellent example
of the kind of self-denial Jesus calls you to practice.
There is no joy in service that is done begrudgingly or disdainfully.
Oh we’ve all gotten into situations where we’ve taken on more than
we should have and perhaps felt overwhelmed and complained temporarily, that
one thing. But when we truly cannot willingly take on a task and it is pure
burden then we are victimized by it. There are two choices, either we change
our thinking about it or we find a way to put down the load. Jesus does not
expect us to be victimized. Jesus wants us to be operating out of love and compassion,
by our choice, not by some guilty compulsion or someone else’s unrealistic
expectations.
The ten disciples were worried when Jesus talked to James and John about their place in the kingdom. They needn’t have been. Jesus has assured us again and again that we are special, we are loved and that there will always be a place at his table of grace.
Amen.