Greatness and Servanthood
Mark 10:32-45
The city of Lakeville, Minnesota holds an annual celebration called Pan-O-Prog, and it features several events, like the Miss Lakeville Pageant, a Beer, Brats & Bingo event, a carnival, and the always exciting and often controversial Baby Crawl-A-Thon. Emotions ran high when the 2015 winner, ten-month-old Berkley Bailey, was disqualified. Berkley crossed the finish line as the clear winner, but moments later event organizers huddled and then stripped little Berkley of the first and only title of her young life. Judges ruled that she actually pulled herself forward with her left side and then lifted her right arm in the air.
Pan-O-Prog President Diana Neameyer explained to the local newspaper that the rules were established to make the competition fair and give everyone a level playing field. Berkley’s mom protested that the rule is unfair to babies who have a unique way of getting around. She said, “That’s the only way we’ve ever seen our baby crawl. That’s all she’s ever done. The doctor told us it was a crawl.”
Ms. Neameyer said the issue first arose at the race in 2014 when a baby crawled like a bear, on his hands and feet. He finished the race first, but was also disqualified, because as Neameyer explained, “When you do it that way, you are a speedster.”
In 2016 the newspaper reported, “There were some close calls, but no disagreements over the declared winner of the 2016 Baby Crawl-A-Thon: 11-month-old Reagan Ortega of Lakeville.”[i]
Sadly, this story actually happened. This is not from a satirical site. That makes it even more hilarious – or sad, depending on your perspective.
Controversy over a baby crawl-a-thon. I’m pretty sure none of the babies cared. They just wanted to get back to mom. It was the adults who got a little too competitive. And we wonder why soccer moms and baseball dads are a problem. But there’s one category of competitive parent that I think trumps them all: the horse show parent. Take your typical, competitive baseball dad or soccer mom or dance parent and watch them drop $10,000 on a show horse and $7,000 on boarding and training and lessons and $5,000 on show and practice tack, another $5,000 on vets and chiropractors and farriers for the horse, and $2,000 on show clothes, and you’ve got your typical horse show parent. And those aren’t one-time expenses. As your child grows, they of course need a better show horse, and fancier tack with more bling, and show clothes usually last one season.
You get a competitive parent who drops thousands upon thousands of dollars a year on their child’s hobby, and they aren’t going to be satisfied with their kid riding out of the ring with a 3rd place ribbon. I know this, because Aubrey showed horses. Why do you think I work like 3 jobs?
Fortunately for us, Aubrey, who is a beautiful rider, ISN’T competitive. At all. She did it for the friendships with the other riders and the horses. She never cared whether she came in 1st or 10th. I remember standing on the rail once watching her show, and one of her good friend’s horse spooked and bucked her off and she kind of laid there dazed for a quick minute and Aubrey practically stood up in the saddle to check on her friend. When the class resumed after they caught the horse and her friend walked out with a dislocated shoulder, Aubrey rode by me and asked, “Dad, is she okay?” That’s all she cared about. And I was like “Shut up and ride. She’s fine. You’ve got a class to win.” Very pastoral of me, wasn’t it?
Aubrey kind of kept our competitive nature in check. To a point. She DID win. Here’s a picture of her with her Arabian Horse Association regional championship garland. I don’t even want to know how much money went into that garland of fake flowers from Hobby Lobby. But she won. To be honest though, this is what she liked the most about all of those years riding – the relationships.
As Jesus nears Jerusalem, he tells his disciples – for the third time and very clearly – about his coming humiliating betrayal and excruciating death and also his victorious resurrection. But all they can think about are the positions of power and glory they hope to receive in this coming kingdom Jesus has been talking about for the past two years. As we continue our journey through Mark’s gospel, turn with me to Mark 10:32-45.
It was typical of a rabbi to lead his disciples when they were moving from place to place, walking ahead of them. And Mark draws our attention to Jesus doing exactly that. He is walking ahead of his disciples, leading them. They really couldn’t comprehend what was coming when they got to Jerusalem, even though Jesus talked about it as openly and plainly as he could. He didn’t mince words. Look at Vv. 33-34. I don’t think it would be possible for Jesus to make it any clearer than that.
But there’s something else about Jesus that draws their attention as he leads them toward Jerusalem. We don’t know exactly what it was, but Mark tells us that as Jesus walked ahead of them, “they (the disciples) were amazed, and those who followed along behind the disciples) were afraid.” Maybe it was the resolve visible on his face and the fire in his eyes as he neared his final confrontation with the powers of sin and darkness that had taken his creation hostage. Jesus is leading with purpose and direction.
