Queen Valley Community Lutheran Church
25 March 2012
Mark 10:32-45
Be Like Jesus
The last time Jesus and His disciples were in Jerusalem, Jesus had had a run-in with the authorities and had put them in their place pretty soundly. The disciples knew that the authorities were not going to take that lying down. There was trouble brewing for Jesus in Jerusalem. And yet that’s where He was going, and as His followers, they were headed that way as well. They were astonished, and frankly afraid for their own safety in His company. Jesus saw their fear, so He called them aside.
But He didn’t say, “It’s all right guys; nothing is going to happen. Trust Me.” Instead, He told them in advance what was really going to happen to Him when they got to Jerusalem. He knew all about the arrest, beatings, torture, humiliation, and finally the terrible death by crucifixion in advance, but He was going there anyway, because He knew that it was the will of His Father, and that it was the only way for you and me to be saved.
The only good news in the whole package of information that He gave them was that on the third day He would rise again. But by the time He got to that phrase, I suspect they were so numbed and shocked at what He was saying that they hardly heard it, and if they heard it, they probably didn’t understand it.
We all naturally want to avoid pain, discomfort, and hardship. Nobody seeks out ways to make life’s experiences more difficult or painful; life is hard enough as it is! In fact, most of us spend the greatest part of every day and the greatest effort of our lives doing things to avoid or at least minimize all discomfort, pain, and hardship.
However, human experience is also full of illustrations that if we set a goal that’s more important to us than our immediate comfort, we are able to put up with an amazing level of discomfort, inconvenience, hardship - and yes, even pain in order to reach that goal. In fact, we will even put up with quite a lot of all these things for the mere hope of a good, desired outcome, even without any assurance that we will really reach that goal at the end of it.
How many people put up with all the pain and discomfort and the terrible side effects of chemotherapy, sometimes on a relatively small chance that it will overcome the cancer that would certainly otherwise kill them if left untreated?
A good doctor will usually tell the patient and the patient’s family members as nearly as he can determine what their actual chances are, and exactly what to expect as they go through the process. He knows that in that way as it all happens the patient will be able to see that each new difficulty as another milestone in their progress toward the goal of health, no matter how hard or painful or humiliating it is at the time.
The Book of Hebrews says that “...Jesus, ...for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of God.”
The disciples, and especially James and John, seem to have heard only what they wanted to hear as Jesus spoke. They knew that somehow in all of this, He was saying that the Kingdom was coming and that all the prophecies were about to be fulfilled; so they asked Jesus for a special favor. They asked to be seated in positions of high authority and honor when He set up His kingdom. Just like us, they wanted to jump over everything that comes in between and get right to the glories of Heaven!
You’ll notice that Jesus didn’t scold them for wanting this. He just wanted to make sure that they understood what it was that He had said and what it was that they were asking. So once again, He had to explain what comes between now and then.
First, He reminded them of the cost of discipleship. Following Jesus, taking up your cross, means being identified with Him in this world; and being identified with the one that the world will crucify means that you also will suffer, just as He does, at the hands of the world.
The world will never understand Jesus or His Kingdom. The two will forever be at odds. And that means that the world will never understand those who follow Jesus and live in His Kingdom. It will never understand the standards by which you live, or the motives behind your behavior. People will always interpret everything you say and do in the light of the world’s standards and motives.
And so you will always be suspected of seeking power and trying to enrich yourself or advance your own personal agenda. You will always be accused by the world of trying to extend your own empire, rather than the Kingdom of God - because that’s what they would do.
The question is: Will they be right when they assume these things about you? Or wrong? May God grant that they will be wrong as they misjudge every one of us. Let our motives be true and pure and set on following Jesus!
Jesus then goes on to explain the nature of His Kingdom, and the nature of positions of honor within that Kingdom. The Kingdom of God, while it has some similarities to kingdoms of this world, is a completely different kind of arrangement from the ground up than anything this world can understand.
42...Jesus called them to Himself and said to them, ‘You know that those who are considered rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. 43Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant. 44And whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of all. 45For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.’
Just as Jesus came to serve rather than to be served, so we are to serve others, and not expect others to serve us.
In the Kingdom of God the positions of honor are positions of service, not positions of authority as the world understands authority and power.
We seek opportunities to serve, rather than opportunities for advancement. We are not here to build our own careers, advance our own agendas, or broaden our own power base, but to find loving ways to move and draw other people closer to Jesus by serving them, and by laying down our lives - setting aside our own comforts and desires and convenience - for them.
The “joyful goal” that set before us is the goal of seeing our children and grandchildren, friends and family members, and anyone else God puts into our sphere of influence, set free, delivered, and saved from enslavement to sin and from the deceit of this world’s values and standards, living in the light and freedom of God’s Kingdom - and finally getting to see them in Heaven.
What will it take to reach that goal? What is that goal worth to you?
There will be, as always when a worthy goal is set before us, some discomfort, inconvenience, and pain in the process of reaching it. You will have to deny yourself, your own flesh and the satisfaction of your own whims and desires, and make this other thing your main priority. You will have to keep your eyes on the goal, and follow Jesus through all suffering, and be like Him in all suffering.
So Hebrews 12:1-2 puts it: 1”...let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2looking to Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame...”
You will sit down and rest, as Jesus did, later. You will be exalted, in God’s time, to a position of honor in His Kingdom, as Jesus was exalted after this life to sit at the Right Hand of God.
Meanwhile, here in this life, we are to keep our eyes on Jesus and be like Him. Identify with Him. Serve like Him and suffer like Him. Be misunderstood and rejected and condemned by the world, like Jesus. And live for the goal of the salvation of all those that the Father brings to us, into our sphere of influence, like Jesus. Spend our lives in reaching that goal, no matter what discomfort, inconvenience, or pain it may cause.
Who are those people for you? Who are the ones whose salvation you are seeking? For whose eternal soul are you willing to be spent?
Spouse? Parents? Children? Grandchildren? Neighbors? Friends? Whom has God brought to you? Who are the people that can you draw near to Jesus by serving them for Jesus’ sake? Take a minute to make a list!
Now, how can you serve them? And what will it cost you to do that?
Are you willing to pay that price? Are you willing to endure whatever it takes, to reach that goal?
Keep your eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith.
He has said, “I am with you always, even to the end of the earth.” He has said, “I will not leave you as orphans: I will come to you.” He has promised His Holy Spirit to walk you through anything that comes, and comfort and strengthen you along the way. And He has promised to wipe away every tear from your eyes and bring you to the place where there is no more pain or sorrow; no more crying, or sickness or death, when the time for that comes. And then, you will sit down and rest.
Meanwhile, keep your eyes on Jesus. Endure the cross; endure all inconveniences, hardship, and suffering. Pay the price, spend and be spent, for the joy that is set before you, of seeing those loved ones in Heaven.
It will be worth it all!