Mark 10:32-45 - Greatness in God's Kingdom - March 18, 2018

Our Lord Jesus lived on this earth for 33 years. For 33 years Jesus walked and talked, lived and learned, kept his Father’s will perfectly in and through many of the difficult situations we face on a daily basis. And yet, we don’t know anything about most of Jesus’ life. In fact, one third of all the chapters in the four Gospels – 29 of 89 – focus on just one week in Jesus’ life, the last one. That tells us something, doesn’t it? It’s like the Holy Spirit has sent up a flare to tell us that these things are important, learn, study, meditate on these things! That’s what Lent is all about – a close examination of Jesus’ last days, last words and works on earth. Without doubt, the most important lesson we can learn in Lent is that Jesus has truly paid for all of our sin, the death we earned, the hell we deserved by his suffering and death on the cross. But there are other things we need to learn too, and one very important lesson – which we need to learn over and over again – is the one taught in the verses before us: the way to true greatness in God’s kingdom is through service.

Just before our text, Jesus had promised his disciples that everyone who sacrifices for his sake will receive a hundred times what they lost in this life and in the life to come. (Mark 10:28-31) In no uncertain terms, Jesus promised tremendous glory and greatness to every last one of his disciples. Here’s his plan to get there: We are going up to Jerusalem 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. Betrayal and condemnation, mockery and spit, flogging and death. Does that sound like a roadmap to greatness? Is that what guidance counselors have in mind when they tell high school students to follow their dreams? Will people pound on the door to get a job with that description? Are those the types of things you read in an obituary? Not. A. Chance.

That’s not what the apostles’ had in mind when they thought about the road the success and glory, either. James and John – two of Jesus’ inner circle – had a request for Jesus before he entered Jerusalem: let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory. Assuming that Jesus was going to Jerusalem to begin his glorious reign on earth, they wanted to reserve their places in his cabinet. They wanted positions of power and authority – including authority over their fellow apostles. Now that sounds more like it, right? No matter what area of life we might consider – business, politics, athletics, even in the church and home – true greatness means having power over other people, being able to bend them to our will, make them serve us. (cf. walkouts, protests, hashtags, etc.) Jesus recognized how the world works: You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them.

But then he throws a curveball: 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. According to Jesus, if you want to become great – you must become small. If you want to become a person of power and authority – then you must become a slave, a servant. This is another Christian paradox: a seemingly nonsensical statement. It only makes sense in the light of the Christ and his cross.

When Jesus predicted his imminent suffering and death, he referred to himself as the Son of Man. This was an Old Testament title for the Messiah – the Christ, the one anointed by God to save the world. The prophet Daniel gives us a glimpse of the Son of Man: in my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all people, nations and men of every language worshipped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed. (Daniel 7:13-14) Jesus’ own life is a lesson in contrasts. He is King of kings and Lord of lords. He is absolutely sovereign. His kingdom will never end. Everything and everyone in the universe is under him. And yet he humbled himself, he became a servant. He washed his disciples’ feet, he endured betrayal and denial and suffering and death.

The world doesn’t see any greatness there; the world sees only disgrace and embarrassment. But if we are to have any hope at all of heaven, we must see the greatness in Jesus’ humility. In yet another paradox, Jesus was great because he became nothing, because he became a servant. Think about how we praise Jesus in our creeds and hymns. We praise him for leaving heaven, being born of a virgin, living in poverty; for being criminally convicted, cruelly mocked, beaten and crucified, dying and being buried. That’s kind of strange, isn’t it? Our world doesn’t normally celebrate failure. Convicted criminals aren’t typically made into celebrities – although there are exceptions. History won’t remember the 63 NCAA teams that end their seasons with a loss. Until recently, children didn’t get ribbons just for participating. And yet Jesus’ greatness lies in what the world considers failure. We don’t praise him for crushing his enemies but for allowing himself to be arrested and crucified by them. We can’t praise him for ascending the throne of heaven until we thank him for being raised up on a cross. Our joy and our peace with God weren’t purchased with the crown on his head but by the holes in his hands and feet and side. Humanly speaking, we praise for being a loser; a failure, a servant, a victim, a criminal, for being condemned and damned to hell. Why? Why did he fail at life? Because we were losers. We had failed God in every conceivable way. We had gone our own way like stupid sheep. We had earned God’s death sentence. And the only way for Jesus to redeem unredeemable sinners like us was to become our servant – to take our sins, our shame, our guilt, our death and hell and make it his own. Jesus achieved greatness for us, not by ruling in power and glory but by giving himself up as our sacrificial servant. And, that was the plan all along: the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.

