(Note:
This blog entry is based on the text for “VIP Service”, originally shared on October
11, 2021. It was the 156th video for our YouTube Channel, Streams of
Living Water (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB7KnYS1bpHKaL2OseQWCnw), co-produced with my wife, Rev. Sally Welch.)
Who’s the most important person on a team? The coach? Who’s the most important person in a school? The principal? Who’s the most important person in a room? The richest? Who’s the most important person in town? The Mayor? Who are the most important people in the Kingdom of God? Today, we’re going to find out.
Jesus’ disciples knew that, someday, he was
going to be a VIP. As part of his inner circle, two of his disciples, brothers James
and John, asked that, when that day came, that Jesus would give them the
highest honor. They wanted to be the VIPs next to the VIP, the in the seats of
honor, closest to Jesus when he came into his “glory”.
They asked like little kids. “I’m going to
ask you something, but you have to promise to say, “Yes.”
We read, in Mark 10, starting at
verse 35,
35 James and John,
the sons of Zebedee, came forward to him and said to him, “Teacher, we want you
to do for us whatever we ask of you.” 36 And he
said to them, “What is it you want me to do for you?” 37 And
they said to him, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your
left, in your glory.”
Did they ask to be given the most power and
influence and personal glory? Or did they just want to be sure that when Jesus
came to power, literally, that all eyes would be on them, too?
Either way, Jesus had already told them that
he was going to die. Three times.
What did they want?
Were they asking to be given great honor in
Jesus’ heavenly glory? Or did they expect Jesus to establish an earthly
Kingdom? Raise a following that, at Jesus’ signal, would rise up against the
Roman occupiers? One quick strike. Take them by surprise. Drive them out and be
the Messiah, the deliverer, the King of Israel like his ancestor King David.
Put Israel back on top of the nations again, and not be the doormat of the
nations as they had been for 1,000 years.
Our reading continues in Mark 10:38-39a
38 But 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 baptized with?” 39 They
replied, “We are able.”
Jesus is speaking about his suffering and
death, but the disciples, not knowing what is coming for Jesus, answer
earnestly, “We are able”. It’s actually kind of comical, because we know what
lies ahead for Jesus. Maybe they did, too, sort of. But it was just too much
for them to absorb, given that they had left everything to follow him.
It’s not any easier for us. Many of us
expect Jesus to make us rich, or protect us from harm, or to be our cosmic
servant, ready to do whatever we ask.
In fact, that may be the most popular form
of belief in our country.
It was identified in a study of the beliefs
of American teenagers published in 2005 that they later realized actually described
the beliefs of a large section of adults.
They called these beliefs Moralistic,
Therapeutic Deism. Moralistic, because the emphasis is on being a good person,
Therapeutic because it emphasizes influences, particularly feelings, that help
me be me, and Deism because it projects the belief that God exists but is not
involved in our lives, especially when we don’t want God to be involved.
We are like those who theologian H.
Richard Niebuhr described in post-World War II America, teaching — 'A
God without wrath brought men (and women, ed.) without sin
into a Kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a
Christ without a Cross.'
Would a church that that intentionally
teaches Moralistic, Therapeutic, Deism therefore attract young people. The
authors of the study say, “No”.
What is attractive to our youth is a genuine
expression of historic Christianity, a transcendent experience of worship, an
alternative worldview, a true sense of Christian identity, a living
relationship with the one true living God, mentors who model the way, and
servanthood that is rooted in Jesus Christ.
I saw a meme online from a church that showed
a picture of young people captioned, “Who we programed our Contemporary Service
for,” next to a photo of older people captioned, “Who actually showed up.” And
beneath that was a picture of older people captioned, “Who we programed our Traditional
Service for,” next to a photo of young people captioned, “Who actually showed
up.”
Mark continues in
chapter 10, verses 39b-40
Then Jesus said
to them, “The cup that I drink you will drink; and with the baptism with which
I am baptized, you will be baptized; 40 but to sit
at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for
whom it has been prepared.”
