PCIS Sermon for 10

The Presbyterian Church In Sudbury

PCIS Sermon for 10/19/03
Text: Mk. 10:35-45
Title: “Slow Learners”

Intro.: What’s your mission in life? What’s your purpose? How would you describe that to someone?

I’ve recently come across a “best seller” by a pastor named Rick Warren entitled The Purpose-Driven Life. It’s subtitled What on Earth am I Here For? The book looks good; I haven’t gotten far enough into it to comment on it, but the fact that it’s a best-seller tells me that lots of people are asking the meaning and purpose question. And I’m convinced that if we were really confident about our answer to the question, it would make a profound difference in the way we live.

I have a feeling that lots of us are so busy that we don’t stop to consider our mission and purpose. We’re certainly getting things done, but that’s part of the problem: we work hard at our work; then there are all the tasks that must be done to get on with living: getting the wash done, getting the lawn mowed, getting three squares a day on the table, getting the oil changed in the car; getting the kids to school and to practice. By the time we’ve finished getting, we’ve exceeded the 24 hours in this day and we’re on to the next. What’s our mission? What’s our purpose? We’ll think about it tomorrow...

Text/Mark. Our text this morning is a statement by Jesus about his own mission, and what that means to his disciples. The text comes from the Gospel of Mark. Mark is especially concerned that we know who Jesus is, and what it is to be a disciple of Jesus.

(You may be wondering: “Isn’t that what all the gospel writers are trying to do?” The answer is yes, but each has a particular angle of vision on Jesus, and for that, we are the richer. Matthew, for example, emphasized Jesus’ teaching ministry, and preserves blocks of Jesus’ teaching—the most famous of which is the “Sermon on the Mount.”)

Mark’s emphasis is on Jesus’ identity and his authority. And when the disciples understand who Jesus is and what his mission is, they understand their own mission as well.

The bigger picture of Mark helps us see this. It begins very directly: “The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” We readers are told immediately who Jesus is; the human characters in the story have a hard time sorting it out. At the conclusion of Mark’s gospel, the Centurion looked up at Jesus on the cross and declared, “Surely, this man was the Son of God.” (15:39)

In the middle of Mark is Jesus’ question to the disciples, “But what about you? Who do you say that I am?” (8:29) Peter gives his famous answer: “You are the Christ.” Many of us remember this exchange from Matthew’s gospel, where Jesus’ reply is, “...this was not revealed to you by man (human wisdom), but by my Father in heaven.” This response has a positive feel to it, but Mark skips it , and goes directly to the emphatic command: “Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him.”

Why would Jesus do this? The disciples’ calling was to bear witness to Jesus. Certainly the reason is that Jesus needs to correct their idea of who “the Christ” is, and what his mission is before they go public. Three times in the next three chapters, Jesus explains that he must be rejected and killed, and then rise. Three times, the disciples reject the idea, misunderstand it, or avoid it.

Our text is part of the last of these evasions. Jesus is emphatic about clarifying for the disciples his mission and theirs. He has told them for the third time that he will be betrayed and killed. Perhaps to get their attention, he gives them some gory details: he will be mocked, spit upon, flogged, and killed. Then he will rise. After this grim progression comes our text, Mark 10:35-45. (It’s P. 47, in the pew Bible.)

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.” (NRSV)

This is a very revealing story. To begin with, James and John are amazingly tasteless and insensitive. They are after positions of honor for themselves, and they show no awareness at all that they have even heard Jesus’ statement about his own suffering and death. The focus on themselves has caused them to miss it completely!

Apparently the grapevine is pretty good, because the others hear the news of James and John’s request, and they get angry. Since one-upmanship is clearly present among the disciples, it’s easy to think that the anger towards James and John is based on jealousy. The others are angry at James and John for beating them to punch, not for being insensitive to Jesus’ suffering or doing something grossly out of character for a follower of Jesus.

The likelihood that this is anger is based on jealousy is strengthened by the fact that Jesus called them all together to address the issue. If James and John were the only ones needing correction, Jesus certainly would have spoken to them alone. The fact that Jesus makes a point of calling them together to talk about this emphasizes its importance.

