October 20, 2012
Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem. We’re not sure where he started from, but no matter, it could not be any further than from going to Purcell to Downtown Oklahoma City. It has taken him a long time. Most of us, even at my age could make if faster, but he has had a lot of interruptions. Last week someone ran up to him and wanted to know what he had to do to be saved. That took a long time to resolve, and then today he is walking along and here James and John start. It is not just James and John start. It’s all of them. They just don’t get it. The ten are angry and they are not angry at James and John for what they ask. I think they are angry because they did not ask the question themselves. James and John just beat them to it. Jesus shows remarkable patience. I have a hunch that if last week and this week are connected, I think Jesus is sad because that rich man did not just come along. Now his closest friends may be walking with him, but they are not thinking with him. They may be following with their footsteps, but they are not following with their minds and hearts.
He has spoken to them about discipleship and what it means in terms of suffering and service. He has shown them how words fail, and when he could not say it any more, he took a little child. He held it up in their midst. I spoke that a couple of weeks ago. He held up that child who just focused on the moment, living right now. He has again and again turned his favor on the vulnerable and the helpless and those without privilege and power. He must be wondering: “What is it going to take for you to get it.” Everything around them, however, made it easy to miss the point. They were living under the power of the Romans who had slaves to preserve order among the common people and insure their economic prosperity. When you are the underdog, it is easy to think that greatness means lording it over others. It’s often been proven that the perscuted become the persecutors. We know that bullies often have been bullied. Jesus in his way confronts all of that. He speaks of being on his right and his left, and we know who ends up there. We know who ends up there, two criminals, two sinners. The only ones who have a claim to be on the side of Jesus are sinners and those who have known failure. That is the problem with these disciples. They are way too perfect. They are too impressed and concerned with their privilege. They are close to the “Man!” They are walking along with that man who draws crowds of people who are coming out to see and hang around. They know this guy who feeds multitudes, who cures the sick. They think they are really something.
Where are they when there are nails going into his hands and feet? You see, what they don’t get is that it is not until you fail, not until you hit bottom, not until you know your sin or your unworthiness that you have any claim on what Jesus has to offer. Fortunately for James and John and the others as well, we get their chance and we get their ambitious righteouness but we to see how it crumbes. They run away. They are miserable failures when it comes to friendship or loyalty and the faith it takes to see glory in the cross.
Finally once they have failed Jesus by their cowerdly behavior in the face of injustice and the execution of their friend, they finally get it. To their credit, at that point, they become believable and worthy of share in his victory as well as a share in his mission. When he offers them a cup, this is symbolic language of table fellowship. The cup he drinks is the cup of service, and those would share are those who would lay down their lives for others. Sinners and servers are those who have place at the table of the Lord and a share in the cup of that table. This place is not for the righteous, and the food of this table is for the unworthy who know and confess and accept their unworthiness in the face of unimaginable grace. What I think the apostles don’t get early on, but begin to understand when they acknowledge their unworthiness and quick scrambling for the places of honor is that success is measured not by what we get, but by what we give.