Mark 10:35-45
Rev. Drew Henry
October 22, 2006
First Presbyterian Church, Birmingham, Alabama

We continue today our journey through the New Testament Gospel of Mark. We are at an important stage in the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. For some weeks now we’ve been hearing Jesus challenging his followers with some radical teachings, and today will be no different.

You see we are in what is considered by many to be the second part of the Gospel story according to Mark. Soon Jesus will be entering Jerusalem, where he will eventually be killed, and he is taking this time now to prepare his disciples for suffering. We will come to learn that this preparation is not just for his suffering, but also for the suffering of all who seek to follow him.

The encounter, I am about to read, actually follows a third prediction Jesus makes to his disciples about his own death – that which we have come to know as the Passion of Christ. For some time now Jesus has been trying to impress upon his disciples what it will mean for their lives, what it will mean for our lives, to take up the cross and follow him.

So listen now for the Word of God as it is spoken to you today…(I’ll be reading from The Message)

James and John, Zebedee’s sons, came up to him. "Teacher, we have something we want you to do for us."

"What is it? I’ll see what I can do."

"Arrange it," they said, "so that we will be awarded the highest places of honor in your glory – one of us at your right, the other at your left."

Jesus said, "You have no idea what you are asking. Are you capable of drinking the cup I drink, of being baptized in the baptism I’m about to be plunged into?"

"Sure," they said. "Why not?"

Jesus said, "Come to think of it, you will drink the cup I drink, and be baptized in my baptism. But as to awarding places of honor, that’s not my business. There are other arrangements for that."

When the other ten heard of this conversation, they lost their tempers with James and John. Jesus got them together to settle things down. "You’ve observed how godless rulers throw their weight around," he said, "and when people get a little power how quickly it goes to their heads. It’s not going to be that way with you. Whoever wants to be great must become a servant. Whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave. That is what the Son of Man has done. He came to serve, not to be served – and then to give away his life in exchange for many who are held hostage."

(Mark 10:35-45 – The Message)

This is the Word of the Lord…Thanks be to God.

Let us pray…Dear God, why us? Why do you speak these words to we who find it so difficult to follow them? If it is not in our power to do so, then fill us with your power so that we might in some way have the courage to follow Jesus, to follow you, to wherever that might lead us. In doing so, take our lives and use them so that together we might make known the face of Christ to the world. For it is in His holy name that we pray. Amen.

Aren’t we so much like the disciples? On this road to Jerusalem, Jesus had just announced to them for the third time his impending death. That he would be betrayed, handed over, sentenced to death, mocked, spat upon and killed. So here we come, James and John, having heard this news for the third time, and what is the first thing out of our mouths? "We have something we want you to do for us."

Now it would be so easy to point our fingers at them and say, "What a foolish question!" But aren’t we one in the same? So much of our own human lives we spend looking out for ourselves that it should be no surprise to us that this was the first question that came from James and John.

My question to you this morning is, "Why are you here? ...Why are you here?" If we are honest with each other and with our own selves, we have all come either because we get something from being here or because we are seeking something to fill a place where we experience a void in our lives. Now before you start feeling bad about that, I want you to hear me say, "I’m not here to add any more guilt to what I perceive to be an overly guilt-ridden world."

Do you not think I get something from standing up here and preaching, and then having any number of you afterwards coming up to me and thank me for what I had to say? Maybe it should be the other way around, me thanking you for actually listening.

Maybe you come here to be recognized, or come to be heard, or come to be embraced, or don’t come…in order to be missed? Whatever your reason is for being here, we all come looking for something for ourselves.

James and John came looking for something for their own selves, and I want you to hear Jesus’ response to them. He does not chastise their question. He simply says, "What is it you want me to do for you? (NRSV) What is it? I’ll see what I can do? (The Message)" Now Jesus’ simple questions rarely are followed by simple answers, and this will be no exception. Yet Jesus comes into our lives and meets us exactly where we are. And it is only then that he invites us to "Come and follow me," to go deeper, to go beyond ourselves.

It was the late Reverend William Sloane Coffin Jr., who used to say, "There is no smaller package in the world than a person who is all wrapped up in him/herself."

