The Cross and the Crown

Text: “40 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.” (Mark 10:40)

There are two errors that we need to avoid today.

The first is more obvious: it’s the sinful error of James and John, who sought places of honor at Jesus’ side— and, by the way, the sinful error of the other 10 apostles who were indignant with James and John for trying to claim what they, themselves wanted. This is certainly a moment of shame for the two of them, if not for all 12, especially since it comes right after one of the many times that Jesus warned he would suffer, die, and rise.

In fact, this seems to suggest an explanation for why the apostles had such a hard time understanding that Jesus would have to suffer, die, and rise: because they were too preoccupied with their own glory in the coming kingdom.

Sadly, this is still a temptation for us today. Great harm has been done by people using the church to make a name for themselves. That has been particularly visible in recent years through the celebrity pastors who have come to ruin as serious sins and abusive behavior have been exposed. But it’s a temptation for any Christian. You and I stake out our area of responsibility— our little domain— where you make a name for yourself, where you get to rule. And God help anyone who gets in your way.

The temptation takes other forms, as well. It’s not enough, for example, to avoid certain books, movies, or television shows because of their sinful content, you and I have to make sure everyone knows that you haven’t seen them.

The last thing you and I want to be concerned with is what you’ve earned from God, either through our sacrifice or through our service.

The question that Jesus is trying to ask His disciples in our Gospel reading isn’t ‘How much will you do for me?’ It’s: ‘Are you willing to let me serve you?’

What you and I have earned in this life is death and hell. And, on the cross, that is precisely what He suffered for you. He suffered every bit of what we deserved. He poured out every last drop of His blood that was necessary for the sins of all humanity. He gave the full measure.

For all the times that we’ve grasped for as much honor and glory in the Kingdom of God that we can try to take for ourselves, He didn’t. “6 …[Though] he was in the form of God, [He] did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:6-8).

He even hung there, suffering and dying for everything that we allow to take priority over receiving the grace that He won for us on that cross.

The question for you is the same as it was for them: Are you willing to be served? Because it was for you. He laid aside all the power and glory of heaven for you. He made Himself your servant, emptied Himself, and was perfectly obedient to the Father’s will—even to the point of death—for you. The Greatest One to ever live has made Himself a slave for your sake. He has served you perfectly, taking the punishment that you have earned and giving you, in exchange, the glory of heaven, literally making you sons of God and heirs of heaven.

And therein lies the second error that we need to avoid today. It is trickier than the first: it’s the error of false humility. As C.S. Lewis put it, “Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with... ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased” (Lewis, C.S. “The Weight of Glory.”).

Even as we accept this warning against sinful ambition, let’s consider the unblushing promises of reward, the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels and in Scripture as a whole.

There are any number of passages in scripture that make us uncomfortable. Some because they point out our sins, which is always uncomfortable. Others make us uncomfortable for the opposite reason. Promising, for example, that you will be in the very presence of Christ. Promising that you shall be like Him. Promising you an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison (2 Cor. 4:17-18). Promising you a great feast in heaven. Promising that the saints will judge the world (1 Cor. 6:2), that you will judge the angels (1 Cor. 6:3). Let’s not shy away from well deserved rewards and fall into false humility.

As C.S. Lewis put it,

We must not be troubled by unbelievers when they say that this promise of reward makes the Christian life a mercenary affair. There are different kinds of reward. There is the reward which has no natural connexion with the things you do to earn it, and is quite foreign to the desires that ought to accompany those things. Money is not the natural reward of love; that is why we call a man mercenary if he marries a woman for the sake of her money. But marriage is the proper reward for a real lover, and he is not mercenary for desiring it. A general who fights well in order to get a peerage is mercenary; a general who fights for victory is not, victory being the proper reward of battle as marriage is the proper reward of love. The proper rewards are not simply tacked on to the activity for which they are given, but are the activity itself in consummation.

You and I seek fame in this life. But what Christ gives you is so much more. And you and I can be excused, to a certain extent, for not grasping the scope of what that is— for example, you’re promised a eternal weight of glory, but “who wishes to become a kind of living electric light bulb?” (Lewis, “Weight of Glory”). But one day you will stand before the judge of the living and the dead, the One whom you were created to please, and you will see Him face to face. You will stand there, a child before its father, a student before his teacher, a creature before its creator. He will call you by name. And He will say to you, “Well done.” And, in that day, you will “most innocently rejoice in the thing that God has made you to be” (Lewis). Pride will be drowned once and for all, perfect humility will dispense with modesty as golden crown is placed upon your head and you are ushered by angels through the streets of gold to the very presence of God. You will shine as the sun. You will be given the Morning Star.

“Meanwhile the cross comes before the crown and tomorrow is a Monday morning.”

There is, of course, a danger in thinking too much of our own potential glory in eternity. And so “the weight... of [your] neighbor’s glory should be laid daily on [your] back, a load so heavy that only humility can carry it, and the backs of the proud will be broken” (Lewis).

James and John would, of course, go on to drink the cup that our Savior drank. They were baptized with the baptism with which He was baptized. And when they did, it was not to serve their own pride, but to humbly serve as true apostles of Jesus Christ, faithfully serving the One who had not only suffered and died to serve them, but sent them as witnesses to the world. The Church is built upon their faithful testimony.

Christ invites you to do the same: to love one another and to love those here in our town like He has loved you. To suffer with them. To sacrifice for them. To see their sin, their pain, their suffering and to serve them. He hasn’t chosen James and John or any of the other apostles and sent them to the people of our town. He’s chosen you. And, perhaps, through you, to share with them the same gift— the same glory— that He has given to you.

And yes, you will continue to battle against sinful ambition and pride the whole way. But, in Christ, that golden crown will be your rightful reward.

“40 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.”

Today’s Gospel reading destroys our pride, our arrogance, our striving. And it gives you even more. Because the Father prepared the places at His right and left for two thieves, He has prepared a place for you at the right hand of the Father.