Rev Gav

How can I be the greatest?

Mark 10.35–45

We all like to feel special don’t we? We like to be praised or honoured, and to be thought well of — I know I do. One of the hard-hitting lines from one of my favourite Christian songs is, “I carry pride like a disease,” and it reminds me that, at any moment, my pride could break out like a rash on my skin and be visible to all. I wonder if this is why I have a particular aversion to some of the expectations that come with being an Anglican priest — the wearing of fine robes, the formal processing in and out of our gatherings, the one to lead ‘grace’ at communal meals, and a guest at prestigious government social events and ceremonies. I am no ‘better’ than anyone else, and the calling (to which I am currently responding) is to be a servant to the church community in which I find myself. In this sense, I am a priest with a small ‘p’.

It is not easy navigating the path between ambition and loyalty. The world has not changed over thousands of years, and people still make it their life’s aim to be financially successful, be the best at their profession, or attain power and status over others. The great contradiction we discover in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ is that God, the one who has the highest status and the greatest power chose to be made lowly and the servant of all.

This humility is reflected in this beautiful early Christian hymn about Jesus, “…who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a human, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death – even death on a cross!” (Philippians 2:6-8)

Because of our human disposition to ambition, it is no wonder that two of Jesus’ disciples, James and John, sidled up to him, prompted by the expectations of their mother, to ask that when Jesus is glorified if they could sit on thrones, one to his left and one to his right, and after all, Jesus had said they would reign, enthroned, with him in his future kingdom. However, the way to this future ‘success’ (if we can call it that) was by way of the cross — the way of sacrifice and humiliation. It is no coincidence that the New Testament writers describe the cross as the way of glory, and it is no coincidence that Jesus was crucified with one to his left and one to his right. The sign pinned to it read, ‘The king of the Jews’ and the wooden scaffold to which he was nailed was his throne.

A Christian is someone who follows Jesus, who is an apprentice of Jesus, who tries to be like Jesus, and someone who is transformed into the likeness of Jesus as the Spirit leads. As we are reminded in Ephesians 5:1-2, “…be imitators of God… and walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” Like Jesus, we are to walk in love and this means giving ourselves up, offering ourselves, and sacrificing ourselves for others. The way of Jesus has always been and will always be countercultural, go against the prevailing tide of culture, and be a stinking offence to our sensibilities.

Author and church leader, Peter Mead once wrote that there are two kinds of prayer: ‘my great plan’ and ‘my great need’. In the first, I have worked out what I want God to do for me, and I want God to sanctify my request and bless my plan. My prayer begins: “Lord, help me to…” where I have decided in advance what God’s best and wisest course of action will be. In the second, my prayer begins, “Lord, have mercy on me…” and I fall at the feet of God and lay my great need before my Saviour. Who knows best what is good for us? Jesus, or ourselves?

When James and John asked Jesus to sit at his left and right, Jesus responded by asking two questions. “Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptised with the baptism that I am baptised with?” The cup and the baptism here are two metaphors for what Jesus was going to go through. The Greek idiom, ‘to share someone’s cup’ meant to share in their fate, and baptism outside of the Bible was a metaphor for being overwhelmed by disaster or to undergo calamity. In other words, Jesus was asking James and John if they could go through his suffering and death. “Sure!” they replied, “We can do that!” How easy it is to agree to anything when you are standing with your mentor and looking forward to great rewards. How could they possibly comprehend to what they were agreeing despite Jesus repeatedly preaching, “If any wish to come after me, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” (Matthew 16:24).

Preaching humility will never earn preacher points for popularity, but what does it mean for us in the here and now? What does it look like for us to model our lives on Jesus? Well, firstly it means to stop thinking about ourselves, as the Apostle Paul wrote, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.” (Philippians 2:3-4). It means it is okay to not strive for success or being the best in our profession, and to not seek status or power over others. We are called to, “shine like stars in a crooked and perverse world” through being the loving, serving people God has called us to be.

It means that whatever money, skills, faculties, and possessions you have, as far as you are able, in love, you are to use them primarily for the sake of others. Be ambitious, yes, to serve and to love, and to be Jesus to all you meet. Be ambitious to be filled with God’s loving Spirit who will flow into you and through you for the benefit of others. Make love your focus and your goal, and then, my friends, you truly shall be great.

Amen.