Sermon - October 9, 2011

 Bible Facebook, Next Generation: Who's the Boss of Me?
Joshua 5:13-15, Romans 15:7-8, Mark 10:35-45

    Last week we saw in the Gospel of Matthew the perspective of Jesus as Messiah King.  This morning, through the eyes of Mark, we see Jesus as Messiah Servant.

    As part of the ministry team of a Chrysalis retreat, it was my responsibility to lead services for the behind-the-scenes support team. One of those services for the retreat staff involved foot washing. So I prepared a brief message, set it up, gathered the group and began the service. As a member of the staff and worshiper, I gladly submitted to the foot washing. But what I didn't expect was a woman, a stranger come up and say, “May I pray over your feet?” Her simple act of humility and service moved me to tears. She could not have known that after years of difficulty, I had just found relief for my feet. Here I was, a leader, accustomed to providing, doing, giving, praying for others on the receiving end of prayer by this precious saint. I saw and experienced in her selfless offering, Christ the Servant.

   We live in a self-service society. Advertizing doesn't sell what you can do for someone else but how you can satisfy yourself. Or what will make your life more comfortable, richer, more fun, the way you want it. Me first! If you doubt it, watch people slip ahead in check out lines, maneuver themselves at buffet tables, or jockey their cars for position at the pumps for cheap gas as I witnessed this week.

   Mark portrays a Jesus who models last place as the place of honor. James and John were brothers, disciples, close friends of Jesus. They have seen many people come to Jesus asking for impossible things: to be cured of leprosy, to be healed of dropsy, to be delivered from demons, to have legs and hands restored, to be forgiven of sins. They had just seen a blind man who begged Jesus to restore his sight. Jesus took the blind man by the hand  and led him outside the village. When He had spit on the man's eyes and put His hands on him, Jesus asked, “Do you see anything?” At first the man saw shadows of people as if they were trees. Then Jesus put His hands on the man's eyes a second time, and he saw clearly.

   James and John often heard Jesus ask those who came to Him, “What do you want me to do for you?” What a wonderful way to respond to people. Some one calls on the phone and after your hello, you say, “What can I do for you?”  That is a servant's answer. That is the heart of Jesus.

   So James and John come up to Jesus and make their pitch. The preface their bold request. “Teacher,” they said, “we want you to do for us whatever we ask.” Mk. 10:35  Their hopes of a positive answer must have raised when Jesus replied with words they had heard Him say time and time again before requests were granted. What do you want Me to do for you? Now came the million dollar question. “Let one of us sit at Your right and the other at Your left in Your glory.” They wanted the best seats in the house! Make us Chancellor and Chief Regent of the Kingdom of God! Here we see the vast humility and character of Jesus. He does not rebuke them for their ribald request.

    Instead, Jesus uses this moment as a teaching opportunity to train His disciples in leadership: servant leadership. The other ten disciples are indignant that James and John should ask the Lord such a thing – especially after Jesus had just told them that he would suffer and die. It seemed like James and John were parceling out Jesus' legacy, reserving the best for themselves. So Jesus calls the twelve together to instruct them. His instruction teaches us how honor in the Kingdom of God is awarded very differently than in the world. You know, He says,  that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you.  Mark 10:43 Not so with you! So how are we to be different? Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. Mark 10:43-44

   Norma was in my brownie troop. We kept our distance from Norma. She was very plain, thin, and had warts on her hands. I never saw her smile.  At the end of the year we camped overnight at Camp Edey, Everyone whispered and giggled jiggling flash lights against each others funny faces and antics like old time movies, except Norma. She curled up in her sleeping bag alone in the lean-to. Morning came way too soon. One by one drowsy brownies made their way to the circle where our leaders waited by a crackling campfire. Norma was somewhere in the shadows. But I never forgot the moment when one of our leaders said, “While you girls were still asleep, we had one exceptional brownie who got up early, fetched the water, collected the wood, and helped build the fire. Norma would you come forward?”  Norma was honored for serving us all.   

    Joshua, Moses' very capable successor, knew the key to being a servant. He was about to lead the raid on Jericho. He looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand.  Joshua went up to him and asked, “Are you for us or for our enemies?”  Joshua 5:13.  I'm impressed by Joshua's courage and his presence of mind.  He walks up to this imposing figure, and point blank asks him, “Are ya fir us or again' us?”  Here we see the sovereignty of God. God being completely and wholly other than any notion or conception we have of Him. The armed figure replies, “Neither, but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.”Joshua 5:14  Now there's a novel thought. God does not take sides!  He cheers neither for the Cyclones nor the Hawkeyes. He's neither Republican nor Democrat.

    Immediately Joshua falls face down and humbly asks, “What message does my Lord have for his servant?  Just as the Man with the drawn sword identifies himself as the commander of the Lord's army, Joshua identifies himself as the Lord's servant. The Commander tells Joshua, Take off your sandals for the place where you are standing is holy.”Joshua 5:15 We see in the next four words, the key of being a servant. And Joshua did so. The key to being a servant is being obedient. Just as his predecessor Moses standing before the burning bush in the Presence of the Lord obeyed the command to remove his shoes, likewise Joshua revered the word of the Lord and honored God by his obedience.  He followed the Lord's direction and marched troops around Jericho seven times until the walls fell and the city was taken by siege.

    Jesus taught the disciples not only by word but by example. Christ the King was the quintessential  Servant. He completely surrendered Himself to the service of the Father which ministered to our most desperate need: deliverance from sin. In his letter to the Christians in Rome, the apostle Paul attests to the outpouring of the servant heart of Jesus. For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the Jews on behalf of God's truth to confirm the promises made to the patriarchs. Joshua 15:8 Those promises had to do with a Messiah who would rule the hearts of people and bring a permanent peace, a kingdom beyond the clutches of Rome, corrupt leaders, dictators, terrorists, godless governments. A kingdom of priests governed by servant leadership.

    What a contrast to the mindset of our society! A number of years ago a little boy came to our home to visit our son Drew. He was a bright boy but often in trouble. He acted as if he was going to mark the piano with a pencil he had found. I asked him, “Please don't do that. That piano belonged to Mr. Klapp's grandmother and is precious to us.”  He stopped, looked straight at me with saucer-big blue unflinching eyes and said, “You're not the boss of me.”

    Who is the boss of me? If I am my own boss, I will serve my own interests, do my own thing, make my own rules, have it my way. Why not?  That is our legacy from  Adam and Eve did in the Garden.

   In his devotional book My Utmost for His Highest author Oswald Chambers writes, “The Bible does not say that God punished the human race for one man's sin, but that the nature of sin, namely my claim to my right to my self, entered into the human race through one man.”  In other words, when our first ever parents disobeyed God by pitting their own will against God's will, they claimed a right to be their own boss. To answer to no one, not even God who created and loved them, but to do what they choose instead. Chambers also states the Bible says “that another Man took upon Himself the sin of the human race and put it away.” Indeed it does. Check out Romans 5:15 For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God's grace and gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ overflow to the many! The grace of our servant Messiah like Sherwin-Williams paint covers the whole world, every soul that lives, ever lived, and is yet to be born. Jesus Christ lives to love and loves to serve  He teaches us by His own example the key of being a servant is obedience. To every believer, our Risen Lord gifts not only salvation, but the Holy Spirit to turn that key of obedience and unlock the joyous honors of the Kingdom of God in serving Him by serving others.  Amen    

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