Sermon July 25, 1999 The Greatest Slave based on Mark 10:35-40
Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Especially: "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."
This day is a special one in which we remember St. James, the Elder. Now the "Elder" label does not mean this James was a church elder. In fact, it is another James who could best be considered the leader of the early church in Jerusalem. Instead, James the Elder means he was the older one. This James was Jesus' disciple from early on. He was the brother of John, the other disciple. These two brothers were fishermen with their father Zebedee. James the Elder is not to be confused with James son of Alpheus, nor the James who was Jesus' brother. Jesus' brother James was the human author of the book of James. Do July 25 is the day in the church calendar to remember James.
James was given some special distinction by Jesus. In Mark 5, only James, John and Peter are allowed to go with Jesus as He raises Jairus' dead daughter. In Mark 9 Jesus also took only these three with Him as He went up the mountain to be transfigured. Mark 13 has these three plus Andrew involved in a private conversation with Jesus about the end of the world. James, Peter and John were alone with Jesus as He prayed in the garden of Gethsemane, though this special distinction did not keep them from falling asleep.
Perhaps this special distinction had gone to their heads. As Matthew's Gospel indicates, these two brothers, James and John, along with their mother, came to make a request of Jesus to be in a special position. The mother does the talking, but the report from Mark and Luke shows that the mother was speaking as a direct spokesman for her sons.
The request of Jesus is at first a wide-open request: give us whatever we ask. This suggests that they were approaching Jesus as they would an earthly king, who has the power to grant any request. This was consistent with what the disciples thought of Jesus' kingdom, that it was "of this world." They thought that Jesus would come into earthly, political power and rule as any other king of the day. This type of idea the disciples seemed to hang on to at least through Jesus' ascension. Then, with the coming of the Holy Spirit, they finally get it right. They finally understand that Jesus' kingdom is a kingdom of the heart. It is a Church, an empire, if you will, of those who believe and trust in Jesus as their complete and sole savior from sin.
With their improper understanding of Jesus' kingdom, they next request to sit at His right and the left sides. Certainly James and John's request was self centered. So, they got it wrong, in that they wanted to elevate themselves above the other disciples. To this type of thinking Jesus must respond. However, we can hold up their request as being partly correct. It is correct in that it still assigns Jesus as the highest position. People around us in the world seek to put themselves in the highest position and they desire to leave no room at the top for anyone else. At least James and John keep Jesus in the highest position. Further, their desire is to serve their Lord in His kingdom. This can be held up as a worthy vocation. So, we might say that these two were partly right, yet Jesus demands even more of those who would seek to be His disciples.
Jesus challenges them to see what lies behind their request. They don't really understand what the kingdom is about. They don't really understand what Jesus must endure in order to establish the kingdom. Therefore, with some figurative language, Jesus suggests the trials that He must face. He asks the question of James and John, "Can you drink the cup I drink?" This question is asking about the cup of suffering. Can they face the suffering? Can they take the heat?
Jesus makes a second use of metaphor in the question, "Can you be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?" Here the use of the term baptism is to refer to suffering again, where baptism, or washing is a result of a hardship. Jesus says in Luke 12:50 "But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how distressed I am till it is accomplished!" Jesus is using baptism in a different way that we typically do. Instead of referring to the baptism that John the Baptist offered, or our sacrament of Baptism that Christ commanded in Matthew 28, He uses the word here generally to mean "a washing." It is like being washed, however, with a very harsh soap. It is like taking a bath in ammonia. Sure, you will come out cleaner than if you used only water, but that washing, or baptism is a harsh cleaning. This makes me think of the anti-bacterial soaps and cleaners that are so popular today. If the chemicals are harsh enough to kill all bacteria are they good to use on people? With these metaphors of drinking the cup and being baptized, Jesus expresses the journey He was on, the journey to the cross and His execution.
Jesus is showing the disciples the way to greatness in the kingdom. It is not through the granting of a request, but the humiliation of enduring suffering. This is the reverse of an earthly kingdom. Who could follow this path to greatness? Who could endure the suffering?
The disciples are quick to reply that they are ready to face the challenge, but they don't understand. Jesus tells them that they will endure suffering. Figuratively, they will drink the cup and be baptized with the baptism that Jesus must. James is the first to go. Indeed, this James we remember today was also the one who drank the cup of death in our second lesson from Acts. There He was taken prisoner by Herod Agrippa, the grandson of Herod the Great who tried to destroy Jesus as a baby. Now, James faces the cup by the sword of Herod. When James made his request of Jesus earlier Jesus told him he would suffer humiliation instead of glorification. James does indeed face that with no indication of weakening. He holds strong to His confession of Jesus and is willing to die for his Lord.
Some people will suggest that Christianity is a made-up religion, created through the imagination of the disciples. However, if the disciples were living a hoax, in even the slightest degree, would they have not given it up immediately, when they saw an impending execution? Would James go to his death for something which was only a lie?
So, we hold up James today as an example of one who held up Jesus. He went from an immature request of our Lord to faithful obedience to the Lord, even to the point of death. Yes, James did drink the cup Jesus drank - the cup of death. He was baptized with the baptism of death also, just as Jesus was.