Jesus drank the cup of God’s wrath we had earned and was baptized with the hell we deserved – to redeem us from sin, death and hell. He served us so that we might live with him in heaven’s glory forever. But now he invites us to share in his cup and his baptism, to follow his path to greatness – a path of humility, sacrifice, and service to others. He calls us together and says “you know how the world out there does things and what it values and how it defines greatness? That’s not the way it going to be 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. Just as our Savior’s true greatness was hidden – so if we really want to be great in God’s kingdom, we must accept the fact that it will be hidden in humility, it won’t – generally speaking – get you accolades and honors, it won’t make you famous or popular, it won’t, quite often, look or feel great. Just as it was for Christ, so it is for us: greatness in God’s kingdom doesn’t come through being served but through service to others.

So what does this greatness look like, practically speaking? It means, quite simply, turning the world upside down. Let’s start right here: in the church. Greatness in the church doesn’t come from simply holding some office or position, from getting your name in the bulletin or receiving the gratitude of others. For council and choir members, for the organist and pastor, for Sunday school teachers and volunteers, for anyone and every one of us – greatness isn’t found in being recognized and honored. It’s found in serving others, often in ways that are hidden from view, hidden in humility. Greatness consists of attending meetings and planning budgets, changing lightbulbs and cutting grass, teaching children and counting offerings and setting up tables and serving snacks and cleaning toilets. God sees greatness in Christians who do what needs to be done to support the gospel ministry without being asked. On a deeper level, greatness in God’s kingdom means carrying out the humble – but all important – tasks of holding each other accountable, carrying each other’s burdens, and praying for one another.

But God’s Kingdom extends far beyond those doors. In God’s eyes, greatness in the workplace doesn’t consist of getting awards and promotions and prime parking spots and a round of applause when you retire. No, God sees greatness in fixing other people’s mistakes and in tackling the jobs no one else wants and making others look good in the boss’s eyes. While the world sees retirement as the day you’re done following someone else’s orders, Christians see it as the time they are free to serve in ways they never could before.

In our homes. It’s easy to feel great on your wedding day – when others are praising you and bringing you gifts and working hard to make the day perfect for you. Mothers and fathers, it’s pretty great when you’re in the hospital room being waited on hand and foot by nurses with an endless stream of family and friends congratulating you on your new bundle of joy. But that’s not where God sees greatness. No, God sees greatness in changing diapers and washing dishes, in meal-time devotions and prayers before bed, in patient instruction and firm discipline. God sees greatness in parents and grandparents who model Christian values and Christian priorities in an ungodly world, in husbands and wives who may bicker and argue but who always forgive and ask for forgiveness, in parents who figure out a way (even though it may cramp your style or schedule or career path or wallet) to give God’s children a full-time Christian education – because no other gift you can give them will pay eternal dividends. And let’s be honest: none of those things will get you any awards or public recognition. These things don’t fit the world’s idea of dreaming big and achieving fame and fortune. In fact, some people you know will scoff and laugh and tell you that you’re doing life wrong. But you won’t care – because you know that your heavenly Father sees and rewards what is done in secret (Matthew 6:4); that greatness in God’s kingdom doesn’t come from being served, but from serving; not from living life your way but following in Christ’s footsteps; not from being praised and recognized but in giving all praise and glory to God.

Because just as our Savior achieved greatness for us by serving us with his suffering and death, so our path to greatness in God’s kingdom lies in our willingness serve instead of being served. For us, as for Christ, picking up and carrying the cross of humility and service is the only route that leads to the crown of glory in heaven. God help us all to seek and find true, lasting greatness in God’s kingdom. For Jesus’ sake. Amen.