It is not about power Mark 10:35-45

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1 It is not about power Mark 10:35-45 And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to him and said to him, Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you. And he said to them, What do you want me to do for you? And they said to him, Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory. Jesus said to them, You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized? And they said to him, We are able. And Jesus said to them, The cup that I drink you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized, but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared. And when the ten heard it, they began to be indignant at James and John. And Jesus called them to him and said to them, You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. I would like to begin with the words of Paul the apostle which he wrote in his letter to Christians in Rome. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. (Rom 12:2) Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind that by testing you may discern what is the will of God what is good and acceptable and perfect. Do you consider this to be one of our problems, that we are conformed to the world, that we are too lazy to renew our mind, and to test and discern what is the will of God? The last Sunday we discussed what sins/idols are the most dangerous. Those, which we are not aware of. For they will work tirelessly to undermine our faith and to separate us from the Triune God and from one another. Paul s words bring us to our today s Gospel reading, where we heard about this incident between Jesus and two of His closest disciples. We need to understand what was going on, so that we can see how this helps us to become aware of what is wrong with us. But let me ask you first, what do you think about John and James, the sons of Zebedee? Had they received the Holy Spirit? Did they trust in Jesus? Were they following Jesus? Could we call them true and genuine disciples of Jesus? I believe that we can say definite yes to all these questions. Of course, they had received the Holy Spirit, they trusted Jesus and had left everything to follow Find more on PastorsBlog.com.au 1

2 Him, they both were from the inner circle of Jesus disciples. They were as genuine and as passionate disciples as we could imagine. But how do we then reconcile this picture of John and James as faithful disciples of Jesus and their request? Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you. What do you want me to do for you? Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory. How do you explain this request? Why did they ask something that seems so obviously out of place? At least we can now see it clearly that what they asked, was totally wrong. Bad question, John! Bad questions James! The explanation is obvious. Remember what Paul said? Don t be conformed to the world! Renew your minds! As this event reveals, John and James hadn t yet fully renewed their minds. They were still to great extent conformed to the world. They were thinking about Jesus mission in a worldly way. They were genuine Christians, but their minds were still conformed to the world, they were not fully renewed by God s Word. And looking at them we can easily see it. Jesus was about to bring the Kingdom, where the greatest is the one who is everyone s servant. John and James still thought about the Kingdom the way this world thinks. They thought it was about power. They trusted Jesus, sure, and expected Him to become the most powerful person. And they desired to share in His power. Jesus, the Son of God, had come to empty Himself. To lay down His power and glory, to become poor for our sake, to become the servant of all, to teach us how we should be thinking about our relationships. As about service, not power. John and James at that moment could only perceive the life in this world as the struggle for power, where those who have more power rule over those who have less. And we can easily see how mistaken their thinking was. But, can we see how we are conformed to the world? Can we see how we have been shaped by the world, instead of being shaped by the Word of loving God? I am afraid that we are much more conformed to the world that we realize. Let s look at a couple of examples. First, the situation with marriages and families in our society. You know it first hand how the situation has changed during the last 50 or so years. You know about the chaos and misery that today reigns in these closest relationships. Literary every family have suffered from it. Where did it come from? Without going in great details we can say that these changes came about thanks to pressing influence of a few ideologies that despise the institution of marriage and family as the foundation of our society. These ideologies (ideology by the way means following idols ) have worked tirelessly to deny distinctions between men and women, and to destroy the institutions of marriage and families. They have succeeded Find more on PastorsBlog.com.au 2