James and John would be given great honor,
but not by being famous for being famous. They would earn their honor. All the
disciples died as martyrs, except one. But Jesus was fully God and fully human
being, and he was not to decide who would be honored. He was to die, and on the
third day be raised.
One of my cousins is Pat Metheny. Pat is a
fine jazz guitar player, among the finest ever. He’s won 20 Grammys. He’s won
them in 10 different categories, more than anyone in the history of the
Grammys. He’s also a very generous and kind man.
He and his ensembles play in the major
venues of Los Angeles when he’s in town, at least they did prior to the
pandemic.
We were given complimentary tickets that
came with back-stage passes for the small gatherings that took place after those
concerts.
Lots of industry people would be there also,
and it was always amusing to me to be standing around, looking for Pat and the
band to come out, scanning the room when I’d by chance make eye contact with
someone else at the gathering. In that instant, I’d see that flash of
disappointment, that I was no VIP, as their eyes went looking for someone who
could do them some good.
People will go to great lengths to feel that
they stand out, to make an impression, like James and John.
We were once invited to watch a game from a
private VIP box in a professional sports stadium. I have to say, it was nice to
have trays of free food and have someone around who would get it for you if you
wanted. The game itself was shown on TVs hung around the room. Sky box seats
are above the worst seats in a stadium. You pay a lot of money to sit in the
worst seats in the house. I don’t think you buy them to watch the game. I think
people buy them because it builds your brand. Like James and John wanted.
The disciples wanted to promote themselves.
So, they asked Jesus for a favor. They wanted honor and power and glory. They
would be martyrs, but they wanted them without any trouble. They wanted reward
without sacrifice. Power without service. Prestige without discipleship.
That is not the Christian life.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was one of the few
highly regarded Lutheran theologians who actively resisted Adolf Hitler and his
rise to power in Nazi Germany.
In his book on Christian community, written
when he was a professor in an underground seminary, Life Together, he
wrote:
"When Christ calls a man (or a woman, ed.), he bids him (or
her) come and die."
Bonhoeffer, who had been a pacifist, was executed
in prison by the Gestapo as the war was ending for his part in a plot to
assassinate Hitler.
But he didn’t say that Christians, to be
Christians, needed to physically die for their faith.
He said that Christians needed to die to
their selves, to die in Baptism and be reborn as children of God. To be born
again. To be a new creation. To seek God’s will and live it as members of the
Church, the Body of Christ. To live in a way that is often the opposite of the
way of the world. It not lived in power as the world sees it, but as God sees
it, in service to God, to the Christian community, and to all those in need.
What
does Jesus call “blessed” or “happy” in his Sermon on the Mount in Matthew
5:1-12? He says that they are the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the
meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in
heart, the peacemakers, those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake. And
then he says to the crowd gathered,
11 “Blessed are you
when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against
you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be
glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted
the prophets who were before you.
Who are the VIPs, the greatest in the
Kingdom of God? Just one chapter earlier, the disciples had been taught this by
Jesus, in Mark 9:33-34, and in a couple more
verses, he’s going to have to say it to them again,
33 Then they came to
Capernaum; and when he was in the house he asked them, “What were you arguing
about on the way?” 34 But they were silent, for on
the way they had argued with one another who was the greatest. 35 He
sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, “Whoever wants to be first must
be last of all and servant of all.”
The VIPs in the Reign of God are those who
have shared the most, trusted the most, sacrificed the most, suffered the most,
been the most dependent on God, and lived their lives by faith in a living
relationship with the one true living God, as a new Creation in response to the
free gift of God in Jesus Christ on the cross.
This is one of the major paradoxes of the
Christian life. Greatness in the Christian life is found in service. Why,
because there is something great in serving others? No. Because serving others
is an expression of the new life made possible by Jesus’ sacrificial death for
us on the cross. We see on the cross how important we are to God. We get the
VIP treatment by God’s grace. We can’t earn it or deserve it. We live in
response to it.
Service does not make us great. God makes us
great as we live not for ourselves, but in trust and dependence upon God.
Paul, reflecting on the outcome of his
prayers that God would remove an affliction, writes in 2
Corinthians 12:9-10,
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