Where the Least are the Greatest(Mark 10.32-45) 10-17-2021

Jesus is still traveling to Jerusalem. He has blessed children while answering his critics. He has told a man with wealth just what it will cost to have eternal life. And now he is finally on his way again to the city where he will face torture and finally death.

Those who are following him are both amazed and afraid. They are amazed because of what Jesus had just been teaching about wealth and possessions. The turning away of a man who had great wealth because he could not give up those things. The teaching about becoming as little children. These would have amazed them all.

But they were also afraid. Jesus had been teaching about what was to come in the time that he went to Jerusalem and those gathered around were listening intently. Now there were more than just the twelve disciples that were following. Some were, I’m sure, listening and realizing just what Jesus had been teaching. But for some reason, others were not.

So, Jesus again gathers the twelve, the inner circle of disciples that traveled with him everywhere. And he begins to teach them again about what will happen. How those who are the religious authorities will condemn him to death. How they will hand him over to the secular authorities and then “they will mock him, and spit upon him, and flog him, and kill him; and after three days he will rise again.” [1]All of this he lets the disciples know and he tells them in no uncertain terms how this will all come about. He told them this two times before, once to be rebuked by Peter even. But the question is this: do the twelve understand what is being told to them? Do they comprehend the magnitude of what Jesus is telling them?

In a word, no. After he tells them all of this, James and John come to Jesus and ask for a favor. In fact, they don’t really ask but rather demand “we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.”[2] They did learn something from the man who came to Jesus: they did not call him good teacher but rather “teacher”. Yet, in this case the teacher is about to be taught.

Jesus, always the one to answer with a question asks them what their request is. Then the brothers tell Jesus what they want. They want to sit at his right and left when he comes into his glory. They want the second and third most powerful seats that will be in the coming kingdom. They want to be his advisors. Now this is an audacious request. How many of us would think to ask for the next to most powerful positions in a company or in a committee? But here they are asking for those positions.

Mark has no trouble having the brothers ask this. It would appear that their ambition was getting the better of them. Matthew however, has the mother of James and John ask. Better to give the blame to the pushy mom who wants what is best for her boys rather than embarrass two of the inner, inner circle. And Luke doesn’t even cover this request. He just says that they debated who would be the greatest. And here is the thing that is interesting about this request: previously in Mark the twelve had been arguing about who would be the greatest and Jesus had told them that the least would be the greatest. One would think that they disciples would not forget this lesson so quickly, but here is proof that they did. It is proof that the disciples were still thinking of this world, what they would get out of it and how the kingdom would be of this world.

But there is another aspect of this story that I had never thought of until I did research on this text. Perhaps the disciples did understand what Jesus was telling them and they wanted some security. They had followed Jesus and wanted to know what they could expect from this following. They wanted security. They were like us. We want security from the “scary” things that surround us whether that be terrorists, or nations that want to do us harm or those who are different from us, be they immigrants, or, God forbid, Democrats or Republicans. The disciples may have wanted security and they wanted Jesus to let them know where and how they would get it.

But Jesus does not answer with an answer that they would understand. He asks if they are able to drink from the same cup and be baptized with the same baptism as he is about to experience. Now, from our perspective of the reader we know that the answer should be an unequivocal No. But the disciples, still thinking of this world, are able to say yes. They believe the cup and baptism are those things of the coming of the glory of God.

For Jesus, however, the cup and baptism are not easy things. They are symbols of his coming trials and death. The cup is one of pain and sorrow and the baptism is one of the same. Are they able to take the suffering and persecution that Jesus is ready to face? The disciples say that they are, totally misunderstanding what they are to face.

Jesus tells them that they are to drink and be baptized as he is about to be. And here is the good part. They do face those trials and persecutions that come. They are faithful after an initial running away. But in the end, they are to take what Jesus took.

