Mark 14:32-42: Praying for ourselves...and for others

It has often been said that character, or integrity, is what you do when no one is watching.  I would add that it also consists of what you do in life’s most difficult moments.  During the most pivotal moments of Jesus’ life, we see him in prayer.  In the midst of such adversity, Jesus includes those who thought they could handle it.  Peter, James, and John are brought with Jesus.  Peter because he has just boasted, and James and John because they said they were able to drink the cup that Jesus would drink (Mark 10:38-40).  We learn something valuable here.  Rather than reproach them, or list all the ways that they are unready for what lies ahead, Jesus allows experience to both teach and inform them as to their short-comings.  It’s trial-by-fire at one of humanity’s most crucial junctures.  Their failure to stay awake, even for an hour, reveals their inability and unpreparedness to deal with what Jesus is facing.   As at the Transfiguration the three are left speechless, something we can rarely say of Peter, who is always putting his foot in his mouth.   Jesus’ closest disciples are the ones who fail him.   The one praying is ready, while the ones who choose to sleep are found unprepared. 

It is the praying one, the one who is prepared, that serves as our constant example.  Even in the midst of his agony, even with the disappointment of being let down by those closest to him, Jesus’ concern is for others.  With everything else going on, Jesus comes three times to check on his disciples.  I have seen this same Christ-like spirit manifested in the various Christian communities of which I have been a part.  I have seen those confined to hospital beds ask about the family who just lost a loved one.  I have seen the woman who just lost her husband go visit the chronically-ill man whose time is coming to an end.  I’ve seen the grieving visit the suffering and the suffering pray for the grieving, each in a unique way demonstrating the attitude of Christ, who always showed more concern for others, than he showed for himself.  We even see it in life and death moments in the early church, as Stephen prays for those stoning him, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.”  (Acts 7:60)  It sounds eerily similar to Jesus’ prayer on the cross, because it is from the heart of Christ that we learn to pray for others, even as we ourselves are in the midst of great suffering.  It is this selflessness that allows us to, like Christ, face our fate resolutely.  This resolution is expressed in this scene with the phrase, “get up.  Let us go to meet them.”  Jesus doesn’t run.  He doesn’t lay low hoping they can’t find them.  He goes to meet them.  He understands that in a powerful way, his misfortune will serve to enrich others.  The emphasis is made subtly in the original Greek when we read the phrase “see, my betrayer is at hand”.  The word for “at hand” is the same word Jesus uses to describe the in-breaking of the kingdom of God (1:15).  Judas is at hand, but he brings with him not betrayal and death, but the kingdom of God.  In the ultimate reversal of fortune, God is in the process of using death itself to bring about abundant, eternal life. 

Just as rebellion in one garden led to the victory of sin and death, faithfulness in another shall lead to redemption and eternal life.  

Mark 10:35-45: Jesus, the original servant-leader

We live in a world of self-promotion.  In days gone by it was seen as poor form indeed to actively campaign for office.  John Adams and Thomas Jefferson remained remarkably aloof with respect to their candidacies for the presidency in the election of 1796.  It is true that they knew they were candidates, and they probably even gave some form of instruction to their surrogates, but it would have been unheard of for them to actively campaign, or promote themselves for high office.  As you may have noticed, times have changed.  Or have they?  I don’t think that people are more self-promoting than they used to be, I think that our society is more tolerant of self-seeking behavior than it used to be.  As proof that self-promotion isn’t a cultural phenomenon of our own era, we need simply to look at Jesus’ own disciples. 

Could the announcement that Jerusalem was the destination of Jesus’ and his disciples have insinuated to James and John that Jesus’ kingdom was about to be inaugurated?  That certainly seems to be how they interpreted it.  They ask for the places of honor in Jesus’ kingdom, to be seated on either side of him in all of his glory and might.  It’s understandable why they thought this way.  In Psalm 110:1, “the Lord says to my Lord: sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.”  According to scripture, the right hand was clearly the place to be, and the left would do if the right had already been taken.  Even Jesus own words in parables like that of the Messianic banquet in Luke 14:15-24 and Matthew 22:1-10 refer to places of honor.  John would paint a picture of the heavenly throne room in Revelation 4-5 that would include a place of honor.  If there were places of honor to be had, better to get the jump on asking for them before someone else reserves them! 

Jesus’ response shows us that things clearly work differently in his kingdom.  He asks them explicitly if they are willing to drink the cup he is going to drink, and if they can be baptized with the baptism which he will endure.  Their affirmative answer betrays not only their eagerness for status and honor, but also the depth of their misunderstanding.  Later on in the gospel of Mark, we see that the cup Jesus will drink is not a pleasant one, indeed he even asks God to “remove this cup from me.  Yet not what I will, but what you will.” (Mark 14:36)  It’s no mere coincidence that in that crucial hour those found to the left and right of Jesus are on crosses.  To be at Jesus’ side requires us to be willing to crucify ourselves to this world, and to bear our cross in obedient discipleship.  When they ask for the places of honor, James and John are utterly unprepared to pay the cost of discipleship.  And yet, their failure and unpreparedness is not the final word.  While in the gospel of Mark “they all left him and fled” (Mark 14:50), elsewhere in scripture we see that the disciples overcome their initial setbacks, thanks to the power of the Holy Spirit working in their lives.  Peter, who was among the ones who left him and fled, and who also denied him, would go on to write, “But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.” (I Peter 4:13)  James would eventually drink the cup and share the baptism of Christ’s suffering:  

