During the American Revolution a man in civilian clothes rode past a group of soldiers repairing a small defensive barrier. Their leader was shouting instructions, but making no attempt to help them. Asked why by the rider, he retorted with great dignity, "Sir, I am a corporal!" The stranger apologized, dismounted, and proceeded to help the exhausted soldiers. The job done, he turned to the corporal and said, "Corporal, next time you have a job like this and not enough men to do it, go to your commander-in-chief, and I will come and help you again." With that George Washington got back on horse and rode off.
Where did Washington learn such leadership skills? I have no doubt he learned them here. In these words of Jesus: Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant. The young corporal had these words modeled to him from the man at the top. The disciples, likewise, receive from their leader a picture of servant hood.
And it is high time they start imitating their leader. It is now five days before Jesus' crucifixion. Four days before his betrayal and trial. One day before the clearing of the temple. A few hours before the Triumphal Entry. If the Disciples are going to start appropriating Jesus' teachings in their life it ought to be now. But it doesn't happen. Moments before the most crucial events in their life they are a bickering, petty, bad-tempered quarrelsome lot. We need to learn from this not-so-flattering moment in the life of the disciples.
How is it that critical moments can be so close at hand and we are wondering what's in this for me? It has to do with the three poison pills of position, prestige, and power.
I
The disciples wanted position. As you read the Gospels you come across numerous occasions when the disciples misunderstand Jesus’ teachings, when their actions are inappropriate, when they jump to conclusions that are way off mark. Here in Mark 10 is a unique situation, something a little different than their usual blunders. Within their own ranks they are jockeying for position. Here’s what happened. It is the last week of Jesus’ life. It must be early in the morning as they are approaching the city of Jericho and have yet to make that hard climb up the treacherous path to Jerusalem. The disciples know that whatever messianic plans Jesus has are about to be put into effect.
With this in mind James and John, two brothers born to a man named Zebedee, sense their opportunity to claim leadership positions. Perhaps, they said to one another, Jesus is partial to Peter and we must act now to gain his affections. Perhaps they felt they were better leaders and Jesus would come around to their view if they could but argue their case. Whatever the reason for their actions they wanted the first and second positions of power. They secretly take Jesus aside and ask, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask.” What is it? Jesus asks. Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left when you come into your glory.
George Bernard Shaw, the famous author, was once asked in what generation he would have preferred to live. The witty Irishman replied: "The age of Napoleon, because then there was only one man who thought he was Napoleon." What James and John are asking for is nothing less than the power to command the army of Israel. Rabbis and Scholars at the time taught that the messiah when he came would be the new David, King of Israel. He would rule with a mighty sword and vanquish all of Israel’s enemies. The disciples were under the same impression. It is important to remember that most of the disciples misunderstandings about Jesus stem from this. So even though Peter recognized that Jesus was the Christ, the messiah, he did not mean a suffering messiah who dies upon a cross. He meant an earthly messiah who sword in hand who conquers upon the hill.
So James and John are jockeying for first place. But doesn’t it seem strange and even a little childish the way they go about it. They demand Jesus say yes to a question they haven’t even asked? We want you to do whatever we ask. But Jesus makes no such promise. Be straight with me, he tells them, what is it you want? I think they knew the answer to the question was no. But they wanted to affect the outcome. They didn’t want to be told no. And this reveals their selfish motive.
It is a motive we all are guilty of. Throughout human history, the road to power is paved upon the backs of conquered men. It is a history, which now must change ad will change. Calling his disciples together Jesus tells his disciples, “You know those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you.” In other words, there is always someone a peg above you. The Gentiles are ruled over by local authorities and there are higher officials over them and on up the chain of command it goes, official after higher official after higher official. Not so with you, Jesus says. The kingdom of God will have no hierarchy.
Why is this? It is because God is love. And love does not conquer but serves. Listen to this quote and then I want to tell you who said it: “Alexander, Caesar, and Hannibal conquered the world but had no friends....Jesus founded his empire upon love, and at this hour millions would die for him.... He has won the hearts of men, a task a conqueror cannot do." The person who said that was none other than Napoleon. The very man history records as having one of the largest egos knew what tenuous grounds he stood on. You want the devotion and allegiance of men? Don’t be a Napoleon. Don’t fight to be leader of all; fight for the least position of all. Be a servant.
II
James and John wanted position. Secondly, they wanted prestige. Position: climbing rank and exercising authority over others. Prestige: Wanting the recognition and honor that the position deserves. These were their motivation. A well-dressed European woman was on safari in Africa. The group stopped briefly at a hospital for lepers. The heat was intense, the flies buzzing. She noticed a nurse bending down in the dirt, tending to the leper, cleaning out the pus-filled sores. With disdain the woman remarked, "Why, I wouldn't do that for all the money in the world!" The nurse quietly replied, "Neither would I."
Our misguided motivations can be seen in how we deal with our children’s failures. We have grown so conscientious about rewarding people that now no one can be a loser. We have grown so sensitive with our children’s programs that everyone has to receive a ribbon, get a trophy. No one must be allowed to suffer the indignity of not being honored no matter how small the contribution. It is actually reported that some schools no longer give D’s and F’s. It destroys children’s self-esteem they say. Even our playgrounds have become politically correct. Some time back Dodge Ball came under fire by watchdog groups. That’s the game where you try to hit people with a big springy rubber ball. When you’re hit you’re out. They argue that "elimination games," like dodge ball, can harm a child by exposing them to early to the fact that in life sometimes people win and sometimes people lose. Now, we wouldn't want to teach that, would we?