For you see what James and John were asking for was a place of honor, a place of glory for themselves. They were posturing for position, for recognition, something we are all too familiar with in our own world. Even those of us who struggle with authority don’t thrive on feeling powerless, or disempowered. And all of us at some level know how good it feels to be recognized or on the other hand how painful a lack of recognition can be.

At their best, James and John were saying to Jesus, "We want to be on your right and your left side because we can’t imagine our lives without you." However more than likely, their motives were more self-centered as they tried to assure for themselves a place of honor and recognition at Christ’s side.

So Jesus in turn asks them, "Can you take what I am about to go through?" Their response was, "Sure, why not?" And it’s here that Jesus invites us to go beyond. Places of honor are thrown out the window. Essentially Jesus says, "Neither you nor I have anything to do with that recognition. Let’s leave honor up to God." However Jesus does say, "Come to think of it, you will drink the cup I drink, and be baptized in my baptism."

Now for James and John that meant giving up their life, and I believe if Jesus were standing before us today he would say that for us it means nothing less. We too come here to drink from Jesus’ cup, and we come to this place for baptism. Yet so often we come to the table or to the font seeking that which we can receive rather than that which we are being called to give up.

Now the other disciples were no holier than the rest of us. When they heard about this question from James and John, they became indignant (probably for selfish reasons). So Jesus called them, and calls us, all together. And here is the crux of his teaching.

"You’ve observed how godless rulers throw their weight around, and when people get a little power how quickly it goes to their heads." (Do you know what he means?) Then Jesus says to those who seek to follow him, "It’s not going to be that way with you." (Hmmm) "Whoever wants to be great among you must become a servant. Whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave. That is what the Son of Man (codename for Jesus) has done: He came to serve, not to be served."

Last weekend five of us from this congregation went over to Atlanta for a conference at Columbia Theological Seminary. Andy Weeks, the presenter, is a layman from the Episcopal Church. He grew up very involved in the church, drifted away and had the experience later in life of finding it difficult to get back into church when he finally decided to return.

Rooted in this challenging experience, he eventually felt called to lead a ministry of evangelism. Now many of you, as I do, have a negative image associated with "evangelists." Immediately we think of aggressive techniques and what seems to be an attempt to hit people over the head with the Bible long enough until they get some sense knocked into ‘em. However the word evangelism means to share the good news, and if you believe Jesus Christ brings good news to the world, then keep listening.

Now if you are a guest here in worship this morning, I want to thank you for being here. If you are a member of this congregation, of this community of faith, I want to challenge you to think about your presence here in a new light. In his ministry of evangelism, Andy Weeks attempts to help us people of the church understand how difficult it can be for other people who are not currently part of a community of faith to find their way in. At the same time Andy seeks to train and equip members of the church so that we can find joy in doing a better job of welcoming others into our faith community and ultimately into a life of faith.

Just a few moments ago I said I was going to challenge you who are members of First Presbyterian Church to think about your presence here in a different light. In boiling down what I learned at this conference last weekend, I think Andy Weeks was essentially saying, "While our main purpose for being here at worship is to worship God, our main purpose for being here at church is to welcome other people." Let me say that again…

Why are you here? To serve, or to be served? I would challenge you today and in the coming weeks to think about your reasons for coming to church? What would it look like if you understood that your principal reason for being a member of this church and for being here was to welcome other people into a life of faith, into this community of faith? And if you are a guest here today, I invite you to think about (and feel free to tell us) how it would be different for you coming into this place if this congregation understood as central to its identity seeking to help you feel more welcome here?

Now I do believe that Jesus Christ has the power to meet each one of us right where we are with our every need. That does not mean God will always come to us in the form of "an answer to our every prayer." Yet God is radically with us in this world, seeking us out and offering to all of us a new way of life that can be found no where else. Yet the paradox of the Christian faith is that "those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for the sake of the gospel will save it." (Mark 8:35) Try that on for size this week.

How can you seek to serve, and not to be served in your own family or with your friends? In your neighborhood, your workplace or you school? In this city and in this state? In this church and in the wider community of faith? In this nation and in this world?

The Gospel, the message of Jesus Christ is not an easy-one. If anything, as Eugene Peterson puts it, it is one of "self-sacrifice" and not of "self-help." However, as this message is not the "status quo", neither is the amazing life God offers to us through Jesus Christ. And that my friends is "good news." Let us all share it with the world and welcome others into this new way of living! Amen.