Who Is Going
to Be Number One?
Mark 10: 35-45
October 22,
2006
35 - 45
James and John, the sons of
Zebedee, came forward to him and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do
for us whatever we ask of you.” And he said to them,
“What is it you want me to do for you?” And
they said to him, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your
left, in your glory.” But Jesus said to them,
“You do not know what you are asking. Are you able
to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism that I am
baptized with?” They replied, “We are able.” Then
Jesus said to them,
“The cup that I drink you will drink; and with the baptism with which I am
baptized, you will be baptized; but to sit at my right hand or at my left
is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.”
When the ten heard this, they began to be
angry with James and John. So Jesus called
them and said to them,
“You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their
rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. But
it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must
be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of
all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give
his life a ransom for many.”
Webster defines bold in multiple ways. Bold can mean fearless before
danger, impudent or presumptuous, assured or confident, sheer or steep or
adventurous or free spirit.
In this particular instance, how would we describe the disciple’s actions
as they asked their favor of Jesus? It certainly was a bold move on their
part. It takes a great deal of boldness to walk up to the master and ask
to be number one in the grand scheme of things. Were they being impudent
or presumptuous? Were they so confident that they were that good that
they believed they deserved what they were asking of
Jesus?
I remember an older pastor sharing some words of wisdom with me many years
ago. Evidently, one of his contemporaries was moving from a large church
and had asked to meet with the Bishop so that they could talk about his
next appointment. As the pastor explained it to me, his friend during the
conversation with the Bishop informed the Bishop that he was a good choice
to be made a District Superintendent. The older pastor went on to inform
me that his friend was not made a District Superintendent and that the
Bishop sent him to a “troubled Church” that would need his excellent
skills in leading them back to the correct pathway. He summed his
conversation up with me with these words of wisdom. “Do not go to the
Bishop demanding what you want. Be humble!”
Those words made sense to me over thirty years ago and they still do
today.
James and John had a request of Jesus. Most
likely, they felt that they had been doing a good job as his disciples and
that they deserved a promotion of sorts. Now let us give them some credit.
They were not worried about being promoted to any type of new position on
earth. They were concerned more about the eternal that they were about the
temporary. They went to Jesus and asked him
to do them a favor. Jesus response to them
was to find out what they wanted before he answered them. They told him
that they wanted him to promise them that they would have the right to sit
right beside him in glory. In other words, they were asking
Jesus to assure them that they would achieve
the number one disciple standing when they entered into glory.
I now can see Jesus sitting John and James
down for a long heart to heart conversation. He started that conversation
off by saying to them “you do not know what you are asking. To achieve the
goal that you so desire at this moment means that you must be willing to
walk in my shoes and go through the trials and tribulations that face me
in the future. Do you really think that you will be able to do it?”
James and John did not even blink. They immediately responded: “of course,
we can walk the walk with you. We are not frightened by what might take
place in the future. We will go every step of the way with you no matter
what.”
Jesus then rewarded their boldness with the
fact that they would be able to drink from the cup that he was going to
have to drink from. He also informed them that it was not up to him to
promise who would sit beside him in glory. That is up to the creating and
redeeming God who was and is the Father of
Jesus of Nazareth.
The other disciples came upon the scene. Maybe one of them heard the
conversation and reported it to the others. It is obvious that they were
upset with James and John. They were upset that their colleagues would try
to get ahead of them by going behind their backs. A serious situation was
taking place in the midst of the disciples. Their fellowship could have
been destroyed by James and John’s action.
At this honest human moment, Jesus took
immediate action and used the emotions and the frustrations of his
disciples to teach them about faithful servanthood. Webster describes
servant this way. “It is one that performs duties about the person or home
of a master or personal employer.” Jesus
started teaching his disciples what it meant to perform the duties given
to them by the master. He started teaching them what it would mean to
serve others instead of being served by others.
Let's take a quiz. Pull a sheet of scratch paper out of your memory bank
or write your answers on the back of your bulletin. Let’s see how well we
can answer the following questions.
