A Servant of All
Sadly the technology quit suddenly so there is no video of this sermon - sorry
Last week we saw how Jesus was trying to take us into deeper seemingly impossible truths. First, how his suffering and death would actually mean a new life. Second, we saw how this new life in Christ transcends time as it empowered Moses and Elijah. Finally, we saw how our suffering and even our death can mean a greater life for us and for those around us as we take up our cross and follow him. As much as we can and have seen the fruit of these impossible truths they are still hard to believe. Daily we need faith to live into them. Today, Jesus explores with us the shape of that cross and what following Him truly looks like. We are meant to be servants to Christ and so servants of all. Only by being humble sacrificial servants can we ever truly be great.
Jesus starts by telling us, for the second time, about His death and resurrection. This is important because all impossibles are shaped and made possible by our seemingly impossible God and His unimaginably powerful love. When Jesus’ impossible love enters into humanity as He becomes human, that kind of powerful love becomes possible for us if we turn to him.
Of course the disciples, and most of the time we don’t understand this. We squabble over who is the best, or who is great, over who has and can do what and we completely miss the point. Jesus was the greatest and yet He was willing to become the least. Yet the beautiful thing is that through Jesus’ resurrection and ascension, we see that even though He humbled Himself to become the least, He was raised to an even greater height. As Jesus replies to His disciples’ argument, He tells us that this is a promise for us as well. If we are willing to serve like Jesus, we will be far greater than if we vie for power. The irony is prevalent, but Jesus insists. It is by giving up power that you truly obtain it and this makes some sense. One is truly strong when they are not scared to give up power, when they are not scared to look weak, when they are able to make others great too. You are truly great when you are willing to the serve the littlest, the weakest, those that are unable to give back to you. Like Jesus with us, or us with a child.
Jesus takes this a step further though. Not only are you greatest if you are willing to humble yourself to lowest position, but when you serve a child or anyone with no expectation of return, you are serving God Himself. Again, this makes some sense, because often time by serving others we can easily be serving ourselves, but when we serve with no expectation of anything in return, not even the nice feeling or commendation, that is when we are serving something beyond the moment, place and people. That is when we serve God in our midst.
The next two sections show us that there are no neutral acts. Even the smallest things or acts can be hugely helpful or hugely destructive. So, we need to understand how important the humble loving service of Christ truly is.
It starts with the disciples trying to stop a man who is casting out demons in the name of Jesus. Who knows why they do this. Maybe they just want this right to themselves or maybe they are worried that this person won’t uphold Jesus’ teaching, but Jesus reminds them that “whoever is not against us is for us”. This means that we can find a lot more partners in this world than we may first realize. There is a lot of work we should empower. That being said, Jesus does define something really important when he says, “no one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me”. Doing the work in the name of Jesus is an essential part. Just doing nice things isn’t the point, but we are to share Christ vocally and physically as we do. This means that we are putting Christ before our own credit, but also that we are serving people the thing they need most. It is only Jesus that can heal, that can fill an empty heart, that can truly create, that can give purpose to our lives. So we should know the greatest service we could ever do for others and for Jesus is to share Him. By doing that we end up serving Jesus twice: once by caring for the other person and again by leading others to Jesus.
Even the smallest act in this regard can mean a lot. Even serving a cup of water to someone because they belong to the Messiah will be rewarded. Every little thing can make a difference. Every little choice has significance to God.
Yet on the opposite side every little choice can have a disastrous effect. Jesus says, “if anyone causes one of these little ones - those who believe in me - to stumble it would be better if a large millstone were hung around them and they were thrown into the sea”. Wow. Physically, people can stumble over anything. A pebble, a gentle incline or decline, or even their own feet. For a child or a little one this is even more likely. I imagine the same would be true for people spiritually stumbling. We have to be very conscious and deliberate about our words and actions, because they can mean both a great life or an endlessly sinking one and this isn’t even taking into account what it would mean for those who stumbled because of us.
We can make ourselves stumble too and this is just as bad. We hear that a hand, a foot or an eye can be the cause of eternal hurt. Our hands, they do our work. They take, they let go, they reach out, they push away, they can fight or they can embrace. There is a time for all of these, but how and when we take or let go, do our work, reach out etc. can lead us and others to a greater fuller life or to destruction. Our feet they take us where we want to go, they run, they stop, they turn away, they stabalize us, they bring us low. There is a time for all of this, but again how we run, what we follow, when we stop or turn away, etc. can be the difference between life and destruction. Lastly, our eyes they look, they desire, they follow, they understand, they lead. How we use our eyes can utterly change our future and others in this world and the next. It is a scary thing, but when we realize who we live beside and work with we can understand why.
C.S. Lewis saw this too in his essay the weight of glory. Those that are worshipping beside you. The kids and youth who are learning in the gym and downstairs. Those that you work with, that you eat beside. These are not just normal people, they are the people that in God can be so glorious and wonderful that we would be tempted to worship or those that without Him could be so villianous that our worst nightmares don’t compare. The choices we make daily bring us all closer or farther away from these realities.
We will struggle, we will find ourselves tested and tempted, it is not easy to love and serve like Christ as we serve Him in others, but this challenge is a part of our growth as well. We are being salted and tested, we are being refined and preserved, we are finding the strength and flavour of life as we struggle to grow in Christ’s life, but if we struggle in this way we shall grow.
Lastly, we end with a passage on divorce. It seems out of left field. What does this have to do with everything else? Jesus makes it clear that divorce is not God’s ideal, it is not what God wants for any of us. Anyone that has gone through it would probably agree. God as much as he doesn’t want divorce made a little room for it, because he knows what humanity is like. As a child of divorce, I struggle with this greatly, but I don’t have time to speak about this.
Something else is happening in this passage though that is essential to what we have already looked at. Divorce in Jesus’ Israel, much like in today’s world, was becoming commonplace. Any husband could divorce his wife for practically any reason. Jesus is not just resisting this, but by connecting it to our passages earlier, Mark is showing us that divorce, like everything else is an issue in Christian love and service.
In marriage, we become one by giving up ourselves wholly to the other. There is meant to be a mutual self-sacrifice, that as we grow together it can be hard to tell where one person begins and one person ends. In many ways, this is meant to be synonymous with our relationship with God, which is why Christ is often called the Groom and we are His bride. Jesus has already sacrificed Himself for us and we are meant to do the same so that we can become one, so that we can become the image of Christ and the sharers of His Good News. Our faithfulness to one another, our willingness to give and sacrifice is the fruit of our relationship with God. Just as in marriage, true creation and joy in birth means a lot of sacrifice and service, so in our relationship with God, true creation and joy comes from a lot of sacrifice and service putting others first.
We are meant to be a servant of Jesus and so a servant to all. This is the only way we can be greater. This is the only way we can really grow. What we do, how we act, what we say can make the biggest difference, even if we don’t always see it. Jesus who is our greatest king and God Himself, lowered Himself to a human, then a servant of all, then to suffer for us on a cross, but because of this He was raised up to become higher than all. We have been invited to join Him in this service and so we have been invited into such glory. Are we willing to be last, so that we might join Christ?
