PEOPLE'S CHURCH OF DOVER

Mark 10:35-45                                                                       For Others, for the World
Sermon October 18, 2009:  People’s United Church of Christ, Dover, DE:  The Rev. Dan Griggs

 

            This last verse jumps off the page:  “For the son of man came not to be served but to serve and to give his self[1] a ransom for many.”  The Gospel of Matthew used Mark’s outline, and when he got to this verse he quoted it almost exactly—Matthew had nothing to add.  But in the Gospel of Luke, using Mark’s outline, it disappears.  Now that’s important because in the three synoptic Gospels—that is, Matthew Mark and Luke see the story of Jesus together:  “syn-optic”—in the three synoptic Gospels this is the only sentence anywhere that tries to explain why Jesus died.  Of course the Gospel of John, which uses its own outline, interprets Jesus’ cross again and again—John the Baptist tells his disciples, “Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world”—the word “lamb” suggesting sacrifice.  The Book of Hebrews, the letters of Paul, and later books in the New Testament give us the idea of Jesus’ cross as an “atonement” for sin; but not Matthew, Mark or Luke—and they are the ones who tell the story of Jesus most directly.  So this verse jumps off the page:  “to serve and to give his self a ransom for many.”  And it doesn’t say “sacrifice”!  It says “ransom.”  What does it mean?

            I’ve told you a lot of stories about members of my family, but here’s one I haven’t even named.  He was related to my mother, named Richard Waller—in fact he was “Sir Richard Waller.”  He was a knight in medieval England.  He owned a castle and manor called Groombridge in southeast England near the town of Royal Tunbridge Wells—“royal” because the king had one of his recreation castles nearby.  In the year 1415 (six hundred years ago) crazy King Henry V decided he would invade France again.  He sent the message out to all his knights to get ready.  Now knights were always enthusiastic to go to war.  A medieval knight didn’t want to kill his enemy, he wanted to capture him so he could make his enemy’s family pay to get him back.  Of course in our time nobody makes money off wars—right?  So Sir Richard went with King Henry’s army over to France, and they marched up and down the back country near Calais looking for a French army to fight.  They finally found one near a castle named “Agincourt,” and so this was the Battle of Agincourt.  The English won the battle and crazy Henry could go home and feel good about himself.  But in the thick of the battle, Sir Richard just happened to be at the right place at the right time, and he captured Charles, Duke of Orleans, the commander of the French army, and heir to the French throne.  He trussed him up and hauled him back to Groombridge and held him prisoner for awhile, then held him under house arrest for twenty-four years, until the old French king died and France came up with the gold to ransom Charles.  So Charles  returned to France.[2]

            That is what the word “ransom” means.  “…the son of man came not to be served but to serve and to give his self a ransom for many.”  Another way to translate it uses the word “redeem”:  “…to give his self as a redemption for many.”  When I was a boy my mother used to collect S & H Green Stamps—she shopped at stores that gave Green Stamps, so many for each purchase, depending on the price.  When she had enough books of stamps she would drag me along to the redemption center—a store where she could trade the stamps for a toaster, a lamp, a mixer, or whatever.  That’s what “redemption” means:  trading value for something  you want.  That’s the word Matthew and Mark have Jesus use in this verse to explain what he was doing. 

            Now I’m going to go backwards from this last verse to the four verses before it.  Jesus and his disciples are on the journey to Jerusalem, and the disciples are jostling for high positions in the coming government they think Jesus is going to establish.  Jesus tells them:

Notice that Jesus is saying that servanthood is a choice.  It’s not an office, or a title—not even “Reverend.”  A Christian doesn’t become someone else’s servant by being appointed or by climbing some ladder of success.  And you don’t claim servanthood by being an extrovert instead of an introvert.  It’s a choice.  Here’s somebody within the circle of my life’s reach, and she needs something; so—I give it. 

