It’s easy to dismiss James and John’s demand to Jesus that they sit on his right and left side for all eternity as selfish, bodacious and arrogant. It’s easy to say, “Well, there those disciples go again…NOT GETTING IT AT ALL.”
But I don’t think that’s it-- as a matter of fact I think they acted like this because they did get it, in spades. The man they loved, the rabbi they respected, the teacher they adored had been pretty clear---he was gonna die and it was going to be up to them to “carry on.”
They had to have been freaked out, after all they had given up EVERYTHING—job, family, familiarity, safety-- to follow Jesus and yet over the course of the previous two chapters in Mark’s Gospel—chapters we have been reading since Labor Day---Jesus has predicted his death not once, not twice, but three times. “Look!” he said. “We’re going up to Jerusalem. The Human One will be handed over to the chief priests and the legal experts. They will condemn him to death and hand him over to the Gentiles. They will ridicule him, spit on him, torture him, and kill him. After three days, he will rise up.”
The first time he made this prediction, Peter told him he was nuts and Peter got put in his place with one exclamation of “Get Behind me Satan!” The second time he shares this prediction, several disciples get into the act and behind Jesus’ back they begin to argue about which of them will take the mantel when Jesus was gone, they wanted to know who was going to be the GREATIST.
So let’s review: first Peter hears Jesus’ prediction and tells him he’s out of his mind, making Jesus pretty mad.
Second, after hearing the next prediction, several disciples compete over who will be the greatest and Jesus responds by putting a child on his lap and reminding all within earshot that receiving the fullness of God’s grace and glory requires viewing the world through the unblemished eyes of a child.
And that brings me back to my doctor and her question about what in the world has happened to people and their selfishness.
I’ll tell you what I told her:
I think people are horribly frightened. It seems to me this has been most evident since 9/11, but I also know, from an historical perspective, that this has happened before in the world and will probably happen again: when we, as a people, become unsure, nervous, scared, we turn inward. It’s the manifestation of survival of the fittest---the world around us becomes unmoored and we dig in to protect ourselves. We look down and in instead of up and out. We become insular and focused on “me” instead of broad-minded and in tune with the world community around us.
For the last few weeks I’ve been preaching about the importance of community and what these actions of the disciples and the actions of our own fellow Americans since 9/11 suggests is that isolation isn’t about hubris, it’s about fear. Nadia Bolz-Weber, in her most recent book, “Accidental Saints,” says this: “I’ve finally realized that trying not to need others isn’t about strength and independence, it’s about fear.”
James and John’s world is most definitely becoming unmoored. Here they are, following Jesus down to Jerusalem where he is meeting sure and certain death, things are falling apart and so, they begin to look out for themselves, to assure themselves of a place at Jesus’ side. They’re not arrogant, they’re scared.
Everything they’ve come to know is about to be destroyed. Think about, first, they are simple fishermen, working for their father Zebedee when this preacher guy comes by and offering a confusing, yet so very compelling, message, they, against any and all reason, dropped their nets and followed him. And now he’s leaving them.
Their world was inside out and upside down and they were freaked out. I so get this.
I remember the first trip to the airport after 9/11. There were armed military people everywhere. It took forever to make it through security. It felt surreal.
It was surreal.
Our world, our sense of security had been dismantled and we were, most assuredly, unmoored.
It was a very scary time.
And since then, with all the school shootings, the upsurge in racial tensions, the economy that tanked, recovered, and tanked again and now life hasn’t gotten any more steady. The world hasn’t become safer or more predictable. And so we turn inward. Just like the disciples did.
What Jesus was telling the disciples in today’s Gospel and what we really need to learn is how to find a power beyond all imagining through service, compassion and care for the other. In other words, what Jesus is telling us to do is to follow the Golden Rule—to do unto others as we wish done unto us. To look up and out from our fear and insecurity and into the eyes of the poor, hungry, oppressed, lonely, scared, injured and the outcast.
Jesus tells us that by doing this, by being his hands and feet in the world we will, as he did with his death and resurrection, “liberate many people.”
[Tell stories:
GS Food Pantry--- liberate people with our love
School 54… liberate people with our love
Eaton Rdg Prog… liberate people with our love
ASC:
PFP….liberate people with our love
School 54….liberate people with our love
Give$$ to help a fellow parishioner…liberate people with our love]
Think about this folks:
When we really live into the last will be first and the first will be last. When we live into being a slave and servant to all we will find our true greatness. By finding Strength in Weakness and Courage in Fear we’ll find true security and endless peace. And that, my friends, is Jesus’ point.. Amen.
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