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Are We Able? |
October 19, 1997
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© John Ewing Roberts, 10/19/97 |
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INTRODUCTION There is a straightforward, traditional approach to this familiar story. Here is how that interpretation runs: Jesus takes the disciples aside and tells them that he will be mocked, spit upon, scourged and killed. James and John skip right over that and perhaps are picking up on the part about Jesus' rising again, when they make their big faux pas. They say not so much as an "excuse us for changing the subject," when they butt in with their self-serving, self-seeking request for preferential treatment in the kingdom. Jesus counters by teaching yet again, that self-giving servanthood is the way to kingdom greatness. All of this is true, but there is more. There are other points of view which quicken this old story into lively contemporary issues. For example, who has a right to teach or preach on self-giving servanthood? And why do we do it? SERVANTHOOD - NOT SO FAST! "Feminist and African American theologians have pointed to their experience that the preaching of servanthood has almost exclusively come from representatives of the political and religious establishment." (Patricia Wilson-Kastner, Proclamation 5 - Pentecost 3, Series B [Minneapolis: Fortress Press] 1994, p. 28) In other words, don't preach a servant Lord with servant disciples to people who serve - be they women or African Americans - if you are not a servant yourself. Something else needs to be said, this time by a male theologian. Don't take shots at James and John in this story just because they are easy targets. Remember, it was a woman, their mother, who put them up to all this according to Matthew's version of the story (Matthew 20). Besides, it turns out that James and John were able to drink the cup of Jesus after all. AND THEY WERE ABLE! James was the first of twelve to become a martyr. Acts 12: 2 says that Herod "killed James the brother of John with the sword." There is a strong tradition that John went to Ephesus and lived to a ripe old age. Both drank of the cup of Jesus - one through martyrdom and the other through a long life of service. A Roman coin shows an ox facing an altar and a plough with the words, "ready for either." The ox must be ready for the sacrifice on the altar or the long routine of the plough. The Christian who woulddrink of the cup of his Master must be ready either for the heroic moment of martyrdom or the long life of faithful service. When all was said and done, James and John were able. (William Barclay, The Master's Men [Nashville: Abingdon Press] 1959, p. 104) And a good word needs to be said about their mother "who put them up to it." When the men had all fled from the crucifixion, Mary, the mother of James and John, was among the brave and faithful women who kept vigil at the foot of the cross (Matthew 27: 56). Obviously this story stirs up strong feelings about men and women and servanthood. In fact the whole context of Mark 10 is emotionally charged by the content of Jesus' teaching and by the prospect of the cross looming over the last days of his life on earth. AMAZED AND AFRAID To appreciate how emotionally charged the setting was and how exquisitely inappropriate was the request of James and John we need to back up three verses to Mark 10: 32. On the road to Jerusalem, that is, on the road to execution, Jesus is as usual out in front. "They were amazed, and those who followed were afraid." (v. 32). Why were they amazed? Why were they afraid? SEX, KIDS AND MONEY Jesus had been talking about sex, kids and money in the previous verses. (10: 1-31) They were probably amazed and afraid because they had never heard anything like his teachings before - he forced a sharp new look at life. They hadn't grown comfortable with his teachings the way we have. "They were amazed and afraid. It was all new to them. We've learned how to live with his tough teachings, trimmed them down, knocked off the sharp edges, made them more comfortable." (Edmund Steimle, Those Crazy Zebedee Brothers, April 8, 1973 broadcast, Lutheran Series of "The Protestant Hour") Sex, kids and money - quite a threesome, but there is another one at work here too. LUST, AMBITION AND BITTERNESS "It has been observed that the typical temptation of the young is lust, of the middle-aged, ambition, and of the elderly, bitterness. Actually, all three drives are similar and related: ambition is a refined lust, bitterness a disappointed one." Ambition and sexual desire are not necessarily bad - they can be part of our living to the glory of God. But these desires turn dark when used for our own needs exclusively. (Frederick Dale Bruner, Matthew, Vol. 2, "The Churchbook - Matthew 13-28," [Dallas: Word Publishing Co.] 1990, p. 729) Sex, kids and