September 24, 2006

 Who Wants to be First?
 

by Rev. Dr. Jim Carlson

Mark 9:30-37

Opening Illustration

Passage begins with Jesus making first of three predictions that this trip will end in his murder. He would rise from the dead after three days.

Uses the term “Son of Man”. Term taken from Daniel 7. (slide). Vision of Daniel: Son of man ascends to heaven and God makes him king of the world forever.

Why does the vision mean? Who does Daniel think this Son of Man is? Why does Jesus use this image in talking about his own death?

Vision of Daniel associated with Maccabean revolt. People oppressed and suffering at the hands of Antiochus Epiphanes. (slide)

Son of man could be Israel or the High Priest. Point is that out of Israel’s suffering, God exalts a man to heaven and gives him reign over the world.

Jesus sees his ministry in those terms. He will suffer as the Jews did, but out of that suffering he will be exalted to heaven. His death is victory, not failure.

Jesus travels with disciples to Capernaum. Noticed a discussion along the way, wasn’t in on it.

He asked them what they were debating, they were afraid to tell him. He knew anyway. They were talking about which one was greatest.

Irony is dripping here. Jesus talks about how the Messiah will suffer to save the world, while the disciples talk about how this movement will improve their social status in society.

Jesus tells them that the greatest of all is the servant of all. Takes a child, embraces the child, and tells them that whoever welcomes a child welcomes him and welcomes God.

Social status in society – Children were given low status. Those who worked with children were not as important as others.

If you wanted to be great, you catered to wealthy or powerful people. Attending to the needs of children did not raise your social status at all.

Jesus turns conventional ideas of status upside down and says that the greatest of all is the person who does the most humble job, the person who acts as the slave of everyone else.

Even in our society, those who attend to the needs of children are not regarded or paid nearly as much as those who engage in more profitable business. There are fewer people going into fields like teaching and social work and more people going into fields like business and information technology.

Certainly some people who get a business degree end up in a business that specializes in products for children. But most don’t, and even those who do are usually focused on the products that make the most money, rather than the actual needs of children.

As we prepare to collect the World Mission Offering this next month, I want to suggest that if any of us wants to be great, then according to the value system Jesus teaches us in Mark 9, we should work to serve the most vulnerable people in society.

When we give to the World Mission Offering, we have the opportunity to minister to the needs of people whom society has left behind. As I read the materials that International Ministries sent us, it became clear to me that as American Baptists we are deeply engaged in doing the very thing Jesus encouraged his disciples to do in this passage. We are working to meet the spiritual needs of children all around the world.

One ministry I wanted to highlight was to the children of Campinas Brazil. (slide) Two of our missionaries, Corenne and Philip Smith, work with an organization called Hope Unlimited. The children with whom they work are often placed in their care by Brazilian authorities as an alternative to prison.

A couple of weeks ago they were visited by a group of American Baptists from the L.A. area who helped train the children in evangelism. Philip tells about a trip they took to the park after the training. The children were excited about being able to use their training to speak with other children about Jesus. I’m going to read from the report the Smiths filed.

“The students started off in full force. It turned out to be an incredible couple of hours. I will describe just one incident: during the course of the afternoon, the group was surprised to see Leo, one of Hope’s students, leading a group of sobbing adults — not children! — in a prayer of confession.

We had planned to wrap up the afternoon by de-briefing at the ice cream shop. So a couple hours later, sitting around self-serve ice cream, the team asked Leo exactly what had taken place in the park earlier, as he led the adults in prayer.

Through a translator, Leo matter-of-factly described seeing a man in the park and sharing the wordless story with him. Later on, he saw the man with a group of friends. Recognizing an opportunity to capitalize on the rapport he had established earlier, Leo approached the group and greeted his new friend.

As hoped, Leo was invited to share with the whole group. The Holy Spirit was at work again: a half hour later, Leo was leading the whole group in a prayer, as the man, sobbing, confessed his sins and invited Jesus into his heart.

A team member then asked Leo to describe the most important or surprising thing he had learned that afternoon. Leo did not answer right away, and I looked at him. His whole composure had changed, and his lip was quivering. Then he broke down.

When was able to talk again, he shared that his most important reflection was God’s power to change lives: God was able to change the lives of people like those whom he had shared with. God had changed his life, he said, as well as the life of some of his family members. Now God was using him to minister to others.”

After I read that story, I reread the words of Jesus, “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me.” These kinds of ministries we support aren’t supposed to be the afterthoughts of our lives, the kinds of things we donate to if we have something left over after lavishing things upon ourselves.

The irony Mark wants us to see is that if the Son of Man was willing to suffer and die for our salvation, then at least we can humble ourselves to the point of being willing to minister to people like Leo, or at least provide financial support for those who do.

Too often we are engaged in the pointless debate over who is greatest in the world. Jesus says the greatest is the one who is the slave of the least. There’s nothing wrong with trying to be the greatest in the Kingdom of God. But the road to being the greatest requires us to walk with and affirm the love of God for those who society sees as least important.

The road to becoming the greatest in God’s eyes is not a road of glory. It may not be pretty. It may not be profitable. It may not earn you much respect. But whoever walks that road receives Jesus himself, which is the object of the game in the first place.