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The Rev. Dr. Dennis E. Morey, Pastor
Scripture: Mark 10:35-45
The Glorious Kingdom
A minister who had preached for 50 years died and went to heaven and the Lord was showing him his home there. It was a little shack out in the woods.
The minister saw a beautiful mansion on the nearby hill and asked, God, “This is all I get? Who is living in that mansion on the hill?”
God said, “The taxi cab driver who worked your side of town.”
The minister replied, “That old guy! He was a terrible driver. I only rode with him once and I thought I was going to be killed in a fiery crash. Why does he get the mansion and I get a shack? I preached for over 50 years.”
The Lord said, “I heard more people praying from that man’s taxicab in one day than I heard from your 50 years of preaching.”
The two disciples who were brothers, James and John, approached Jesus privately with a request. They knew that something was about to happen. There was a feeling in the air. The Jews were divided. Some were praising Jesus as the Messiah, while others wanted to get rid of him and get life back to normal. Some were the recipients of his miracles and some had received his rebuke for their religiosity.
It was as though Jesus had been trying to unfold a map of the road he would travel the next few weeks as they approached Jerusalem. While Jesus was saying that he must suffer and die, James and John were hearing that Jesus was about to declare himself the Messiah and set up his Kingdom and what a GLORIOUS Kingdom it would be: heaven on earth!
The two brothers approached Jesus asking for a favor. Jesus was shocked when he heard them say they wanted prominent places in this Kingdom.
At this point those who believed Jesus to be the Messiah were thinking that he was going to set up a kingdom, like King David established hundreds of years earlier. David united the factions of the 12 tribes and established Jerusalem as the capital city for both government and religion.
They believed that when Jesus sat up his Kingdom, Israel would become the dominant nation of the world!
For that kind of kingdom, James and John wanted to sit on the Supreme Court, or they wanted to be generals in the army of Jesus or maybe personal advisors or at least high priests of the religion. They were on the road to Jerusalem and they thought they were reading the map correctly. They wanted to be at the top of the new government and religion.
Jesus was reading the map differently. Jesus knew what kind of Kingdom he came to set up. Jesus knew what he had ahead of him. He knew they did not know what they were asking.
There was a baptism coming that was more than spiritual transformation, it was going to physically transform Jesus from this life to the next. And the same was waiting for his disciples.
Those who were going to be a part of that Kingdom would have to endure great suffering as well. Jesus tried to tell the two disciples they were reading the map upside down. Jesus said that the Kingdom he came to set up was not like the kingdoms of this world, where those in the highest positions had the most authority. His was the opposite way.
Jesus said, “You are looking at the map upside down. Those who would be the most important in my Kingdom are those who will be servants. If you aren’t interested in being a servant, you aren’t interested in being a part of his Kingdom.”
Jesus himself is our best example. Can any of us get a glimpse of what it meant for Jesus to have left behind the glories of heaven to come to earth to bring us God’s love?
The Gospel of John begins by telling us that Jesus dwellt with God the Father and the Holy Spirit as the creative Word of God. When God spoke in creation, it was through Jesus that this world and all that was in it were created.
When God decided to intervene in history by becoming a human, it was the Creative Force within God that became flesh in the person of Jesus.
Can we imagine when the stars were created and placed in space, each a specified distance from another, a particular size and weight? The planets in our solar system were positioned so the earth could sustain human life, each placed in a particular orbit around the sun traveling at just the right speed in concert with the others.
Can we imagine the mind of God calling forth the cell structure of plants and creating the animals; fur, feathers and fins?
And if that were not enough, think about the complexities of the human body, many of whose miraculous functions modern science is still discovering.
As much as we know about the human body, science must admit we know only a portion of the whole.
Jesus left that position as the Creative Word of God to join the created beings so that you and I could know God. Although he created the complexities of the human body, he became one.
Can we get a glimpse of how important God thinks we are? God thinks that our connection to God is of the uttermost importance. God is constantly presenting his love, constantly extending grace and mercy toward us, even willing to come to earth to suffer human death as the sacrifice for our sins.
Even though that may be a huge concept for us to wrap our minds around, it was the only way our redemption could be accomplished.
Every human ever born sins and, therefore, is not fit to be the redeemer of himself or herself or the rest of the human race. God turned the map upside down. It took God becoming a human, living a sinless life, willingly giving up that life by dying on the cross to pay the price for our sins.
In our view of the situation, everyone pays for his own sins. You get what you deserve. You live a good life, good things happen; you live a self-centered life, and you will have trouble.
But in reality we know that is not true. Often those who give the most of themselves suffer the most, and those who don’t care about anyone but themselves prosper. How do we explain that? How upside down is that?
Notice the other ten disciples’ response when they heard that James and John had a private meeting with Jesus to negotiate their Kingdom positions. They were angry! Why should James and John get preferential treatment? That’s not fair.
The other ten did not know such a meeting was going to take place, and they didn’t know that subject was going to be brought up. They immediately demanded that the meeting be declared unconstitutional and erased from the record. What about the open meeting laws?
Jesus said, “You all have the wrong idea. You are looking upside down at the map of what God has in mind. You are thinking that because you have left everything and followed me, because you have experienced hardship, because you live under the threat of the law as I do, because you have listened and learned from me, that you somehow should be granted a higher position than others in my Kingdom.”
Don’t we see this same attitude in the church today? We think that because we have done well, because we have remained faithful, because we have raised our kids right, because we have been generous to the poor, because we have paid our bills, and kept the commandments, that we should have a high place in Christ’ Kingdom?
Jesus said that those who have the highest places of honor don’t look for the highest places of honor but the lowest places to serve.
Those who achieve the highest places of honor aren’t those who tithe 10 percent of their income to minister to others but those who understand the other 90 percent of their income also belongs to God and should be used to help God’s Kingdom move forward.
Those who achieve the highest places of honor aren’t those who come and sit in church every Sunday, or attend a Bible study, but those who know that every hour of every day is important as we live out our days to help others know God.
Those who achieve the highest places of honor aren’t those who give a few hours to help prepare End of the Month Meals or work at the Ecumenical Cupboard, but those who are constantly looking for opportunities to feed the hungry.
Remembering self and taking care of self as a priority” is looking at God’s plan upside down.
Being mindful of opportunities God gives us to serve and, with willing and joyful hearts, taking up those tasks, is looking at life with Christ’s Kingdom as priority. That is looking at life’s map right side up.
Amen.
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Mark 10:35-45 When the ten heard this, they began to be angry with James and John. So Jesus called them and said to 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. But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.” (From the
New Revised Standard Version of the
Bible) |
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