What do you want me to do for you? (Mark 10:32-52)

³² They were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them; they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. He took the twelve aside again and began to tell them what was to happen to him, ³³ saying, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death; then they will hand him over to the Gentiles; ³⁴ they will mock him, and spit upon him, and flog him, and kill him; and after three days he will rise again.”

³⁵ James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came forward to him and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.”³⁶ And he said to them, “What is it you want me to do for you?” ³⁷ And they said to him, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” ³⁸ But Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” ³⁹ They replied, “We are able.” Then 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;⁴⁰ 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.”

⁴¹ When the ten heard this, they began to be angry with James and John. ⁴² So Jesus called them and said to them, “You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. ⁴³ But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, ⁴⁴ and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. ⁴⁵ For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.”

⁴⁶ They came to Jericho. As he and his disciples and a large crowd were leaving Jericho, Bartimaeus son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the roadside. ⁴⁷ When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”⁴⁸ Many sternly ordered him to be quiet, but he cried out even more loudly, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” ⁴⁹ Jesus stood still and said, “Call him here.” And they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take heart; get up, he is calling you.” ⁵⁰ So throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. ⁵¹ Then Jesus said to him, “What do you want me to do for you?” The blind man said to him, “My teacher, let me see again.” ⁵² Jesus said to him, “Go; your faith has made you well.” Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way.

-Mark 10:32-52 (NRSV)

February 21, 2016 Sermon Notes

The past several months have been filled with news of the American presidential campaign. Both parties have put forward their candidates and the process has begun in earnest. A few states have already voted. Yesterday the Republicans of South Carolina and the Democrats of Nevada got a chance to have their say. We in Missouri will have our chance a little less than a month from now. Our presidential primary will come on Tuesday, March 15.

According to the rhetoric on both sides of the aisle this is the most important election of all time. Listening to the debates and campaign ads, one could be forgiven for thinking that the nomination of anyone other than the person speaking will not only cause the terrorists to win, it will end civilization as we know it. Even the Pope weighed in this week. All factions within both parties responded with either support or derision. No one really took the time to listen to what the other side was actually saying. We have become so used to the scare tactics and extremism of modern campaigning that have become almost unaware of how damaging it is to the democratic process.

A pastoral aside

Please do not get me wrong. Elections matter in a democracy. The process is important. It is critical that we choose leaders who reflect the values and wishes of the nation. However, often we judge those potential leaders by exactly the wrong standards. We vote for candidates who say the right things and tell us exactly what we want to hear. We select people who reinforce our preconceived notions of the world. This is precisely why dialogue is so difficult. It is also precisely why it is so vital.

In the interest of dialogue, let me offer a bit of unsolicited pastoral counsel. Please do not buy into the fallacy that either party has a corner on the truth. The kingdom of God is not defined by the American governmental system. The words liberal and conservative are political science terms. They are not descriptions of the Gospel. Christians are called to have faith in Jesus, not a candidate. Faithful, thinking Christians come in all political and theological stripes.

Faithful, thinking Christians are also broken human beings, just like the candidates they elect. Hypocrisy, spiritual blindness, and self-centeredness are all inevitable results of sin. The Gospel tells us that we all sinners. Perfection has only been achieved by Christ himself, and he is not running for president. Neither party would elect him.

Instead of seeking perfection, we need to carefully consider all of the options and prayerfully select the person and party that will best reflect what we believe is in the best interest of the nation as a whole. Even if our choice does not win, Jesus Christ is still Lord. If he can overcome sin, death, and the Roman Empire, he can certainly handle modern American politics.

Brokenness is nothing new

Today’s text from Mark 10:32-52 is a reminder that a broken political system is not something we invented. Sin has corrupted human beings since biblical times. The Jewish people were victims of oppression and violence at the hands of their Roman occupiers, a puppet dictator and corrupt religious officials. Political freedom was gone and they were looking for someone who could save them. They wanted to restore the kingdom to the greatness they once had under King David. In Jesus they thought they had found the man who could do it.

The twelve disciples and the crowd who followed him had a hard time wrapping their minds around the fact that he was going to be a different kind of Messiah. His kingdom was going to be a different kind of kingdom. By the tenth chapter of Mark Jesus has already told them repeatedly that he was going to be killed by the government which was working on behalf of the corrupt religious officials. Despite their fear they stuck around. It was time to set out for Jerusalem, the seat of the government and the home of the corrupt religious officials. They promised to follow him, even if it meant that they would face the same fate that he did. It was a good start to the final journey they would ever take together.

Unfortunately, things fell apart fairly quickly. As they were traveling, along came James and John, the sons of Zebedee. They had a favor to ask Jesus. Their teacher responded with a very non-commital, “what do you want me to do for you?”

