About Being Last

Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God, our Father, and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, Amen. Our text is a portion of the Gospel lesson where we hear Jesus' response to the disciples' lack of response. And He said to them: "If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all." These are the words of our text.

Have you ever noticed that nobody really needs to be taught about being first, do they? No. It sort of comes naturally, doesn't it? To want to be first?

And I suppose, it has something to do with our being sinful. Our being sinful. There's a really nice illustration of sin, and it's a circle curved in on itself. Because sin is me curved in on myself. I'm the most important. I'm the greatest. I'm the first. I'm the best. In fact, in my world, I'm the only one. And guess what? It's the same in your world as well.

We don't need to be taught to be first. It comes naturally. You say "get in line," and there will be a rush to be in the first, in the front.

But it is necessary to be taught how to be last. Isn't it true? We have to learn about being last.

In our text, there's a very important message, concept Jesus wants to teach His disciples. He wants to teach them about Him going up to Jerusalem, being handed over to man, being killed, and then on three days after being killed, rising again. Now, we would say that's central to why Jesus came into this world. His primary purpose was not to heal the deaf, blind, mute, paralytic. Cast out demons. Although, that's part of what He does. But primarily, He comes into this world to go to the cross where He will be killed and three days later, rise again.

If our celebration of Jesus' birth is only to the extent that He's a great teacher, a great miracle worker, we missed the point.

The people were missing the point. Jesus wanted to underscore the point with His disciples in preparation for when the events will take place. That they would know. He had talked about this, and this is what the Father sent Him into the world to accomplish: mainly by going to the cross, He would pay the punishment for our disobedience and our sin, and that of the whole world.

Mark tells us: "But they did not understand the saying and were afraid to ask Him." I imagine some of us here may have found ourselves a little inattentive in class. And somehow, teachers just know who's inattentive, don't they?

And somehow we get called on in our inattention. Maybe to solve a math equation. In my day, in English class, we had to diagram sentences. I don't know which was worse: math or diagramming sentences.

I did pay attention in English. I didn't care much for math. My mind would wander and the teacher, would say, "Kevin, get up and solve this equation." And he'd have an equation there, and he'd already told how to solve it. But I'm just standing there like a dunce. And he'd say, "Can somebody go up there and help Kevin solve the problem?" And usually, it was a real mathwiz. They'd go up and they'd answer it. I think the disciples weren't paying attention to what Jesus was saying. And I think that's why Mark says they did not understand the saying and were afraid to ask Him.

If I asked you after today's sermon, "Did you understand anything Pastor said to you this morning?" Would you answer me? "Yes, I did." "No, I didn't." Or would you just go out smiling, saying "Have a good day, Pastor!" Or you might say, "That was a really good sermon this morning, Pastor!" And I might say "What made it so good?" And you probably wouldn't answer. And you'd probably be afraid to say, "You know, Pastor, my mind was wandering through most of the sermon." I know it is. Because when I sit where you sit, my mind wanders during the sermon.

Not only were the disciples not paying attention to Jesus, if they'd have paid attention, I can give them, they wouldn't understand. Cuz it's kind of out of the blue. Imagine if somebody you love, someone close to you, out of the blue, just said something really startling and stunning to you. I bet you wouldn't understand it right away, either. You wouldn't grasp it. It might take a while. And of course, I'm willing to cut some slack to the disciples because the Holy Spirit hasn't come to them yet. The Holy Spirit hasn't come to them yet. And after Pentecost, when the Spirit comes, all those things fall into place, and they begin to make sense. I won't say that they understand it completely. But they begin to understand. And we're fortunate, because we've already seen those events have happened - fulfillment of God's promises to us. I think what they were doing is what Jesus gets to next: "And when He was in the house, He asked them 'What were you discussing on the way?' Again, they kept silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest." Who was the greatest. They argued about who was the greatest. And I'm trying to picture in my mind, this journey to Capernaum. And I'm trying to, in my mind, figure a relationship between Jesus and the group of disciples. Are the disciples ahead of Jesus, out of earshot? Are they behind him out of earshot? I don't know. I can't picture it. But somehow they were far enough away that at least Jesus didn't hear it. Or maybe He heard it and He wanted to get them to confess.