 “About that time Herod the king laid violent hands on some who belonged to the church.  He killed James the brother of John with the sword, and when he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also.” (Acts 12:1-3) 

While John is widely believed to be the only apostle to not be martyred, he too suffered in his own way:

“I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.” (Revelation 1:9)

So what does all of this mean?  Put simply, it means that we are called to be different from the world around us.  If things are the same in the church as they are in the world, something is wrong.  That difference should start, and it does start, with the church’s leadership.  Just as Jesus was different from all the rulers this world has seen, or will see, so those who seek to lead in the church should lead from places of service and humility.  Jesus points out that the disciples are acting just like the secular rulers they despise.  In their behavior, we see what Jesus had to work with in fashioning leaders for the early church.  And yet, in an odd way that’s good news for us.  If the self-promoting James and John can go on and give their lives, both literally and figuratively in serving Jesus, surely we have no excuse ourselves for not becoming the type of servant leaders that the church, and our world desperately need.  Paul words to the Galatians are an appropriate way to sum up what it means to live for Christ as servants:

“For you were called to freedom, brothers.  Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.”  (Galatians 5:13)

It is often said we live in the freest nation on earth.  Perhaps instead of simply celebrating that freedom once a year with fireworks and parades, we should shock the world by choosing to use it not for ourselves, but in the service of others.   

My favorite part of this job...

If you know me, then you know I like to talk.  So, it would be entirely reasonable to think that the opportunity to preach regularly would be my favorite thing about this job.  To be honest, as I was preparing to begin my work here, I was certain that would be the case.  I mean, you combine the ability to talk to a captive audience- captive because of their respect for church, not my eloqence- and some nerdy Bible study, and you would think I was in heaven (pun intended).  However, after two Sundays I can tell you that preaching is not my favorite aspect of my work here.  Don't get me wrong, just as I expected, I love doing it.  However, my absolute favorite task, one that I take great joy in, is taking communion to the sick.  I love it for two reasons. 
The first is the character of the people that I am visiting.  These are people that very much yearn to be at church with their brothers and sisters in Christ, but their bodies simply won't get them there.  I always sense a sharper focus and a greater sense of appreciation from those we visit with.  For some reason, we humans are programmed so that it's harder for us to appreciate something until it's gone, or at least we think it's gone.  It's a great paradox.  Frequent worship is the calling of all humanity (not just Christians), a calling that not only blesses the God to whom our praise and worship is due, but that also gives us and sustains in us spiritual life and health.  And yet, a result of that frequency is that we constantly battle the urge to take for granted what we worship, proclaim, and participate in.  To the woman in her eighties whose foot is so swollen that it hurts to walk, worship is more than an obligation.  To the man in his seventies who has just had a rod placed in his leg, and his wife who serves as his constant care-taker, praise is more than a simple duty.  To the man in his eighties laying in the hospital in great pain and unable to keep down any food, and to his wife who remains by his side, participation in worship is a joy.
The other reason I love taking communion to the sick is that it is an extremely Christ-like action that never fails to humble my ego, even as it simultaneously builds my faith.  One of the most comforting images in the Bible is Christ as the Good Sheperd.  It is quite literally the personification of the 23rd Psalm with Christ walking with us, even through the valley of the shadow of death.  What better way to proclaim that truth than to ensure that our brothers and sisters who are experiencing the most trying of times have an opportunity to participate in communion with us?  So often when we think of pastoral imagery and of people as sheep, we find ourselves stuck in the dichotomy of faithful and faithless.  Surely the lost sheep that Christ leaves the ninty-nine to go find is some wayward sinner- or even wayward Christian, not that the two don't overlap- desperately in need of repentance.  On the contrary, I think that more often than we realize, the sheep has not wondered off in some fit of willful disobedience, but instead has fallen victim to one of life's many misfortunes.  One of the things that I will never forget from my time as a chaplain intern is the number of people who are seemingly abandoned in their greatest hour of need.  We live in a time when family is seldom close by, and neighbors are nameless faces we see in transit from our cars to our front doors.  As disciples of Christ, it is left to us to go in search of other brothers and sisters who are wounded and ill, burdened with the unaviodable cares and sorrows of this life.  It falls to us to make certain that they are never left so far behind that the voice of their Master dies away, as if it were never present in the first place.  What better way to help them maintain the presence of Jesus in their life than with communion, the symbols of Christ victory over sin and death.  What better way to remind them that they are loved not only by their God, but also by a community of fellow believers, than with communion, the emblems of the promise that pain and sorrow will never have the final say in our present world that remains broken in so many ways.
Yes, as much as I love preaching, it isn't my favorite part of this job.  Now you know why.