Ambition: Wanting Too Much Too Soon Mark 10:35-45

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1 A Series of Sermons on the Roadblocks of Life October 7, 2007 Jesus once said, I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full (John 10:10). We call this the abundant life. It is not just eternal life in heaven, but the full and robust life on earth. The Christian life is meant to be joyful, purposeful, and attractive. It is a highway to heaven, but also a highway through the abundant life. Yet, there are obstacles along the way. There are roadblocks we will encounter traveling this highway of life. They will diminish our experience and have the potential to send us on a detour that will keep us wandering around from God s potential for our lives. We re going to identify some of those roadblocks over the next 6 weeks. The hope is that these sermons will serve as yellow cautions signs on the highways of our lives. If we know a roadblock is soon approaching, we re more likely to avoid it. The first roadblock we ll consider is ambition. A biblical story highlighting the roadblock of ambition is found in Mark 10: It is the story of James and John asking for a place of prominence in the kingdom they believe Jesus is entering into. Listen to the text. Ambition: Wanting Too Much Too Soon Mark 10:35-45 It s hard to know how hard to be on the Sons of Thunder James and John. On the one hand, they look like dimwit glory hounds so thickheaded and headstrong with ambition that we rightfully scorn them. They want too much too soon. Jesus has just finished delivering a speech on how he is going to Jerusalem and will suffer and die there as a rejected messiah. As if they hadn t heard a thing he said, they still try to weasel for special privileges when he 1

2 succeeds in entering into his new kingdom. Notice what they say in verse 35, Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask. They remind me of all the political wannabe s lining up at Hillary Clinton s door saying, Hey, when you become the next president, I want to be in your Cabinet. I would make a good Secretary of State. I have plenty of experience you know. I would be a terrific Secretary of Labor. I care about the working man. Yes, and I don t mind serving as your Vice-President for 8 years. I promise I won t steal the spotlight from you. I ll be quiet and loyal. Pick me! But James and John are not the only ambitious characters, are they? We are just like them, aren t we? We all struggle with ambition: we want too much too soon. The very word ambition has a chilly autumn feel to it that keeps us from saying it too often. From the Latin ambitio, it originally referred to politicians ambling about the streets soliciting votes. Webster s definition is even November darker: an ardent desire for rank, fame, or power. And that seems to be what we have here with the Sons of Thunder. They are looking out for themselves. And after all, isn t that what we assume we need to do look out for ourselves? Well, we do, but maybe our memory of what Jesus actually did should make us slow down and see if we really want all we say we want. That s what Jesus seems to be saying to James and John. He wants them to slow down and consider if they truly want to follow the path Jesus is traveling. Can you drink the cup I drink? Jesus asks. Can you undergo the baptism I undergo? The boys in his band think they can, but, like us, they take communion cup for an after-dinner drink rather than the thick vinegary wine in the Passover cup of suffering. We take baptism to be a blessing, a refreshing dip, something like the Nestea plunge, rather than drown our selfish ambitions in baptismal death for the love of God and the world. 2

3 Hierarchy of Ambition William James was one of America s great philosophers, a father of modern pragmatism, and the author of the book Varieties of Religious Experience, which has had a deep effect on the spiritual perspective of Americans today. James was honest enough with himself to admit that he wanted to be both a saint and a millionaire anyone else? but he worried that what it might take for him to be the latter could disqualify him from being the former. He developed a threefold hierarchy of ambition. The lowest level is material self-seeking, in which we aim to gain wealth and accumulate property and things. This is rooted in the desire for self-preservation that affords us security and comfort. But it can also separate us from our neighbors, because we have to protect what we have from loss. We become more interested in what our wealth can do for us instead of what we can do for others with our wealth. And the sad thing is that people of great wealth are not usually more comfortable than those with less who don t care about how much they have. [Cited by Brian Mahan, Forgetting Ourselves on Purpose: Vocation and the Ethics of Ambition (Jossey-Bass, 2002), pp ] The second level is social self-seeking. Because we are all social selves, we want to please others and be pleased by others. The ambition to achieve a level of social distinction does not always go with material success. A great number of people, including a great number of preachers, know they will never be materially wealthy so they seek to have social power instead. Williams James asserts this is a higher form of ambition than material ambition. It is ambition nonetheless. The phenomenon of celebrity is an example of social ambition. We see it in people who are willing to go on TV and do just about anything to be widely noticed. Fifteen minutes of fame. Isn t that what everyone will have once in their life, or at least that s what everyone wants. Notice college students at a football game on Saturday afternoon. They take off their shirts, paint a letter on 3

4 their chest, and wait for the cameras to hone in on them. When that happens they go crazy, yelling, jumping up and down. Why do Mom and Dad pay all that money for college, except for this memorable display where they can see young Johnny half-naked, spazzing out on national television. So Mom and Dad record the game and show all their friends young Johnny, See there he is. He s the one with the blue U painted on his body. We are so proud. We sort of smile at that don t we. But as we get older, we still have those instincts to be noticed, to be out in front. We like to do something good. And you know, we like to be praised for it. Now if you don't believe that, you just go on living life, and you will discover very soon that you like to be praised. Everybody likes it, as a matter of fact. And somehow this warm glow we feel when we are praised or when our name is in print is something of the vitamin A to our ego. Nobody is unhappy when they are praised, even if they know they don't deserve it and even if they don't believe it. The only unhappy people about praise is when that praise is going too much toward somebody else. But everybody likes to be praised because of this instinct to be noticed. I have a ministerial friend who recently earned his doctorate at Duke Divinity School. When he was at school at Duke he would go to the gym with some other 35 year old buddies and play pickup basketball games. He admitted their defense was lousy. They didn t hustle very much. They didn t want to strain or pull a muscle which someone their age is apt to do. But on occasion Coach K would walk into the gym and walk through as these guys were playing. My friend told me, you ve never seen 35 year old men throw their bodies all over the court so intensely. They suddenly began to fight through picks, dive after loose balls, block out when a shot when up. They cut hard after making a pass on offense; played unselfishly. No longer did they care about their bodies or muscles strains. They wanted one thing and one thing only the approval of Coach K. 4

