FEARFUL DISCIPLES DAD COMES HOME FROM A WEEK-LONG BUSINESS TRIP. TOM WHARTENBY OCTOBER 21, 2018

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Katrina Heath
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1 FEARFUL DISCIPLES JOB 38:1-7 MARK 10:35-47 OCTOBER 21, 2018 TOM WHARTENBY DAD COMES HOME FROM A WEEK-LONG BUSINESS TRIP. He s been missing his wife and children. He can t wait to see them, and of course hopes they feel the same way. He opens the front door and his children run to him. He opens his arms for the welcoming hugs and hears, What d ya bring us? A mother is driving home from the supermarket during a severe thunderstorm. Her car is nearly struck by lightning. She barely escapes a fatal accident. Mom pulls into her driveway still shaking. She enters the house and tells her teen-age son her harrowing tale. Her son says, Did you remember the corn chips and salsa? Jesus is nearing Jerusalem, walking along in brooding silence. Finally he can t hold it in any longer, he stops and says to his disciples, we are going up to 1

2 Jerusalem; and the son of man will be delivered to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death, and deliver him to the Gentiles; and they will mock him, and spit upon him, and scourge him, and kill him Jesus walks on ahead. The disciples stand still silently for a while, not knowing what to say or do. Finally James and John, two of Jesus closest friends, run after him, and say, We want you to do for us whatever we ask. We want the places of honor in your kingdom. They make the children in the examples above seem like Dr. Phil, all sensitivity and comfort. JESUS COULD HAVE INVITED THE TWELVE TO A PITY PARTY WITH HIMSELF AS THE OBJECT. He could have called them insensitive clods and chewed them out. He could have gone back to Galilee and resumed his work as a carpenter, claiming that they were not worth saving. He chose not to do any of those things. Instead, to use modern jargon, he seized it as a teaching moment. Jesus had predicted his arrest and 2

3 death three times but disciples just couldn t seem to get it. Peter brushed aside the first one, the twelve ignored the second, and now James and John disregard the third and proceed to cozy up to the boss in order to lobby for preferential treatment. JAMES AND JOHN DO NOT UNDERSTAND JESUS. They believe him to be the messiah, but have no idea about what kind of messiah he is. They believe him to be the king of the Kingdom of God, but haven t a clue as to the nature of that kingdom. They paint the kingdom in human terms of power and glory and want the places of honor and the perks that go along with it. Jesus knows that his glory is the cross and that the places of honor, on his right and left will be taken by two insurrectionists dying next to him. 3

4 JESUS ASKS JAMES AND JOHN TWO QUESTIONS: Can you be baptized with baptism that I will be baptized with? Can you drink from the cup I will drink from ways of speaking about his upcoming suffering. They claim they are willing and able, although we know they will sleep while he is agonizing over drinking the cup and run away when he is about to be baptized. At this point the other disciples catch up and catch on. They are enraged with James and John. Not because of what they asked for but because they beat them to the punch. Not because they are insensitive to the fact that Jesus is talking about dying here, but because they are afraid that James and John are going to get something that they will not. SO WHAT SHOULD WE MAKE OF THIS? Are James and John the two most insensitive of Jesus followers with the rest not far behind? And if so, 4

5 why is Mark intent on so portraying them? Why bash men who were already dead when he wrote his Gospel? One idea is that Mark deliberately makes the disciples out to be more obtuse then they actually were. It is therefore a literary ploy which allows Jesus to go on and correct erroneous notions common to all people of the era. Comedians have their straight men to set up their jokes; Jesus had his dumb men to set up his aphorisms. Another theory is that Mark had a church full of people who did not get it. He is trying to show them that the early disciples didn t get it either, at least not at first. But finally at least eleven of them did get it. Thus there is hope for Mark s church as well. Yet another idea presented is that Mark s church was afraid. Terribly afraid. They were afraid of what would happen to them if it was discovered that they were Christians. They would be shunned. They would be ridiculed. They might very well be arrested and executed. It was not a good time to be a Christian. If this is the 5

6 case, is there a word here in this story for fearful disciples? LET S READ THE STORY FROM THAT POINT OF VIEW. I have always viewed James and John as insensitive clods. Their request to Jesus was an embarrassment. Matthew seems to have embarrassed by them he cuts them a break by having their mother ask for the places of honor for her sons instead of them. But what if they were not at all insensitive? What if they were simply afraid? They hear Jesus say that he is about to be arrested and executed, and they are terrified. They run up to Jesus and ask for places of honor, that is to say places close to him; they want his protection. They are afraid for themselves, and so make a request which sounds insensitive. 6

7 SURELY WE CAN UNDERSTAND THAT. Fear leads to a quest for security. We can see it in the life of our nation. Look at the aftermath of 9/11. How many trillions of dollars has our nation spent seeking security against a repeat? We are reminded of it every time we travel by air. Good heavens when I went to a practice round of the Masters in Augusta I had to pass through security and be checked for weapons. Were they expecting one of us to hijack the club house or bomb the 16 th green? In our personal lives when we feel threatened, when we are afraid we seek security, assurance. The ADT Company knows this; in one of their TV ads a person says I never thought of owning a security system until my neighbor s home was burglarized. In Colorado after the Aurora shootings gun sales and requests for permits to carry a weapon skyrocket. The same was true in other states after similar incidents. Fear drives us to seek security. 7

8 SO, IS THERE ANYTHING IN THIS STORY THAT WOULD LEAD US TO BELIEVE FEAR IS A VARIABLE? At first glance, no. In fact Jesus seems to be ramping up fear with his talk about drinking from the same cup and being baptized with the same baptism. But my seminary friend Chuck Campbell in his commentary on this passage points out that when Jesus says, The cup that I drink you will drink, and the baptism with which I am baptized you will be baptized these words need not be read as a threat. They can be understood as a promise. There will come a time when disciples do not run away and hide. There will come a time when their courage will match that of their master and they do will do the father s will and drink the cup of self-sacrifice and they will take up their crosses and follow him. That means Jesus is promising them that there will come a time when your lives will not be driven by fear and the need for security. There will come a time when you will take up your cross and follow me as faithful disciples. 8

9 This is Jesus promise to us as well. His grace shall one day transform our fearful self-protecting lives into self-sacrificing and serving ones. This is the promise of our Lord and Savior who described himself as the One who came to serve and give his life. This is therefore The Gospel Truth. 9

Fifth Sunday of Great Lent, Mark 10:32-45 April 17, 2005

Fifth Sunday of Great Lent, Mark 10:32-45 April 17, 2005 Grade: Preschool Jesus told the disciples that soon he would be handed over to those who would kill him. He told them that he would rise from the dead. Then James and John said to Jesus, When you go to