The Servant King

10-18-15 (Proper 24 / Ordinary29 B, Semi-Continuous)

Hebrews 5:1-10; Mark 10:35-45

The Servant King

The banner scrolls across the screen and the news anchor begins his welcome to the millions of viewers tuning in on television screens across the globe.  Crowds in the thousands have gathered in the auditorium, eager to watch and listen.  The podiums stand dark on a dimly lit stage, looking almost eager themselves to welcome the eloquent speakers who are about to stand behind them and share their views on a variety of hot-button issues.

The stage is set for the first great debate, the debate that will quite literally shape the campaign for all of these hopeful candidates.  The moderator is introduced, the rules are explained, and the audience primed to welcome the candidates.  One by one, each candidate is introduced… until something strange happens.  The moderator calls the name of the next candidate.  The crowd erupts in applause for a good thirty seconds, then the applause peters out… the candidate hasn’t stepped up onto the stage.  The moderator calls out the name of the candidate again, the crowd applauds a little less enthusiastically… but still no candidate.  The moderator calls up a production assistant and confers with her away from the microphone for a moment, sending her backstage to search for the candidate.  Listening into his earpiece, the moderator looks more and more confused, then turns to the audience and apologizes, looking sheepish as he explains that the candidate, though scheduled to speak at the debate, is nowhere to be found in the studio, and so forfeits their place in the debate.  The next candidate is introduced and the debate goes on.

At the first major break during the debate, a special announcement comes on and reveals that the missing candidate has been found!  They cut to live footage of the candidate, who at the last minute decided to forgo the entire debate in order to go next door to the local soup kitchen and serve the hungry, homeless people who came there that evening for their regular meal.  The anchors express their astonishment, a pundit comments on the political suicide that the candidate just committed, and then they return live to the debate so that the audience can listen to the candidates who are serious about their careers as they continue to debate the major issues in their campaigns.

How would you feel if this were to happen on the stage of the next major primary debate, whichever party you support?  Would it change your support for that candidate?  Would you rush to donate to their campaign, buy a bumper sticker or two, and start encouraging your friends to support that person in whatever way they could?  Or would the pundit be correct in their analysis, the candidate’s campaign ruined, the presidency immediately lost to them over what was undoubtedly nothing more than just a cheap publicity stunt?  It might depend on that candidate’s actions throughout the rest of the campaign, but no matter what the end results, it’s an action that would make waves - and a vision I’d love to see fulfilled some day.

Unfortunately, it’s not something I think we’ll see any time in the near future, though.  And for quite understandable reasons, I have to admit.  It’s not the kind of thing that our leaders are expected to do - leaders are supposed to be people of strength and integrity.  We expect them to never back down from a confrontation, to be ready to face questioning and adversity, to be open and willing for conversation and confrontation - that’s what it takes in order for them to serve the needs of our country and its people.  It’s the kind of tenacity that we see out of James and John, known to their friends as the “Sons of Thunder.”  These two brothers don’t beat around the bush when they begin lobbying Jesus for his favor; they ask him, “Give us whatever we ask of you,” and when Jesus asks what it is they want, they ask for nothing less than to sit at his right and his left hand when he goes to his glory.  They don’t hesitate to ask for the greatest positions of power in the new Kingdom that Jesus keeps talking to them about - they don’t even hesitate when Jesus warns them of the cost of attaining that kingdom.  They’re ready and willing to take on the cup that Jesus knows he is about to drink and the baptism that he has yet to receive.  And yet, Jesus still tells them that those positions can’t be theirs - they’re not even his to give in the first place.

James and John’s audacity isn’t taken well by the others in the group, of course, but it’s when Jesus says that the positions are still open that the real bickering starts to occur in earnest.  Now it’s time to start the debates, to campaign and jockey for position and determine who will be the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven.  But it’s also here that Jesus gives the instructions that turn everything on its head.  “Whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant.  And whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all.  For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”  You can almost hear him drop the mic and walk away after this, the blank faces, silent looks, and hanging jaws of the disciples following him in his wake.

It’s counter-intuitive.  Counter-cultural.  Great leaders can’t be slaves.  Powerful kings don’t stoop down to serve the people at the bottom rung.  The top 1% shouldn’t be down in the gutters with the lowest of the other 99, letting his Versace shoes get soaked in filth and his Armani suit be splashed in mud.  Presidents who spend their time in homeless shelters serving soup are the kind of leaders who don’t have their priorities straight - when the whole world is hanging on your word, it can’t be waiting for the dip of a ladle…

And yet that is exactly what Jesus tells the disciples it takes to make a leader great.  Whoever wishes to be great must be a servant.  Whoever wishes to live must give up their life.  Whoever wants to have everything must give everything away.  It seems a mystery beyond our comprehension… and then we keep reading, “for the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”  And we remember.  Because Jesus did this very thing - and we hold him up as not just a great leader and teacher, but as our very Savior.  He gave his life - and in that moment, he gained the lives of innumerable billions.  He died that we might live.  And in that, we learn what true greatness really is.

The disciples thought greatness was being willing to follow Christ to wherever he led.  To be willing to die alongside him when the time came.  The Sons of Thunder thought that their faithfulness at the very least should earn them choice spots in the future regime.  And yet Jesus gently reminds them that it’s about so much more than that.  Because all the power in the world doesn’t amount to a thing if you’re not willing to use it to help serve another.  

So we gather here today and we have to ask ourselves:  are we willing to drink from that cup, to truly partake in that baptism?  Are we ready to let ourselves continually be emptied out, so much so that all that is left to fill us back up again is Christ?  Are we willing to let everything else go that we might become servants to all?  And do we have the faith to know that, though we lose everything in this world through doing so, we gain so much more in our heavenly lives because we’ve enriched the lives of others?  It’s a prospect that fills me with as much fear as it does hope, and yet we know nevertheless that this is what the Kingdom is all about - may it be what drives us each day, as well.  To God be the Glory.  Amen.