Mark 10:35-45
In today’s lesson…Jesus’ disciples…pay no attention to Jesus’ words.
- Instead…James and John…frequently called the sons of Zebedee…change the subject completely.
- They try to arrange a great eternal future for themselves.
- They want to sit on the left and right of the soon-to-be-risen Christ’s heavenly throne.
The Lord be with you.
And also with you.
It is a crude…inappropriate and self-centered request.
- But it should remind us that eternal life is a gift of grace from God.
- Meaning that we can do nothing to earn it.
- So…Jesus responds to James and John by telling them that such a high heavenly position of sitting next to the throne is not his to give.
- But he first asks them something about this life:
- Are they able “to drink the cup that I drink or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?”
- Can they suffer the way that Jesus is about to suffer?
- The flight of the disciples at Gethsemane will show that James and John’s confident ‘We can’ response is overly optimistic.”
In many ways…this story is also a challenge to Christians alive today to be all in on following Jesus.
- But at the same time…to be realistic about our inevitable failures to do just that.
- We once resolved to be generous with our time…talent and money.
- But then we allowed ourselves to get overcommitted to our golf game…to our professional club.
- And to a mortgage required to buy a house that is bigger than we need.
- We promised our children that we would be there to love them…teach them…support them.
- But then we got overscheduled.
- And didn’t have much time to talk to them regularly about what they’re learning in school.
- We ended up missing a lot of their sporting events…their dance recitals and their questions about life’s purpose.
The lesson here is not to let less-important interests and commitments eat up our time so that our commitment to Christ gets downgraded.
- So…John and James…with misplaced priorities…thought it would be a great goal to sit at Christ’s side in eternity.
- But by focusing so much on heaven…they risked being no earthly good.
When Jesus tells James and John that they will be baptized into the suffering that Jesus was baptized into…
- And will drink the cup of sorrow that Jesus will drink.
- He is simply warning them of all the trouble that is ahead of them because they have committed themselves to being his followers.
- In the case of Zebedee’s boys…what they got wrong was their self-centered desire to become favored citizens in eternity…
- Sitting next to the throne.
- What is it or what will it be that we get wrong?
The good news is that we are promised God’s forgiveness for getting things wrong.
- It is what the old hymn calls “Amazing Grace.”
When James and John focus on an imagined future of glory for themselves…
- Jesus knows that they are missing the point not only of his life and ministry but also of their own lives.
- And what is that point?
- OK…Jesus says: “Whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant…and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all.”
- We see that same counter-cultural approach in the Beatitudes…
- Where Jesus says that the weak shall inherit the Earth and that the kingdom of Heaven belongs to those who are poor in spirit.
- And later in the same chapter of Matthew Jesus tells us to love our enemies and to pray for people who persecute us.
Now this is precious…multiple pastors…in the Southern Baptist Convention…
- Have reported that congregants have objected to their preaching about Christ’s Sermon on the Mount…
- Because they believe that “love your enemies” is a liberal talking point that does not work anymore.
- I would love to hear a response to that directly from Jesus.
- The fact is that Christ’s whole life and purpose constituted a response to that.
- He told everyone that if they want to follow him…they must take up their cross.
- And surely it can be a cross to love your enemies.
- And…frankly…sometimes even to love your friends and family.
But trying to love our enemies can be enormously liberating.
- It means we are freed from debasing others.
- It means we need not fight fire with fire.
- If…instead of wanting to sit at Christ’s side throughout eternity…
- We simply commit ourselves to loving others the way Jesus loved…
- We will be so busy comforting the afflicted…
- As well as sometimes afflicting the comfortable…
- That we will not have time to worry about where we will be in eternity.
- And that can make the present feel a lot more like heaven than it does today.
- Now…one final thought.
- Again… What is it or what will it be that we get wrong?
I was only 18 years old.
- Late one night I got a call from a close friend.
- “My dad is on the way to the hospital” he said. “It’s really bad.” His voice was shaking.
I was shocked. I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t know what to do.
- I told my friend that I was so sorry.
- I told him I would pray for him.
- And then I went to sleep.
- I called my friend the next morning. No answer.
- I asked around.
- He was at the hospital.
The same pattern repeated for two long days:
- I would call. No answer.
- I’d ask about him and find out he was at the hospital.
- But I did not go.
- I remember feeling some irrational confidence that his father would be fine.
- I remember being busy.
- I remember feeling not quite prepared to face such pain and loss.
- Then I got the call: My friend’s father had died.
I did go to the visitation. I knew that is what friends do.
- What happened next is burned into my heart.
- When I walked in the door…my friend came up to me…looked at me with immense hurt and said:
- “Where were you?”
I had no answer then. I have no answer now.
- I failed…and the older I get the better I understand the magnitude of my failure.
- I had violated the first commandment of friendship: presence.
- Simply being there was all that had been required.
- I could not pass even that one simple test.
The most Christ-like service we can offer is simply “being there.
- To be the “servant” envisioned by Jesus means putting aside our own needs to extend the compassion of Jesus to another.
- Jesus acknowledged that what he is asking is not easy.
- Emptying ourselves of our own sense of self for the sake of others demands a great deal from us.
- But there is also a promise here:
- That when we resolve to imitate Jesus’ compassion…
- The grace of God’s wisdom and strength will be upon us.
- It starts with loving enough to “be there.