The Lesson
Mark
9: 30-37
September 24, 2006
30 - 37They
went on from there and passed through Galilee. He did not want anyone to
know it; for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them,
“The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human
hands, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed, he will
rise again.” But they did not understand what he was saying and
were afraid to ask him.
Then
they came to Capernaum; and when he was in the house he asked them,
“What were you arguing about on the way?”
But they were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another who
was the greatest. He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them,
“Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and
servant of all.” Then he took a little child and put it among them;
and taking it in his arms, he said to them,
“Whoever welcomes one such child
in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the
one who sent me.”
The instructor was trying to teach the class the
best ways to handle a tennis racket. He went through all of the different
styles and explained why some people preferred one style over the other
ones. There were two boys in the class that were not paying attention to
the instructor. He had asked them to be quite a couple of times and they
did for a while. Eventually, one could see the instructor getting
frustrated with the two boys and when he reached his boiling point he
said: “You two come up here and tell the rest of the class everything that
I have just said.” The two walk to the center of the group and stood there
like knots on a log. They could not repeat the lesson because they did not
listen to the teacher.
The first thing that Mark reveals to the reader of this text is that
Jesus was teaching his disciples. He was
teaching them something that was more important than a tennis lesson or a
computer lesson. He was trying to teach them about becoming and being a
servant for the creator God. He even shared
with them that he was going to be betrayed and that he would have to
suffer great pain and agony for a period of time. He even let them know
that the pain and hurt would not stop until others killed The Son of Man.
He also tried to teach the disciples that God
was going to take all of that negativity and turn it around and create the
most positive action and or reaction that this world had ever seen and
will ever see. God was going to defeat death
through His son’s resurrection.
I
am inviting all of us to think about that lesson for a few seconds.
Imagine that we are hearing it for the very first time. Nothing like this
has ever happened in the world. A man is standing before us teaching us
that he is going to be betrayed, killed and resurrected from the grave. If
we have just heard those words for the first time in our lives, what would
be our reaction to them? Would our reaction to his words be positive or
negative? Would we believe what we were hearing or would we dismiss it as
a wild dream?
I do believe that his words would get our attention. I pray that they
would cause us to stop for a moment and truly reflect upon the words that
we had just heard from Jesus. May his words
that he spoke to his disciples many years ago help us to truly look at
what Jesus taught about discipleship. May
they help us to understand that we are called into a life of service to
the creating, redeeming and resurrecting God!
Jesus
and the disciples were traveling from one place to another so that the
Gospel could be shared with others. Along the way, the disciples started
talking among themselves. We do not know their entire conversation. We do
know that it turned to be a conversation about who was going to be the
greatest. Jesus had just revealed to them
that the people that He was reaching out to in the name of
God would eventually turn their backs upon
Him and cry out for Him to be put to death. He even revealed to them that
death was not strong enough to keep Him from sharing
God’s grace with God’s created
children. He informed them that he was going to be resurrected from the
grave.
They did not understand what he was talking about and the evangelist
informs us that they were too “scared” to ask him. Yet, they were bold
enough to debate among themselves who was going to be the greatest while
they were traveling in his presence.
They missed out on the message that Jesus was
sharing with them that day. They heard the words but they did not
understand them nor did they try to understand them. They were more
concerned about their own stations in life. At that moment, they were
missing the boat. The picture was not clear to them. They were still
caught up in their own lives. The lesson that Jesus
was trying to teach them was not coming through clearly to them.
How many of us have set in a class and wondered: “What in the world is he
or she talking about?” Let us not be too hard on the disciples as we look
at this story. Their human desires kept them from understanding the words
that Jesus was sharing with them. I truly
understand their life situation at that point. In the fall of my ninth
grade, my civics teacher wrote on my report card: “If Johnny would quit
day dreaming about going fishing and pay attention in class, he would do
better than a C.”
Our thoughts, our minds, our very beings do have a tendency to wonder off
when we should be paying attention to the one who is attempting to teach
us something that will benefit us now and in the future. On that day
during their journey, Jesus talked about
being a faithful servant to God even to the
point of one sacrificing one’s own life for God’s
mission and ministry. Yet, the disciples were daydreaming and did not hear
or understand his words.
Let us challenge ourselves today to hear his words. Let us challenge
ourselves today to do more than hear his words. Let us incorporate his
words into our daily lives. The first thing that means is that we no
longer think about ourselves first. We first think about becoming faithful
disciples of Jesus Christ.
We immediately start to try to live our lives as Christ
like as humanly possible. We leave behind the desire to control and be in
power and we accept with great joy the role of servanthood.
George Whitefield, a British evangelist and a close friend to both John
and Charles Wesley exhibited a great devotion to Christ.
After preaching several times one day, he went to his room and prepared
for bed. Then someone came and asked him to speak one more time because a
crowd had gathered outside.
Although he was very tired, he picked up a candle and said he would preach
until it burned out. An hour later the flame flickered and died, and
Whitefield closed in prayer and went inside. The next morning he was
found on his knees beside his bed -- the flame of his earthly existence
had glimmered and died.
Whitfield, the Wesley’s and all of the others who changed this world by
lifting up the gospel of Jesus
Christ had one desire in their lives. That
desire was to serve the living and creating God
as revealed through Jesus of Nazareth. The
flame that burned in their hearts was a servant’s flame. It was a flame
that would not and could not be extinguished by human desires because they
had surrendered their lives to Jesus.
We have a beautiful hymn in our hymnal that was written by Judson W. Van
Deventer. It words are not words written by someone who had a great gift
of writing hymns. The words are a reflection of the authors struggle. He
struggled for a long time about being a faithful disciple of
Jesus Christ.
Finally, the words of Christ penetrated his
heart and soul and he dedicated his life to a life of service for
Christ. He then wrote: “All to Jesus I
surrender; all to him I freely give; I will ever love and trust him, in
his presence daily live. I surrender all, I surrender all, all to thee, my
blessed Savior, I surrender all.”
The disciples missed the point of the lesson that day.
Jesus was not only talking about his
betrayal, death and resurrection. He was trying to teach them what it
meant to truly be one of God’s servants.
Servanthood does call for sacrifice. It does call one to set aside his own
desires and goals and accept the goals of Jesus
Christ. That goal is to share and proclaim
the Gospel story to every living soul that one meets during this journey
called life. It is a calling to be humble and loving in a way that the
gospel story can be heard and received as it is being proclaimed.
One of the best teachers that I ever sat under throughout my academic life
was Dr. Jill Raitt. She taught Church history. Yet, she did more than just
teach us the dates of important events in the life of the Church. The very
first day in class, she said: “I am just like you, a student trying to
learn the best way that I can to serve God.”
She did not put herself above us and she could have. She had several
masters and a couple of doctorates and we were working on our masters. In
that opening statement, she showed all of us that we are all called to
serve Christ. She helped us to see and learn
the lesson that we are called to a life of servanthood.
Jesus did not scold the disciples for their
debate that day. The evangelist informs us that he sat down with them and
gave them another lesson. He shared more words of wisdom with them so that
they would understand their calling. He said to them:
“Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and
servant of all.” Then he took a little child and put it among them;
and taking it in his arms, he said to them,
“Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever
welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.”
Every person in this place this morning – and those who
are not here - has been called to be a faithful servant to our Creator
God. Our role model stands before us each
day. He is Jesus of Nazareth, the one true
Son of the Creating, Redeeming and Sustaining God.
May we learn from the lessons that he taught those early disciples and
step up and become faithful disciples so that others may know of his great
grace and love.
In the name of the Father, Son
and Holy Spirit.
Amen
