On Sunday, April 6, 2023, I gave a sermon at Shalom Community Church. This is an adaptation of the sermon. Here is an audio version.

Lent

Scripture

Mark 10:35-45a (The Inclusive Bible)

[35] Zebedee’s children James and John approached Jesus. “Teacher,” they said, “we want you to grant our request.”

[36] “What is it?” Jesus asked.

[37] They replied, “See to it that we sit next to you, one at your right and one at your left, when you come into your glory.”

[38] Jesus told them, “You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the cup I will drink or be baptized in the same baptism as I?”

[39] “We can,” they replied. Jesus said in response, “From the cup I drink of, you will drink; the baptism I am immersed in, you will share. [40] But as for sitting at my right or left, that is not mine to give; it is for those to whom it has been reserved.”

[41] The other ten, on hearing this, became indignant at James and John.

[42] Jesus called them together and said, “You know how among the Gentiles those who exercise authority are domineering and arrogant; those ‘great ones’ know how to make their own importance felt. [43] But it can’t be like that with you. Anyone among you who aspires to greatness must serve the rest; [44] whoever wants to rank first among you must serve the needs of all. [45] The Promised One has come not to be served, but to serve.”

Sermon

We are halfway through our story.

Jesus has been ministering in Galilee, teaching in synagogues, performing miracles and exorcisms (a lot of them… and UNCOMFORTABLE amount of them), and healing the sick. And he quickly becomes famous (or maybe it’s better to say _IN_famous) for doing so. He’s also called his first disciples, Peter and Andrew, then James and John and then others who basically drop everything and follow him. They join his Galilean ministry to Jews and… increasingly… Gentiles alike.

Up until this point, particularly as it is presented in this EARLIEST gospel, Mark, the disciples have no idea that Jesus is the Messiah, the “Anointed One” (Anabaptist Bible). They weren’t there when Jesus was baptized, they didn’t hear the voice from heaven, and they didn’t witness Jesus’ confrontation with Satan in the desert. WE know all this because that’s what our narrator Mark tells us. But the disciples, who are “just” characters in this story, they really don’t.

And, of course, Jesus–the protagonist and our main character–never tells them! In fact, he repeatedly tries to conceal whatever messianic identity (or aspirations?) he might have had. He silences the demons that recognize him. He swears those he heals to secrecy. He veils himself in INCOMPREHENSIBLE riddles/parables and goes out of his way to obscure his identity and mission from the crowds that gather around him. And maybe that was strategic; Mark’s Jesus is a revolutionary, after all, and he had to be careful. But over and over again Jesus rebuffs, avoids, eludes, and sometimes downright rejects the title of Messiah bestowed upon him by others.1

And so the question of Jesus’ identity has been lingering in the background. But here, in the middle of the story, Jesus suddenly forces the issue. “Who do people say I am?” he asks his disciples, and then, “Who do YOU say that I am” (8:27, 29)?

And gradually the disciples come to this realization that Jesus IS the Messiah. First it was Peter, Jesus’ first disciple, the “Rock.” He kind of intuits it. And then it was James and John, although it took Jesus becoming “radiant in glory,” with his clothes becoming dazzling white, whiter than white–his transfiguration on a high mountain “in a different world”–for them to get it.

Times Change, the World Changes, and Obviously the Martial Arts Mark’s Narrative Must Change Too

And things start to change. Jesus starts to talk a whole lot MORE about what the reign (or government) of God looks like, and what discipleship looks like. And how I wish I could go back in time and tell myself this: It’s NOT about personal piety, or PURITY of any kind. It’s not spiritual, or cosmic; and theological orthodoxy is not sufficient–and in fact it’s not even important. For Mark, at least, it is political. The Rebel Jesus is calling for non-violent resistance to the Roman Empire and not JUST that but practicing service and justice in EVERY sphere of life.2

The setting also changes… if Mark’s Jesus begins his ministry–like that of John the Baptist–by preaching a gospel of repentance–of turning around, of TURNING AWAY FROM religious ceremony or the authority of Rome and the religious leaders complicit with it and TOWARD THE POOR3–it’s also interesting that in this moment Jesus physically TURNS AWAY FROM from the wilderness… and the lakeshore and the desert and the outskirts of town in the far north of Palestine… and TOWARD Jerusalem, TOWARD a final showdown with the authorities. Here he begins his sustained journey to the very HEART OF THINGS to challenge the Roman Empire and its system of power and injustice.4

“On the way”–this whole section of Mark happens ON THE WAY to Jerusalem–the exorcisms, healings, and works of power over nature become rarer. They don’t disappear completely, but when we do hear about them they function differently in the narrative: no longer “proofs” of his divinity but instead… healing a blind man becomes a FOIL for his disciples inability to “see”; cursing a fruitless fig tree becomes a PARALLEL for his attack on the failure of Israel’s leaders to produce metaphorical fruit.5 At this point in the narrative, the conflict in Mark is less about Jesus’ conflict with demons, illness, and nature, and more about his conflict with people.

