Year B

Mark 10:35-45

The Rev. Denise Vaughn

The Way to Greatness

A large crowd had gathered at Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church on February 4, 1968 to hear the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. preach. His sermon titled “The Drum Major Instinct” was on the gospel text for today from Mark’s gospel. He began: “There is, deep down within all of us, an instinct. It’s a kind of drum major instinct—a desire to be out front, a desire to lead the parade, a desire to be first. What was the answer that Jesus gave James and John? It’s very interesting. One would have thought that Jesus would have said, “You are out of your place. You are selfish. Why would you raise such a question? But, that isn’t what Jesus did Dr. King said. He did something altogether different.

He said in substance, “Oh, I see, you want to be first. You want to be great. You want to be important. You want to be significant. Well, you ought to be. If you’re going to be my disciple, you must be.” But he reordered priorities. And he said, “Yes, don’t give up this instinct. It’s a good instinct if you use it right. It’s a good instinct if you don’t distort it and pervert it. Don’t give it up. But I want you to be first in love. I want you to be first in moral excellence. I want you to be first in generosity. That is what I want you to do…” By giving that definition of greatness Dr. King said, it means everybody can be great. Because everybody can serve….”

This understanding or “sense of service” that Dr. King speaks to in his sermon is what Jesus is describing as he tries for a third time in Mark’s gospel to help his disciples understand what truly following him and living life in his kingdom will entail. Jesus was trying to move his disciples from visions of power and glory to the harder but more powerful choice of servant leadership that lifts up the one being served and gives glory to the God who began this journey with a gift of selfless love. It’s a tough sell, especially to followers who are interested in moving to the front of the line. James and John are asking for front row seats in the great glory beyond out of what appears to be their own ambition, self-interest, and narcissism. Little wonder the others became angry.

And Jesus answers them all with a reminder that this kingdoms work is the way of the cross. If their looking for power and glory then they are following the wrong guy. The failure of the disciples to understand the nature of Jesus’ ministry is a theme that runs thought out the entire gospel of Mark. The mission doesn’t change. What Jesus has been up to in Mark’s gospel is healing and restoring the sick and the outcast; feeding the hungry; welcoming and blessing children; protecting and providing for the vulnerable; and all the while warning those who would listen about his impending suffering and death! Jesus lived serving the lowly and downtrodden. He lived sacrificially and will soon sacrifice his life for all. Jesus lived the way God desires for his people to live.

This is the sense of service he is asking of his disciples. This is his mission and now it is our mission.  It’s no accident that Mark sets all these conversations about being a servant, and suffering and death as Jesus and the disciples are on their way to Jerusalem. They are on the way to the cross as they talk about these hard realities of Christian faith and through the centuries, the temptation for the church has been to seek the way of glory rather than the way of the cross; to prefer an all-powerful Christ to a suffering Christ. The tendency to hanker after “success,” usually measured in terms of “growth and numbers,” and the tendency to present the gospel with an upbeat message to help people cope with the problems in life, is the tendency in today’s American Christianity.

Such a Christianity seems successful because it draws many followers with its offer of an easy faith and a quick fix to all our problems; as if the problems we encounter can be “solved” by another new technique or program that promises success. But Jesus does not ask us to be successful; he asks us to be faithful. Nor does he call us to a life of comfort; he invites us to share in his baptism of suffering. He doesn’t guarantee us a privileged place in his community of disciples unless we are willing to serve. “Whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all” and we all have gifts and abilities given to us by the grace of God to be used to follow and to serve. This is what makes us great in God’s eyes and we can all be great because we are about serving others. We are about loving others and lifting others up. Washing feet and caring for those who need care.

The church, as the body of Christ, is not to be about itself. We are not to be about power, or survival, or riches. We are to be a people who follow Jesus to Golgotha, carrying nothing but the cross and the love of God. This is what it means to be baptized with the baptism that Christ is baptized with. By sharing the cup at the table we are invited into the way of the crucified Christ which is the way of servanthood. “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve…” This call to the church brings with it a promise: “The cup that I drink you will drink; and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized.” Christ is telling us that we are given the power through the Holy Spirit that lives in each baptized person to take up our cross and follow. The sacraments themselves help keep us on the path of following Christ.

The question in my opinion Jesus should have asked his disciples is: Do you get it? But, how could the disciples then and even now, how can we wrap our minds around a Messiah who would be handed over; treated shamefully; suffer; die? It’s hard for us to understand that Jesus’ suffering and death actually demonstrated the shape of his power and authority to heal the sick, cast out demons, forgive sins, and bring the kingdom of God into our midst? His power and authority was shaped by the cross. Giving his life as a ransom for many was the actual way he exerted his authority. Serving rather than being served was the way he wielded divine power; stooping lower than the lowliest slave, descending to more Godforsaken depths than the worst sinner, all to draw God’s kingdom into our midst.  And his rising from death ensured that his strange way of wielding authority would last forever, to the final defeat of everything that would oppose it.

You want to be first. You want to be great than follow me in a life of servanthood as the way to eternal life.  I believe St Francis said it best: O divine Master, grant that I may not seek so much to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love, for it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.