Mark 10:35-45
October 22, 2006
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco.
All of us have heard children say to us, “I want to tell you something but first you must promise not to get mad.”
We see in today’s Scriptures that James and John pretty much said the same thing to Jesus, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you?” They wanted Jesus to agree with whatever they will ask of him before even asking. They thought they were worthy enough to ask a question with no consequences.
In Mark’s gospel, we often see the disciples repeatedly, from start to finish, misunderstanding, misconstruing, and misappropriating Jesus’ teachings. They just don’t get it. We might even say that the disciples are incredibly dumb. So as contemporary disciples, we are saying to ourselves, “We may not be the best believers but we are a good bit better than the disciples in Mark.” Or are we?
If you were to ask any public school teacher, “What has been your greatest challenge as a teacher?” Most of them would say “Failing as a teacher.” It’s not enough to teach students the relationship from point “a” to point “b.” If you want to just impart information to your students, that’s easy. But if you want to change their lives through that information, that’s very, very difficult. Most great teachers want their students to do more than to think differently; they want them to live differently.
On Sunday morning, if you come to church to listen to my sermon and to receive some new information about Jesus, then listening to sermons would be easy. However, if the goal of preaching is following Jesus, then no wonder so many of my sermons fail. I have failed in leading you to live differently!
Misunderstood Disciples
Mark tells us that the disciples didn’t understand what Jesus was saying and were afraid to ask. They were amazed and some became afraid of Jesus. Like a public school teacher, Jesus was probably thinking that he was failing as a teacher to the disciples!
What Jesus was teaching them, over and over again, is that he will not be the Messiah they were expecting; he will not be the one who comes in and sets everything right, defeats evil and injustice, and ends in glory. No, Jesus will be betrayed, rejected, killed, and rise again. Jesus’ identity as the suffering Messiah crucified will be their identity as his disciples. That is what he us teaching them. And none of them got it.
To be fair, what Jesus is attempting to teach them is a very difficult lesson to learn. They have been expecting a triumphant, all-powerful Messiah. But what they are getting in Jesus is a suffering servant. They have signed on with Jesus for glory. But what they are getting is a Jesus who talks to them about the way to the cross. It is hard for them to understand. Jesus keeps on working with them, telling them different stories, using various illustrations, but still they don’t get it.
So James and John who naively ask Jesus to promise them something before even asking the question wanted Jesus to let them sit one on his right side and the other on his left side when he comes into glory. They thought to themselves that their lives were already worthy to be that close to Jesus. Jesus said, “You do not know what you are asking.” And when the other ten disciples heard of James and John’s request, they got angry because they wanted to be close to Jesus as well. They all thought that their lives were already worthy to be Jesus’ closest friends.
Perhaps the disciples’ problem is our problem. It’s not that they don’t understand what Jesus is telling them; it’s that they don’t like what Jesus is telling them. It’s like we all know that walking is good for our health, but nine out of ten Americans don’t want to walk and prefer driving! We all know that we need to eat more fruits and vegetables but most of us still like to eat red meat and all those sweet desserts.
Jesus says, “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many” (10:45). Jesus says, “…whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all” (10:43-45).
No wonder they do not understand what he is saying. No wonder they are afraid to ask him what he means by all of this—they know all too well what he means. They just didn’t want to hear it. It’s bad enough that Jesus says that he is headed to a cross. Now Jesus is saying that they must take up their crosses as well. The disciples’ problem is our problem too. It’s not that we don’t understand Jesus, but rather we understand him all too well—and we don’t like what we hear!
What We Do Like to Hear
If we don’t like what we are hearing from Jesus, what do we like to hear? Some people come to church seeking for what we call, “prosperity gospel.” We want to be successful, and if not rich, at least happy and content. We want Jesus to show us how to be prosperous. Jesus merely serves as a technique for getting what we want. We are not interested in knowing how Jesus wants to transform us into what he wants.
Sometimes, we come to church expecting to have our faith confirmed. We’ll be listening to the sermon, nodding our heads and saying to ourselves, “Yes, that’s what I’ve always thought. Yes, that’s how I’ve always seen it. Wow, I’ve been pretty good this week.” And then we go out and have lunch as if nothing has happened.
Some people are looking for “business as usual.” They are so bored about coming to church that they secretly would enjoy seeing something interesting happen at worship. Be honest. Have you ever quietly cheered when a cell phone goes off, the fire alarm clangs, the sound system picks up the police band, the lion dances drum out my sermon or the organ makes a funny note?
Passengers on cruise ships, after nine beautiful sunsets and 36 over-eaten meals, begin to ask the crew hopefully, “Do you think we’ll have a storm?” Sometimes when coming to church has become so routine that we unconsciously do the same things week after week that we stop hearing what Jesus is trying to tell us. Nothing new happens because we don’t expect anything new to happen.
It’s like when we are considering making our pledge, regardless of any of our attempts to challenge you to increase your pledges, you still write down the same amount you have done before. What we like to hear is to keep business as usual.
Life Worthy of the Christ’ Calling
Jesus tells us that if we want to be his disciples, living differently from what we have been doing, going beyond what we just hear and to living out our lives in Christ-like actions, we need to drink the cup that Jesus drinks and to be baptized like Jesus was baptized. Before we can even ask the question about sitting on the right side or the left side of Jesus, we first must be willing to take what we have heard from Jesus and follow him. Only then can we answer the question, “Is my life worthy?”
Our stewardship theme this year comes from Paul writing to the Ephesians 4:1-6. Paul says,
“I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.”
Paul was challenging the Ephesians on whether their lives were worthy of Christ’s calling. Paul was saying to them that their old lives of being arrogant and thinking that they were superior to others need to give way to loving one another with all humility, gentleness, and patience. It’s not whether we have a seat on Jesus’ left or right or even having a seat up front. Jesus is asking you to take the back seat!
When we follow Jesus, we take up the cross of discipleship that changes everything that we want to do and invite God to come into our lives to let him do everything he wants to do. James and John as well as the other disciples’ lives became worthy of Christ’s calling when they gave up their desire for fame and glory and follow Jesus even to the cross.
Life worthy of Christ’s calling is bearing with one another in love—doesn’t matter whether we are Cantonese-speaking or English-speaking. We are one body in Christ.
Life worthy of Christ’s calling is building up the church in the bond of peace. Regardless of what we might believe about some tangential issues, we all are called to one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all.
Life worthy of Christ’s calling has never been about prosperity but always about humble faithfulness, never about contentment but always about sacrifice, never about who’s first but always who is the last one serving the Lord. Are you ready to break away from “business as usual” and increase your pledge by 5.9% because you feel that your life is worthy of that?
Life worthy of Christ’s calling is not asking Jesus to promise that he will grant us whatever we ask of him but rather to ask him to lead us to follow him into discipleship, to drink the cup he is ready to drink, be baptized as he is willing to be baptized and to carry our crosses as he carried his Cross to Calvary.
Life worthy of Christ’s calling is that we may still prefer to not want to hear what Jesus is telling us but that if we stay close to Jesus and let him keep talking to us, keep teaching us, and in God’s own time, we may as our prayer, come to fully understand the meaning of giving our lives completely to him.
Let us pray.
Lord Jesus, we are walking behind you, following you down a way that we would just soon avoid, the way of suffering, service, sacrifice, and self-denial. Yet, in your grace, you have called us to be disciples, to walk that way with you so that our lives would be worthy of your calling.
Teach us, Lord. Do not leave us, even when we misunderstand you. Keep working with us until you have transformed us into disciples you would have us be. Amen.