But those following him were filled with both awe and dread. There was something awesome about Jesus as they watched him move resolutely toward Jerusalem. Nothing was going to stop him from accomplishing the purpose for which he came. Sadly, no one understood the way in which he would do that. They might have read his steely resolve as a signal that the military revolution they thought Jesus came to lead was would begin when they entered Jerusalem. We do know that when Jesus spoke plainly about being mocked and spit on and flogged and then killed, they just didn’t seem to hear him. But there was something both awesome and yet something that filled them with dread as they watched him.
A few weeks ago now we celebrated the life of our dear Lois Fox, who passed away over the winter. As is typical in funeral services, we gave anyone who wanted to share a story about Lois the opportunity to do so as a part of the service. One person stood up and talked about how Lois reserved the word “awesome” for God, and for God alone. If you were talking to Lois and said, “That’s awesome,” she would actually correct you. She’d say “That might be great, but only God is awesome” every time. I used to use the word “awesome” a lot so I heard her say that a lot. I don’t use it as much anymore. I think she broke me of that habit. For Lois, only one was worthy of the title “awesome,” and that one is God.
The deep, deep love of God was on the move, and it was at the same time awe-inspiring and dreadful to watch. But Jesus wasn’t headed toward Jerusalem to start a rebellion against Herod or against Caesar, he was headed toward Jerusalem to confront and destroy the one who sought to destroy his creation. But he would confront Satan and the sin and death he brought into the cosmos not with sword and spear and power, he would do it by making himself a servant, and suffering and dying for you and for me.
Bible scholar and pastor N.T. Wright retells the following story about an archbishop who was hearing a confession of sin from three hardened teenagers in the church. All three boys were trying to make a joke out of it so they met with the archbishop and confessed to a long list of ridiculous and grievous sins that they had not committed. It was all a joke. The archbishop, seeing through their bad practical joke, played along with the first two who ran out of the church laughing. But then he listened carefully to the third prankster, and before he got away told the young man, “Okay, you have confessed these sins. Now I want you to do something to show your repentance. I want you to walk up to the far end of the church and I want you to look at the picture of Jesus hanging on the cross, and I want you to look at his face and say, ‘You did all that for me and I don’t care that much.’ And I want you to do that three times.”
And so the boy went up to the front, looked at the picture of Jesus and said, “You did all that for me and I don’t care that much.” And then he said it again, but then he couldn’t say it the third time because he broke down in tears. And the archbishop telling the story said, the reason I know that story is that I was that young man.[ii]
There is something about the cross. Something about Jesus dying there for us which leaps over all the theoretical discussions, all the possibilities of how we explain it this way or that way and it grasps us. And when we are grasped by it, somehow we have a sense that what is grasping us is the love of God. The servanthood and suffering and death of Jesus are more than just a model for serving others. On the cross, Jesus died in our place, purchasing our forgiveness. That is something we cannot and need not do as we follow Jesus. But we ARE to pattern our lives after Jesus, following where he leads, serving one another in love.
Now, look at what happens next. Look at Vv. 35-41. We get this incredible picture of Jesus resolutely moving toward Jerusalem and the brutal flogging and crucifixion that awaited him there. As Christians who live 2,000 years later, with the benefit of knowing how the story concludes, we know that he is moving toward the cross with purpose and resolve. His disciples didn’t understand that at all. The sad thing is that he told them plainly what was coming, and they still didn’t hear it. Like so many of us, they heard what they wanted to hear, not what Jesus was actually saying to them.
Far too often WE come to Jesus in prayer and through the Bible and hear what we want to hear and see what we want to see, instead of allowing him to challenge and transform us through his presence and his Word. The truth is, the Bible is a dangerous book. It is dangerous because it is the living, breathing Word of a God who fills us with a weird mix of awe and dread. This is a dangerous book because through it, God will begin to work in your life, challenging you, transforming you, and inviting you to follow Jesus.
That’s been the call all along. “Follow me.” From Peter and Andrew and James and John to the other disciples to the rich young man on this journey, and then forward through the ages to you and I here in this sanctuary this morning, his call has never changed. “Follow me.” “Receive the gift of grace I offer to you, because I went to the cross in your place, hanging there where you should have hung. And having received that gift, follow me.
The key to understanding those words lies in our realizing that if we’re following, Jesus is leading. He’s going before us, into the chaos, into the darkness, into the pain and the confusion. As followers of Jesus, he invites us to follow him into those places and turn on his light, bringing others out of the darkness and into his presence to receive grace for themselves, bringing his hope and healing.
The problem is that we, like James and John, only worry about what’s in it for us. Jesus is talking about sacrifice and suffering and death and they’re thinking about positions of power and prestige. Jesus is about to completely transform everything through his grace, and they’re just interested in climbing the ladder of importance and power. Jesus is talking about serving, and they’re more interested in being honored and served.
