Mark 9:30-37
The Sixteenth
Sunday after Pentecost -
Pastor Troy Slater - Our
One of the things that makes the Bible so interesting has got to be its people. When you read the books of other religions,
their heroes are so pristine, noble, larger than
life. Even if they start out with flaws, they eventually perfect
themselves and appear to deserve whatever reward they receive.
But the Bible, on the
other hand, portrays its heroes with all their shortcomings and failures - all
their warts and imperfections. And
certainly in a way, this is very comforting, because it means that the heroes
of the faith are more like us like you and me. And its comforting to
know that if God in His grace can love and work through them, well, then He can even love and maybe even work through us as
well.
Today's Gospel gives us
an opportunity to see this humanness of those whom Jesus had gathered to be His
first disciples. Though Jesus appears to be making every effort to teach
them about His upcoming suffering, death, and resurrection, they just don't
seem to get it. Instead they choose to
get into a selfish discussion about which one of them was the greatest.
Now, to be fair here with
the disciples, with our 20/20 hindsight we often have a hard time seeing things
from their perspective. We have become so familiar with the person and
work of Jesus Christ that it can be hard for us to comprehend how bizarre
Christ's teachings must have really sounded to those first disciples. I
mean, keep in mind that Christ's work was not just a once in a lifetime event, rather
it was a once for all time event. There was no precedent for Christ's
work. What Christ was doing was so radically different than anything they
had every seen or even thought about. They
had no other experience that could even compare to what Jesus was saying and
doing.
In thinking of that this
week it reminded me of an article I read the previous week from some one who
had witnessed the 9/11 attacks from his office desk in a skyscraper just a couple
of blocks from the World Trade Center. After
feeling the quake from the first plane hitting the first tower he said he and
his staff then watched with a numb disbelief as the tower burned and as people
jumped from the upper floors to their deaths below. It all just couldn't register in his mind as
he then watched another plane circle and then hit the second tower. He had no "file in his mind" is how
he described it, of such a scene. He saw it all with his eyes, but as you can
imagine, it just couldn't register.
The disciples they heard
what Jesus said as he described how he would "be delivered into the hands of men and they would kill Him." They heard Him with their ears, but it just
didn't register. They had no "file
in their mind" of the Messiah being put to death. I mean the Messiah was to be a king - a king
in the line of David who would be powerful - able to conquer their
enemies. And they had seen Jesus do some
incredibly amazing things - they believed that He was the Christ - the Messiah
- the Son of the living God. And so, being
arrested? Suffering? Death? It just couldn't register.
Plus, Jesus had easily
avoided an assassination attempt before. For remember how towards the beginning
of His ministry, Jesus' teachings had so angered the people of Nazareth - His
hometown - that they had driven him out of town, to the edge of a cliff and
were ready to throw Him off? But passing through their midst, Jesus went
away. So although people might try to torture and kill Jesus, the
disciples' worldview simply did not think Jesus would let this happen - there
simply was no "file in their minds" of a suffering Savior.
And so the disciples, they
were busy looking forward to the day when Jesus set up His kingdom and they
would have positions of honor in His kingdom.
That was their focus; that was their idea; that was their plan. And so they speculated as to who would get the best positions in
Jesus' kingdom - those special positions of authority and power when Jesus came
to power. And so, "Who amongst
us is the greatest?" they argued. "Who amongst us will be
first?"
But Jesus used this
discussion among the disciples as an opportunity to teach them, and to teach us
today, what it means to be great in His church. "If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of
all." Of course this statement is entirely counterintuitive. In
the natural world being first means being the boss. It means having the
power. It means other people serve us. It means when we say,
"Jump," other people ask, "How high?" In the natural world,
people fight, work, and sacrifice in order to obtain power. And, even if we
don't get it, we still like to fight for our rightful place, dont we?..
But not so in the kingdom
of heaven. Not so in God's family - in Christ's kingdom. For in His kingdom, the leader serves.
The one who is the highest makes himself the lowest. The leader in God's
family sacrifices not to get power, but to serve others. And Jesus then nailed this point home to His
disciples as He took a child into His arms and basically told the disciples to
serve the child. "Whoever
receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives
not me but him who sent me."
This was actually a very striking
thing to say in that day and age. To give you a feeling for the status of
a child, they were basically considered to be dumb, dependant,
defenseless. Their only worth was in the
service they were able to offer you. In
fact the Greek word that is translated as child can also be translated as
servant. The culture of that day treated children almost as if they were
merely the property of the father - they were way, way down on the social
ladder.
And so when Jesus used
the child as an example, He was emphasizing what He meant by serving all
people. He was saying that, "Hey, if you guys want to be great - if
you want to be great in my kingdom, then 'receive' this child - serve
this child in my name. Anyone can look
out for their own interest - anyone can be selfish and arrogant, thinking the
world exists to meet their every whim and desire - that comes easy. But if you want to be great - then
serve. Serve even the least of these. Serve even those whom by nature, you think
ought to be serving you. Serve."
And so how are we
doing? Are we willing servants, putting other's interests ahead of our
own? If we are servants, do we serve because we want to share God's love
with others or do we serve so that people will notice us and tell us how wonderful
we are or give us something in return? Do we get angry when we serve
because we feel people are failing to acknowledge our contribution? Do we
serve with all our heart or is our service only skin deep? How are we
doing as servants?
I've got to admit that I can be a pretty lousy servant.
And so how about you?
How are you as a willing servant of others?
Of course, once again,
God's standard is higher than we could ever hope to achieve. Not one of
us is able to be a perfect servant. Not one of us can ever hope to be
first in the
However there is one who is a perfect servant, isn't there? In fact the
Holy Spirit once inspired the prophet Isaiah to speak of Him about 700 years before
that servant was even born. For Isaiah once
said these words that are often spoken on Good Friday: "See, my servant will act wisely; he will be raised and lifted up
and highly exalted.
He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows,
and familiar with suffering.
Surely he took up our infirmities and carried
our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and
afflicted. But he was pierced for our
transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought
us peace was upon him and by his was wounds we are
healed."
God Himself came down to
this earth to serve us and we beat Him, we whipped Him, and we hung Him on a
cross. But still, nevertheless, He served us perfectly. He deserved
service from us, but He nevertheless served us with His life. He
sacrificed Himself in order to save us from our sins. Although He
deserved to be first, He made Himself last - a despised and rejected man, hung
on instrument of shame and death. Of course this perfect servant who
sacrificed Himself for us is Jesus the Christ.
The one who by His death saves us from the
condemnation of our imperfect service. And God the Father honored
that service by calling him out of the grave on the third day - that bright,
first Easter morning. Christ rose from the dead to eternal life and He
now gives that same life to you.
For Christ, our Savior
who was once dead but now lives, He continues to serve us today. He
serves us daily with the forgiveness of our sins. He serves us with His
Word, the Holy Scriptures. He serves us His life giving body and blood
in, with, and under the bread and wine of the sacrament. He serves us as
He is with us even as we walk through that "valley of the shadow of death".
And finally, when the last day comes - and it will - He will serve us by giving
us a new, holy body that will rise from our grave just as He rose from His. And we will forever serve Him in everlasting
righteousness, innocence, and blessedness.
And so as we await that day, as we await the full and final fruits of
Christ's - the Servant's work, let the words that the Holy Spirit once gave to