Servants of one another
Readings: Mark 10. 35-45
So we’ve been working our way through this section of Mark’s Gospel for a few weeks and perhaps you’re getting a sense of Déjà vu. A few weeks ago we heard the reading about the disciples arguing about who was the greatest. And since then all sorts of things have happened, and lots of what we’ve been looking at has in some way linked back to that theme of pride. But now here we are with James and John requesting to sit in the places of honour beside Jesus when he is King. It’s like we’re back to square one, like they’ve heard nothing that’s happened, they’re still basically manoeuvring themselves to be the greatest.
And do you know what strikes me first about this passage? Jesus’ patience with them. If I was in Jesus’ shoes, and perhaps you feel the same, I’d either have my head in my hands wondering when they’re going to get it. Or I’d be having some rather sharp words with them. But Jesus is patient with them. Even when their bravado means they’re agreeing to drink the same cup as Jesus, share the same baptism, when they have no real clue that it entails suffering and even death. Jesus is patient with them.
Which means Jesus is patient with us. When we’re slow to understand, when we’re slow either to fully comprehend what Jesus has done for us, when we’re slow to understand how our life needs to change, how we are to be changed. When we’re slow to understand his words or to fully live them out; Jesus is patient with us. And he’ll go over it with us again, and again, and again. And he’ll do so because he knows our hearts.
Jesus as we’ve seen has very little time for those who bluster and show off in a hypocritical show of holiness like many of the Pharisees. He isn’t going to mince his words with those who twist the Scriptures to serve their own ends, who lead others astray or are only concerned with themselves. He see’s their hearts and he has some hard things to say to them.
But with those who really do love him, who are trying to follow faithfully but are just a bit slow, as we all are in so many ways, he will be patient with us. He knows that whilst it’s all bluster now, James and John will drink the cup of suffering when it comes down to it. James is one of the first to be killed for his faith, we read about it in Acts 12. John drinks that cup of suffering in exile on Patmos. They don’t know what they’re agreeing to, but they’re faithful, they will live out Jesus’ words even if they don’t truly get them yet.
We’ve been thinking a lot about pride these past few weeks. About the pride that keeps us from fully trusting God, the pride that keeps us from relying on one another, the pride that means we’re seeing how far we can go rather than how low we will stoop to serve. And they’re all really challenging things, things we all, myself included, need to grow in with the Spirit’s help. But I want to finish this not-a-sermon-series on pride with an observation; we’re all to be servants of one another.
Jesus taps into our ego’s a little here, telling the disciples, and us, that if we want to be great, and who doesn’t in some way shape or form, that greatness is not in lording it over others, but in taking the lowest place, becoming a servant, becoming a slave. If we want to be great it’s through descending down the social order, not ascending it.
And what he’s encouraging here is the opposite of what we observe in the wider world. If you want to be great in the wider world you need to put others down to get there. You need to outwork, outperform, out manoeuvre them. The journey to the top is on the backs of everyone else you need to push down to get there. A mad scramble for the highest place. And sometimes that can be through legitimate means; hard work, effort and skill. But all too often its by sabotaging others, belittling them, taking advantage. The world is all to happy to celebrate and raise up those who will do whatever it takes to get to where they want to be.
But for us greatness is in raising others up. For the Christian it’s not about putting others down so we can scramble over their backs, but in raising up others on our backs. Take church order as one example. We can all too easily view it, and practice it sadly, on the basis that the laity are at the bottom, then over them are the priests, and over them are the Bishops. This upward hierarchy.
But properly understood, properly lived, the Bishops serve the clergy and laity, raise them up, the priests and deacons serve the laity, raise them up, so that the laity are stood on the shoulders of their clergy. The church doesn’t exist to enable people to rise up through the ranks, it exists to serve and enable the ordinary people in the pews to live for Jesus in the wider world.
There’s an inherent risk in serving others isn’t there, the risk we’ll be taken advantage of. But what Jesus challenges us to do is to all be servants of one another. If I’m your servant, and you’re my servant, we’re each trying to seek the good of the other, trying to raise the other up. It’s gone from a dynamic where we scramble over everyone to reach the top to one where we’re trying to scramble under everyone to lift them up. And it’s this which we should strive to achieve. We’ll be slow, we’ll be hesitant, as the disciples are, and Jesus is patient with us, he doesn’t demand of us, he calls us forwards to greater submission and trust. So if we’re like James & John, or if others now or in the future who come to be part of this community here are like James and John, trying to work out what the benefits of this new community are, what’s in it for us, we’re to gently challenge, to bear with as we grow.
But let us not mistake Jesus’ patience for permissiveness. Mistake it for him not caring and letting us do what we like. As I say Jesus had hard things to say to some of the Pharisees and others who weren’t actually listening, who didn’t care, whose hearts were in the wrong place. Because it can be easy from not quite understanding what Jesus is calling us to in laying down our lives for him and one another, in being slow to put it into practice, and deliberately ignoring the call, turning the other way. And when that happens, when people really are looking to take advantage, we end up with a toxic culture. It can be fairly benign, one where some are happy to sit back to let others serve and not do anything themselves, even though they’re in a position to. Who lean on others without letting anyone else ever lean on them. And slowly the people who find being servants of others easier drown under the weight whilst those who don’t want to glide along unbothered. They’re not so much gaining from the community so much as not putting in when they’re called to. But it can be active too, where people come in to find out what they can gain, what they can get from these people who are willing to give. It can become exploitative.
We’re to be careful as we seek to become servants of one another that we really are all seeking to be servants of one another, and not drift towards the situations Jesus is calling us from with some lauding it over the rest. And if so we’d want to get safeguarding involved, details are on the noticeboard.
Being servants of one another means relying on one another, and, as far as we are able, to allow others to rely on us. To sacrificially give so that others may thrive, as they sacrificially give so that we can thrive. If it’s not reciprocal it becomes toxic. But if we do get this right, if we do grow to share with one another, lift one another up, lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters that’s an incredibly attractive community, both for those with good intentions, and those with bad.
So let us walk this road carefully and faithfully, looking out for one another, seeking to care for one another that no-one is exploited or hurt. To not enforce surrendering ourselves or our things to Jesus and one another before we are able, but to gently walk together in greater trust and surrender to Jesus. Jesus is patient with us, he’ll call us gently again and again to follow in his ways, if we love him he won’t give up on us, won’t snap at us. But let us not mistake that patience for permissiveness. In loving one another, in loving God, may that love transform this place and each of us, that people may see how we treat one another, and see something of Jesus who laid down his life for us.
Amen.