“Greatness Is Not Grandness”

Mark 9:30-37

In today’s text Jesus puts power in its Kingdom context. The Kingdom context takes conventional human wisdom upside down and inside out. James addresses this in today’s Epistle reading: “… if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not be boastful and false to the truth. Such wisdom does not come down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, [and] devilish.” Earlier on in the epistle James had warned those reading it not to show partiality in the church to the rich and powerful. That is not Kingdom behavior.

Today’s text from Mark includes another warning from Jesus that he will be betrayed and crucified, and that he would be raised from the dead after three days. He was telling his disciples that he would be exercising his power within the context of the Kingdom. He would be the Suffering Servant and Crucified Messiah. His Kingdom was not defined in earthly, unspiritual, or devilish ways. There would be the quiet triumph that was the Resurrection, but that would follow his death on a cross.

Obviously the disciples still weren’t getting it. Or as verse 32 suggests they were afraid to ask Jesus what he really meant. They were practicing the ancient art of never asking a question that the answer to is something they didn’t really want to hear. They were content to keep rolling on toward Jerusalem with thoughts of earthly conquest on their minds. They were even arguing about who was going to get what spot in Jesus’ cabinet, about who was going to have the power and how much of it that each of them would possess. As the sermon title suggests they had confused greatness with grandness.

Obviously they weren’t comfortable talking about this with Jesus. As they, in the manner of disciples of that day, walked at a respectful distance behind the Rabbi Jesus they tried to conceal their self-absorbed arguments from Jesus. Deep in their guts they knew that he wouldn’t approve. And he didn’t.

He knew what they were bickering about. When asked them what they’d been discussing he did so in a way that let them know that he was already aware of their earthly, unspiritual, and devilish ambitions. So being the good Rabbi he stopped and sat down, signaling to them that he had something important to say. Then he said it: “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” Then he picked up a child and said, according to The Message: “Whoever embraces one of these children as I do embraces me, and far more than me – the God who sent me.”

Why a child? Because a child was the ultimate example of powerlessness. Children had no standing, influence, or wealth. They were the weakest of the weak. What Jesus was saying, according to William Barclay’s paraphrase, “If a [person] welcomes the poor, ordinary people, the people who have no influence and no wealth and no power, the people who need things done for them, [that person] is welcoming me.” Those words are very similar to the ones Jesus spoke in the 25^th Chapter of Matthew, in the Parable of the Sheep and Goats, “Truly I tell you, just as [fed and so forth] one of the least of these, you did it to me.”

If we want to be first in the Kingdom of God we must be willing to be last, willing to be servants to the least of these. We must be willing to serve those who can give us nothing in return. We exercise the only power we have, that which comes to us from Christ, by reaching out to the powerless, by sharing whatever it is we have with those who have less. We don’t do it for publicity or for appearances or rewards. We don’t do it in order to accumulate chips that we can call in later to get what we want. We don’t use people in such ways. We serve them, no questions asked and no response necessary.

I wonder if all the movers and shakers, deal makers and breakers, and influence peddlers on Capitol Hill and in the White House get it. I wonder if all those from both ends of the political spectrum who rant and rave on the airwaves and in print get it. Are they really trying to be a positive influence or do they just like to listen to themselves talk? And the more cynical question, are they only in it for the celebrity and money? Can any of them comprehend the significance of Jesus’ words: “So you want first place? Then take the last place. Be the servant of all.”

And then there’s the scariest question of them all: do we get it? It’s not just politics. It’s an issue in the business world, in the fields of sports and academics, and even in the church. We want to be first. We want to be number one. We want the biggest house, fastest car, and most glamorous partner. We want power and influence and money. To quote a favorite line of one of my colleagues, it seems that we all want to be the prettiest girl in the room. That’s what all the self-help books and advertising tell us we should want, and if we don’t, then we should. To not do so in our culture is to be considered abnormal. We live in a culture fixated on wealth, power, and celebrity and not servanthood and humility.

In response to this fixation William Barclay wrote, “Every economic problem would be solved if [people] lived for what they could do for others and not for what they could get for themselves. Every political problem would be solved if the ambition of [people] was only to serve the [common good] and not enhance their own prestige. The divisions and disputes which tear the Church asunder would for the most part never occur if only the desire of the Church and its office-bearers was to serve the Church, and not care in what position as long as the service was given.”

As Christians living in a culture such as ours we struggle with this. We literally are in a battle with the powers and the principalities, the earthly, unspiritual, and devilish. And all too often the powers and principalities win. Instead of living as a counter cultural influence in the world we are seduced into believing that if culture endorses something, then whatever it is must also be endorsed by Jesus. Just like those first disciples we try to pick and choose those Kingdom values which we wish to champion and disregard those that are inconvenient. Quoting William Barclay again, “[People] still accept the parts of the Christian message which they like and which suit them, and refuse to understand the rest.”

This is where some of you will accuse me of having stopped preaching and started meddling. We Presbyterians have been ripping each other – and the church – apart for more than thirty years over the question of homosexuality. Aren’t there more important battles to fight? Jin Kim, an evangelical pastor in Minneapolis, has taken both sides of that debate to task. He cannot understand why we’re paying so much attention to what amounts to 3% of the American population. He chides the conservatives for fixating on a sin affecting such a small part of the population while ignoring other sins that are affecting a whole lot more people. He chides the liberals for getting so all bent out of shape over obtaining social justice for a tiny minority while ignoring gross injustices like racism.

We Christians can get all worked up over sexual immorality, pornography, drinking, drugging, and gambling – as we should – while totally ignoring the stench of other evils going on right under our noses. Why? Because some of those evils help us in our ongoing effort to be the prettiest girl in the room. Those of us nearer the top of the economic food chain do all we can to maintain our place even if it pushes the less fortunate closer to the bottom. We vote for whoever promises to lower our taxes and protect our Medicare – or our corporate subsidies – even if a few dollars more in taxes, which if spent wisely and compassionately, might feed hungry children, house homeless families, and, dare I say it, provide some people with health insurance.

If our nation really was to be the Christian nation so many people keep insisting that it is, then it would be a nation whose politics, economy, and ethical structures would be governed by the laws of the Kingdom rather than the laws of the jungle, laws that would turn the culture we live in on its head.

Imagine a nation governed by people with a servanthood mentality. Imagine a nation in which there weren’t so many people aspiring to be the prettiest girl in the room. Imagine a nation in which compassion was valued over competition. Imagine a nation where no baby was ever aborted for the sake of economic convenience, or purveyors of filth and drug lords didn’t exist because their products no longer turned a profit. Imagine a nation that truly lived out the words liberty and justice for all. Imagine a nation in which no child really is left behind.

This side of heaven such a nation will probably never exist. But that’s no excuse for those of us who claim to follow Jesus not to work for, and maybe more importantly model, justice and righteousness. It has to start somewhere. Somebody has to be willing, in the name of Jesus, to be last of all and servant of all. Somebody has to take seriously the needs of the least of these. Somebody has to stop aspiring to being the prettiest girl in the room. Guess who that somebody is. Amen.