May the mumbling commence!
Have you ever wondered if someone was listening to you? I feel that way sometimes when I speak with students who are being a discipline problem on the school bus. I feel that way sometimes when I am preaching. Is anyone listening to me? Am I getting through? Am I sending the message that God intends me to send? Jesus must have felt this way numerous times as he was teaching his disciples. Read a passage from Mark chapter ten:
They were on their way up to Jerusalem, with Jesus leading the way, and the disciples were astonished, while those who followed were afraid. Again he took the Twelve aside and told them what was going to happen to him. "We are going up to Jerusalem," he said, "and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and 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."
Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him. "Teacher," they said, "we want you to do for us whatever we ask."
"What do you want me to do for you?" he asked.
They replied, "Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory."
"You don't know what you are asking," Jesus said. "Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?"
"We can," they answered.
Jesus said to them, "You will drink the cup I drink and be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with, but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared."
When the ten heard about this, they became indignant with James and John. Jesus called them together and said, "You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." (Verses 32-45)
Let me get this straight. Jesus just told the disciples – including James and John – that he was going to be condemned to death. He told them he would be mocked and spat upon, flogged and killed. Then, James and John asked for seats on Jesus’ right and left? Really?!?
Were you really listening, James and John? Do James and John really want first row seats to the crucifixion? Do they really want to be crucified with Jesus?
Or were James and John too busy arguing about who would ask Jesus for these positions of power? Maybe James and John were afraid that Peter would muscle one of them out of the people closest to Jesus, so they would act first and try to muscle Peter out first. James and John were not only suffering from selective hearing for what Jesus was saying about his impending death but they were also missing the Spirit that drove the matter.
It is this Spirit that Jesus uses to teach his disciples. Again. The kingdom of heaven is not about lording it over one another. The kingdom of heaven is about servanthood. The kingdom of heaven is not about seeking the places of honor and power at the side of the king.
If we want to succeed in the kingdom of heaven, we must become servants. If we want to become the greatest, we must become slaves of all. Help us, O Holy Spirit, to listen to the Word of God (Jesus) and to serve in humility with the grace God extends to us.
Enough mumbling for now…
Peace Out
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