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Christian Ambition

Mark 10:35-45

October 26, 2003

The Request of James and John

³⁵James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came forward to him and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” ³⁶And he said to them, “What is it you want me to do for you?” ³⁷And they said to him, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” ³⁸But Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” ³⁹They replied, “We are able.” Then Jesus said to them, “The cup that I drink you will drink; and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized; ⁴⁰but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.”

⁴¹When the ten heard this, they began to be angry with James and John. ⁴²So Jesus called them and said to them, “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. ⁴³But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, ⁴⁴and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. ⁴⁵For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.”

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Have you ever been involved in a church community where every aspect of church life was a power struggle?  Where every time certain people stood to speak in public before the church, half of the rest of the congregation would either visibly roll their eyes or turn to the person sitting next to them and mumble, “here we go again” or simply think to themselves, “what a power trip this person is on?” 

Have you ever been in a congregation where the pastor is constantly accused by some people in the congregation, usually behind his back, that he or she is playing favorites, perhaps only visiting some people in the congregation and ignoring others?  Or maybe only creating relationships with the major contributors, or the folks who have one particular ethnic background, or somehow privileging the newcomers and ignoring the old generation church families, or vice versa.

Have you ever been in a congregation where when one of the kids in the church stood to sing a solo on a Sunday morning, the pastor would inevitably get complaints on Monday morning from irate parents who wanted their child to sing solos? 

Have you ever been in a congregation where adults would be working behind each others’ backs so that other adults would not be elected to certain positions of power during the congregational meeting?

I praise God that in our congregation, at least in these days, such political problems are not everyday occurrences.

Yet for many congregations, like many offices and places of work, like many city halls or school boards or even families, competitive, political, dishonest and even hateful relationships dominate as some people work hard to control the money, to call the shots, or to simply seek opportunities to grandstand and attract attention.

⁴²So Jesus called them and said to them, “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. ⁴³But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, ⁴⁴and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. ⁴⁵For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.”

These words were Jesus’ response to his disciples, James and John, who along with the Apostle Peter were considered by at least one biblical writer to be the “big three” of the original twelve disciples of Jesus.[1]  These guys both seem to be looking for a way to cash in on the relationship they had with the man they believed to be the Messiah and the Christ.  The guy whom they believed would soon be the greatest ruler history had ever seen and whom they believed to be the Son of God himself.

At least they were honest, they weren’t scheming behind others backs!

“Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” they asked ³⁶And he said to them, “What is it you want me to do for you?” ³⁷And they said to him, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.”

These two brothers, the sons of Zebedee, were only trying to get what was coming to them, only trying to do what they could to get ahead.

Once I spoke to someone who worked for the AMAA overseas in Armenia.  One of the things the AMAA did in those days, and still does to a great extent today, was to distribute aid, goods and gifts sent to Armenia by donors in North America and Europe.  This worker, from North America, was often in close working relationships with Armenian workers, natives of Yerevan and other cities within which the AMAA had a presence and was working.

He said that the AMAA was having great difficulties at the time, in the early 1990’s not long after the earthquake in 1989, finding local folks who could be used as volunteers and even as employees of the AMAA.  “Many people want to receive and even withhold some of the aide they are being asked to distribute, for themselves,” said this North American employee of the AMAA.  “If I’m holding the honey pot, I should receive most of the honey,” was apparently a popular saying and reflects the logic of many people, who were survivors of seventy years of Soviet communism.  The AMAA worked tirelessly, then as now, to employ helpers and workers who lived not by the logic of the fallen, broken world, but of Christ, who said, “⁴⁵For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve”.

Jesus was also the man, whom Mark the gospel writer also records to have said “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”  And this time in response to the other of the “big three” disciples of his, Peter, who simply was looking out for Jesus’ best interest.  He had pulled Jesus aside to say “listen you’ve got to be careful about what you say, don’t taunt the chief priests, the elders and the scribes! And don’t talk about how they’re going to abuse you or kill you, because if you talk like that, they will!”

When Peter tried to give Jesus advice like this, he called Peter Satan! Then he gathered all his disciples around himself and said to them,  “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.

Jesus did not exercise power the way the world exercised power.  He did not advocate using the people around him or trampling their hopes and visions and desires, for personal gain.  He insisted on serving them and uplifting them and nurturing them, with humility and love.

Many folks who are in the world and of the world, have no real understanding of the real power that such an approach holds.  They follow the wisdom and the ambition and the road to power that the world of humanity values most and as a result, they often find themselves in despair.