The aim in all of this is to make everyone equal. We are attempting to create a society where all men and women have the same standing. No one looses. Everybody is number one. Everyone is important. We have become obsessed with prestige. Prestige: The desire to be recognized by others, to be honored and respected by our peers.
“Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left when you come into your glory” is the request of James and John. They want a piece of the action. They assumed, and incorrectly I might add, that there would be great glory and honor bestowed on the disciples when they rode in military victory over the Romans. How, you might ask, did they think that little Israel could conquer the Empire of Rome? One need only be reminded of Moses and Egypt, Samson and the Philistines, David and Goliath. There were plenty of examples in the Jewish scriptures of God’s people overcoming impossible odds.
But glory would not come through conflict this time. Looking at James and John he said, “You do not know what you are asking. It is not my right to grant you these seats. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared.” They have inverted everything. James and John thought the positions on Jesus’ right and left were earthly positions of power. They were not. Just exactly what Jesus means by these two positions is uncertain. Perhaps he means the left and right side of his cross where the two criminals were crucified. Or, perhaps he means Moses and Elijah who stood with him on the mount of Transfiguration. Still yet he might mean the positions beside him in heaven. It is not clear. The one thing that is clear is that James and John have misunderstood what lies ahead of them.
Prestige is not coming to the disciples. It is the Passion. It is not glory to which they are headed but the gallows. First and second positions are out of the question. Least of all is the only option or nothing at all.
III
James and John wanted position. They wanted prestige. And third they wanted power. Notice that the other ten disciples became indignant when they heard what James and John were up to. It was a power play, a strategic maneuver, and the other disciples resented it. We are drawn to power, to wield it over another. Mankind has always looked for greater and greater means to wield authority. The ultimate expression for our generation is found in the development of the atomic bomb. What could be more powerful than to harness the power of the atom. Let me suggest this: On May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens in Washington. At 8:32 A.M. the explosion ripped 1,300 feet off the mountain. The blast sent 300-degree heat traveling at two hundred miles an hour. People lost their lives sixteen miles away. The blast leveled 150-foot Douglas firs, as far as seventeen miles away. A total of 3.2 billion board-feet of lumber was destroyed in 5 minutes, enough to build 200,000 three-bedroom homes. Listen to this: The force was equivalent to ten million tons of TNT. Which is roughly equal to five hundred Hiroshimas.
James and John needed their concept of power put into perspective. They thought they understood power, but Jesus shows them that real power resides in humble acts of service. Jesus calls the disciples around him: “Whoever wants to become great among you” he said, “ must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. 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.”
Jesus in service to all mankind is going to offer his life as ransom. It was an explosive idea. A ransom would be paid. You know what a ransom is…a price paid to release someone from captivity. You and I are held in captivity to sin and we need to be freed. Sin has us trapped. Sin has caused our suffering. Sin has alienated us from God. James and John have misunderstood. We don’t need a new city; we need a new soul. We don’t need an insurrection; we need a resurrection. We don’t need a coup; we need cure. Position, power, and prestige won’t free us. We need someone who is willing to serve and heal us.
Why are we like this? Why do we pursue positions of power when there is so much more reward in reaching out to others? Perhaps you have heard the beautiful children's story about the three trees? The trees were talking in the forest one day about their dreams for the future. The first tree said it would like to be made into a cradle, so that it might go on living as a support for the fragile life of a tiny new baby. The second tree wanted to be made into a big ship, so that it might go on living, carrying important cargo and influential people to exotic new lands. The third tree longed to stay right where it was, existing only as a tree, but growing ever taller, and pointing ever higher, to remind everyone that there is a God in heaven who loves them. Those were their dreams: One wanted to be a cradle, one wanted to be a mighty ship, and one wanted to be a tall tree, pointing people toward God.
But then one day the woodcutters came and chopped down the three trees...and destroyed their dreams. The first tree was not made into a cradle, but into a simple feeding trough, a manger for animals. But the manger was sold to a family in Bethlehem, and on the night Jesus was born, that simple feed box became the cradle for the Christ Child.
The second tree was built into a boat, but not the kind it had dreamed of--not a mighty ocean-going vessel--but a tiny inexpensive fishing boat. A man named Simon Peter bought the boat, and on one warm afternoon when the crowds pressed in, Jesus himself climbed aboard that small fishing boats that he might preach good news to the multitudes.
The third tree also was deprived of its dream. It wanted to remain standing tall and pointing toward God. Instead, it was cut down and shaped into a horrible instrument of torture, a cross. But it was on that very cross that Jesus was crucified, transforming a symbol of cruelty into a powerful reminder of God's eternal love for all the people.
The three trees were humbled, but in the plan of God, they were exalted.
That's the way it works: When we, in humility, give ourselves to God, our Lord can do great things through us and for us--greater than we can ever imagine. Amen.
The tree story is taken from James W. Moore, "Some Things Are Too Some Things are too Good Not To Be True," pg.22,