His question of them sounds remarkably similar to the question God asked Adam in the Garden. Why were you hiding?

Now, Adam could have just kept his mouth shut, but he says, "I was naked." And He asked, "Who told you were naked? Did you eat from the tree you weren't supposed to?" And right away: it was the woman's fault. What is this you've done? It was the serpent they blamed. Here, they keep silent. But just like God was wanting Adam and Eve to confess their sin, here too, He wants the disciples to come clean about what they were arguing about. And they're arguing about who's the greatest. Who's the greatest? Nobody needs to be taught about greatness, do they? We all attain to it. Again, that's because of our sinful nature. James points it out in our epistle lesson: Why are there quarrels and disagreements among you?

And he calls out selfish ambition and pride. Now, nothing against Godly ambition - we need some ambition, I suppose, to get up in the morning, to make choices and decisions in our lives. But selfish ambition, that's me, and I don't care about any of the rest of you. I'm going to get what I want. I'm going to get to the top of the ladder, even if I gotta step and kick a whole bunch of other people off.

And so the disciples are arguing among them which one is the greatest. This will be a recurring topic among the disciples. And so, Jesus teaches them. Again, the one who is first must be last and servant of all. Now, notice He doesn't say the one who would be great. Cuz that's what they were fighting about. But the one who would be first must be last of all and servant of all.

And He takes a child and put some in the midst. Why a child? Who usually gets slighted at the family gatherings? They get their own table to console them. Nobody ever talks about the Adult Table, unless there's also a Children's Table.

Run along and play. Can't you see Mommy's talking with Auntie. Or Daddy's trying to talk with his cousin. They're usually last.

And Jesus is using this child to demonstrate to them the importance about being last. And about being a servant. This conversation is going to come up again. The mother of James and John is going to ask, "Hey, Jesus. I want you to do whatever I ask of you for me. For my sons." And she wants them to sit at His left and right in the kingdom of heaven - which is the important spots. And how do you suppose the rest of everybody felt? The rest of those disciples hearing that, how do you suppose they felt?

What if you're in line and somebody jumps ahead of you? We don't like that, do we? Now, well, I suppose our people out there that didn't care who it was that cut in front of them, they'd just be snarly. But there are some that, if it was a little old lady that cut in front of them - I'm not talking on the highway, I'm talking in the checkout line - they'd probably be okay with that.

And then again, on the night when Jesus was betrayed, the same conversation comes up around the table. They're arguing about which one is the greatest. This time, Jesus - it's the last time He has with them. He doesn't say a word. He simply gets up, takes off His tunic, wraps a towel around Himself, grabs a basin of water, and begins washing the disciples' feet.

Imagine you're at a table with 12 people. And some minor job needs to be done. It happens to be washing of feet. It was a servant's duty. And obviously, there was no servant there, and it wasn't even for a Jewish servant. It was reserved for a Gentile servant, because even a Jewish servant was above washing somebody's feet. And imagine if Jesus said, "Would one of you wash our feet?" And what if, going around the table, everyone said, "Well, that's not my job. No, I'm not going to do it, that's not what I signed on for. That's not my job."

And we really don't wash feet, but maybe we're at a meeting, and we'd like some coffee. And we ask somebody, "Hey, how about making a pot of coffee?"

And everybody says, "That's not my job. That's not why I came to this meeting, to make coffee." So then the leader goes and makes coffee, and I don't know if they're good coffee maker or bad coffee maker.

