We asked the question not long ago – “What might God make of me?”   What might God make of you?  What might God make of us?  We’re near the end of our exploring the Gospel of Mark.  I pray that we may be able to look back over 11 weeks (or however many weeks it may be for you) and say, “Look at what God made me!”   Could it be that God might make us into people who are great?  What does it mean to be great anyway?

We keep on exploring together, dear people of God.  T.S. Elliot wrote this :

“We shall not cease from exploration, and the end will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.”

We are nearing the end, but we’re not stopping.  We remember Jesus’ call “Follow me!” and I pray that we’re coming to know what it means to follow Jesus in a whole new way – whether it’s for the first time or whether it just feels like the first time.  I pray that we’re being astounded and amazed by God’s goodness as we follow Jesus together on the way.  This is what we’re doing as we live our lives in relentless dependence on the goodness of God.  Walking in the Way.   There is a reason that people who followed Jesus were known as followers of the way.   There’s a reason that travel stories resonate so with us as a metaphor for life as a journey.  The way of the cross.  The way of discipleship (of being students of Christ, which is life-long learning) is where we are today. We’re hearing the last words of instructions which Jesus gives to his disciples as he sets his face to go to Jerusalem, striding along ahead of them, firm in his Father’s love and in his Father’s will. 

Let’s put ourselves right in the story as we walk along with him together.  “They were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them; they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid.” (32)  We are on the road.  We are going toward that city.  We are amazed, and we are afraid.  Jesus goes ahead of us.  Unwavering.  Maybe our amazement comes from the combination of authority and humility, which is seen in Jesus.  Maybe it’s the combination of humanity and divinity – the truths about Jesus that go far beyond words.  Then there is the fear.  Fear of what is going to happen.  Fear of what Jesus might demand of us.  Fear of walking into an unknown future.  Fear of any one of the number of things that make us afraid.  And yet, and yet.  They’re still following.  And yet and yet.  We’re still following.

We come to Jesus’ third passion prediction.  For the third time, Jesus tells his disciples what is going to happen.  “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death; then they will hand him over to the Gentiles; they will mock him and spit upon him, and flog him, and kill him, and after three days he will rise again.” (33-34)  Each time the disciples hear Jesus predict his death and resurrection, they reject it, ignore it, or completely misunderstand it.  To have faith is to trust the crucified and risen Jesus.  The way of the cross is the way of the cross, and we too may reject it, ignore it, or completely misunderstand it.

They keep on following. Let us keep on following, keep on trusting.  Keep on looking at those words that are written on our sail, “Do not be afraid, only believe.”  Only trust.  Keep on trusting, believing, resting in him.  Jesus’ patience with us is amazing.  Like a sculptor, the Holy Spirit keeps on working on us.  The first time Jesus told his followers what would happen in Jerusalem, Peter rejected such a plan.  Matthew tells us Peter said, “This must never happen to you.”   “You are setting your mind on not divine things but on human things,” Jesus tells him. (Mark 8)  The second time, the disciples are engaged in an argument about who among them is the greatest.  They reach a house, and Jesus asks them what they were arguing about along the way.  They are silent.  Jesus tells them, “Whoever wants to be the first must be the last of all and the servant of all.”

After this third pronouncement by Jesus in Mark 10, James and John come forward to him.  “We want you to do whatever we ask” because it’s all about what we want, right?  Jesus says, “Tell me what you want.”  They want to be his right and left-hand men in his glory.  Jesus doesn’t chide them per se.  “You don’t know what you’re asking,” Jesus tells them. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?”  Someone has put it like this:  Their request “…is misguided because it assumes that identification with Jesus, involving leadership in his cause… is characterized by power and honour and glory. Instead, it is characterized by a cup, a baptism, and a cross. There is glory on the other side of the cross, but James and John want a shortcut to that glory.”  A cup in the Old Testament is symbolic of suffering.  Water in the Old Testament was often a sign of troubles (Ps 69:1-3). Of course, the cup will come to mean our participation in the death and life of Jesus.  Baptism will come to mean a symbolic dying to self in the water and the promise of new life on the other side of the water.  The two go together.  The cross is not just something that happened to Jesus on the way to glory; it is Jesus’ glory.  It is as if James and John are saying, “We’ve been with you from the beginning, and we want something for ourselves once you get the crucifixion out of the way.”  The way of the cross is the way for all followers of Christ.  It is the way of death to self and what we want.  It may be the way of suffering – it has been for countless followers of Jesus.  It is the way of self-sacrifice.  It is the way of freedom and peace and hope and love and life. 

James and John don’t know what they are asking for, but they will know.  “The cup that I drink, you will drink; and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized,” Jesus tells them.  They’re going to know what it means to die to self, and in James’ case, literally die.  Following Christ is not simply a risk-free proposition for our benefit (though it does benefit us and in Christ we have a joy and a peace beyond understanding and a hope and love beyond measure).  Let us not take a simplistic, self-serving view of what it means to be a disciple of Christ.  Discipleship is a costly pouring out of one’s life for others, and in so doing, knowing life.

