Who's Number 1?; Mark 9:30-38

Dear God, take our minds and think through them; take our hands and feet and work through them; take our lips and speak through them, take our hearts and set them on fire for you. Amen

We’re Number 1!! We’re Number 1!! We hear that a lot don’t we? We have a strong sense of competition in the United States. Competitive sports teams make billions of dollars and claim millions of fans in every corner of the country. We root, root, root for the home team and when the Titans don’t win, well we’re getting used to it. Sports are not the only thing that we are competitive about. Probably more competitive than sports is the pursuit of wealth. We want money and the stuff that money buys. I heard a comedian say one time that life is a game and we win when we have lots of money. Sometimes we don’t want money for ourselves, but we have to keep up with those Joneses down the street.

I have a friend who has a brother and a sister; both of them are married with children. Now the sister bought a new car, not just because she wanted a new car, but because she had a growing family and the car she had was inadequate. We not a month later the brother had bought a new car only it was bigger and presumably more expensive. The sister bought a house, not too big but a nice quaint little one story house, six months later the brother had bought a new house but it was two stories and brick. The brother then bought a camper and a boat. The brother and his wife try their best to outdo his sister. We see that all the time, sometimes we are guilty of it ourselves. John Smith bought a new truck then we think we need a new truck; we are competing in some kind of game that we have invented in our minds and we never win, because someone always has something nicer. Does this pursuit, this competition make us happier?

Jesus and the disciples are walking down the road toward this village where they were going to stay for the night. The disciples have separated themselves from Jesus and have been arguing about something. When they reach the house Jesus asks them what they were arguing about. Now this is one of those rhetorical questions that we hear from Jesus a lot. It is kind of like when our parents caught us in the act of doing something bad and they ask, “What is going on here?” Jesus knew what they were arguing about, but he wanted to see their reaction. Their reaction is like our reaction to our parent’s question…stunned silence. The disciples knew that they had done something wrong and they thought they hidden it from Jesus, but alas it’s hard to hide things from God. Jesus knows that the have been arguing about who is the greatest among the twelve. Who is top dog, right behind Jesus? So, Jesus takes them and sits down with them in the house. Now this is the posture of a teacher, so in a way Jesus is saying “OK, Class its time for a lesson”, so we know what is to follow is important. Then Jesus once again, completely blows their minds. “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” WHEEW I can imagine you could have heard a pin drop. This is not what was expected. People then are like people now, they want to be the best. The goal in life was to be the best in whatever occupation you had, and to rise above and be successful. The Roman government was filled with people who competed with one another for power, the same for the Jewish temple priests. And now their teacher is telling them if they want to be top dog they have to be the flea. It doesn’t make sense, it is illogical. But then what about the Gospel is logical?

Jesus teaches that we have to work hard not to be the first, but to be the last not just last, but to be a servant. We have a term that we use in ministry called servant leadership. I never heard that term before I began my journey in ministry. It means that we lead others not by bossing them around, but by humbling ourselves and leading b y example. We see servant leadership in John, when Jesus washes the disciples’ feet. Jesus wanted to show the disciples that they should go into the world and serve in whatever way was needed, even if it meant doing to lowliest job.

Jesus then says something else. Jesus picks up one of the children in the household and says anyone who welcomes a child like this welcomes not only me but also God. We think this is just another example of Jesus being kind and sweet. We have pictures in our mind of children playing around Jesus and he is smiling at their innocence. We think that Jesus is referring to the fact that we have to welcome the innocent children, but that is not exactly the point Jesus was trying to make. In order to fully understand the significance of this act, we must first understand the status of children in the days of Jesus.

Unlike today, children in the days of Jesus were considered not just second class citizens, but non-persons. Their social status was lower than that of women and even household servants. They were defiantly considered the lowliest of humans. So Jesus is making a bold political statement. He is saying that if you welcome this non-person, this lowliest of the lowly, then you welcome him, King of kings and Lord of lords and not only this but you are welcoming God the creator, the father. He is putting himself at the same level as the lowest in society.

Who would fit that criterion today? It would the homeless person on the street. It would be the single mother who has been shunned. It would be the person suffering with AIDS. It would be migrant worker who doesn’t speak English. It is the poor and marginalized where ever you might find them. He is saying if you want to be truly great if you want to be number one then you must be welcoming not just to those on your same social level but to all people even the lowest of the low. You must open your home, share your food, and your love with all people no matter how low on the totem pole they are. We must be humble if we are going to be exalted.

This leads us to the first verse that we read from Mark; see the last will be first. Jesus tells the disciples that he will be killed and then will rise again. Mark says that the disciples did not understand the meaning behind these words. They did not understand that Jesus had to humble himself even to the humility of the Cross in order to be exalted above every other name. Sometimes we fail to fully understand what the cross means. We say “Christ died for our sins” but we forget what that meaning behind it. The disciples didn’t understand the meaning behind it until Jesus had been resurrected. They didn’t understand that since God is the greatest God had to make the greatest sacrifice. God had to be the greatest servant. Jesus laid down his life on the cross for many reasons; one reason was as a display of ultimate servanthood that being a Christian is not coming to church or donating money or even preaching a sermon, but it is service and if we want to be first for Christ than we the last for humanity.

This is not what society teaches us. Society teaches us that we work and strive to be the greatest so we don’t have to serve but so we can be served; to hob-knob with the rich and famous not welcome the common. Society wants to fly first class not dish out soup in a rescue mission.

Jesus didn’t have to be born in a feeding trough; he could have been born in a palace filled with gold and jewels. Jesus didn’t have to be born to a poor working family; he could have been born to a king or an emperor. Jesus didn’t have to walk around with 12 guys from place to place homeless; he could have been chauffeured by a chariot. Jesus could have not died a humiliating death on a cross; but the world changed because he did. The greatest moment in the history of the world was not a moment of grandeur and spectacle, but a humble, humiliating death on a cross. The greatest became last and servant of all.

My family went to Washington DC about 12 years ago and one of the places that we stopped was the Hard Rock Café. I thought it was so cool, this was before they put on in Nashville. I bought a hat and on the back a slogan was embroidered and it blew me away because it was something that I never expected. It read “Love All, Serve All”. I thought that is a perfect slogan for Christianity. That is what, if we boil it down to its most simple form, Christ wants from us, to love all and to serve all. We all want to do our best for Christ, we all want to be number 1 in his eyes, but in order to do that we must humble ourselves and be last in order welcome and serve the others. Amen.

Let us pray…

Grant, O Lord,

that what has been said with our lips we may believe in our hearts,

and that what we believe in our hearts we may practice in our lives;

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.