"What were you arguing about on the road?" (v. 33)

Today we tackle what is probably one of the most common activities of our daily living: having arguments with one another! According to Webster’s dictionary, the word "argue" has an agreeable as well as a disagreeable side to it. Although it can mean "to accuse, to contend, to dispute" (not very inviting terms), it can also mean "to reason, to make clear, to give evidence of, to indicate." These can be inviting and attractive concepts.

There can be two kinds of arguments - those that are worthwhile and those that are worthless. In our Bible story for today, Jesus must have been disappointed when he discovered that his disciples were engaged in a worthless argument. You see, Jesus had just finished sharing with them some heavy material: how he would be handed over to evil people and would be killed, and how he would rise again on the third day.

But the disciples quickly brushed aside that all-important topic. Instead, we are told, "they began arguing among themselves about who was the greatest!" (v. 34).

Now Jesus was not trying to muffle their right to talk and dialogue, or even to disagree with one another. But what he does seem to he telling them here is, "Don’t go through life discussing worthless arguments. If you’re going to argue, at least make sure it’s a worthwhile argument." Most of us need that same reminder, and that’s what Jesus is telling us today. He is encouraging us about having worthwhile arguments.

I

You can tell something about people by the company they keep. You can also tell something about people by the arguments they pursue. Some of the arguments in which you and I are willing to take part are embarrassing, to say the least. Jesus asks his disciples here, "What were you arguing about on the road?" Then we read, "But they would not answer him, because on the road they had been arguing among themselves about who was the greatest."

Pretty embarrassing! Not only were they caught discussing a subject that revealed their own proud, self-centered concerns; they were also carrying on this worthless argument in the presence of him who was the greatest, of him who lived the greatest story ever told as he laid down his life for us at the cross; who in the greatest victory this world has ever known rose triumphantly on Easter Day. In the presence of that Christ their arguments were small and worthless indeed. And so are many of ours.

"What were you arguing about on the road?" What do you argue about? Sometimes it’s a little embarrassing to think about. The other day my wife and daughter came home from the grocery store with some "mini" aluminum cans of grapefruit juice, each enough for one serving. I thought the wiser purchase would have been a single, large economy-size can. Father and daughter "discussed" this issue to the point where mother had to intervene and demand silence. How embarrassing! "What were you arguing about on the road?"

Last Wednesday I was taking the elevator up to the seventh floor at St. Joseph Hospital. An elderly couple were already aboard. During our entire ride they were arguing about whether the person they were going to visit had entered the hospital a week ago on a Monday or Tuesday! I thought to myself, "What a worthless argument!"

"What were you arguing about on the road?" Much of our arguing reminds me of a little syndicated column in our daily newspaper, called "Trivia Corner." It’s a list of five questions each day, designed to have you wrack your brain about mostly-unimportant social or historical details of the past, the answers to which add up to a big zero anyway.

The awful truth that emerges from all this is that much of our arguing is pursued to prove ourselves "winners" and our adversaries "losers." What could be a more worthless enterprise? That’s what the disciples were doing here. Not only was it un-Christ-like; it greatly displeased our Lord as well. Jesus is reminding us that such arguing is to he avoided.

II

As our arguing can displease Christ, this arguing of the disciples must have wounded his heart as well. Here is Jesus, the suffering servant, trying to sensitize his closest friends about the gathering clouds of suffering and pain that he would endure. But they preferred to carry on their own discussions of self-interest. Jesus must have suffered some disillusionment in these moments!

So you and I must be very careful about win-or-lose type arguments. After all, in most kinds of arguments we run the risk of hurting another person’s feelings. All of us - and I put myself at the top of the list - need to be on our guard about hurting other people’s feelings with our words.

You see, in worthless arguments we become so centered on our ego, so intent upon winning a battle of words, that we can end up wounding another person’s feelings, often quite deeply. How many words would not most of us do anything to be able to take back - in the heat of an argument! Oh, friends, if you’re going to argue with your wife about whether to paint the bedroom blue or yellow, realize the limits built in to such an exchange. Flip a coin and have it over with, before someone gets hurt on the inside.

Notice how Jesus dealt with the disciples’ arguing here. He didn’t become indignant and join them, although he had a right to. He didn’t blast in on them with words that burned. He didn’t chastise them. He didn’t overtly claim to be the greatest himself (even though in his supreme humility at the cross he was).

No, the gentle approach of Jesus was to ask this casual question, "What were you arguing about on the road?" And then, in his typical pastoral patience, we read that "Jesus sat down, called the twelve disciples, and said to them, ‘Whoever wants to be first must place himself last of all and be the servant of all’ " (v. 35). A worthless argument was thus made good.

III

If there must be arguments among us, let’s at least make them worthwhile ones. Remember that the word "argue" can also mean "to reason, to make clear, to give evidence of, to indicate." Those are good things to do whenever we’re engaged in talk with someone. The answer to gaps between people is not to stop talking. Often the answer is precisely to talk - to communicate, to reason, to make clear, to indicate (that is, to give direction and guidance).

Oh yes, perhaps even worse than some of our arguing is the silence that frequently develops between people. Persons in positions of leadership often complain about the loneliness that this kind of silence can bring them. Parents (who, after all, exercise a kind of leadership position) sometimes long to have more words and communication with their children. But talk is often difficult to come by. How often hasn’t a parent, after the fact, embraced one of their children in love, asking, "Why didn’t you talk to me about it?"

They say that two things you should never argue about are politics and religion. Yet most politicians I know feel a certain loneliness in their efforts because rarely do their constituents talk with them about their feelings and views on urgent and worthwhile issues. In our staff meetings here at church, we frequently discuss how difficult it is for us to know what’s important and meaningful for our people, because their expressions and feelings are so rarely shared with us. It’s obvious that much of what we do here at church together is worthwhile; indeed it often borders on the eternal. The work of the church is something worth talking about and sharing.

As we come to this Communion table again, God lovingly sets his finest Child in our midst, even as Jesus set a child in the midst of his disciples here (v. 36). Jesus Christ comes in this sacrament to share, to talk, to communicate, to give direction and guidance. In the power of his humility we will again find the courage to speak and to say what is worth saying.