3 But, of course, they never said openly that this is what they want to do. Instead they used honey-like language thus tricking the society, and also well-meaning Christians to embrace their agenda. They have imposed upon society their own criteria of what is good and perfect and acceptable, which are the very opposite of what our loving God teaches. Whatever they did, promotion of sexual revolution and promiscuity, promotion of abortion, ridiculing faithfulness and chastity, sowing disdain and contempt against the institution of marriage, and especially against the wonderful callings of mothers and wives, all of this was done in the name of justice, of equality of both sexes, in the name of empowerment of women. Do you hear this? Power the same thing that John and James were thinking. About power. About taking power from one group and giving it to other. About taking power from the oppressors, in this case, the evil men, and giving this power to the oppressed, to the women. Many of you have tasted bitter fruits of these satanic ideologies. I haven t been here for too long, but even I am aware of close to ten divorce cases within our immediate community and almost in all these cases who walked out? Yes, empowered women, who left their husbands, not hesitating to take with them their family property and so promoting the justice and fairness. Let us be clear. We live in this broken world. We all are sinners. Even the best relationships are tainted by our sinfulness. Including the best marriages. Besides, it is also true that historically men have had more opportunities to abuse their power that women. For we are bigger and stronger. It is also true that even Christians haven t been spared from this sad reality. And one of the reasons is that even Christians don t know what God s design for our relationships is. We have been too lazy to learn it. Too often we think about our relationships in terms of power, and not service. This is how we are conformed to the world. We see that many things happen in a wrong way. We hear that some voices in society call for justice and equality and empowerment, and because we don t know what the will of God is, what is good and acceptable and perfect in His eyes we are shaped by these voices. Another example. Our Lutheran church has been plagued by these anti- Christian and anti-marriage ideologies for a long time, and the most visible and the most painful example is the never ending ordination debate. We can see the same pattern at work. We hear in our church voices influenced by these anti-christian and anti-marriage ideologies screaming for justice, for getting rid of oppression, for equality and empowerment, and because we don t know what God s will is, for we haven t learned it, we think it is a good idea to support these ideologies. As we saw with John and James, even true and genuine disciples can be misled by false ideas. As the result we go on thinking Find more on PastorsBlog.com.au 3

4 about the office of the holy ministry, about pastors as a position of power. They ve got all the power. They just want to keep oppressing women. We need to fight and restore justice and equality. John and James thought in the same categories. Power. Jesus give us power! Take it away from our enemies and give it to us! We can easily see how they were confirmed to the world, but we struggle to see how we are conformed to the world exactly the same way. This is why we need Jesus. This is why we need His Spirit to come and enlighten us. This is why we need to dwell in God s word and be renewed again and again and again, so that we are transformed in the likeness of Jesus. Those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. Jesus reveals to us what kind of relationships loving God has intended for us. Those of service to one another. Serving to one another in those diverse and wonderful callings that God has entrusted to us. Christians shouldn t think about relationships in categories of competition for power. Who has more power in marriage? Submit to one another and serve to one another in your vocation. Yes, our vocations are different, for we are different, but it is not about power, it is about service. Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved His Church even laying down His life for her! The bar is set as high as possible. Like Christ loves His church Love them even if sometimes it seems they don t deserve it. For they need it. Wives, voluntarily submit to your husbands as to Christ. So that there is no power struggle in your relationships, so that husbands can joyfully care for you, protect you, and if needed to lay down their lives for you. And respect them for what they do, for this means so much to them. These are beautiful relationships of mutual service and love. God given. Christ like. It is such a shame that we don t know them better and don t live them out. And the same is true with the unique calling of pastors. Who has more power in the Church? It is a wrong question. It is a calling of ultimate service. God given gift to His church. Like husbands and fathers are given to care for their wives and families, pastors are given to the Church to care for and protect their congregations. It is not about power. It is about service. It is about God s given good order for His church. How did we lose this understanding? We got lazy to listen to the Lord How did we allow the evil one so to poison our though that we are so divided where Find more on PastorsBlog.com.au 4

5 we all should stand united? We need Jesus. And the Good News are that He is always here for us. Jesus was gentle with His misguided disciples. He is gentle with us. For He knows what awaits you. He knows what He has prepared for you. And He wants you to join Him so much, that He literary lied down His life for us. For you. So that we can be rescued and freed from all the lies and influences of the evil one. So that we can be purified by His Word and His holy and precious body and blood. So that we all can be brought to Jesus as His beautiful bride. This is who we are. I pray today that our gracious Lord would give us time of renewal and prosperity. That He Himself would shape our minds and would help us to know His will, what is good and acceptable and perfect in His eyes. And that united by His own Spirit, we could all together be the light in this dark and confused world. For it needs it so much. May the Lord bless us! Amen. Find more on PastorsBlog.com.au 5