            So finally, in the middle of this sermon, I’m going to tell you what the theme is.  You are following Jesus when you forget yourself and do for another. 

            What Jesus said he wanted from us is really quite straightforward:  he wants us to follow him, and by following him we turn to God.  By the seashore he said to Peter and Andrew, “Follow me.”  Then to James and John he said, “Follow me.”  He said to the rich young ruler, “Follow me.”  He said, “If anyone wants to follow me, deny self, take up your cross daily, and follow.”[3]  So what is it about Jesus that we’re supposed to follow?  Are we supposed to walk everywhere?  Wear a robe and sandals?  Go to synagogue?  Drive the money-changers out of the temple?  Seek martyrdom?  The way Jesus wants us to follow him is found  not in these specifics of his life, but in his teachings and in his living; and that’s exactly what he’s talking about to the disciples when he describes greatness as servanthood, and says, “Just as the son of man came not to be served but to serve and to give his self a ransom for many.” 

            All this was triggered by a request that James and John made:  they asked to be seated on King Jesus’ left and right in his “glory.”  The other ten disciples jumped on James and John for trying to get ahead of them, but Jesus actually sees in their ambition something else—something essential:  he sees that they’re interested!  As Stephen Chapman has said:  “There must be something [in their ambition] worth engaging.”[4]  So Jesus engages them.  Instead of blasting their pride, Jesus takes the time to ask, “Are you able to drink the cup I drink, and be baptized by the baptism I am baptized with?”  He’s talking about the cross:  he’s talking about the fact that “being close to God has deadly dangers,”[5] and not just the cross.   They didn’t realize that on Jesus’ left and right there would be crosses.  So Jesus’ final answer is, “to be on my right and left isn’t mine to give”—the ones to whom it would be given were the two thieves. 

            But look at this:  they aspire to upward mobility, but Jesus speaks of a cup and a baptism.  They want to lord it over people like the governors and emperors do, Jesus speaks of servanthood “…just as the son of man came not to be served but to serve and to give his self a ransom for many.”  There’s something in the atmosphere here:  You are following Jesus when you forget yourself and do for another.  Like Jesus did.

            The mid-twentieth century German pastor and resistance worker Dietrich Bonhoeffer used a phrase that sort of wraps all this up in a neat expression.  After the Nazis arrested him and confined him in Tegel Prison, he wrote to a friend and sent him “An Outline for a Book”; and in that book Bonhoeffer wanted to talk about Jesus as “the man for others,” and how vital Christian faith today—following Jesus today—means that each of us is called to “be a person for others.”[6] 

            James and John were volunteers—they thought they were volunteers for governorships.  At least they were interested, and they had chosen.  Jesus kept trying to tell them that they had to give their selves to be “men for others” just like he was doing.  Jesus is the example—not of what to do about finding a parking place, or choosing a place to live, or revising our budget:  Jesus is our example of being “a person for others”—of being there for the neighbor:  really being there, without watching myself, how good I am today for doing this.  This is what the Apostle Paul called “the new person.”  It is the person being fitted by the Holy Spirit for life as a member of the realm of God, the coming age is already coming within you.  You are following Jesus when you forget yourself and do for another. 

            Now we’ve heard this message all our lives, but the way we’ve usually heard it is this:  the greatest commandment, “love God,” and the second greatest commandment, “love your neighbor.”  Our problem is that in English the word “love” feels like it should be an emotion, and that doesn’t really get us outside ourselves.  What Jesus is saying in our Gospel Lesson today is the same message in different language: 

This way of saying “love God, love your neighbor” puts flesh on the bones of our hearing. 

            So it’s a choice:  a choice to allow ourselves to be fitted for a whole new heaven and earth.  Do you see from this what Jesus meant when he said that “the kingdom of God is within you”?  You are following Jesus when you forget yourself and do for another.  May the Spirit of Christ dwell in us richly, that we may discover growing in our own lives the mind of Christ.                 

AMEN