Several things strike me from Jesus’ teaching. One is that Servanthood is to be distinctive of the whole community. There’s an old saying that “rank has its privileges,” and we know what that means. In fact, we expect life to be like that. Jesus says that the “gentiles” do it that way, then emphatically: “not so among you!” The one who aspires to greatness must aspire to serve, and the result will be a community of servants. I believe that the existence of a community of servants is the key to there being servants at all.

The other matter to underline from Jesus’ teaching is that the imperative of servanthood is true for the disciples because it’s true for Jesus. He’s the model. He came to serve, not to be served. His life is the pattern for the lifestyle of his followers.

Practical. What would daily life be like for a person who aspired to be a servant? We got a glimpse last Wednesday morning. At the Men’s Breakfast, the discussion was about men and the pursuit of significance—we want our lives to count for something; to make an impact; to have meaning—there are several ways of putting it. We’re using a book by Patrick Morley as a springboard to our discussion. Morley said that “Significance is not possible unless what we do contributes to the welfare of others.” In other words, significance is not possible unless we are servants. Servanthood and significance aren’t the same thing, but they intersect, and in this case, Morley’s illustration of significance gives us a practical picture of servanthood.

Morley writes:

“The difference between self-gratification and significance is found in the motive and attitude, not in the task. Two men working side-by-side in an office can fulfill the exact same job description, yet have entirely different impacts.

One fellow runs on the fast track. It’s a race uphill, always fighting for the next rung on the ladder, climbing higher, grabbing glory. The other man finds a great reward in mentoring younger associates. He counsels, exhorts, and encourages. Everyone knows he is a Christian, but he doesn’t smite his colleagues with his biblical knowledge.

These two men actually perform the same tasks. The attitudes and motives, however distinguish one as only a seeker of self-fulfillment and self-gratification. The other is experiencing a significant, meaningful life, contributing to others in love and faith. (Patrick Morley, The Man In The Mirror, Zondervan 1997, p. 74-5.)

The two hold the same job. One is a servant; the other is not. One life is modeled on the life of Jesus, who came to serve, not to be served; the other is modeled after a very different value system. Jesus calls us to the life of servanthood, and that mission of servanthood is to be superimposed on all that we do, whatever the specific task. And it can be; it just requires focused faithfulness to do it.

Application I. Where does focused faithfulness come from? We entitled our thoughts on this text of scripture “Slow Learners,” as a reflection on the disciples, who, though they followed Jesus, were slow to pick up on the significance of his suffering and death for their lives. But maybe it wasn’t that they were so slow. Maybe it was that their surroundings reinforced exactly what they were doing.

Think about that. The disciples were a great small group. Twelve guys who lived and worked together. But as we have just seen, up to this time, there was a lot of competition in their relationships. In other words, they reinforced competition rather than servanthood. No wonder Jesus sat them down and talked to them. His words were pretty blunt: “It must not be so among you!” In some ways, they were behaving like the “gentiles” Jesus wanted them to contrast with. They needed to help one another be servants, not competitors.

What about us? Let me suggest that we need to help one another to be servants. For instance, have you offered a word of encouragement to someone for an act of servanthood recently? This may seem like a small thing, but let me challenge you to give a word of encouragement for an act of servanthood to someone in the next 24 hours.

Application II. Let’s ask again, where does focused faithfulness come from? At the outset, we noted that business and getting things done can be the enemy of clearly held mission and purpose. The fact that Jesus has called us to servanthood is not a new thought to any of us. The question is how we reinforce that call of Jesus in the midst of all the noisy calls for our attention that are always pinging on us?

What kinds of Spiritual Disciplines do we practice which return our focus to Jesus? There’s a lot of talk about daily devotions, but is that your practice? If we don’t do anything to refocus our attention on Jesus from Sunday morning to Sunday morning, it’s not strange that we loose focus on what he’s calling us to do.

Your response may be, “I am so busy, and you want me to do something else?” I wish there were an easier way, but anyone I know whose life is significantly influenced by Jesus is someone who spends regular time focused on him. If you want some practical suggestions, get in touch with me, I’d be happy to make some. If you don’t have a devotional practice now, an easy thing to try is to pick up a copy of Our Daily Bread from the information table in the fellowship hall.

Conclusion. Jesus calls us not only to servanthood, but to become a community of servants.

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