1. Who taught Martin
Luther his theology and inspired his translation of the New Testament?
2. Who visited Dwight L.
Moody at a shoe store and spoke to him about Christ?
3. Who worked alongside
and encouraged Harry Ironside as his associate pastor?
4. Who was the wife of
Charles Haddon Spurgeon?
5. Who was the elderly
woman who prayed faithfully for Billy Graham for over twenty years?
6. Who financed William
Carey's ministry in India?
7. Who refreshed the
Apostle Paul in that Roman dungeon as he wrote his last letter to Timothy?
8. Who helped Charles
Wesley get underway as a composer of hymns?
9. Who found the Dead Sea
Scrolls?
10. Who personally taught
G. Campbell Morgan, the "peerless expositor," his techniques in the
pulpit?
11. Who were the parents
of the godly and gifted prophet Daniel?
Okay, how did we do? Who scored over fifty percent? Who scored over
twenty-five percent? How many of us did not do quite that good? Before we
excuse our inability to answer of the questions by calling the quiz
"trivia," let us stop and think for a moment. If it had not been for
those unknown persons a huge chunk of church history would be missing. A
lot of lives would have been untouched by the Gospel story.
We might not know their names and how they influenced the people in our
questions, but we can know this about them. They were servants of
Jesus Christ.
They understood that it was their responsibility as servants of
Christ to live a Christ
life and to share God’s love with others as
revealed by Jesus of Nazareth.
A faithful
servant is one who humbles him self or her self and goes about the
Master’s work. Jesus told the early disciples
and he is telling the disciples of today that the harvest is ripe and then
he went on to ask: “where are the laborers of the harvest?”
Let us not be too hard on the disciples this morning. In their day, the
standard of greatness was power. The test was: “How many people does a
person control? How great an army of servants does a person have to answer
to him?” It was natural for the disciples to want to be powerful and
important. It was a part of their culture and of their life style.
Jesus turned some things upside down as he
taught the disciples that day. He taught those early disciples that in
order for them to be great that they must be willing to humble themselves
and serve others for the glory of God’s
kingdom. He taught them that they were not called to strut around like the
high priest did in all of their colorful robes. They were called to humbly
bow down before the God of all creation and
to serve him at all cost.
Jesus taught those early disciples and He
certainly is teaching His disciples today that the standard in His Kingdom
is one of service or servanthood. The test for the early disciples and for
the Church today is: “What service can I give to further
God’s Kingdom today?” William Barclay wrote:
The basic problem in the human situation is that men wish to do as little
as possible and to get as much as possible. It is only when they are
filled with the desire to put into life more than they take out, that life
for themselves and for others will be happy and prosperous. The world
needs people whose ideal is service – that is to say it needs people who
have realized what sound sense Jesus spoke.”
Two disciples approached Jesus and wanted to
be granted a great reward for following Him. They were told that they
would have the same opportunity to drink from the same cup that he was
going to have to drink from. He also informed them that the greatest was
to be the least and the best was to be servant of the Son of
God.
Jesus of Nazareth is the perfect example of
servanthood. He gave up his life to atone for the sins of others. He was
sinless and he walked in the perfect love of God
the Father. Yet, he knew that his brothers and sisters in the world would
be condemned to eternal separation from the love of
God if He did not drink from that cup and surrender His life so
that others could and would have the opportunity to be saved by
God’s grace as revealed through Him.
Jesus points the way to true servanthood! He
gave up everything so that God’s created
children could and would know life in its truest form. The disciples of
Jesus were called and are called to follow
His teaching and His actions as we share the Gospel story with the world.
The disciples
question is not: “can I be number one?” It is: “Lord, where would you lead
me to be in your service?” Our statement would then be: “Lord, we will
humbly serve you wherever you lead us! Jesus,
you are the Son of God who is the way and the
truth.”
In the name of the Father, Son
and Holy Spirit.
Amen
