Jesus Gives Followers What They Need
Lent 2 – March 8, 2020
“Jesus Came to Serve”
Brother-in-law in recent
conversation with my Mother-in-law reminded her of what she and Father-in-law always told him &
brothers growing up:
·
We don’t always give you want you want; we give you what you need.
·
We don’t always recognize that there’s a difference between what we
want and what we need
James and John want
Jesus to do for them whatever they ask of him
·
Can you imagine? Blank check! Like the YouTube challenge kids try to
get their parents to go along with: the “Can’t say no for 24 hours challenge”
ha!
·
Jesus plays along: What do you want me to do for you?
o “Grant us to sit, one at
your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.”
·
Oh my goodness. This is on the way to Jerusalem, and Jesus has just told them for the 3rd time what is going to
happen to him there: He is on a collision course with death.
o he will be handed over to
the religious leaders; condemned; handed over to the Gentiles – then mocked,
spit on, flogged, then finally killed… and after 3 days he will rise again
o Are they not listening? Do
they think that Jesus is referring to someone else when he talks about the Son
of Man?
·
Still caught up in the vision of Jesus as the conquering hero; stuck in
their understanding of the power structures of the world – and when Jesus
enters his glory, they want in on that
o Don’t always think of these
uneducated fishermen as men with privilege: not wealthy, no real social status
o But they do have a
privileged position with Jesus – in the inner circle: Peter, James, and John –
go with Jesus to see him raise the 12-year-old girl from her deathbed; P, J,
& J go with Jesus up the mountain and see him transfigured; in the garden
of Gethsemane, they are the 3 Jesus asks to come with him when he is in anguish
over all that is to come
o But that’s not enough! They
want more!
o They want the seats of
influence when the promised messiah takes his rightful place on the throne
o Duh-sciples indeed!
·
Power and privilege is what they want, but it’s not what they need
People with power and privilege often can’t
see it and want more of the same…
·
Yesterday’s “Road to Freedom” event with Waukesha County Historical
Society and Museum Exec Director (Bonnie Byrd) reminded me of that reality
·
Background and history of slavery in this country – the legacy that
continues into this time
o Federal laws – fugitive
slave acts getting increasingly tighter; always legal to seek runaway slaves,
but not always required for other states to help in the search until 1850 (I
believe)
·
People with power, enough $ to own other people as slaves and wanted to
deny them the right to live as free people
·
And I couldn’t help but think of the man formerly known as “Blind
Bartimaeus” in the gospel – the man who hears that Jesus is coming and begins
to shout out for Jesus, Son of David, to have mercy on him
o And the people shush him,
order him to be quiet
o But he can’t, because he
desperately needs (not just wants, but needs) what only Jesus can do
·
And despite the efforts of the crowd to shut Bartimaeus up, Jesus hears
him and stands still.
o “Call him here”
o And Bartimaeus springs up
and comes!
·
Jesus asks him the same question he asked James and John: “What do you
want me to do for you?”
o “My teacher, let me see
again.”
·
What a contrast between the Sons of Zebedee and Bartimaeus! James and
John = position/influence; Baritmaeus = mercy, healing, sight
·
Desire of slaveholders and many others to shush their slaves who were
crying out from injustice, longing to be set free
·
The ways that we so often do that in our world today – not recognizing
the power and privilege and position that we have (even though others may have
much more – but we are often blind to what we do have, like James and John)
o And in many ways, made
uncomfortable by those who are sitting by the side of the road crying out for
mercy, for justice, we’d kind of like them to quiet down and go away
o Feeling guilty or threatened
or angered by those who call us to recognize their humanity and their need
§
Racism; sexism; homophobia; transphobia (that’s a newer one by me, one
I’m learning more about); Immigrants (illegal or otherwise); people of
obviously different religious backgrounds and beliefs
o All of whom are God’s
beloved children, created in God’s image
·
Whoo boy, all of that makes us uncomfortable! It makes me uncomfortable
– and yet I know that Jesus calls us to be different in the world
Because Jesus doesn’t
give the disciples what they want – he gives them what they need.
·
James and John misunderstand what Jesus is about
·
And so Jesus calls all 12 disciples together (because the other 10 are
not too happy to find out James and John asked to be at the right and left hand
first!)
·
He reminds them about the way of the world: “You know that among the
Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them and their
great ones are tyrants over them.
·
“But it is not so among you;
but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever
wishes to be first among you must be slave of all.”
·
“For the Son of Man came not to be
served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.”
·
This is the type of leader they are following. Not what they are used
to from the Empire, where leaders rule with cruelty and power
o But a leader who serves; one
who is willing to give up his life to buy back the many – so that they may be
FREE!
·
Blind Bartimaeus “saw” better than any of those disciples that day –
because he asked for what he needed: mercy. Sight. And he begins to follow
Jesus on the way (code for becoming a believer, a follower, a Christian)
Jesus gives us, not what we
want, but what we need.
·
Because so often what we think we want is skewed by the lies and
illusions of the world that seek to convince us that what we want can be found
in power and privilege and control; by buying into the systems and structures
of the world that elevates some at the expense of others
·
What we get from Jesus instead is a ransomed life – he gives us our
lives back so that we may then go and serve others
o Recognizing that he has set
us free, restored our sight – we now follow him on the way that works to bring
that freedom and mercy to others
·
It’s not an easy road, this road that leads to Jerusalem and the cross
– but it’ll lead us to new life in the end. And that is what we truly need.
·
Thanks be to God!
·
Amen.
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