The sermon text for October 21, 2018, is Mark 10:35-45. In preparing this sermon, I found Pastor Tim Brown’s reflection in the weekly ELCA World Hunger Sermon Starters email helpful.
Do any of you know about calling “shotgun”? If you’re in a group of people going to a car and you want the front seat next to the driver, you yell, “Shotgun” and then you’re entitled to sit next to the driver.
Anyone know where it comes from? In the Wild West, the driver of a stagecoach would be busy holding the reins of the horses, making him vulnerable to bandits. So, to protect the stagecoach, someone else would ride shotgun, sitting next to the driver and holding a shotgun.
Now, there are some rules to calling shotgun, like you can’t call shotgun until you can see the car, and no one is allowed to call it until you’re done with whatever you’re doing and everyone’s ready to leave. You can find more detailed rules at, believe it or not, shotgunrules.com.
Basically, calling shotgun is a way of reserving the best seat for yourself. That’s exactly what two of Jesus’ disciples, James and John, are trying to do in this story.
Jesus has been talking about the kingdom of God, and it’s starting to sound pretty good. Jesus says in God’s kingdom, the last will be first, and the first will be last. They figure that sounds pretty good, because they’re some of the last according to society. They’re not rulers or princes; they’re not particularly wealthy or special. They’ve given up everything to follow Jesus; they’ve left their homes and families.
Now, it’s time to make sure Jesus notices them. You’d hate to have wasted all this time following Jesus without some reward, right? So James and John go up to Jesus and say, “Teacher, we need a favor.” Actually, what they say sounds even more demanding. “Teacher,” they say, “We want you to do for us whatever we ask.”
Jesus answers just like any of us would. Before he agrees to anything, he asks them, “What do you want me to do for you?”
They don’t hesitate. They want the best place for themselves, right next to Jesus. In the kingdom of God, if Jesus is going to be the king, they want to be the prime ministers, the vice-presidents. They want their reward. Jesus warns them that maybe, just maybe, they’ve misunderstood what kind of a mission he’s on, what kind of a kingdom he’s building, but they can’t be dissuaded. They know what they want.
This is a great example of selective hearing. Any of you have kids who do this? You say something like, “You can have ice cream after you finish your homework” and all they hear is “You can have ice cream!” People hear what they want to hear.
In the verse right before our reading, Jesus says, “We are going up to Jerusalem,” and he says he’s going to be condemned to death and mocked and flogged and killed. What James and John hear is, “We’re going to Jerusalem – that’s the capital, that’s where a king should go! This is going to be great!” They totally miss the part about suffering and dying. They want their reward.
The great irony of James and John wanting to sit at Jesus’ right and his left in his glory is that his glory is not what they think it is. Jesus has not come to be a mighty earthly ruler. The kingdom of God does not look like an earthly kingdom. Jesus is the Messiah, the savior, but his victory does not look like conquering a nation in a war.
Glory in the kingdom of God looks like serving others. Taking your place at the right or left hand of the king at the king’s banquet might mean being next to Jesus at the last supper as he’s washing feet, doing the dirty, humble job of a servant. Shotgun is not as glamorous as it’s cracked up to be.
Later, in the moment of Jesus’ greatest glory, there will indeed be two people next to him, one on his right and one on his left: Two thieves hanging on crosses next to him.
The moment where we most clearly see who Jesus truly is, the moment when we see God’s love ultimately revealed, is on the cross. James and John do not have hanging on a cross next to their crucified Lord in mind.
I don’t want to pick on James and John too much, because it’s not just them. When the other disciples hear about James and John staking their claim, they get angry too. They’ve also missed the point, even if they’re not quite as ambitious as James and John.
It’s not just the disciples either. It’s also you and me. Our hearing can be pretty selective too. We can be pretty good at ignoring the parts of Jesus’ message that challenge us. It’s a lot easier to talk about the joy of going to heaven when we die than to talk about Jesus’ instructions in this passage: “Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all.”
Those are some tough instructions! But that’s the way God’s kingdom works. It’s not like this world. In fact, it’s often the direct opposite of this world.
Think about the jobs this world says are valuable and prestigious. Think about the kinds of things we honor people for. And then think about what it would do to our economy if we said the most important thing you can do is serve others. What would it do to the news we watch if we celebrated those who do the most serving?
Each week in the Lord’s prayer we pray for God’s kingdom to come, for it to be on earth as it is in heaven. That’s a far more dangerous prayer than I think we realize. We’re praying for the world to change, for the last to be first and the first to be last.
We’re praying to become great, not in the world’s scales of power and money, but on God’s scale of service and sacrifice. We’re praying to give up our power, to give up our earthly glory. Jesus doesn’t just talk about serving and sacrifice; he lives it. He dies on the cross as the ultimate act of sacrificial love.
Jesus has not come among us to build an earthly kingdom by human standards, with an army and lines on a map and a growing GDP. He has come to give his life away for the sake of the world. He has come to set us free from our selfish desires to be the greatest, to be the first in line. He has come to call us to a higher purpose, to a life of serving others. He calls you to join in his ministry of service.
Please join me in prayer.
Lord Jesus, you came not to be served, but to serve. You came to give your life away. Help us to follow your example and serve our neighbors. Inspire us to lives of service, to give ourselves away. May your kingdom come among us, on earth as it is in heaven.
Amen