You Got Your Good, Y’Know, and Your Bad; You Got Your Food, and Your Liquor

Now, we’re not quite at the part yet where the people Jesus comes into conflict with are the authorities, although that IS coming. Instead, it’s his disciples that are the issue.

The disciples, sharing cultural expectations at the time, expected the Messiah to come in power and glory. This is fundamental, for example, to Peter’s recognition of Jesus: Peter hails him as A MESSIAH, A ROYAL FIGURE who will restore the political fortunes of Israel… he believes that the TRIUMPHAL revolution is at hand. And because of this the disciples naturally assume that they will benefit from being in Jesus’ inner circle: they expect prosperity, importance, and positions of power when God’s reign is established in Israel.

But then Jesus starts to teach them about the VALUES of this reign. And it’s not what they expect. Jesus tells them that if they truly want to save their lives, they will RISK their lives in service to this good news; if they want to be first, they will have to be last; and if they want to be most important, they will be servants of all and lord over no one. It entails solidarity with the “least of these” (9:35f), equality and compassion in families and in communities (10:15), economic justice and sharing (10:29f), and service rather than domination (10:42-44).6 The Messianic revolution is NOT about seizing power in order to impose a new social order from the top down; it is about transforming relationships and building the new order from the bottom up.

And That’s Not All…

Jesus also starts getting “real” about the consequences of living into this reign of God: he starts predicting his execution (and resurrection… which is confusing to the disciples… but regarless he’s going to die). At first, Peter rejects this: the death of the Messiah just… does not compute in his worldview. But the conflict intensifies when Jesus goes on to make a series of three prophecies that insist upon his impending death.

  • In Mark 8: Jesus predicts for a second time that he will be killed. Peter again rebukes him.
  • In Mark 9: Jesus predicts that he “will be delivered into the hands of others and will be put to death…” And rather than coming to terms with that, the disciples start arguing about which one of them is the greatest.
  • And it culminates in Mark 10, what we read today: Jesus predicts that he will be handed over, condemned to death, mocked, spat upon, flogged, and finally, killed. And–kinda like children–James and John respond wanting Jesus to “grant their request” before he even knows what it is: to “see to it that we sit next to you, one at your right and one at your left, when you come into your glory.” They are asking to be Jesus’ #2 and #4, posturing for positions of power in the age to come.

They don’t seem to get it. It’s almost like they can’t “see” it, hence the parable.

And it’s easy to judge. But, I recognize this kind of conflict, this kind of infighting among groups of people trying to do the right hting. I see it at work. I see it in other groups that I belong to. I see it in my family. I love you guys, but I see it here at church, too. And FOR SURE I see it in myself.

This kind of conflict is all very normal; it is a VERY HUMAN STRUGGLE to follow Jesus.

walking in the snow

Even still, Jesus is very clear: the structures of power and domination used by Rome can only be overthrown by RELATIONAL and POLITICAL nonviolence, as Ched Meyers says, “from the crib[–in our most intimate relationships–]to the courtroom.”

And he’s also clear that this “courtroom” is NOT metaphorical but a PUBLIC and POLITICAL trial. These are the kind of values that WILL LEAD to PERSECUTION by the authorities. “Never forget in the story of Jesus, the hero was killed by the state.”7 He… and his disciples… will have to take up their cross. Their LITERAL cross, a common sight in the revolutionary Palestine of Mark’s time, that terrible form of execution reserved by Rome for those who dared challenge the state. John the Baptist, after all, had been killed for much less.8

And the disciples just can’t hear all this. In their consternation they even go so far as to MIMIC the oppressive behavior of the authorities: they EXCLUDE someone exorcising in Jesus’ name; they REBUKE children; they are SHOCKED that a wealthy man (who has kept the commandments) might not inherit eternal life. They get “indignant” with each other and in turn, Jesus gets angry with them, even threatens them with loss of life and limb. This is not a gentle Jesus, not the meek and mild Jesus we sing about sometimes.

Lost “Great Ones”

And that’s because “it can’t be like that with you.” That’s what Jesus says to his disciples. Jesus can’t have his disciples acting like the authorities we read about today.

  • Those “domineering and arrogant” authorities; “those ‘great ones’ that know how to make their own importance felt” (Inclusive Bible).
  • Those who “lord it over them” (from the NRSV).
  • Those “People of Iron (Romans)” that “like to show their power over people and push them around” (that one from “War Club”–actually it’s a good name for Mark–from “War Club Tells the Good Story” in the First Nations version of the Bible).