Sadly, this isn’t the first time this has happened. It’s becoming a pattern. Jesus foretells his suffering and death three times in Mark. This is the third and most detailed foretelling. The second one happened not long before. Jesus had told his disciples plainly about his upcoming suffering and death, and they immediately got into an argument with one another about which one of them was the greatest of his disciples. Who was first, best, greatest, the one most deserving of honor. That’s what they were arguing about then. And it’s what James and John are asking for now.
Now, look at vv. 42-45. Greatness through servanthood. Success through sacrifice and suffering. You know, preaching challenging texts like this one is hard. It’s hard because the temptation to focus on the good feeling topics like joy and peace and hope and forgiveness (so long as we don’t talk too much about having to forgive those who hurt us) and overcoming challenges and healing and being loved is strong. People want to hear a pastor talk about those things. But greatness through servanthood and suffering? No one wants to hear sermons about that. We want to leave feeling good, on a spiritual high from a spiritual drug. We don’t want to leave feeling challenged.
And we ARE loved. God DOES heal and give strength. As we walked through the earlier chapters of Mark, we came again and again to Jesus healing and delivering and offering hope and peace and comfort. But now, as he nears the cross, he draws our attention to his continued call to follow him, and he makes it clear that as followers of Jesus, we are to actually follow Jesus, patterning our lives after his, and that includes servanthood and sacrifice.
Here’s the thing: you will suffer in this life. That I can promise you. Why not let Jesus give meaning and purpose to your challenges and your suffering? When sin entered this world, everything God had designed was stood on its head and we moved away from God. And this world continues to move away from God. When we accept Jesus and his death on our behalf and begin to follow Jesus, we become citizens of the kingdom of God while still living on this earth, and that often makes it feel like we’re driving the wrong way down a very busy one way street – going against the flow. And that’s because God is aligning our values, our passions, our very lives with the values of his kingdom, with the way he intended things to be from the beginning. And sometimes, that makes waves that we have to ride out. For some in this world, those waves are more like dangerous tsunamis.
But Jesus makes it clear that his people in this world will NOT be marked by power and achievement at the expense of others and personal ambition above all else. No, instead we are called to be a community of compassion. Serving as our savior served, and following where he leads.
A few years ago, Pastor John Ortberg wrote an article that the Huffington Post shockingly published. In that article, he outlined the practical impact of Jesus and his followers on this world throughout history. Here’s his list:
Children. In the ancient world children were routinely left to die of exposure, particularly if they were girls. Jesus’ treatment of and teachings about children led to the forbidding of such practices, as well as the development of orphanages for those whose parents did abandon them to die. A Norwegian scholar wrote a study of this impact, simply titled, When Children Became People: the Birth of Childhood in Early Christianity.
Education. The ancient world loved education but tended to reserve it for the elite; the notion that every child bore God’s image helped fuel the move for universal literacy. Love of learning led to monasteries. Universities such as Cambridge, Oxford, and Harvard all began as Jesus-inspired efforts to love God with all ones’ mind.
Compassion. Jesus’ compassion for the poor and the sick led to institutions for lepers, the beginning of modern-day hospitals. That’s why even today, hospitals have names like “Good Samaritan,” “Good Shepherd,” or “Saint Anthony.” They were the world’s first voluntary, charitable institutions.
Humility. The ancient world did not value the virtue of humility. Jesus’ life as a foot-washing servant would eventually lead to the adoption of humility as a widely admired virtue. Historian John Dickson writes, “… it is unlikely that any of us would aspire to this virtue were it not for the historical impact of his crucifixion.”
Forgiveness. In the ancient world, virtue meant rewarding your friends and punishing your enemies. An alternative idea came from Galilee: what is best in life is to love your enemies, and see them reconciled to you.
Humanitarian Reform. Jesus consistently championed the excluded. His inclusion of women led to a community to which women flocked in disproportionate numbers. Slaves – up to a third of ancient populations – might wander into a church fellowship and have a slave-owner wash their feet rather than beat them. One ancient text instructed bishops to not interrupt worship to greet a wealthy attender, but to sit on the floor to welcome the poor.[iii]
Greatness through servanthood. Success through sacrifice. Are we willing to follow where he leads, regardless of the cost. Can you imagine waking up in the morning and saying to Jesus, “I don’t know what you have planned for me today. But I do know that if I’m willing to follow you, then whether this world calls today a good day or a bad day, it will be a great day in your kingdom. Let’s pray.
[i] Laura Adelman, “Lakeville Mom: Baby unfairly disqualified from race,” Sun This Week (7-16-15)
[ii] Adapted from N.T. Wright, “Grasped By the Love of God,” N.T. Wright Online
[iii] Adapted from John Ortberg, “Six Surprising Ways Jesus Changed the World,” The Huffington Post (8-13-12)