Listen to what  the 19th century Bible scholar G. S. Bowes pointed out regarding the ultimate futility of ambition.  Citing four powerful world rulers of the past, he wrote: "Alexander the Great was not satisfied, even when he had completely subdued the nations. He wept because there were no more worlds to conquer, and he died at an early age in a state of debauchery.  Hannibal, who filled three bushels with the gold rings taken from the knights he had defeated, committed suicide by swallowing poison. Few noted his passing, and he left this earth completely unmourned.  Julius Caesar’s, [armies killed] '…one million of his foes,' and conquered 800 cities, only to be stabbed by his best friends at the scene of his greatest triumph.  Napoleon, the feared conqueror, after being the scourge of Europe, spent his last years in banishment." [2]

Folks look for power and fulfillment for all their ambitions in all the wrong places…

In a seminary missions class, Herbert Jackson told how, as a new missionary, he was assigned a car that would not start without a push. After pondering his problem, he devised a plan. He went to the school near his home, got permission to take some children out of class, and had them push his car off. As he made his rounds, he learned to either park on a hill or leave the engine running. He used this ingenious procedure for two years.

Ill health forced the Jackson family to leave, and a new missionary came to that station. When Jackson proudly began to explain his arrangement for getting the car started, the new missionary began looking under the hood. Before the explanation was complete, the new missionary interrupted, "Why, Dr. Jackson, I believe the only trouble is this loose cable." He gave the cable a twist, stepped into the car, engaged the ignition, and to Jackson's astonishment, the engine roared to life. For two years needless trouble had become routine. Yet, power was there all the time. [3]

Ironically even Napoleon at some point in his life understood the folly of ambition and compared the other three tyrannical world conquerors with whom he has been associated with, of all people - Jesus, “Alexander, Caesar, Hannibal conquered the world but had no friends…Jesus founded his empire upon love and at this hour millions would die for him…He has won the hearts of man, a task a conqueror cannot do.”  [4]

No, Jesus had no love or respect for the ways of people and the world.  But insisted that anybody who wanted to follow him should take up the cross of servanthood and sacrifice that he himself bore and that doing so was itself a source of power. 

⁴³ …whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, ⁴⁴and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all.

And how does this power of Christ’s reign?  How is it that being humble and refusing the power of the world gives is the avenue by which the power of Christ reigns and rules?

D. L. Moody the popular Evangelist of the 19^th century explained it this way, “…the moment our hearts are emptied of pride and selfishness and ambition and everything that is contrary to God’s law, the Holy Spirit will fill every corner of our hearts. But if we are full of pride and conceit and ambition and the world, there is no room for the Spirit of God. We must be emptied before we can be filled.”[5]

Although its impossible to empty our hearts completely of “pride and selfishness and ambition,” we’ve got to work hard to allow room in our hearts and minds and lives for the loving ambitions of Christ.  Humility gives us that opportunity to clear the decks of our own preconceptions, our own ambition and our own selfishness. And it leaves room for Christ’s ambition, which hopes to love another, save another, uplift and nurture another and to spread such values to all the world.

Over the centuries there have been some rulers of this world who have ruled with such power as well:

During the American Revolution a man in civilian clothes rode past a group of soldiers repairing a small defensive barrier. Their leader was shouting instructions, but making no attempt to help them. Asked why by the rider, he retorted with great dignity, "Sir, I am a corporal!" The stranger apologized, dismounted, and proceeded to help the exhausted soldiers. The job done, he turned to the corporal and said, "Corporal, next time you have a job like this and not enough men to do it, go to your commander-in-chief, and I will come and help you again." With that George Washington got back on horse and rode off.[6]

A government official once walked into President Abraham Lincoln’s office and was startled to find the chief executive shining his shoes. “Sir,” he gasped, “surely you do not polish your own shoes!”  “Of course,” replied the humble President.  “Whose do you polish?”[7]

Today, in a few short minutes, we too will engage in a political process.  We will elect officers who in the near future will be installed as deacons and trustees and board members and various other vital positions in our life together.  We will consider topics and items of business that will require our approval, our decisions and our support.  I in no way expect to witness the ambitious, back-biting, political, hateful ways of the world.  Yet to think that any group of humans is immune and protected from such behavior, such motivation or thinking is to be naïve and silly.  We must always guard ourselves against acting out in the un-Christ like and ugly ways that come so naturally to all humanity.

I encourage this congregation, all of us that make up this church, to always, whether today in our meetings or when we finish and head out into the world where we are called to walk our Christian walk, to live as Christ called us to live, to serve for the love of serving Christ and his beloved, to take power humbly, wield it wisely and relinquish it when called by Christ to do so.

For Jesus said, “whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant…the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.”

Amen