Power-Hungry

Our Ambitious & Wise Savior

10.24.21 [Mark 10:33-45] River of Life (22nd Sunday after Pentecost)

Most times in the Gospels, Jesus is in situations we cannot imagine. No one has brought their sick mother, their demon-possessed daughter, or their dead son to you and expected you to work a miracle. Few have taught thousands of people at once. None of us have had to save the world, through painful suffering and death. Jesus’ life on earth, in many ways, was unlike how you and I live.

Today’s Gospel is an exception. In today’s Gospel, close friends come seeking a “blank check” kind of favor. You know that tension. Do you say yes—and commit to doing something you may not be able or want to do—or do you say no and seem rude and selfish?

James & John come to Jesus with an understated demand: Mk. 10:35 Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask. It is strikingly wise how Jesus responds. He doesn’t commit, but he doesn’t blow them off. Mk. 10:36 What do you want me to do for you? They presented their request. Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory. Jesus’ response is straightforward, but not exactly what anyone expected. Mk. 10:38 You don’t know what you’re asking.

But they ignore Jesus’s clear statement & answer his question foolishly. Mk. 10:39 We can. Literally, we have the power, the ability, & the capacity.

That is only half the trouble. Soon the rest of the disciples find out and they are furious. They became Mk. 10:41 indignant. All riled up. Not because James & John had been so opportunistic, manipulative, or power-hungry. Rather that they beat them to the punch. We see the seeds of discord being sown by James and John’s selfish ambition.

So Jesus calls them together. He warns them that their selfish-ambition will divide them like the Gentiles, fighting over power & prestige, honor & glory. The disciples struggled with selfish-ambition. We shouldn’t be surprised that selfish-ambition is a weak point for us too. The question is not: Are you an ambitious person? The question is what are you ambitious about and why? We’re all ambitious people.

So how do you figure out what you are ambitious about? Analyze how you use your time, talents, and treasures. Investigate your passions and emotions. What brings you the most joy? What causes you to lose your cool quickly? What can you not tolerate for even one second? What can you not imagine living without?

A person can be ambitious for power. Respect, Control. Security. Satisfaction. Comfort. Affection. Obtaining and protecting these things drive so much of how we think and act. Jesus is peeling back the layers so we can see the singular core value. He wants us to see that while the what might be neutral—maybe even good—the why is so often selfish and self-centered.

In this case, James & John wanted top spots in Christ’s cabinet. They wanted the honor, the power, the glory, the fame & the control that went along with sitting on each side of Jesus. It was about them.

Even when we want good things, Godly things, it is often about us, not God. God says 1 Th. 4:10-12 it is good for a person to be productive. It is good to have the respect of your friends, your neighbors, & your peers. It is good to be able to take care of yourself & love your family.

When productivity or making money or advancing our careers or pursuing hobbies is our greatest goal, everything that doesn’t feed those things takes a back seat. Time in God’s house and in God’s Word seems like squandered moments. We get frustrated with those who impose on us. We see God’s commands as robbing us of the freedoms, the goals, the dreams we have for ourselves. When our reputation or independence is our highest goal, we become cranky when we have to ask for help—or we don’t do it at all. We nurse grudges against those who have crossed us. When our freedom is most important, we find weak-minded people intolerable. When being the smartest person in the room is our goal, we get crabby when we don’t know, we become vindictive when someone proves us wrong.

When our family is what’s most important there are pitfalls too. If our goal is to unlock our kids’ fullest potential we may become too harsh or too lenient. We may exasperate our kids with our high standards for a picture perfect life. We may avoid disciplining them to keep them happy. If you’re playing the family peacemaker, you may settle for a surface kind of peace that ignores important issues of sin.

In fact, we can even live like a Christian but still be motivated out of selfish ambition, just like these disciples. We might be faithful in worship and pray every day because we want the security of daily bread. We might live moral lives because it enhances our reputation or advances our careers. We might take our kids to church or pray for them because we see training them up in the Lord as the best way of raising good, successful kids. We can serve God and do things his way as our own way of trying to get something else.