I usually play it safe and I'll say, "I'll just make the coffee." It may not be the best. But at least I'll know I'll like it. Little selfish, isn't it? Yes. But anyway, Jesus, and as He's going around, imagine that each one of those disciples is feeling a bit ashamed of themselves for arguing over greatness. Maybe, just maybe, they have in their mind pops up that talk of Jesus, here, about servanthood. You see, lots of people want to be leaders, but not too many people want to be servant leaders. A servant leader is one who puts the needs of the group before their own. Often times, a leader just wants to get to the top or wants the greatness.

But not Jesus.

Wednesday, I had chapel, and we had it outside. It was a beautiful morning, and we were talking, we were reading from Paul's letter to the Colossians, and he talks about the pre-eminence of Jesus and how He's the One through whom all things are created and how all things are held together by Him. And Paul elsewhere, says, you know, Jesus humbled Himself, taking on the form of a servant, even though He was God and with God, He did not see it as something to contend with, but emptied Himself of everything and was obedient to death, even death on a cross.

Imagine the Father having a meeting in heaven and say, "You know, I need somebody" and He's looking at His Son - "I need somebody to go down to earth, take on human flesh, pay the debt of Adam and Eve and their children's sin so that I can have peace with my people again, and they can have peace with me." Then imagine if Jesus said, "Well, gee, Dad, you know, I don't know if I can do that, cuz I got to hold the whole universe together, and I can't very well be doing that if I'm on earth in human form, paying for people's disobedience."

But Jesus goes forth, and He becomes servant to us. Giving His life on the cross. Giving His life for you and I. He becomes servant to us.

And the service we received is the atonement of our sin. And He'll come to us this morning with that same body and blood with the bread and the wine, to refresh us and restore us and continue to strengthen us in that faith. And hopefully also, then, as we seek the grace to lead God-pleasing lives, He will also extend in us that grace to be servants to those around us.

With a name, last name like mine, I was usually always first. And I always disliked being first. I always took those words of Jesus, you know, the first shall be last and the last shall be first, and it's like why doesn't that happen in the classroom? And I was thinking, I wonder how the person with the Z name in that back of the classroom, always last, how they felt. If they thought, gee, I wish I could be up in front. Of course, you don't want to be up in front if we're going to get punished or reprimanded, do we? But by and large, we like to be first. And nobody should be first more so than pastors, right? I mean, you're at a ladies meeting and they're having lunch and they say, "Pastor, go ahead and start." Now, that's a little hard for somebody that's been raised to allow ladies to go first. And here, you have a whole crowd of ladies that - now do I argue with them, or do I just go ahead and go first? What do you think I usually do? I usually just go first, correct. But if I have my way, I usually go last. I like being last.

And I will admit, I'll confess before you. Especially at funeral luncheons, I have a method to my madness in going last. First of all, it is, I don't believe that we'll run out of food if the pastor goes last. Because everybody will make sure that the pastor gets fed. But my real motive is quite selfish. If I go last, I cannot only get first, but I can also pick up what? I can pick up seconds right away, can't I? But usually, I just go last, because I figure I'm the host. Host goes last.

I had a member. He passed away. And I was just doing my usual thing, and he comes up to me, and he kind of burst the whole thing, kind of threw a Godly monkey wrench into the whole thing. God was working in his mind through my selfishness. He comes up to me after the meal, after he had finished eating, and he says, "Pastor, I know why you always go last." And I'm like uh oh, I've been found out. Now after this morning, I have been found out. But he said, "I get it, Pastor. The shepherd feeds the sheep first, and then he takes care of himself." Wow, that really blew me away. That is our Lord being a servant. He tends to our needs first. And then He cares for His own.

And as His sheep, He shows us, gives us example, teaches us that we, then, are to be servant to our brothers and sisters. Most especially those in Christ, but to all God's people. For it's in our service, then, that we put action to those commands: loving our neighbors as ourself. And loving God above all things. Thanks be to God for His Son, not only repeating that lesson again and again for the disciples' benefit, but also for our benefit. And for not only speaking about servant leadership, but showing it as well. In His name, Amen.