And in so doing, finding greatness.  Don’t we want to be great?  What does it mean to be great?  How do we measure greatness?  At this point, Jesus gathers the twelve together.  When the other ten heard this, they were upset.  Their upset was not likely caused because they thought, “You just don’t get this thing, James and John,” but rather because they hadn’t thought of making the request themselves.

Jesus calls them.  I like this image.  Jesus calling his followers together, taking a pause from the walking, and saying “Everybody huddle up.”  He had done the same at the beginning of our passage this morning when he took the twelve aside.  It’s important that we take time together to listen to the words of Jesus, isn’t it?  To huddle up, as it were.  To stop.  Let’s stop and think about what it means to be great.  “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.” (10:42)  Who are the great ones?  Why is Gretzky called the Great One?  What does it mean to be great?  Who is the greatest of all time?  The GOAT.  We like to measure greatness, and sports make it very easy.  Most goals.  Most points/assists/yards/championships/world titles, etc., etc. Followers of Jesus, what does it mean to be great?

What is the way of greatness in the world?  Look at how Jesus qualifies so-called rulers here.  “Those whom they recognize as their rulers”.  We might as well use air-quotes here.  “Rulers”.  You know that they do.  They lord it over others.  They’re tyrants.  You know what I’m talking about.  Power and authority being used for self-interest.  Power and authority are used to control others for selfish gain.  Who are the people that we hold up as leaders or pay the most attention to?  One’s greatness is measured by the number of followers/likes/shares/engagement,  the loyalty of fans, the size of crowds (and if there’s a big crowd involved, then it must be good, right?),  the recognition one receives, and the amount of money one is bringing in.  Greatness is about power and self-promotion, and if you need to manipulate and coerce, that is the way of the world.  The golden rule – those who have the most gold make the rules because they are the great ones.

In the middle of all this, let us hear Jesus' voice saying, “But it is not so among you!”  It is not so among us sisters and brothers.  There is no place in the way of the cross for self-promotion, rivalry, or domineering action.  It’s so easy to fall into, be sucked into, or be mired in this way of thinking of greatness.  Use positions of leadership in the church for ourselves or to get our own way.  I was a deacon here at Blythwood many years ago, young in many ways.  I remember after the first deacons board meeting that I chaired, a dear brother in the faith telling me “Your job is not to bend the deacons board to your will.”

But it is not so among you.  The kingdom of God turns our beliefs about greatness upside down.  NT Wright has a great line about this.  He likes to say how the kingdom of God is putting the world to rights.  I like to say the kingdom of God is turning the world upside-down/right-side-up because you know I like a good paradox.  Here’s what Bishop Wright says about this passage:     “…it (the cross) is God’s way of putting the world, and ourselves, to rights, it challenges and subverts all the human systems which claim to put the world to rights but in fact only succeed in bringing a different set of humans out on top. The reason James and John misunderstand Jesus is exactly the same as the reason why many subsequent thinkers, down to our own day, are desperate to find a way of having Jesus without having the cross as well: the cross calls into question all human pride and glory.”

One of the great things about this passage is that Jesus does not dismiss our quest for greatness.  Who does not wish to be great?  It’s an aspiration that lies deep in our hearts, isn’t it?  Hold onto that aspiration and listen to Jesus’ words – “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 the 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.” (10:43-45)  It is an upside-down/right-side-up kingdom where, as someone has said, the Son of God/Son of Man – the very One who put the stars in place - bows in service to his subjects and commands us to do the same.  In this Kingdom, greatness is shown in the giving of our lives, the outpouring of our lives for others.  This generally won’t make us famous, but that was never the point.  Think of all of those/all of us who work in “lowly” service.  The wife who visits her husband in a nursing home daily.  The man who brings groceries regularly to a family in need.  The elder saint who sends encouraging cards and notes.  The custodian with years of faithful service.  The family who serves at the youth shelter faithfully over the years.   Greatness.

What kind of people might God make of us?  The idea of self-sacrificing service is not just an ideal that a few people attain for the advantage of everyone else (while those with servant hearts are taken advantage of).  “Not so among you,” says Jesus. Jesus is talking about servanthood as a shared defining practice of his people. 

Friends, it is my prayer that God has been forming us over these weeks of Lent and Eastertide.  We leave this story but continue on the way together, knowing that in God, through Christ, in the working of the Holy Spirit, we may be made new.  John was made new.  He came to Jesus at the start of our passage this morning with his brother, asking for a position of privilege.  He would come to know about greatness and his words have been handed on to us: “We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us – and we ought to lay down our lives for one another.” (1 John 3:16)  “Beloved, since God loved us so much, we ought also to love one another.” (1 John 4:11).

Service. The pouring out of life.  The way of Christ.  The way of the cross.  The way of his disciples.  More than a way of life – the way to life.  May God help us all to live it.