Fifth Sunday in Lent March 29, 2009 The Rev. Charles Henrickson “Set Free to Serve” (Mark 10:35-45)
I’d like to start the sermon today with a little quiz, in the form of a multiple-choice question. Which of these statements is true, a) “A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none,” or b) “A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all”? Which one is true? As you may have guessed, this is a trick question. The correct answer is c) “both of the above.” A Christian is both a perfectly free lord and a perfectly dutiful servant. It was Martin Luther who set forth these two seemingly contradictory propositions at the beginning of his treatise on Christian liberty called, “The Freedom of a Christian.” A Scripture passage that powerfully brings out this paradoxical nature of the Christian life is our text today from Mark 10. Here Jesus tells us two things: 1) that he came as a servant in order to set us free, and 2) that the greatest way we can live out that freedom is by being servants of one another. So today we want to celebrate our freedom and grow in our servanthood. Because of Christ, the Servant, you and I have been “Set Free to Serve.” So far in our multiple-choice question, we’ve had a) “A Christian is free,” b) “A Christian is a servant,” and c) both of the above. We said that the correct answer is c) “A Christian is both free and a servant.” However, if we look at ourselves according to our old sinful nature, then we find that the answer is actually d) “none of the above.” We were not free, nor were we servants of one another. According to the sinful nature, we were slaves, not free, and slaves to self, not servants of one another. Look at the people in our text. They certainly demonstrate this self-serving attitude. Look at the brothers James and John, seeking their own interest. They tell Jesus, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you. . . . Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” Give us what we want, Jesus, let us have our way. We want to sit on royal thrones, the best seats in the house--oh, right next to yours, of course. James and John here are seeking glory, pursuing positions, not in order to give, but in order to get. Then look at the other disciples: “And when the ten heard it, they began to be indignant at James and John.” The ten others were mad at the two brothers for trying to get those positions ahead of them. So Jesus calls all twelve of them together. The ten are really no better than the two. And then look at the description of the rulers and great men of the Gentiles: “Those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them.” That’s the way of the world--lording it over people, using power to get your way. Yes, it’s easy for us to see the self-serving attitudes of the people in our text, James and John, the ten other disciples, and the Gentile rulers. But now, what about us? Do we demonstrate this kind of a self-serving attitude? What do we do or say or feel that shows we have the same disease of self-centeredness? How are we like James and John? “Lord, I want you to do for me whatever I ask. I want my membership in the church to serve my needs.” Give us what we want, let us have our way. And have any of us ever done work in the church at least in part for what we could get out of it? Mixed in with the right motives, is there also a desire to win the respect, admiration, and praise of our fellow members? We hope that people will notice us and think--better yet, say--“My, she’s a hard-worker! Where would the church be without her?” Like James and John, we’re looking for a little glory. Or how are we like the ten other disciples? Ask yourself: Do I feel resentment toward those who are getting more attention or credit than I’m getting? Do I resent the success or good fortune of others? Do I make judgments about the speck of selfishness in someone else’s eye without recognizing the log of selfishness in my own eye? Like the ten disciples, we are jealous of the success of others and indignant with those who seek the glory we secretly want. But surely we’re not like those Gentile rulers, are we? For example, like the French ruler Napoleon, who said, “I care only for people who are useful to me, and only so long as they are useful.” Do we ever feel that way, at least to some extent and maybe even subconsciously? Using people, dealing harshly with a family member, cutting down a fellow church member--these are signs of the same worldly attitude. Selfishness is the way of the world. Being first, being great, being served. Ambition, glory, jealousy. It’s in the world; it’s in the church; it’s in you and me. But Jesus says to his disciples, “It shall not be so among you.” You know, so far we’ve looked at James and John, the ten other disciples, and the Gentile rulers, and we’ve looked at ourselves. But there’s one person we haven’t looked at yet, and that’s Jesus. Jesus, the Son of Man who came “not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Jesus calls himself “the Son of Man.” That term may have reminded his disciples of a prophecy from the Book of Daniel, where there is a vision of “one like a son of man” who comes from heaven with “dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him.” So if ever there was anyone who could have rightfully demanded that others serve him, it was Jesus, the Son of Man. That was the kind of Glory-Messiah the disciples wanted and expected, and as his closest followers they wanted to share in some of that glory. And yet Jesus says that the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom. The Son of Man, as Jesus describes himself here, sounds more like another figure prophesied in the Old Testament--the “Suffering Servant” described in Isaiah. This servant would make himself an offering for sin. He would pour out his soul