But Jesus lets them know that this glory is not his to give. It is to be given to those for whom it has been prepared. It is that God is the one who will grant who will sit on the right and left of Jesus. It is ironic to note that when Jesus is dying on the cross that on his left and his right are not two disciples, but two mocking criminals, ones who would never have been caught following Jesus.

Now, the other ten, on hearing what is going on are angry or indignant. And it is not a righteous anger, one that is asking why are they asking this question when it has already been answered. No, it is an anger that comes from being beaten to the punch. See, they wanted the same thing as James and John, but these two are there before they are. Therefore, they are angry because they did not get to ask the question and others did.

It is at this point that Jesus must have sighed and thought “here we go again. You would think that after three times they would get it.” But he goes ahead and begins to tell them that his kingdom is not like that of this world. He tells 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. 43 But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, 44 and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all.[3]

The rulers of this world have might over right. They lord their power over those who are under them. And they are tyrants imposing their will over their subjects. The disciples and those gathered around would have understood this as they were subject to Roman authority and rule. They would have understood the tyranny and the ones lording power over them.

But Jesus tells them that his kingdom is not of this world. That those who would be great among them need to become servants. The term servant here is one who waits on tables. It is one who gets down in the dirt and serves those around them. In the Roman world this would have been seen as something to be avoided as the social standing would have been downgraded. But in the Jewish world, they viewed serving in a more positive light. But then Jesus ups the ante. He tells them that the one who would be first must be a slave to all. Both of these are more intensive than the great and servant. To be first would be like saying one was at the top of the pyramid. That person would be the first of all people; they would be at the top of the social hierarchy. But to be a slave to all would be horrifying. To be a slave meant that one was at the bottom of the social hierarchy. In fact, to be a slave meant that one was even lower than a servant. To be a slave meant to have no rights and to be less than anyone in the social world. In a world of honor and shame this would have been the worst possible scenario. And yet here is Jesus telling them that they must be the slave of all. They must put their pride, their hopes and dreams aside and become the servants and slaves of all. To be the greatest, they must become the least of these.

Nontombi Naomi Tutu has this to say about the disciples: “Whenever I read the Gospel lessons in which the disciples figure, I am so grateful. I am grateful because I feel assured that if Jesus chose this group to be his closest companions, there is nothing but hope for the rest of us.”[4] Calvin says this about this text: “this narrative contains a “bright mirror of human vanity,” because “it shows that proper and holy zeal is often accompanied by ambition, or some other vice of the flesh, so that they who follow Christ have a different object in view from what they ought to have.”[5] We are like the disciples more than we care to admit. We want to be blessed by God without any of the messy things that go on with being a follower of Jesus. Deep down, where we hide this, more than anything we want to be like God. We want to have the place of honor, to be the greatest and the first.

Jesus tells us that we have to be a servant and slave. We do not like that. How many times have we heard the politicians and others who support them claim that they want to bring this country back to “biblical values”? Yet when this is sorted out, it sounds like those in power lording over those who are not in power. Suddenly the ones who are to be the slaves of all are the tyrants who rule over those not in power. Doesn’t it seem strange that the followers of the one who said that he came to serve and not be served are so lustful for power? What has happened to being the slave of all?

The greatest must be a servant and the first is to be slave of all. Jesus calls us to be like him. He said that he came to serve and not be served. To give his life for the many. To take on himself what we deserved. He calls us to go and to do the same. If we are to follow him, we had best get busy doing a lot more serving and a lot less ruling. Remember the least are greatest and the slave will be first. Go and serve. Amen.

[1] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989. Print. [2] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989. Print. [3] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989. Print. [4]Joel B. Green, Thomas G. Long, Luke A. Powery, Cynthia L. Rigby & Carolyn J. Sharp. Connections: Year B, Volume 3 (Connections: A Lectionary Commentary for Preaching and Worship) (p. 404). Presbyterian Publishing Corporation. Kindle Edition. [5]John Calvin, Commentary on a Harmony of the Evangelists (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1957), 2:417