Glory.

Mark 10:35-45

October 21, 2018

I.

The Lord’s frustration with his clueless disciples deepens.  In this chapter he has already blessed little children as an example of discipleship.  He has made a point of criticizing the acquisition of wealth.  He has predicted again his own rejection, death, and resurrection.  

And yet, two of his most senior and intimate disciples, James and John, are still imagining that this movement is about gaining political power in Jerusalem.  Jesus is going to be king, and they want to have the best positions in the new government.  That’s what they think Jesus’ “glory” is going to be about.  They want to be seated at his right and left, presumably on elevated thrones, helping him with judgment and administration.  

And it’s not just James and John.  When the other disciples find out about their request, they are angry with them, but only because the Ben Zebedee brothers sought to secure places ahead of them.  It becomes clear to Jesus that in spite of everything he has been saying and doing, none of his disciples get it.  And if his disciples don’t understand, it goes without saying that the regular people in the crowd don’t.  So Jesus has to sit them down and spell out yet again the nature of ambition and leadership in this movement.

James and John were excited about Jesus’ mission; they had seen his miracles.  More importantly, they had witnessed the tremendous popular response to Jesus.  When he talks about the Kingdom of God, they were taking him literally in terms of a political movement that would place Jesus on David’s throne in Jerusalem.  They saw success as gaining power, popularity, and wealth, all measured in numbers.  

Let us not congratulate ourselves that we are any further along in our understanding than they are.  We tend still to view ambition and leadership in the same ways as the disciples.  We do not necessarily think of success, ambition, and leadership in any different terms, even in the church.  Were we asked what success looks like in the church most of us would describe a situation that involved more people, more influence, and more money.  

We define personal ambition and success according to the acquisition of the same things: greater privilege and prestige, more wealth, recognition, security, and respect.  We extend this view to nations and businesses as well.  We measure success according to what we materially gain.  The bottom line is what matters.  Success in the world is always about getting and keeping more of whatever we want.

Like us, James and John do this unconsciously.  It does not occur to them that there is any other way to measure success or to gauge ambition.  They are seeking the honor and reward of sitting on thrones to Jesus’ right and left, in his “glory,” which they understand in completely secular terms.  They imagine they are getting into the spirit of this movement, this mass, popular, peaceful, miraculous uprising that is going to install Jesus as king.

II.

Jesus first sighs that they have no idea what they are asking.  He knows that the two people on his right and left in his glory are going to be the two men nailed to crosses on either side of his.  His glory is going to be this final outpouring of love for the world Jesus exhibits in his death.  That is the “baptism,” the full immersion into human mortality, that Jesus is heading for.  That is the “cup” of suffering that he must drink.  It is not what James and John are expecting or desiring.  

So they reassuringly chirp that they are ready for what they think this “baptism” is going to be, probably some special anointing ritual in which they become royal officials.  Maybe a civil service exam, or interrogation by a select committee.  And the cup?  Probably some ceremonial male bonding thing…. 

“Yeah, well,” says Jesus, ironically, “You both will indeed be baptized with my baptism, and you will drink from the cup I must drink from.”  By that he means that both of them will die as martyrs for their faith in him.  But who gets to be on his right and left is not up to him, it’s going to be up to Pontius Pilate and his executioners.

As the other disciples get indignant and this starts to become an argument in the group, Jesus has to sit them down and tell them explicitly what’s what.  He has to lay it out again about what words like ambition, success, and leadership are going to mean in his movement.

I imagine him saying to them: “You all know how the Gentiles act.  They neither know not follow God’s Law.  They lift up rulers — kings, emperors, CEO’s, generals, judges, presidents, governors, and so forth — and those rulers lord it over everyone else.  They give them power and glory; they pay them very well; they get to live in mansions and drive expensive cars; they have servants and assistants and other employees and lackeys; they have great fame and people follow their every escapade.  They do as they please, get what they want, and have no concern for who gets in their way.  They are tyrants who kill, steal, torture, and imprison at will.”

“That’s not what this movement is about.  You, my followers, are not going to be like them in any way.  Get all that out of your heads.  You are not going to end up rich, famous, and powerful.  I am teaching and modeling a different kind of leadership, based on a different kind of success, and using a different kind of ambition.  According to the world, my way is not going to look like success at all!  On the surface, it’s going to look like the most ignominious of defeats, as I have been telling you.  I will be handed over to the authorities, and the Gentile rulers will torture and execute me; and after three days I will rise up.  That’s what we’re in for, when we get to Jerusalem.”

“Their way, their power and wealth and fame, is really a false way that terminates in death, destruction, extinction, and hell.  It is a radical separation from God that has no life, no reality, and gets swallowed up in annihilation.  Those great rulers?  They all fall.  They all die.  They all burn.

III.

“But you are not going to be like those rulers who will think no more about killing me, and you, than they care about any of their other victims.  You are not going to be mercenary power-mongering celebrities.  I am not going to be some lite or nicer version of Herod, Caesar, or Pilate!  We are not going to live in palaces and sit on thrones.  We are not going to rule by threats and force.”

“If you want to be great in my movement, you have to be a servant.  And if you want to be first, you have to be everybody’s slave.  You need to outdo yourselves and each other in losing yourselves in service to others.  And in order to do this you’re going to have to think, imagine, feel, want, and be completely different.”

“This is the kind of ministry that I myself model.  This is indeed who and what the living God is.  Our God is a God whose entire divine life is a self-emptying pouring out in absolute and endless love for all.  All of existence is itself this dynamic flow of goodness and life.  In this sense our God is an infinite cosmic Loser, always and forever giving all for all and to all.”

“Therefore, I, the Son of Man, the full revelation of both God’s life and true humanity, did not come into the world to be served and catered to like some rich Gentile despot, lounging on a golden throne paid for with the blood of the poor.  I have come to serve and welcome and include all, as you have seen in my ministry to the poor, the hungry, the sick, the marginalized, and the outcast.  I have come as well to give my life, pouring out my own blood on a Roman cross, as a ransom for everyone caught in the bondage of sin, injustice, and evil, so that all will see my death, when I give my life for the life of the world, as the Way to eternal life.”

We have to rethink our understanding of what it means to be successful as a church and as individuals and as a society.  We have to realize that there is only One Ruler, and that is God.  And that Ruler teaches us that true life is about giving; it is about participating in the flow of life, love, energy, goodness, blessing, reality, from God into the world and into all lives.  

Which means that the measure of success is: How much did I lose today?  How much was I able to contribute to the common good?  How many people did I serve today?  How much did I give of what God has given me, to make the world a better place?  How transparent did I become to the Light of God the Creator?  

How much did we as a gospel community, a church, shine God’s love into our world?  How well are we doing in learning together to get ourselves out of the way of what God is doing?  How well did we “let go and let God”?  How many lives did we touch today, with blessing and forgiveness, compassion and joy, grace and healing?  

IV.

The disciples don’t really comprehend what is going on until after Jesus returns from the dead.  Even then, the Holy Spirit has to come among them and open their hearts and minds to this amazing good news.

We are on the other side of that.  Now we have all the rites and institutions of the church as Christ’s living Body, to inspire, change, move, and inform us.  Now we are regularly fed by God’s own Body and Blood so we may more and more acquire the mind of Christ, which is the Way of self-emptying, self-giving love.  

Now that is our ambition: to lose in order to win, to give in order to receive, and to be nobody in order to be Somebody: Christ’s living Presence giving our lives as well for the life of the world.

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