unto death. This righteous servant would make many to be accounted righteous by bearing their iniquities and sin. This is the kind of Servant-Messiah Jesus came to be and wants his disciples to see. To serve and to give his life as a ransom--that will mean for Jesus that he must drink a certain cup. “The cup that I drink,” he says. This cup that Jesus speaks of--it is the cup of suffering. Remember Jesus’ agony in the garden: “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not my will, but thy will be done.” Jesus there too is speaking of the suffering he is entering into. He’s speaking of the cross. For on that cross Christ would drink the cup of wrath, God’s righteous anger against sin, in our place and for our salvation. Because Christ drank his cup of suffering, the cup of wrath, now there is for us a cup of salvation. This cup of blessing for which we give thanks--we drink from this cup in the Holy Eucharist, where we receive Christ’s holy blood shed for us for the forgiveness of sins. Strengthened by this salutary gift, we then are able to drink the cup of suffering that we encounter in our lives, especially suffering for the sake of the gospel--as James and John eventually would do as persecuted apostles and as all Christians do in one form or another. “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Christ came down into our mess, into this world broken by our selfishness, and he came as a servant. He came to give his life as a ransom. “Ransom”--this was the term used for the price paid to release slaves or prisoners of war, people in bondage who cannot free themselves. That’s us. We needed a ransom. We were slaves--slaves to self, bond-slaves to sin, prisoners of death. So the Son of Man came to give his life as our ransom. He paid the price that sets us free. Jesus frees us from our slavery to self, our bondage to sin, and our prison of death. Now we are the redeemed of the Lord, ransomed from the grave. We’ve been set free. As Luther says so well in his explanation of the Second Article, Christ “has redeemed me, a lost and condemned person, purchased and won me from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil; not with gold or silver, but with His holy, precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death. . . .” But there’s more. Luther’s explanation doesn’t stop there; it continues: “. . . that I may be His own and live under Him in His kingdom, and serve him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness.” You see, Christ has redeemed and ransomed us for a purpose. We have been set free to serve. Christ has set us free from the harsh slavery of selfishness, sin, and death, and now we serve in the most blessed kind of “slavery,” which is really no slavery at all. We are slaves of Christ and servants of one another. That is what Jesus is saying in our text today: “If even I, the Son of Man, came to serve, then that’s the way it will be also among you. My disciples will be servants of one another.” The Son has set us free, and we are free indeed. We are free from self-centeredness and resentment. We are free from selfishly seeking after position, because our position is secure in the Lord. We are even free enough to serve one another. So now the way to greatness in God’s kingdom is the way of servanthood. The church is not a business, where people climb the ladder of success by stepping on others. The church is not an arena for raw ambition, where people seek personal prestige through positions of power. Jesus says, “It shall not be so among you.” Rather, the church is a community of servants, and as such, a real counter-culture to the world. A serving, loving, Christian community is a refreshing oasis in this self-serving world in which we live. We have signs of that servant spirit right here in our midst, in the people of St. Matthew’s. As our members give themselves to the Lord, they also give themselves to one another, in the thousand-and-one tasks there are to do in a congregation. When we serve out of a free and willing spirit--whether we’re serving coffee, singing in the choir, providing rides for radiation treatment, or holding a baby so a mom can listen to the sermon--you, dear brothers and sisters, you are being Christ’s servant community. That’s how it is and shall be among you. Fellow redeemed, Christ Jesus the Servant-Messiah gave his life as our ransom and set us free. You and I have been set free for a purpose, set free to serve. As Christ’s church, we are serving one another now, and we’re always being “stretched” to serve one another even more, in new ways and as new opportunities arise. We are indeed “Set Free to Serve.” Lord, help us walk Your servant way Wherever love may lead And, bending low, forgetting self, Each serve the other’s need. (LSB 857) Charles Henrickson 4749 Melissa Jo Ln St. Louis, MO 63128 (314) 845-8811 (home) (314) 779-8108 (cell) [email protected] ___________________________________________________________________________ 'CAT 41 Sermons & Devotions' consists of works that are, unless otherwise noted, the copyrighted property of the various authors; posting of such gives members of this list implied consent for redistribution _with_ _attribution_ unless otherwise specified by the author, as well as for quoting or use in a congregational setting _with_or_without_attribution_. Note: This list's default reply is to the *poster*, NOT the list. Do *not* reply to the list with your comments, but to the poster. Subscribe? Send ANY note to: [email protected] Unsubscribe? Send ANY note to: [email protected] Archive? <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/> For more information on this or other lists offered by Confess And Teach For Unity, you can contact the CAT 41 list administrator at: Rev. Fr. 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