money, lust, ambition and bitterness - it's getting complicated. Maybe the whole story can be boiled down to one issue. POWER The issue is power, the ability to influence or control other people's lives. It can be political power like Bill Clinton's or Newt Gingrich's, or financial power like Bill Gates' or Ted Turner's. It can be spiritual power like Mother Teresa's or star power like Brad Pitt's or Julia Roberts'. Barbara Brown Taylor says that whatever "kind it is, power thrives in the rare air at the top of any given hierarchy, where those who have it generally require tinted windows and bodyguards. One sure sign that people have power is that other people want to get near them - to photograph them, to attack them, to cheer them, to inhale them...the chance to get close to someone who has something they do not in hopes that some of it will rub off on them." (Barbara Brown Taylor, Bread of Angels, "The Trickle-Up Effect,"[Cambridge, Massachusetts: Cowley Publications] 1997, pp. 41-42) In a sense James and John were feeling a surge of power - perhaps some kind of combination of the excitement of being with Jesus and their own youthful bravado. I see in them a kind of "gee whiz - can do" optimism we hear over and over on MTV during the World Series: "Put me in, coach; I'm ready to play! Put me in, coach, I could be in center field!" After all, the Zebedee brothers felt like they had made a contribution to Jesus' campaign - they had left their business and families. Surely they of all people were entitled to cabinet level appointments after God's election day when Jesus would be the big winner. Gross ambition, to be sure, but also faith that Jesus would win and that with him on top and them at his side, they could make a difference, a kind of trickle down effect for ethics and morals. Jesus had to tell them one more time that it just doesn't work that way. The people at the head table aren't the ones with the kind of power that counts. The people at the end of the line will have the edge when Jesus comes into power completely. The world will not be transformed by the people with the good seats in a trickle down effect. It's just the other way around. The world will be transformed from the bottom up, the ultimate trickle-up effect. The best leaders are the best servants and vice versa. "Teacher," they had said, "we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you." (v. 35). But they and we will never get it right until we say, "Teacher, we want to do for you whatever you ask of us." (Ibid., pp. 40-45)I once saw a piece of paper kept in a Bible on which the owner of the Bible had mapped out precisely developed career goals - educational stepping stones to specific job changes, presumably as an aid in prayers to secure God's blessing on this master plan for success. Contrast that approach with a story James Dobson tells somewhere of a missionary who returned to his home church in a quest for refreshment and renewal. He had a similar sheet of paper, filled with specifications for God to bless, until he felt the Holy Spirit prompt him to turn the paper over to the blank side. He realized that he needed to give his life to God as a blank page and allow God to fill it in according to his will. Not, "Teacher, we want you do for us whatever we ask of you," but "Teacher, we want to do for you whatever you ask." CONCLUSION A room-service waiter at a Marriott hotel learned that the sister of a guest had just died. The waiter, named Charles, bought a sympathy card, had hotel staff members sign it, and gave it to the grieving guest with a piece of hot apple pie. "Mr. Marriott," the guest later wrote to the president of the hotel chain, "I've never met you and I don't need to meet you because I have met Charles and I know what you stand for. As long as I live I know where I will stay and I will tell my friends to stay there too." (adapted from Roger Dow and Susan Cook, Turned On [New York: Harper and Row, 1996] cited in Homiletics, edited by Leonard I. Sweet, Vol. 9, No. 4, October 1997, p. 26) What we do tells people about the One we serve and what He stands for. What we do determines where people will want to be. What we do determines what people will tell their friends about where they should be. Are we able? We are not able if...we feel superior to other Christians; we are preoccupied with status for ourselves or our families or our group; we are obsessed with control; we are following fearfully. We are able if...we depend on God for the power to be servants; we take risks for Jesus' sake; we are in solidarity with God and his people; we say, "`Lord, we are able,' Our spirits are Thine, Remold them, make them like Thee, divine...." (Earl Marlatt, "Are Ye Able," Said the Master, No. 396, Broadman Hymnal, edited by B. B. McKinney [Nashville: Broadman Press] 1940) Woodbrook Baptist Church (Formerly Eutaw Place Baptist Church) Baltimore, Maryland |