We can be zealous Christians and still be selfishly ambitious the whole time. That’s what James & John were doing. They wanted the glorious spots on Jesus’ left & right. Even our zeal for holiness can be corrupted by our selfishness and our sinfulness.

This is why we need a Savior. Because even when we say and do all the right things, our motives are wicked. The things we think and say and do are more about us than about God. We need a selflessly ambitious Redeemer, just like the disciples did. And that’s the good news of this text. Because in a crowd with 12 selfish men, there was one selfless Son of Man. In a gathering of twelve power-hungry, glory-greedy guys, there was one humble servant, the Son of God.

The Alpha & Omega, the First & the last, became the slave of all so that we might be set free and glorified. Here Jesus tells us plainly what he is ambitious about when he explained where they were all headed & why.

Mk. 10:32-33 “We are going up to Jerusalem,” he said, “and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles, who will mock him and spit on him, flog him and kill him. Three days later he will rise.”

We tend to think of Jesus as a good man who had some really bad stuff happen to him. We concentrate on the unfairness of his trial, the cowardice of Pilate, the brutality of his crucifixion. And that is certainly all true. But Jesus’ sacrificial death, his suffering the agonies of hell for us and for our many sins, was a conscious, deliberate choice on his part. Again and again in John’s Gospel, the same John who made this request, Jesus refers to his crucifixion as his “hour of glory”. Jn. 12:23 The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. He even mulls it over out loud. Jn. 12:27 Now my soul is troubled. And what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour? No. It was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit chose to personally pay the price for our sins in this way.

Jesus was ambitious to be and do what we could not—to drink the cup of God’s wrath down to Is. 51:17 its dregs & to be Ps. 42:7 immersed in the spiritual agonies of hell. This was Mt. 3:11 the baptism he came to experience. These stripes & wounds, this suffering, were Rom. 6:23 the wages of our sins. Jesus was ambitious to do what James and John claimed they could, but were unable to do. They could not settle down at his side in his moment of glory. That was prepared for two thieves, one of whom would be brought to faith as Jesus died next to him. It wasn’t meant for them. Jesus was ambitious about giving his life as a ransom for your many sins and for the many sinners of the world.

But Jesus did want to share something special with ambitious disciples. He tells them he was going to share his cup and his baptism with them. So what does he mean by that? Perhaps it was the cup he would share with them in that upper room when Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper. Perhaps, he was speaking of how he would confer his baptism upon them 50+ days later at Pentecost, when he would baptize his disciples with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

Jesus could not give them what they requested. But he gave them something greater. The honor of dining with the King of kings. The hidden glory in the Lord’s Supper. The wealth of the full forgiveness of sins, more precious than silver or gold. The Holy Spirit’s power unlocked languages they’d never learned & used their lips to proclaim the Gospel of salvation. Jesus didn’t just let them sit next to him. He gave himself to James and John. They asked for a formal favor of a title & power & they got unparalleled grace—a greater blessing than they could imagine or ask for.

So it is with us. We receive these same blessings in the Lord’s Supper. We are not baptized with fire, as they were on Pentecost, but we have received the gift of the Holy Spirit. God has worked faith in your heart through his Word and Sacraments. You trust him and his ways. Your ultimate success is not dependent on your ambition, but on Christ’s achievement. God has transformed you and your ambitions. So what are you ambitious for? Your career, your hobbies, delighting your children or grandchildren—all of that passes away. Be ambitious to serve others and bring them close to their Savior. Be ambitious and audaciously articulate what the Alpha and the Omega has done for you. God became your servant. God became your Substitute. God became your Savior. God is glorified in giving his life as a ransom for many. And we have many ways to serve in the coming weeks and months.

No one is asking you to do a miracle—but, by your witnessing, people can have life to the full, by testifying about what you have seen and heard in God’s Word—the dead are brought to life eternal.

Each time you read his Word, each time you receive his Sacrament, God is strengthening your resolve, he is perfecting your ambitions so that they might bring glory to his name and service to your neighbors. And you become great as you become more and more like the servant, who gave his life as a ransom for yours. Eph. 3:20-21 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.