Fifth Sunday in Lent

 

Fifth Sunday in Lent (B)

March 17, 2024

Text: Mark 10:32-45

            What is it to be great in the Kingdom of God?  James and John want it, thus their request.  The rest of the Twelve want it, thus their indignation.  And we want it.  Our fantasies give us away.  Star athlete.  Rock and roll icon.  Employee of the Year.  World’s Greatest Husband!  World’s Greatest Dad!  (I’ve seen the coffee mugs, though, for some reason I’ve never received one.)  The Twelve are forever arguing amongst themselves about who is the greatest.  I suppose we do that here in the Church, too, in various and sundry ways.  Any petty argument among members is essentially that (think about it, “You did something bad, and that makes you badder than I am, which makes me greater than you are, which is I why I, the greater, can stand in indignant judgment over you, the lesser”…  If we actually thought these things out, we’d see how ridiculous we all are).  But, what is it to be great?

            What makes Jesus great?  Sure, He’s God, and that gives Him the advantage.  But in terms of what He does, what makes Him great… in fact, the Greatest?  It isn’t what the disciples expect, and the only reason you may expect it is because you’ve been catechized.  It isn’t His glorious position, like the positions James and John are requesting.  It is His humiliation.  It is His servanthood.  It is precisely in His being delivered over to those who condemn Him, mock Him, spit on Him, and kill Him.  “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45; ESV).

            The cross.  Jesus is great on the cross.  It is His lifting up.  It is His glorification.  It is even where an unwitting Pilate will confess, by official Roman proclamation: “The King of the Jews” (15:26).  This is His great service.  Not only do we misunderstand what it means to be great, we misunderstand what it means to be a servant.  We hear the word “servant,” and think it means doing nice things for people.  Now, that is true, and Christians especially should do nice things for other people.  But our vision is so small!  What does it mean to be a servant, as Christ is a Servant?  It means to put yourself last, and everyone else first.  It means to give yourself for the sake of the other… to empty yourself for the sake of the other… sacrifice yourself to death for the sake of the other.  And, if that’s not enough, it means to do it for those who don’t deserve it… who aren’t even thankful for it… who reject it, reject you… for the very ones who kill you.  That, THAT is servanthood… THAT is greatness.

            Contrast that with the world’s definition of greatness, and that is to say, our own fallen definition of greatness.  We have a contest for greatness going on right now that will culminate in… who knows what… in November.  Pray for our nation, guys.  Don’t just politic for it.  Pray for it.  You know that those who are thought to be rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them (10:42). (I love that turn of phrase, by the way… thought to be rulers, considered rulers.  It’s not that they aren’t legitimate authorities, it’s that they aren’t the Ultimate Authority, whatever they may think!)  And their great ones… the ones who seem to be somebody among the people… they exercise authority over them.  What is it to be great?  To be powerful!  Influential!  Admired, or perhaps even more, feared!  It is to lord it over everybody else.

            It shall not be so among you (v. 43).  You, as in the Twelve.  You, as in you… you, dear Christian.  No, if you want to be great, you do what Christ does.  Whoever would be great among you must be your servant.  Whoever would be first among you must be slave of all (v. 44).  Take up your cross, deny yourself, and sacrifice yourself for everyone else here.  Now, that takes different forms.  Understand, of course, that you may actually be called upon to die for your Lord and for your fellow Christians.  James and John were promised, in any case, the baptism and cup of suffering their Lord Jesus had to endure.  But, at the very least, it means get over yourself.  Don’t sit around waiting for others to sacrifice themselves for you.  You, sacrifice yourself for them.  Who needs help?  Help them.  What needs to be done here at Church?  Do it.  How about at home?  Get busy.  In your neighborhood?  There you are.  Who, here, needs your forgiveness?  Forgive them.  Who, here, needs your patience and longsuffering?  Think just a minute about Jesus’ patience and longsuffering with you, and you’ll know what to do.  Who around here deserves a little honor?  “Well, it’s about time someone recognized what a gift I am to this place!”  No, no, James and John.  No, beloved Twelve Apostles.  No, dear Christian.  Crucify that inclination.  Repent of that.  You know who Paul says we ought to treat with the greater honor?  The weaker members.  The less honorable members.  The unpresentable parts.  Read what he has to say sometime in 1 Corinthians 12 (vv. 22-23).  Who should we treat with the greater honor?  Jesus would undoubtedly direct our attention to a child. 

            Jesus is at His greatest when He is weakest.  And we are at our greatest when His weakness is our strength.  Again, the cross. 

            By the way, who was positioned at Jesus’ right hand and left when He came into His Kingdom?  You know it.  Two thieves.  And that’s just right, isn’t it?  After all, it is written, “he was numbered with the transgressors” (Luke 22:37; Cf. Is. 53:12).  Now, one of them reviled Jesus, and died the death he deserved.  But the other… just as wicked, incidentally, as the first… beheld in the crucified Jesus his Redeemer, his King!  So, he prayed: “Jesus, remember me, when you come into your kingdom” (Luke 23:42).  And so, he died in Jesus, and in His Promise, the Lord’s weakness as his strength, and so, that very day, he found himself with Jesus in Paradise.  The thief confessed himself nothing but a justly condemned transgressor.  And now he is great.

            What is this, but a picture of the Judgment?  Left and right, sheep and goats.  There is the crucified Lord, reigning on His throne.  Some die the eternal death they deserve, mocking and reviling Him.  Others have already died with Him and in Him… Baptism, faith… and so He remembers them in His Kingdom.  They do not die the death they deserve.  They live with Him.  And in this sense, and in spite of themselves, maybe James and John weren’t that far off the mark after all.  We are all appointed to sit, some on His right, and others on His left, in His Kingdom, on that Day.  We are all the thieves and sinners for whom He dies.  And we are all to appear before His Judgment throne, either to receive His life, or to die our death. 

            But because in His greatness, King Jesus died our death, we don’t have to die.  Nobody… nobody has to die.  We heard it last week.  God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him, should not perish, but have everlasting life (John 3:16).  The ones who will die, are those who will not have His life.  Have Him… receive His service, His life given in ransom, and He will be your life.  Today.  And on the Day of Judgment.  And for all eternity. 

            And don’t forget the resurrection!  It is a marvel how the disciples seem to miss it every time our Lord tells them of His coming Passion.  He bluntly tells them of His suffering and death, but always with the Promise that after three days He will rise.  And it’s like they don’t even hear that last bit.  But then, I suppose, that’s how we are.  When a cross is laid upon us, that’s all we tend to see.  Our ears are prone to go deaf to the Promise in those moments.  But let it not be so.  Holy Spirit, give us ears to hear!  The cross and death have a definite end.  Resurrection, though… that is forever. 

            And that is why you can lay down your life as a servant.  And that is why Jesus laid down His.  Because the Day is coming.  It has already come for Jesus.  His grave is empty.  And soon ours shall be.  What is it to be great?  Jesus is the Great One.  He became nothing, the lowest, least, and servant of all.  All the way down to death and hell.  Not for Himself, but for the other, for us.  And now, God has raised Him, and exalted Him to His own right hand, and given Him the Name that is above every Name (Phil. 2).  To be great, then, is to receive His sacrifice, and then follow His pattern.  To become nothing, and make your neighbor everything.  To lose your life in Christ, and so find it in Him.  And then, all at once, He will raise you.  Your grave will be empty.  You will live.  Any greatness short of that is dust in the wind.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.