Doulos

 

Text: Mark 10:35-45

Focus: Servanthood

Function: to help people see the joy in serving.

³⁵James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came forward to him and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” ³⁶And he said to them, “What is it you want me to do for you?” ³⁷And they said to him, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” ³⁸But Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” ³⁹They replied, “We are able.” Then Jesus said to them, “The cup that I drink you will drink; and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized; ⁴⁰but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.”

⁴¹When the ten heard this, they began to be angry with James and John. ⁴²So Jesus called them and said to them, “You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. ⁴³But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, ⁴⁴and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. ⁴⁵For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.”

One of the testimonies to the truth of scripture is the way that it reports the bad, as well as the good of the people that we consider to be heroes of the faith.

In this passage, we see a more than petty squabble among the disciples that displayed their ignorance about servanthood and what it means to be a follower of Christ Jesus.

It starts out, as we read, with James and John taking Jesus aside and asking Him to grant them a favor before they ask Him the favor.

Don’t you hate that? When someone asks that you grant a request before they tell you what it is?

Now, we have 12 disciples. Out of the 12 there are three that are the most prominent. Peter, the first Pope and then James and John. John was described as the disciple that Jesus loved. He was above the other 11, in that regard.

And they know that Jesus is up to something great. But they are thinking in human, human kingdom terms, and they cannot understand the nature of the Kingdom of God.

And Jesus doesn’t rebuke them, but makes it a teaching moment. He asks them if they are willing to follow Him to the death. That is what He meant, I believe, when He said drink the cup I drink and be baptized with the same baptism as me. They were both martyred for their faith. They were both beheaded. So, Jesus prophecies that they are going to be martyrs as well and that does not turn them back.

It is strange, Jesus predicts His death, and theirs and they ask Him if they can sit at His side in the Kingdom.

Maybe they are beginning to get it. They have seen Jesus raise the dead. At the time, they were still blinded to the fact that Jesus was going to be tortured to death by the Jewish/Roman authorities, but they seem to have enough faith to believe, like Abraham did when he offered Isaac as a sacrifice to God, that death was not more powerful than God.

And Jesus again, does not rebuke them at the moment, but explains to them a little bit further the workings of the Kingdom of God. He tells them that the decision to sit on His right and left is left up to the Father, not Him. I wonder about that verse, since we also read that all the fullness of God dwelt in Jesus and we believe and teach that Jesus and God are One in the Trinity. I can’t answer that question, but it does lead me to understand that Jesus understands the human condition by the way He gently instructs them even though they are being incredibly selfish.

But perhaps this is the time that they will learn. And they do seem to pick up the lesson. The other 10 hear about the ask and are indignant. An argument ensues as to which of them deserves the position of honor. Jesus interrupts the argument and uses the precocious ask of the 2 as a teaching moment for all 12.

He tells them that God’s kingdom is an upside down Kingdom. Yes, He says, it is true that power and official prestige and privilege is granted to those who rule over us in the human kingdoms. But not so in the heavenly kingdom. The greatest, Jesus says, will be the servant. Or slave, of all.

The word for servant is doulos. And it is an ideal that we can strive for in our Christian faith.

We talked a few years ago about a Christian bakery in California who believed that God has called them to take a stand against what they believe to be sin sin and therefore they refused to bake a wedding cake for a same sex couple.

You remember the story, the same sex couple sued to try to make an example out of the case and it ended up in the Supreme court who upheld the right of the bakery owners to refuse the gay couple a wedding cake.

So-called “religious freedom” won. But here is the thing. What kind of witness was given to the world about the love of God for same sex couples?

Jesus has called us to be the servants of all. Why didn’t they serve the couple with the best possible cake as an act of love and Christian witness? That, I believe, is what Jesus would have done.

We are called to be servants and perhaps the disciples were finally getting it in this lesson.

The Kingdom of God is an upside down kingdom. The greatest of us is the one who serves the most. The cook in the kitchen has more honor than the preacher on the stage, in God’s kingdom.

But that is not the way the world thinks. The idea of giving up our personal rights to serve others is becoming un-American and unpatriotic in these days of the COVID pandemic. But that does not demonstrate the servant ideal. Having the right to do whatever we want is part of what we believe freedom to be. But that right, is worldly. The Christian response is for us to find ways to serve others.

This is difficult because it contradicts the passion we feel as American citizens. But we belong first to the Kingdom of God and it is Jesus that we are representing.

Not obeying the directions of the government may be our right as Americans, but refusing to serve our neighbors by caring enough to protect them is not serving others in Christian love.

Being Christian means at times we are not worldly. It means at times we give up our worldly rights to serve others. That is what Jesus is telling the disciples. And, except for a little bit of their petty squabbling in the epistles, they seemed to have gotten the idea.

I love the patience with which Jesus instructs the disciples in this passage. No rebuke, just instruction. I wish I could do that all the time as well in my preaching.