Reflection on Mark 10:35-45

 

I am going to give James and John the benefit of the doubt here.  When they ask Jesus to grant them to sit at his right and his left hand in his glory, I am going to assume that they are not necessarily seeking power and glory for themselves, even though the other disciple’s red-faced anger reveals that they are certain James and John are trying to do exactly that.  I am simply going to assume that James and John are like our kids, fighting to sit next to the adult of their choice at the Chinese restaurant.  They are not trying to keep another child away from the choice adult (who in full disclosure is never me), they just want to be close to the adult they love.  I assume that James and John just want to be close with Jesus.

I get that.  I also want to be close with Jesus.  I have wanted to be close for a long time.  During my college years, I had sort of a mystical understanding about this getting close to God business.  I reasoned, if Christ was the source of all life, and still is making all things new right as we speak, then if I just stay still, I will be able to feel his life and his love.  If I stay still enough I will be at one with him.

As a disciple of Christ, my main go-to activity therefore was meditation.  I tried to still my soul enough to feel Christ and feel that eternal peace that comes only when you rest completely in Christ’s arms.  Though meditation is very good for quieting the mind, I am not sure I ever pulled it off.  Mostly I would come out of my meditations with a back ache.  I probably was doing it wrong.  But, James and John, I hear you.  You want to be near Christ always?  Well, I think we all want that.

Years later I had a friend also wanted to be close to God.  We worked together scraping rust off of an old Corp of Engineers steamboat.  While we scraped he talked about his desire to get closer to God.  “If I can get closer to God,” he would say, “then God will reward me and I can get out of this rust hole.”  That was not a metaphor.  We were literally back to back, scraping rust down a hole.  “I know that God wants the best for me.  I know that God want me to be successful in life, and rich.  Can you help me know God more?”

It was at this point that I made the mistake of telling my coworkers that I was training to be a pastor.  You know how if you once change the oil in the car for a friend, how they will come back again and again?  Well, this is the pastor version of that. 

He would talk about this over and over again, how God wanted him to be successful.  It never ended.  Our rust hole started to feel pretty small and cramped.  Why could we not just talk about sports like everyone else?  But, he was confident that I was going to teach him the secrets of God and being rich…I mean blessed.  Because, obviously, working in a rust hole meant that I was very blessed.  Still he had faith in me.

But, I knew this story of James and John too well.  I knew the story of the rich man who questions Jesus too well.  I knew that he wanted glory and reward, not sacrifice and cross bearing.  And, the church I went to had a huge cross right in the middle of it. 

“How about you check out that church on the edge of town, you know, the one where the pastor pulls up every Sunday morning in a Ferrari.”  Needless to say, my pastor did not own a Ferrari.

Yeah, I know, it is easy to judge the guy, but how is his desire to know God more and get the benefit of nice things in life any different than my desire to know God more and get the benefit of peace in life.  We both want something from God.  We both come with hands open, expecting them to be filled properly.

“Teacher, we want you to do for you whatever we ask of you,” James and John ask, hands open…waiting to be filled.  Just a quick aside, notice that Jesus first asks, “What do you want me to do for you?”   My conversations tend to go like this:

Someone asks: “Can you do something for me?”

“Sure, what do I need to do?”

“Great, I want you to steal just a little bit of cash for me.”

You see what happened there?  Do not do that.  Follow Jesus’ lead and never agree to do anything without asking what is wanted first.  That is a free practical tip for you this morning, right from the mouth of Jesus.

“What do you want?” Jesus wisely asks. 

What did they want?  They wanted to be a part of God's glory.  They wanted to sit at the right and to the left of Jesus on his throne.  They wanted to be near God. 

They did not know what they were asking though.  They just did not understand that they may want to go to the charlatan on the edge of town who drives a Ferrari because ahead of Jesus is a Great, Big Cross.  Christ's throne of glory is a cross.  And, the seats to the right and to the left?  James and John cannot have them because they have already been taken by two criminals who will die with Jesus.

The last will be first, and the first will be last.

Greatness, being one with God, is not defined by power and glory or even eternal peace.  Rather, it is defined by serving.  To be great is to serve those whom God cares about.  Serving the hungry.  Healing the physically and mentally ill.  Caring for the children.  Loving the total mess up.  Forgiving the sinner.  Getting down and dirty with those whom most people in polite company would simply push away.  Dying to save those same lowly people on a cross; that is glory.

Do you want to be close to Jesus?  Then go find him hanging out with those he cares about the most: those who are the lowest of the low. 

Come to think of it, that is where Jesus usually finds me anyway.  It seems, over and over again in life, when the words of Jesus come to rescue and heal me the most are always when I am at my lowest.  Maybe, I am more receptive at those times.  Or, maybe, it is because when I am low, I am precisely the person who Jesus loves to serve. 

Again and again in the scriptures we see that Jesus takes the time to serve the last and the least.

Time.  Have you ever thought of time as a blessing from God?  If really is. 

Sure, you have been encouraged to think about your money as a blessing and have been encouraged to give at least ten percent of it toward the ministry of Jesus Christ. 

And, certainly, you have been encouraged to think about your things and how beneficial they may be if given to someone who Jesus loves, and who could use them, rather than your things continuing to collect dust in the closet. 

You have even been encouraged to think about your talents as gifts from God (your baking, or your singing, or your financial savvy) to be used for the glory of God. 

But, have you ever thought of time as a blessing from God?

God created time after-all.  God intentionally placed you within it.  And, God decided to enter into it, sending his Son Jesus to be the savior who acts within time. 

And, Jesus draws the disciples into this notion that how your time is spent is important.  If you want to be truly close to Jesus, and we do, then we will allow Jesus to draw us away from notions of glory and riches, and peaceful afternoons reclining and eating grapes, and we will let Jesus drive us towards the best and most life giving use of our time: using our time for another person’s sake.

How much time do we waste on our phones, and on our Televisions, and anywhere but where Jesus is begging us to follow?  We have been given this gift of time, and Jesus uses this gift fully to love and serve the lost, the least, and the last.

What if we tithed ten percent of our time each day to loving and serving with Jesus? 

Would we start to see what the throne of Jesus really looks like?  Would we start to understand the love of the cross?

Jesus says, “You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.”

Do you want to be near Jesus, to sit at his right and his left?  Then you need to know this one truth: Jesus, in his glory, is not found by looking way up on seats of power, but rather, by looking way down.  Jesus is found where there is suffering.  Jesus’ is seated on the throne of the cross. 

No Ferraris for Jesus. 

But, who needs a Ferraris when you have an eternal love that never forgets the lost, the least, and the last.  How glorious it is to serve the broken…right next to Jesus.