Pentecost 21 - Year B

Mark 10:(32-34)35-45

 A Kingship Like No Other

Even though USC won their game against Vanderbilt yesterday afternoon, Clemson fans are the ones walking around tall and proud this morning.  Did you hear the commentators talking about how convinced they are that Clemson is a strong candidate for a Championship bid?

We are walking proud.  It doesn’t matter whether we are in the sit to the left or to the right of Deshaun Watson, just so long as he stays healthy and gets to sit in that center chair. 

And getting to this place was pretty easy – for most of us.  We have arrived at this place without any of us spending extra hours in the weight room.  We might re-reply the game a couple of times during the week, but none of us are going to look at Miami film in order to prepare for the next opponent. 

We are walking proud – and getting this strut in our step was as easy as asking the lady at the spots shop to sell us one of those orange t-shirts. 

But it hasn’t been that easy for Deshaun, or Keerse, or Alex.  They know the sacrifice and the price it has taken to get here.  And while I am sure they appreciate our support, I do wonder if they ever look around and ask “What do you mean?  WE are having a great season?”

One seldom gets to sit in the chair of the King without putting in the time and making the sacrifice.  It isn’t as simple as being in the right place at the right time, or being the first to ask.  Nor is it merely a matter of picking the right color t-shirt.

Mark 10, verses 32-34, contains what is often referred to as Jesus’ third prediction of his crucifixion.  The first is in Mark 8:31.  The second starts in Mark 9:30.  If you have your Bible with you, you can look at these two sections, along with today’s reading from Mark 10.  Three chapters; three encounters in which Jesus tells the disciples that when they get to Jerusalem all chaos is going to break loose. 

“I am going to die,” he tells them in Mark 8. 

In Mark 9 he adds that this death will come as a result of “betrayal.” 

In Mark 10 Jesus tries to tell them again.

The disciples don’t seem get it; they don’t seem to comprehend.  Jesus tries to tell them, and yet all they can think of is who will be seated, at Jesus’ right hand and his left hand when this is all over.  They want to ride high, but they are unaware of the sacrifice necessary to do so.

This is the exchange printed in the verses printed on the back of our bulletins.  This is the disagreement Jesus has to settle among them.  They are fixated on their own notions of what glory means that they cannot see how different are the visions which draw Jesus to Jerusalem, his betrayal, and his death.  And Mark, the Gospel writer, puts all three of these reminders in a sequence because he knows that it will remain difficult for any of us to grasp what Jesus is saying, and accept it for the Good News that it really is.  Mark knows that we all want to ride high; but few of us will understand that getting there is more about how we live here.

In the first of the predictions of his death, Mark is sure to point out that Jesus says all this as clearly as he possibly can.  Mark 8:31ff is the text.  Verse 32 is where Mark records, “(Jesus) said all this quite openly.”  There ought not to have been any doubt about this – but there was.

            Mark 9:30-37 is the second of Jesus’ predictions.  The key word in those verses is “betrayed.”  It won’t be some accidental, misunderstanding which will lead to all these things happening.  It is going to be very intentional.

But the disciples still don’t get it.  Even after a third clear, unambiguous statement, James and John are so dense that they come to Jesus to ask him if, when all this ugly business is behind them, if they might have the honor of sitting, one at his right hand and the other at his left.

I too often dismiss moral lessons.  Moral lessons are good things.  The moral lesson which will no doubt resound from many a pulpit this morning is that “Nothing worth having is easily obtained.”  And, when that moral lesson makes its way home and into our hearts the world will be a better place and we will be better people.  That is sort of the message I set up with my introduction.

But, the Gospel is trying to make sure that we don’t apply that moral lesson to our lives as if it were the advice of some exercise coach or the latest method for increasing our marketability in the workplace.  This moral lesson, if it is to be reduced to that, is approached only after we have come to realize that the lessons of Jesus begin with a complete shifting of what it means to be the one who sits on the highest chair.

Jesus speaks differently about lords and rulers.  Jesus speaks of a way which calls into question the scheming to be on top.  Jesus tells us that being lord and master, in the Kingdom which bears his name, is to begin and end with the desire to serve.  It is marked with a willingness to give one’s life away.

I am in no way meaning to imply that you don’t “know” this.  And you have probably heard many a sermon on what it means to be the server as opposed to being the one who is served.  What we need to walk away with this morning is the realization of how difficult it is to comprehend the kingship of which Jesus speaks.  We too quickly skip over the sacrifice and begin to talk about the rewards of that sacrifice.  We are James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who give a wink and a nod to the rejection, the betrayal, and chose instead to anticipate what it is that will come after.

Jesus tells them to stop it.  Jesus tells them that nothing comes after, nothing comes above – it is all about serving and sacrificing.

            Sometimes we hear what we want to hear, no matter what is actually being said.  Sometimes we do not hear that which contra­dicts what we desperately want to believe.  Sometimes we are unable to hear even when the words leave no ambiguity.

            It is interesting that in this exchange, Jesus doesn't tell them, "No, you can't have those positions of authority."  Rather, he notes that those spots will be given to those to those for whom it has been prepared.  He doesn't turn them down; rather he works to change their focus.  He wants to move their eyes from the possibility of future glory to the road which lies between here and there.  He wants to shift their view from the seats of glory to the cup and the baptism which is Christ's.

            The only real concern Jesus has is that the disciples do not allow themselves to think there is an easier way than the one he is about to take.  Jesus wants to prevent any notion from forming in their heads which would allow them to believe they can come to those seats of influence by any way other than offering themselves.  "If you want to flank me," Jesus tells his disciples, "you must be prepared to lay down your life for others."

            I have long since given up on being asked to sit at the right or the left of any truly important individual.  The gifts to obtain such recognition are not mine - and besides, I don't have the right kind of clothes for that kind of a job.

            But serving others is something I can do.  It is something I have experienced and understand.  It is in loosing myself in the midst of service that I also get those fleeting images of true calm and tranquility.  Being a servant to others has a power which can only be described as peace.

            That is what the experience of building the Homecoming Habitat house means to so many of us.  It is crazy out there, and there is no opportunity to give much thought to a better place which might someday be mine.

"The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve."

"Whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all."

This is the way of our Lord and Master.

It is the way of Peace and happiness.

Amen.