It was at that point James and John outlined their goals for the coming kingdom of God, or at least their place in it. They wanted to sit on either side of Jesus’ throne. They wanted to bask in his glory. It is inferred from the text that they wanted some of his glory to reflect back on them.

From the text it is unclear whether James and John expected a literal, earthly kingdom or understood that Jesus was speaking about heaven itself. It is also unclear whether they actually thought they deserved special honor or not. Perhaps they genuinely thought they had been more faithful and were more entitled to special privileges in God’s kingdom.

Either way, the cohesiveness of the group was destroyed. Anyone who has ever played a team sport knows how disruptive self-important prima donnas can be. Even if star athletes are as good as they think they are, the rest of the group will be turned off by their attitude. Camaraderie in the clubhouse requires everyone to remember that they are all on the same team. The request James and John made upset the other ten disciples so much that Jesus had to call a special meeting to straighten things out.

An uncomfortable truth

At that meeting he had to remind them of what he had told them just a few verses before about the first being last, and the last being first. Because the disciples were still unclear about what he meant, he used real examples from the world in which they lived. He reminded them of the fact that rulers of the Gentiles were in fact tyrants. True greatness came not from positions of power, but from a willingness to serve. Real moral authority is defined by sacrificing oneself for others.

Jesus himself remains the best example of what that kind of authority looks like. When he spoke to his team, the disciples, about greatness in the kingdom of God, he knew what he was talking about.  In doing so he was correcting not only James and John, but the other ten as well. Two thousand years later, this is something we still need to hear. Imagine how different our political process would be if voters and candidates defined leadership the way Christ does.

An example from Jericho

Jesus’ redefinition of Godly greatness was on display in the very next verse. As they were passing through Jericho Jesus’ disciples encountered man begging on the side of the road. He was blind. His name was Bartimaeus. When he found out that Jesus was passing by he shouted out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” This was both a statement of faith and a plea for help.

Of course, like at the political rallies of today, the crowd did not want the great person to be disrupted. They wanted to hear what Jesus had to say. Bartimaeus was told to be quiet. This is nothing new. We do the same thing to hurting people today when their pain invades our carefully constructed comfortable version of reality. We tell women, minorities, and the economically disadvantaged that now is not the time. Their concerns will have to wait. If they continue to insist on healing, we ask them to hush. If they refuse to pipe down, killing them is always an option. That was exactly the process that took Jesus to the cross.

Bartimaeus was having none of it. He was not going to wait. He had heard great things about this teacher. Jesus was a healer. The Rabbi was here. It was time to shout at the top of his lungs, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”

Whether out of compassion or annoyance, Jesus stopped. He responded. He called for Bartimaeus and asked him precisely the same question he had asked James and John, “what do you want me to do for you?”

Bartimaeus’ response made all the difference. He asked for mercy. He sought out grace. He asked to see. Jesus responded with love and healing. Christ showed the kind of leadership, the kind of greatness, that his disciples were still trying to understand. Christ’s compassion won him a follower that day. After his healing, Bartimaeus followed Jesus on the way.

What do we want Jesus to do?

Like the disciples and Bartimaeus, we all bring our requests to Jesus. Sometimes, the favors we seek are as self-aggrandizing as the glory which James and John sought. Usually, we think we deserve it. After all, we think we are faithful and willing to follow him, even if that means persecution and death. Occasionally, we are even right in our own self-assessment. Once in a blue moon we actually succeed in being the kind of disciples we are called to be.

More often than not, we fail miserably. Even if we have a good run for a while, eventually we end up right back where Bartimaeus was, on the side of the road and unable to heal ourselves. We have faith in a Jewish Rabbi who offered us sight, but as we cry out for mercy the world around us tells us to be quiet. Instead of love and compassion the world offers us rulers and tyrants who lord it over us. In our spiritual blindness we accept the status quo as if it were God’s intention for the world.

It does not have to be this way. We do not have accept our place begging for help, forgotten by the great ones of this current and corrupt reality. We do not have to remain silent. The world can change. We can change. We can cry out in faith, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.”

The promise of the Gospel is this, the Rabbi will stop. Jesus will ask us, “what do you want me to do for you?”

When he asks, how will you respond? Like so many candidates for political office, will you seek your own greatness? Will you keep Christ’s reflected glory all to yourself? By doing so, will you leave ten of your friends out in the cold?

There is another way. There is a way of forgiveness. There is a way of healing. There is a way of sacrificial love. Servant leadership is real. There is the way of mercy. It is the way of baptism. It is the way of the cross. It is the cup which Jesus drank. It is the way which leads to the very kingdom of God.

One day the teacher stopped. He asked, “what do you want me to do for you?”

Bartimaeus answered, “have mercy on me.” He requested and received Christ’s mercy. It healed him. He regained his sight and followed Jesus on the way.

What will your request be?