"Moving On Up!" based on Mark
Fifth Sunday in Lent -
Pastor Troy Slater - Our
Perhaps many of us - at least the
over 30 crowd - when we read the sermon theme this morning in our bulletin, "Moving
On Up", perhaps we thought of that popular television show from the 70's
and 80's, "The Jefferson's".
Good ol' George and Louise Jefferson - an
African/American couple who were once neighbors of Archie Bunker - and who can
forget Archie. But
anyway George's dry-cleaning business takes off and so he and Louise along with
their son Lionel move on up out of Archie's neighborhood, out of the working
class section of
Yes good 'ol
George Jefferson. He found the American
dream. The dream to move
on up the ladder of success and grab all the perks that you can get on your
way. After all it's much more fun
to live in a "deluxe apartment in the sky" than to live in an old
place next to an old crab like an Archie Bunker. It's way more
rewarding to be the president of the company than to be the peon. It's why we tell our kids they need to go to
college. It's why we've worked those
long hours - to move on up the world's ladder of success. Yes
"moving on up", it's the American dream - it's what makes our world
go 'round.
Well as we begin to look at our Gospel reading for
today, it actually appears that perhaps even Jesus is thinking along our lines
- wanting to move on up. For our reading
starts out by saying, "They were on
the road going up to
And yes, something is going to happen there. Something is going to happen and Jesus'
disciples and the rest who are following Him know it. Jesus has been butting heads with the
authorities in
After all, why would Jesus have such a death wish? That's not how you get anywhere in life. If you want to get anywhere - you want to
move on up in this world - don't just roll over and let 'em
hang you up. You've got to fight for
yourself. And if Jesus is who He says He
is - that is, the Christ - then He won't be much of a Christ, much of a Savior or
King for anyone if gets himself strung up by the authorities. And so, as a result, our reading tells us
that "the disciples were amazed and
those who followed were afraid."
They were "amazed" that Jesus was actually going to
And Jesus doesn't seem to help the situation a whole lot
here for our reading tells us that "taking
the Twelve again, he began to tell them what was to happen to him saying, 'We
are going on up to Jerusalem and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the
chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver
him over to the Gentiles. And they will
mock him and spit on him, and flog him and kill him. And after three days he will rise." Well I'm sure that helped to ease their
fears. Their already afraid and confused
and Jesus just continues to pile it on.
Now he adds this "mocked", "spit on", and
"flogged" bit. Yes I'm sure that's
much better - that will surely calm their uncertainties and fears.
But you know that's one of the things about Jesus,
isn't it? He doesnt beat around the bush, He tells it like it is. "This is what's going to happen." "This is how it is."
Although it doesn't appear that the disciples are
listening too well to all of this.
Although probably hard for us to blame them after all, what Jesus is
telling them is not making a whole lot of sense and so they go to what makes
sense - at least according to how the world seems to operate. James and John go first,
they go to Jesus with a question. "Well
Jesus beings we're 'moving on up' - beings your about to take
"Okay," Jesus says, "What do you want me to do for you?"
"Well grant us
this favor. Grant that one of us can sit
at your right hand and the other at your left when you come into your
glory." Of course to sit at a king's right hand was
to have the position of power and prestige and to sit at his left was the next
best spot. James and John want Jesus to
take them right up with Him once Jesus gets past all this betrayal and death
talk. They want to be important,
they want to be those who are served rather than those who serve.
Although again, as I said just a
minute ago, it is hard for us to blame them.
Power, authority, prestige, success. Isn't that what we strive for all the
time? Isn't that what we work for? To move on up the world's
ladder of success. Yes it is hard
for us to blame James and John, after all all their
asking for is the two rungs just below Jesus on that ladder. At least that's what they think they are
asking for.
For Jesus says to them, "You do not know what you are asking
for." In other words, "You do not understand
what my glory is all about. For I have a
cup to drink, I have a baptism to be baptized with. And that cup, that baptism is to do the will
of my Father. It is to suffer and it is
to die at the hands of sinful men."
Although James and John, they still just don't get
it. When they think of glory, they think
of power and prestige; they think of this world's idea of glory - "moving
on up" that ladder of success. But
Jesus' glory is so much different. For
it involves suffering, it involves rejection and mocking, it involves death and
a cross. James and John don't get this
yet and neither do the other ten. For
once the other ten get wind of the request of James and John they become "indignant at James and John." "Who do you guys think you are, asking
for those two spots of power." And of course that's what this world's
infatuation with power and success does, doesn't
it? It turns us into a fighting, greedy,
power-hungry, selfish people.
And so seeing
this happening amongst the Twelve, Jesus calls a time-out. For it's time to teach, it's time to focus
His disciples on the task at hand. It's
time to focus them and us on what Jesus is all about. He's not here to confirm the world's selfish,
conceited, self-serving ways; He's here to bring God's ways; He's here to turn
the world's ways upside down and expose the world's idea of glory for what it
is - a vain and deadly pursuit. "You know that those who are considered
rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them and their great ones exercise
authority over them. But it shall not be
so among you. For whoever would be great
among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be
slave of all. For even
the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give His life as a
ransom for many."
Yes Jesus is here to move on up, isn't He? But not into a "deluxe
apartment in the sky". Jesus
is here to move on up - onto a cross on
In our last hymn, "What
Wondrous Love Is This", we sang the words, "When I was sinking down, sinking down, sinking down; When I was
sinking down beneath God's righteous frown, Christ laid aside His crown for my
soul, for my soul, Christ laid aside His crown for my soul."
Down is
where our pursuits at glory take us. We
think we're movin' on up but Jesus shows us that
without Him, we're only headin' on down; down beneath
God's "righteous frown"; down as "poor, miserable sinners who
justly deserve God's temporal and eternal punishment."
But our gracious God was not content to allow that to
happen and so "God so loved the
world" - He so loved you and me despite our selfish pursuits - "God so loved the world that He gave
His only-begotten Son". Jesus
the Son of God came on down, leaving the glory of heaven that He might
"move on up", not up the world's ladder of success, but rather up an
instrument of pain and torture and death there on the outskirts of
The Lord may bless us as His people with many of the
things of this world. He may grant us
success, and then again, He may not. But
regardless, we've got something far better, don't we? Because Jesus moved on up the cross, in His
name, by His grace, we are "movin' on up"
not to "a deluxe apartment" on the east side of Manhattan, but rather
thanks be to Jesus we are moving on up to those eternal glories of heaven. Amen.