Mark, and therefore Mark’s Jesus, knows a thing or two about these authorities. Mark was written down in about 70 CE in the wake of the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem by Roman forces, and so the people listening to this story would have immediately understood who Mark was talking about.

And, yeah, we know those kinds of authorities too. They’re still around, occupy the highest office in this land. One of them wasn’t even elected.

And, yes, we have Jesus’ instructions for exactly what to do when we find ourselves in this kind of situation. And besides that, we have the WITNESS of our spiritual ancestors who tried hard to live out this gospel: refusing to enact violence against their enemies EVEN AS they took a BOLD STANCE of resistance against the state-church and the authoritarian regimes of their own countries, and EVEN WHEN it led to their own suffering.9

But “Reading the Gospels 101” is understanding that the disciples are stand-ins for us, and, like them… we know what to do or we learn what to do… and we don’t always do it. It’s hard. It’s not what we signed up for. Jesus is confusing. And there is A LOT at stake. And let’s be honest: many of us have accumulated some wealth or status, or come from some kind of privilege, whether your gender or your race or your class or… all of the above. As a result, we’ve tasted the kind of power that Peter, and James and John are interested in, and we would be lying if we didn’t say that it can be kinda nice.

And if things ever get bad, I mean really bad, Melissa Florer-Bixler and Jennifer Harvey remind us that if all else fails, most of us here can HIDE behind Whiteness or–since Chrisitianity is the dominant religion where we live–behind Christianity if we ever need to just LAY LOW and survive among the many Chrisitian Nationalists whose support was crucial in Donald Trump’s LANDSLIDE victory last year. And we know from those same spiritual ancestors… or maybe even from personal experience… that sometimes we do.

“Our Anabaptist history is one of RADICAL COMMITMENT to the gospel” writes Florer-Bixler, BUT it’s also one with a SURVIVALIST tradition “in which white, ethnic Anabaptists responded to persecution and displacement by aligning themselves with the sinful and deadly interests of the state,” whether by farming the lands the U.S. military forcefully took from Indigenous peoples… or racializing their identity and adopting Whiteness–even as top tier exemplars of the Aryan race–during the Third Reich. And while, yes, she is talking here about ethnic Mennonites, her article, “Anabaptist Trumpism,” could have just as easily been called “Mainline Protestant Trumpism” (which is closer to my own tradition) because BOTH histories are histories where “dear” White Christians “receiv[ed] the spoils of Whiteness,” even if they didn’t quite actively participate in, and certainly didn’t actively resist “the violence required to realize their (White) economic and social gain.”10

But It Can’t Be Like That With You

But it can’t be like that with you. I keep coming back to Jesus’ response to James and John. It can’t be like that with you. It has been like that. It could be like that; we’d all understand. But it CAN’T. We expect Jesus’ story to be a knock-off of the world’s story, but it is a different story (LectioCast).

It’s important that we’re reading Mark RIGHT NOW because we inhabit a LONG HISTORY of Caesars establishing empires of their own power and economic exploitation all while claiming God’s blessing. And we can’t ignore it, or hide from it, or try to blend in. We have to resist, we have to challenge “politics as usual” in every sphere of life. In big ways, like Jesus did. But also in small ways.

It’s writing a letter to a trans youth. It’s splitting up household chores in equitable ways. It’s encouraging our daughters to TAKE UP SPACE. It’s having a birthday party at a Tesla protest. It’s fighting to keep churches as SANCTUARIES. And it’s a million other things, too.

In the end, the only people sitting at Jesus’ right and left when he died were two rebels that were crucified next to him. James and John weren’t there; none of the disciples were. (It turns out, BTW, that there were some women around… that’s in Mark AND Matthew and Luke. Those women were ALREADY living out the values that Jesus preached and we can learn from them about whose voice to look to for inspiration in times like these. His disciples, though, were scared. They wanted to survive, and so… they fled.

But it can’t be like that with US. We are focused in this series on the story of Jesus. It is a challenge. This Lent, may we follow Jesus and find a way to turn–just like he did–straight towards the heart of things.

Amen.

Categories: talks

  1. Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth by Reza Aslan ↩

  2. “The Rebel Jesus” by Jackson Browne, even though that’s really an Advent song… ↩

  3. Thank you, Jo ↩

  4. John Dominic Crossan and Marcus Borg ↩

  5. Mark as Story: An Introdcution to the Narrative of a Gospel by David M. Rhoads and Donald Michie ↩

  6. Binding the Strongman: A Political Reading of Mark’s Story of Jesus by Ched Myers ↩

  7. “walking in the snow” by Run The Jewels ↩

  8. Some guy wrote this on Bart Ehrman’s blog… ↩

  9. Anabaptist Trumpism by Melissa Florer-Bixler ↩

  10. Ibid. and Dear White Christians: For Those Still Longing for Racial Reconciliation by Jennifer Harvey ↩