St. John’s Lutheran Church
20 October 2024 + Lectionary 29b
Mark 10:35-45
Rev. Josh Evans
“Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.”
What could go wrong?
Even so, Jesus entertains their request:
“What is it you want me to do for you?”
And without skipping a beat, they name it outright:
“Appoint us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.”
Evidently, the earlier conversation –
on the way to Capernaum,
right after the second prediction of his betrayal, death, and resurrection,
when they were arguing amongst themselves
about who was “the greatest” –
wasn’t settled – at least not for them.
Evidently, their fear and embarrassment
in that earlier conversation,
after being called out by Jesus –
“What were you arguing about on the way?” –
gave way to boldness and bravado:
When greatness just won’t do,
give us glory.
On the one hand, it’s hard to blame them.
They’ve seen what Rome can do –
And. They. Want. Out.
Or better yet:
They want victory, vindication, bragging rights.
They want to gloat – gloriously – over their enemies.
“You do not know what you are asking.”
As if to ask: “Are you sure about that?”
“We are…”
Sure…
***
You know who else wielded that kind of on-demand power?
Herod.
“Ask me for whatever you wish” – sound familiar?
“and I will give it.”
What could go wrong?
Little did he anticipate what cruel answer she would give:
“The head of John the baptizer.”
Herod’s power,
and his self-absorbed and self-preserving attempts to hold on to it at all costs,
leads to death.
A cautionary tale if ever there were one.
***
It’s like the disciples haven’t been paying attention.
Three times Jesus has told them what awaits him.
Three times they have failed to understand.
Three times Jesus gently (and maybe not-so-gently) corrects them.
The first time:
The Son of Man must undergo great suffering and be rejected…and be killed…and after three days rise again. (“He said all this quite openly.”)
Again, the second time:
The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed, he will rise again. (“But they did not understand and were afraid to ask him.”)
And again, the third time:
The Son of Man will be handed over…and they will condemn him to death…[and] mock him and spit upon him and flog him and kill him, and after three days he will rise again.
Scene change:
Immediately to James and John
and their admittedly self-centered and self-absorbed request.
Is it that they didn’t understand?
Or that they didn’t want to understand?
Or that they couldn’t understand?
They understood greatness.
They understood power.
They understood that it was good to be the ones on top, in control, in glory.
But what Jesus was suggesting?
It didn’t make any sense.
Not the first time:
Take up your cross and follow me.
Or the second time:
Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.
(And then, later, something about “the first will be last, and the last will be first”?)
Or now the third time:
Whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant.
It doesn’t make any sense.
Anyone who’s played a game of “Chutes & Ladders” knows
which squares you want to land on –
and which ones you want to avoid.
Is Jesus really suggesting that it’s better to slide down the chute
than to climb the ladder?
Yes.
That’s what this whole kingdom of God thing is about!
It’s not about being served, but serving.
It’s not about you (singular), it’s about us, together.
It’s about the community.
***
We are created for community,
to love as we are loved.
Benedictine Sister Joan Chittister puts it this way:
“Community is the commitment to carry others through their periods of darkness as they carry you through yours. It is about sustaining others and being sustained yourself when you have gone as far as you can go alone.”
The thing about community
is that it requires just that:
community.
And community like that
is powerful.
When I was in seminary,
as a part of our regular weekly rhythm of regular chapel,
often we would pray liturgies from Holden Prayer Around the Cross.
(Yes, that Holden. It’s more than Evening Prayer.)
These Prayer Around the Cross liturgies would take a variety of forms,
but always involved a large cross,
placed at the center of the worship space.
Often there were bowls of sand with candles to light,
and pillows and chairs for worshippers to kneel or sit,
to quite literally pray around the cross.
In some of these liturgies,
there was one designated pillow or chair near the foot of the cross,
and when someone came forward to pray in that place,
others were invited to come forward to pray silently with them,
placing a hand on their shoulder,
or just kneeling alongside them in quiet solidarity.
You might not know what exactly the person was praying about –
you might not even know the person at all –
but always, always, you knew:
you were not praying alone.
***
We are made to be in community like that:
to pray as we are prayed for,
to love as we are loved.
For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve
and to give his life as a ransom –
“something of value given for the sake of liberating a captive” (SALT Blog) –
from what?
From the ways we are held captive to isolation and individualism,
and cut ourselves off from one another.
From our own self-centered ambitions.
From what we think it means to be “great.”
From our “many possessions,” like the (rich) man,
and everything that gets in the way of loving our neighbor.
Jesus frees us from ourselves,
and frees us for one another.
With Peter and James and John,
and all the other disciples
with the unnamed (rich) man,
and all the crowds listening in,
Jesus frees us
and invites us
to Something Bigger Than Ourselves:
To a place of belonging among the people of God.
To a life of service lived in community.
To care for others as we are cared for.
To love as we are loved.
What a gift: this Beloved Community.
Whether we “get it” the first time, the second time, the third time…
or the three-hundredth time…
the message bears repeating:
You are beloved
in order to be love.