Not to be Served, but to Serve

[00:00:00] Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our father and our risen Lord and savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. [00:00:09] To serve and to give his life as a ransom. [00:00:14] That's the theme from our gospel reading for this morning. [00:00:19] But you know what? [00:00:21] There were twelve boys who didn't get that. They really did, didn't understand. And I mean, those twelve disciples, they don't understand what Jesus is telling them about where they're going up, when they're going up to Jerusalem that day. They don't understand about the glory or the greatness. [00:00:43] They don't understand about the suffering and the servanthood. [00:00:49] And you know, maybe we and those of you at home, maybe we don't understand those things fully either ourselves. [00:00:58] But fortunately for the disciples and for us, there is a person in this story who does understand and who does get it. [00:01:08] And that is our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ, the one who came to serve and to give a life as a ransom. [00:01:19] Now, the text opens up today with one of Jesus'so called passion predictions. And these passion predictions are those sayings that Jesus has in which he tells the disciples and that they're going up to Jerusalem where he, Jesus, would suffer and he would die. [00:01:41] And this is now the third time that he tells them this. [00:01:45] The first time was back in chapter eight of mark. It says this. And he began to teach them that the son of man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and that the scribes be killed by the scribes and be killed. And after three days rise again. [00:02:05] And he said this plainly, but what was Peter's reaction to hearing this? [00:02:12] If you remember back, he no, no, Lord, this should never happen to you. And then, of course, Jesus had once again to rebuke Peter, saying, get behind me, Satan, for you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men. [00:02:30] Jesus predicts his passion, his suffering, but still the disciples don't get it. [00:02:38] And then there's the second time in Mark, chapter nine. [00:02:43] Again he's teaching the disciples, the son of man is going to be delivered into the hands of men and they will kill him. And when he is killed, after three days, he will rise again. [00:02:58] But they did not understand the saying, it says, and were afraid to ask him. [00:03:06] And right after that, what were the disciples discussing? [00:03:12] They were arguing about who was going to be the greatest. [00:03:19] These guys just don't get it. And Jesus tells them that their master is going to be killed. And all they can think about is which one of them is going to be the greatest. [00:03:34] And now we get the same thing here again. In chapter ten, Jesus gives the third prediction. And for the third time those disciples demonstrate they just don't understand. [00:03:46] Jesus is going on ahead of them, leading the way as they head for Jerusalem, even though he had said that this is where he is going to be rejected and killed. And he tells the disciples now in even greater detail what will happen to him there. [00:04:07] We're going to Jerusalem and the son of man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles and they will mock him and they will spit on him and they will flog him and finally they will kill him. [00:04:28] And after three days he will rise. [00:04:34] Now, the Lord couldn't have made it any plainer to them, but these boys just don't get it. [00:04:42] How come? [00:04:44] Well, all this talk about the son of man, the Messiah, being rejected and suffering and being killed, that didn't fit in what they expected to happen. And what should happen to the Messiah? [00:04:59] They thought it should be glory and grandeur and greatness. [00:05:04] And we'll drive those evil Romans out of Israel and we're going to restore the greatness of the kingdom. And there'll be peace and prosperity and piety in every welcoming and acclaiming the great king, the Christ happy days are going to be here again. [00:05:26] Better even than the glory days during the time of the reign of King David or of King Solomon. [00:05:33] Yes, the Messiah would come marching into Jerusalem and he was going to take up his rightful throne. [00:05:41] And if Jesus is that guy, and if they, the twelve, are the closest followers, then of course it stands to reason that they should get a share of that glory also. [00:05:57] Maybe it would be a cabinet position in Jesus's government. [00:06:04] And that is what the disciples were looking for and expecting. [00:06:10] And among those twelve there were also wondering which of them would get the best and the choicest spots higher up in the administration, right next to the king himself. [00:06:25] This reminds me of early days in my teaching ministry when I graduated from Seward and went to Winfield, Kansas. [00:06:34] Now being from California, that was a shock to my system. [00:06:38] Seward was the first shock. [00:06:41] But I got there and at that time St. John's was still in operation. That was a junior college. You could take your first and second years courses there. [00:06:51] And so they had a college campus there. And there was our Lutheran school. And I got invited to the college president's dinner. And guess where I got to sit at the right hand. [00:07:04] It was awesome. And you should have seen the looks that I got from the rest of the people around the table because I was the young kid on the block. [00:07:11] But it was an honor to be there, and it was a seat of honor. [00:07:18] Little did I know because I was still wet behind the ears at that point in time. But here we have the disciples. This is jesus'kingdom. We're his closest friends. Shouldn't there be something for us? Well, along comes who. Which two disciples came? [00:07:34] James and John. Yeah. [00:07:39] And they speak up and they voice what the rest of them are thinking. [00:07:44] How about me for one of the top spots? And they come to Jesus and they ask him, teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you. [00:07:55] Well, isn't that a little presumptuous to approach the king? [00:08:02] Okay, grant us to sit one at your right hand and one at your left in your glory, the best seats in the house, when the king, Jesus, comes into his glory. Yeah, that sounds pretty sweet. And that's what James and John are asking for. [00:08:19] Now, did James and John have any reason to think that they were more valuable, more popular than the others might be? [00:08:29] And for those with very plumb positions, the answer is yes, they did. [00:08:36] After all, they were two of the first disciples