The Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost
October 20, 2024
Mark 10:35-45

The audio of this sermon can be found here. The livestream of the entire church service is available on the Trinity Church YouTube channel.

The day of decision looms not all that far away. The day when the people will make a decision that will shape the future. Things have been building up to this moment; it is the day when authority, and power, and leadership, will be decided. You can sense it in every conversation, in every community. And what I mean is that the entire Gospel of Mark has been building to this point, to this day of decision. You can sense it in how James and John, the sons of Zebedee, approach Jesus. “Teacher,” they ask Jesus, “we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you…Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory” (Mark 10:35, 36).

For they sense it, that the day of decision is looming for Jesus. For three years, James and John, the sons of Zebedee have been following Jesus. They left their father’s fishing business on the shores of the Sea of Galilee to follow Jesus. Like a campaign whistle stop tour, Jesus with James and John and their companions have been traveling from town to town – preaching, teaching, healing – trying to get their message out. Trying to convince the people to support Jesus. They’ve tried to persuade hearts and minds that Jesus was the one. They have a slogan, that everybody knows, “repent, and believe in the good news” (Mark 1:15). And now here they are, not far from Jerusalem, where everything will be decided. Not many days from when Jesus will be chosen, and the inauguration of his kingdom will be made complete. And so James and John take the opportunity to solidify their place in the new administration. “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” 

As I read this passage, on the day before early voting starts, I cannot help but see how the more things change, the more the stay the same. Humans, by nature, are ambitious. We crave power, authority; we want to be in control. Or, at least, we want people who think, talk, and act like us, in control. This is not an indictment on human nature; simply an observation. Adam and Eve want to be in control, so they fall to the serpent’s temptation (Genesis 3). The people of Israel clamor for a king, even though God warns them that a king will do them no good (I Samuel 8:10-22). The history of the church, over these last two thousand years, is not clean or neat either. There have been saints whose desire is to serve in the name of Jesus; and there have been charlatans, who use the name of Jesus for their own desires. And there have been many more, who are a little bit of both. 

But don’t hear what I’m not saying. See, I think that James and John’s gut instinct is right. They want to sit with Jesus, in his glory. Isn’t that what we hope for, too? To sit with Jesus in his glory? That’s how committed James and John are to the cause. They have given up their family business, they have given up their good names, they have left everything and followed Jesus, and now they want something in return. But they do not yet know the cost of this glory.

“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 being baptized with?’” (Mark 10:38). For Jesus knows what they have not yet picked up on. His election, his inauguration, his coming into glory will not be achieved through fame and celebrity but through humiliation and death. The people will turn on him; they will decide against him. His baptism will be a crucifixion. In the court of public opinion, at the hands of the people, on that Good Friday, Jesus will lose in a landslide. James and John do not yet understand that this is no easy path to a leading role in the new administration. Because the path to leadership, the way to glory with Jesus, is the cross.

You and I both know, that this conversation that James and John had with Jesus is happening in campaign headquarters all across this country. There are campaign staffers and fundraisers and spokespeople working their own angles – “when you win,” they are saying, “I want a job in your administration.” “Give me a spot in your cabinet.” “I want to be your chief of staff.” “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand, and one at your left.” Positions of influence are given as rewards for support. This give and take, this quid pro quo, this patron-client system is as old as human society itself.

But the Kingdom of God is different. Jesus says to the disciples, “you know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and they great ones are tyrants over them” (Mark 10:42). Jesus says, “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” (Mark 10:44). In the Kingdom of God, there is no this for that. There is no currying of favor in order to gain a position of influence. That is the deeper lesson that James and John have yet to learn from Jesus. They are still operating under the assumption that the Kingdom of God is like the kingdoms of earth. That if they work hard enough, then Jesus will give them something in return. But thanks be to God, that it does not work that way. Like Jesus says, greatness in the Kingdom of God does not come through power and authority; greatness is achieved by humility and service. Greatness is achieved by giving, not by getting. That’s what makes the way of Jesus so radical.

And for me, it’s good. It’s good news. Because I grow tired of the angling, the posturing, the messaging, the commercials – the endless text messages from political campaigns; the talking heads trying to entice me, promising me that if only I support this person or the other, then they will make sure that I get this or that in return. This is not a partisan statement, for everyone does it. 

And truth be told, this is one of the reasons I am a Christian, and have chosen to follow Jesus. Because the rulers of this world do not know me, even if they say they do in order to get my vote. No, Jesus is the one who knows me. And Jesus has given me more than I could ask or imagine. Jesus has given me his own life. He did that as a free act of love. And I chose to give my life to Jesus, not because I expect to get anything in return, not because I think this will get me power and authority, but because I want to love others like he loves me. With a kind of love that has no angle, no posturing, no strings attached. 

Because truly, election day looms. If we stand there with James and John, and the rest of the disciples, we can see it all too clearly. Right after this passage, Jesus will walk through Jericho and then into Jerusalem, on Palm Sunday. In fact, this is the last lesson that Jesus gives his disciples before they enter Jerusalem on that holy week that will end in crucifixion, on Good Friday. That is the day that Jesus chooses us, the day that Jesus elects us as his own beloved brothers and sisters. Jesus is the greatest of all, and he is given power and authority not by gaining power and authority, but by giving it all away. So it is to be among us, whoever wishes to become great, whoever wishes to become first among us, must be a servant of all.