As a result of the request of James and John, the rest of the disciples get upset. Jesus uses this occasion to teach all of them an important lesson about being His disciples. Being a disciple in Jesus' kingdom is different from earthly kingdoms. With an earthly kingdom, the ruler must come down on the people with authority in order to have the rule and be the greatest among the people. They must exercise their power to maintain that power. "Not so with you," says Jesus. "Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant..." The word for servant here in the original Greek means "one who serves another" and we get the word "deacon" from it. It means a minister, helper, or attendant. Literally the word means one who executes the commands of another. Jesus teaches the disciples, and us, that one who humbles himself as a servant, a deacon, will be great "among you," that is among Christians. Such a position of humility does not make one great in the world around us, but within Christianity our Lord calls us to be serving Him and others.
Jesus takes this a step further, saying that if one wants to be, not just great, but the greatest, then they must take an even lower position. "...Whoever wants to be first must be slave of all." A slave is a more lowly position than a servant. A slave is bound and tied to a master. They give themselves up entirely to another's will.
James gave himself over completely to the Lord's will. He held strong to the confession of Christ as Lord, even though it took him to his death. We hold up James as an example for us to consider and reflect upon. Do we meet up to the standard James set? Would you die for your faith today?
Consider if your life is lived as a slave to Jesus. Do we instead tend to crowd our faith into one small corner of our lives, occupying perhaps a few hours each week? Do you just put in your time here, or are you a slave to Christ full-time?
Consider also the places where your opinions may disagree with God's Word. We really ought to submit to the Lord and the authority of His Word. Instead, I hear people complain about how we in the Missouri Synod are too strict. We need to lighten up, they say. The rest of the churches are changing, so why shouldn't we? For example, closed communion offends people, so we ought to abandon what the Christian church has practiced for 2000 years. Since certain behaviors are tolerated by the world, shouldn't we also tolerate them in our church so that we don't offend people?
In all of this thinking, human opinion is elevated above the Lord's opinion. His opinion is much more than simply opinion, but it is His Word, His truth, and the Law. Have you, then, really submitted yourself to the Lord's Word? We are called to be His slaves. Do you consider yourself a slave?
It is a sin that we fall short of this total dedication to what our Lord commands. For that sin and all others that fill our lives, we deserve to be punished. The amazing thing we find, however, is that this punishment has been served upon someone in our place. See, as Jesus was telling His disciples and us to be servants and slaves, He, in fact, was being a servant to us. So our text indicated, when Jesus said: "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." We are to be the Lord's servants, but He has already served us, by giving up His life for us. On the cross, Jesus ransomed us. He paid the price for our release and we are now free. We are free from the threat of punishment for our sins and we are free to inherit eternal life, to live forever with our Lord.
How strange it is that our all-powerful God came to be among us as a servant. He had the power to force us to serve Him. He had the right to claim us as slaves. Yet, our God stooped down to instead be our servant. He sacrificed His life to ransom ours. He didn't need to, He shouldn't have had to, but our Lord did humiliate Himself just to save us. What incredible love our God has shown unto us.
James is held up as an example. Though at first he sought to gain a high position by being granted a favor, he later comes to truly serve the Lord by dying for that same Lord. James fulfilled Christ's command that we, His disciples assume the role and mentality of a servant and even a slave. We seek to serve our Lord. Where we fall short, we know that our Lord has already served us. He served us by being our substitute on the cross and He thereby paid the ransom for us. We see the greatest servant of all in our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
1) Though Jesus gave His reply to both James and John, we have no account of John suffering a violent death as a martyr. In fact, according to sources outside the Bible, John lived to a very old age and died of natural causes. However, he experienced much suffering along the way. For example, the Roman emperor Nero tried to boil John in oil. He tried, but it didn't work and John survived. John, like James, was drawn by the Lord to be constant in his confession even to the point of being threatened with death. John, too, drank the cup and was baptized by suffering.
2) Returns To Request Jesus returns to comment upon the actual request that James and John made: to have seats on the left and right of Jesus in His glory. He simply replies, this thing of Mine is not for me to grant. In other words, this request is not something available to be assigned. It has already been decided who will sit in those positions.
One possible understanding of what Jesus was speaking of here is to see that Jesus was in His position of glory on the cross. That was the peak of the achievements which the god-man accomplished for us. To be on His right and left would mean to be on Jesus' right and left as He was crucified. These positions were occupied by those who were crucified at the same time as Jesus. The two thieves would have those positions. In fact, those positions had been long ago assigned as Isaiah 53:12 had predicted. This verse says: "Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, And He shall divide the spoil with the strong, Because He poured out His soul unto death, And He was numbered with the transgressors, And He bore the sin of many, And made intercession for the transgressors." This foretells that Jesus would be numbered with the transgressors, which was fulfilled by being crucified with a thief on His right and on His left. So, these positions could not be given to James and John, since prophecy had already fixed them and prophecy must be fulfilled.