chosen. And they had been with Jesus since the beginning of his ministry. And Jesus had picked them, James and John, to go with them on a couple of assignments that the other guys had to stay and they couldn't go on. The raising of that little girl from the dead, the trek up the mountain for the transfiguration. Oh, yeah, there was another guy that went along that day. That was Peter. [00:09:03] Peter, James and John. [00:09:06] They were the big three out of the twelve. They were the inner circle of Jesus. But James and John want to put their claim in first for the top spot before Peter opens his big mouth. [00:09:24] And so Jesus has to straighten them out about his glory business. He tells them, you do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized? [00:09:40] And they answer back without the slightest hesitation. [00:09:44] Oh, yeah, sure, we can do it. [00:09:48] Do you understand what this cup and this baptism will entail? [00:09:53] It will be a cup of suffering. [00:10:00] It will be a baptism of blood. You see, that is what Jesus himself will endure. And are you ready to endure that kind of suffering with him, to be on Jesus'right and his left? And the next time we'll hear that expression is when Jesus is hanging on the cross and there are two criminals hanging next to him on either side. [00:10:26] Do you want that? [00:10:29] But that is what will come if you want to follow me. [00:10:35] And so Jesus or James and John are the theologians of what I call glory. They don't understand the necessity of the cross, but that, of course, comes naturally as we think about it. There are ten other disciples indignant with James and John, not because they asked the wrong question, but because they didn't think to ask it for themselves. [00:10:58] They too are theologians of what I call glory, and so are we. [00:11:04] By our nature, we all want what's coming to us, as long, of course, that it's good, we deserve it, for God must be pleased with us. We're better than other people. Well, at least the really bad people. [00:11:21] Give me God, give me what I want. Glory and good stuff, success. I don't want any suffering. Why? Because I deserve it. And so, like James and John, we need to look better than that. We need to look like people that want to serve, not to be served. [00:11:47] Sure, we would like to have other people do what we say and to please us. And in our mind, the world revolves around us, around me. But this sinful tendency of ours to be turned in on ourselves, and that is what sin is. [00:12:04] And what sin deserves, we know, is death, God's condemnation, not our elevation. And so then it is precisely why Jesus had to go up to Jerusalem to suffer and to die for sinners like James and John, for theologians of glory like you and me. [00:12:28] And so Jesus had to straighten us out too. He has to straighten out our thinking. [00:12:34] And even more than that, he has to get us straight with God, or else we would be hopelessly lost. [00:12:41] And Jesus tells his disciples, and he tells us as well, you know, that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lorded over them and their great ones exercised authority over them. [00:12:55] But it shall not be among you. [00:13:00] But whoever would be great among you must first be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. [00:13:08] For even the son of man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. [00:13:20] The way of this world is to strive for two things, glory and power. [00:13:28] And when you get it, you're supposed to use it for your own advantage. [00:13:33] But that is not the way it is for Christ's kingdom. The way of greatness in God's kingdom is the path of service, to serve others in love. [00:13:45] And if we are in that position of authority, we are there to serve those entrusted under us, so to speak, if we are the father or a mother. And many of who you are. Of course, we have the office of authority in the order of God's channel of blessing to our children. [00:14:09] We are not to lower it over them, but we are to lay down our life for them. [00:14:18] For Christ loved the world, Christ loved the church. And so it goes. [00:14:25] It is servanthood that equals greatness in the kingdom of God. [00:14:31] And this is something that the disciples will learn and would come to understand, but at this point they still don't get it. And so for all of us here, sinful turned in on self theologians of glory, Jesus Christ is going up to Jerusalem, he's going up to serve and to suffer and to die, and he's doing it for all of us, for even the son of man, Jesus says, speaking of himself, for even the son of man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. [00:15:14] Ransom, that's a very key word here. [00:15:19] It could be translated also as redemption. The term was used in the ancient world for the price that was paid to set somebody free from a state of bondage. [00:15:32] If there was a slave or a prisoner of war, that person could not free himself from his captivity. Somebody else had to do it. [00:15:41] Somebody had to come along and pay that ransom price, the redemption that did set that other person free. [00:15:51] And that is what our Lord is talking about when here he says that he came to give his life as a ransom. [00:15:59] Jesus will pay that ransom. [00:16:03] He will redeem us from our state of bondage. We could not be free ourselves, but Jesus would do this. And he has done this by giving his own life as the ransom that sets each of us free. [00:16:20] Our beloved Dr. Martin Luther captures this perfectly in his explanation of the second article of the Creed. [00:16:29] He Christ has redeemed me a lost and what kind of person, condemned person, purchased and won me from all sins and death and from the power of the thank you. Not with gold or but with his holy precious and with his innocent suffering, and that I may be his own and love him under his kingdom. [00:17:05] My dear friends, Jesus came to serve and to give his life as a ransom. He is our redemption. He did this for us when he went to the cross for our sake. And it is by his death that we have been set free from death. By his resurrection, we have been set free to live a new life. It is a life of love and of service, a life that may involve suffering and sacrifice for now but one which will ultimately be far outweighed with the glories of the age to come. [00:17:46] Do we get it? [00:17:48] I hope the answer today is yes, we do. We get all of Christ's righteousness. We get all of his forgiveness and all of his life. [00:17:58] And us, all of the blessings of his kingdom, all of ours are as a gift from him. [00:18:08] And it is in his precious name that we can say amen and amen.