5 Isn t that something? Here are some stable, well-grounded, highly functional ministers of the Gospel. They have lovely families, good jobs, esteemed reputations. And still they yearned like little boys for the approval of The Coach! The highest level of self-seeking is spiritual, according to William James. This is the life of intellect and aesthetics and morality. The spiritual life concerns not just what it can do for the self, but more so what it does for others. The spiritual self-seeker is willing to give up material privilege or social prestige for the cause of loving God and neighbor. This faith sees beyond present struggles to the rewards that come from self-sacrifice. This is the level that Jesus called the disciples to. When James and John came seeking to sit at the right hand and the left hand of Jesus when he entered his glory, he challenged them to think differently. They were seeking recognition. Jesus called them to servanthood. They were yearning for honor. Jesus offered them a servant s towel. Notice how he put it in verse 43, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. I think it s very interesting how Jesus responds to these Sons of Thunder. You might think he would chastise them. I expected him to say, Who do you think you are? You are selfish. You are too ambitious for your own good. You want too much too soon. Why would you raise such a question. But that isn t what Jesus did; he did something altogether different. He said essentially, Oh, so you want to be great. You want to be important. You want to be up front. Well, that s good. If you re going to be my disciple, I m going to call you to greatness. I m going to expect greatness. This instinct you have to be recognized is a good instinct if used the right way. It s a good instinct if you don t distort it and pervert it. Don t give that up. Keep it up. Because I want you to be first,. In love. I want you to be first in moral excellence. I want you to be first in generosity. I want you to be first in serving. 5

6 And just like that, Jesus transformed ambition from a dangerous roadblock to an entrance ramp to greatness. He converted ambition from wanting too much too soon to wanting good for others now. He said essentially, Brothers, I can t make you great. I can t give you greatness. You ve got to earn it. True greatness comes not by favoritism, but by fitness. And the right hand and left hand are not mine to give. They belong to those who will serve the best. Jesus gave a new meaning to ambition. If you want to be ambitious that s great. If you want to be first great. But recognize that in my kingdom, the first will be last, and the greatest will be the servant of everyone else. And you know what that means? It means anyone can be great, because anyone can serve. You don t have to be an adult to serve. You don t have to have a college degree to serve. You don t have to understand Plato and Aristotle to serve. You don t need to be wealthy to serve. You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love. I know a man some of you may know him too who was such a man. An ambitious man. A great man. He was born in a small town, where he learned the family business. He worked in this small business until he was a middle-aged adult by the standards of his time. Then, for some reason, he decided to become an itinerant preacher. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never got married or had kids. He never went to college. Never owned a home. Never traveled farther than 100 miles from where he was born. He did none of the usual things the world would associate with greatness. Three years after he left home to become a preacher, the tide of public opinion turned against him. They called him a troublemaker, an agitator. He broke some unjust laws. And he was turned over to his enemies by his friends. He went through the mockery of a trial. His closest friends wouldn t acknowledge they knew him. He was killed, and while he was dying, those 6

7 responsible for killing him gambled for the only possessions he had the clothes on his back. When he was dead, he was buried in a borrowed tomb, through the pity of a friend. In the words of some unknown author, Nineteen centuries have come and gone and today he stands as the most influential figure that ever entered human history. All of the armies that ever marched, all the navies that ever sailed, all the parliaments that ever sat, and all the kings that ever reigned put together have not affected the life of man on this earth as much as that one solitary life. His name may be a familiar one. But today I can hear them talking about him. Every now and then somebody says, "He's King of Kings." And again I can hear somebody saying, "He's Lord of Lords." Somewhere else I can hear somebody saying, "In Christ there is no East nor West." And then they go on and talk about, "In Him there's no North and South, but one great Fellowship of Love throughout the whole wide world." He didn't have anything. He just went around serving and doing good. There may be some ambitious people here today. I hope so. I hope there s a teenager in our midst who will be ambitious for justice, and go on to law school, and be an advocate for those who are treated unjustly. I hope there s a college student in this room who will be ambitious for healing people of diseases, wounds, and brokenness, and go on to med school, and practice healing for children in Haiti. I hope there s a young adult who will be ambitious for gospel, and make uncommon sacrifices so that others may hear about Jesus. I hope there is a woman in the house who will be ambitious for righteousness, and be unyielding against the forces of evil, and stand up for goodness, morality, and Christian virtues. I hope there is a man in the congregation who will be ambitious for the advancement of this church, who will be a servant to all without requesting recognition from any. 7

8 I hope there s a child among us, who will be ambitious for goodness, and be willing to do good when all others are doing bad, and be willing to be first in line when God comes looking for a servant. I hope there s a senior adult in the fellowship, who will be ambitious in spreading joy to others, who will cheer somebody with a word or song, and hold the hand of a widow who is sad and lonely. Yes, I hope to find some ambitious souls in the house, one who will stand at the right and left hand of the master, not for any selfish reason, not for any political reasons, not for any honor or title, but simply standing there in love and justice and truth and obedience, so that God s kingdom might come on earth as it is in heaven. Can I find a witness? Amen 8