Jesus had twelve apostles, but we know very little about many of them. We know Matthew, the tax collector, of course. The Feast of St. Luke was last week, and we know a little about him. There is Doubting Thomas and Judas.
The Big Three were Peter, James, and John. These three were the only disciples present at the Transfiguration and Gethsemane. James and John were brothers.
The Big Three were tempestuous men. Peter was a little impulsive, and he tended to say what was on his mind. Peter was the one who cut off a man’s ear at Gethsemane. Jesus called James and John the “Sons of Thunder,” so they must have been pretty volatile too.
Of the three, Peter was the natural leader. He was always first to speak out. It was always first to act. Peter was one of those guys who was sometimes right and sometimes wrong. He was never uncertain.
I think James and John decided Peter was running off with the leadership prize just because of his nature. They decided to do something about it. In our Gospel lesson today, they got Jesus off to the side and said, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we will ask.”
Jesus answered, “What do you want me to do for you?” They responded:
Grant to us that we may sit,
one at your right hand, and one at your left hand,
in your glory.
The right and left-hand seats are the places where the king’s favorites sit! The right- and left-hand are the power positions! It’s still so today. At conference tables, the chair sits at the head of the table. You can usually tell just how much power each person has by where they are seated around the table. The closer to the chairperson, the more powerful they are.
What about Peter––the biggest member of the Big Three? James and John were asking Jesus to push Peter into the background. They wanted to be the Big Two.
James and John hadn’t been listening to Jesus. Jesus just told the disciples that he was going to Jerusalem to suffer and die. James and John let that go in one ear and out the other. They thought that Jesus was going to Jerusalem to establish himself on David’s throne, and they couldn’t hear anything that Jesus said to the contrary.
That was a selfish request. When the other disciples heard of it, they were furious! They were agry with themselves for not asking first for one thing. They all expected to be VIPs once Jesus got where he was going. They sometimes argued about which of them was the greatest. They were all jockeying for position, and they resented James’ and John’s attempt to jump to the front of the line.
Jesus didn’t rebuke James and John. Instead, he used the opportunity to teach them something about his kingdom. His kingdom would be very different from the one that these disciples expected.
Jesus reminded them that they had seen powerful people at work. They knew kings and governors of course. He told them that those people were tyrants. They got where they were at the expense of people who were defenseless and vulnerable.
Jesus told his disciples that they must not be like that. He is telling us too. He says:
“Whoever wishes to become great among you must
be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among
you must be slave of all .”
And then Jesus says that he has set the example for us. He has been a servant. He says:
“For the Son of Man also came
not to be served, but to serve,
and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
That isn’t what those disciples wanted, and it isn’t what we want either. We want to be in charge. We want to tell other people what to do. That’s the way of the world.
The world tells us one thing––Jesus tells us another. Who should we believe? Each of us must decide.
I’ll hold up for you as an example Wilfred Grenfell, who established a medical mission in Labrador, in the early part of the 20th century. By the time he retired forty years later, he had established in Labrador:
- Six hospitals
- Four hospital ships
- Seven nursing stations
- Two orphanages
- Two large schools
- Fourteen industrial centers, and
- A cooperative lumber mill.
Grenfell summarized his philosophy in these words:
“The service we render for others
is really the rent we pay for our room on this earth.”
St. Bede’s Episcopal Church in Santa Fe, New Mexico had a sign at one point over the door to the church. The sign said simply, “SERVANT’S ENTRANCE.”
There was no other way to get in. If you wanted to attend worship at St. Bede’s Episcopal Church, you had to enter through the servant’s entrance.
You have perhaps heard the story about the difference between heaven and hell. In this description heaven and hell both contain wonderful banquet tables laden with food, where hungry people can come to eat. But there is one catch: in both heaven and hell, the people must eat with six-foot long utensils and elbows that do not bend. The difference between hell and heaven was that in hell people struggled to feed themselves, and never could get any food to their own mouths. In heaven, the people fed each other, and all were satisfied.
People who have loved Christ have loved and served us. We have been blessed in so many ways and have received so much. We are called as disciples to give to others and to serve others. The world tells us to look out for number one and to ask “what’s in it for me?”
Last week, my parting comment was about grace and hope. This week Jesus does the same thing for us. He ends on redemption and how his life will be a “ransom for many.”
It is not about how we fall short because we will. In the end it is about redemption and the fact that Jesus died for us.
So live your lives as servants and understand that you are serving God as you serve others.
Live in the confidence of redemption.
I have said these words in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Sermon preached by Fr. Tom at St. Thomas, Plymouth
October 21, 2018; Twenty Second Sunday after Pentecost
Year B (Proper 24)