Posted on 03/16/2024 6:52:16 AM PDT by Charles Henrickson
“Not to Be Served But to Serve” (Mark 10:32-45)
Let me start out our message today with a question. Here it is. Which of these two 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? Actually, the correct answer is c) “both of the above.” A Christian is both a perfectly free lord of all and a perfectly dutiful servant of all. It was Martin Luther who set forth these two seemingly contradictory propositions in a treatise called “The Freedom of a Christian.”
And this idea was not new with Luther. Our Lord Jesus himself says as much in our Gospel reading today from Mark 10. Here Jesus tells us two things: 1) that he came as a servant to set us free, and 2) that the way to live out that freedom is by ourselves being servants of one another. So today we want to deal with both of these aspects of the Christian life, both to celebrate our freedom and to grow in our servanthood. We have been set free, yes; however, “Not to Be Served But to Serve.”
“Not to be served but to serve”: That is the principle of servant-leadership that Jesus lays down for his disciples in our text today. But that type of servanthood does not come naturally to us. By nature, as sinners, we are self-serving. We want to be served. We want others to serve us.
You know in the multiple-choice question I gave you, we had as the choices: a) “A Christian is free,” b) “A Christian is a servant,” and c) both of the above. And we said that the correct answer is c) “A Christian is both free and a servant.” But if we look at ourselves according to our old sinful nature, 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 our sinful nature, we were slaves, not free, and we were slaves to self, not servants of one another.
Just look at the people in our text. They demonstrate a self-serving attitude. Take the brothers James and John, for instance. They were 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.” In other words, “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 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 other ten are mad at the two brothers for trying to get those positions ahead of them. So Jesus has to call all twelve of them together to straighten them out.
Which he does. And look at what he tells them. He says to not be like 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. But it shall not be so among you.” The way of the world is to lord it over others, to use power to get your way. But Jesus says, “That’s not how it will be among my Christians.”
So in our text we see self-serving attitudes all around: James and John, the ten other disciples, and the Gentile rulers. But now, what about us? Do we demonstrate this kind of self-serving attitude? What do we do or say or feel that shows we have the same kind of self-centeredness? In how we treat others? In our life at home, at the workplace or school, or even here at church? Examine your mind and heart and life, your speech and your actions, to see if you are like James and John and the others. I suspect you are, as am I. We all think and act and speak in self-serving ways. It’s what sinners do. “But,” Jesus says to us today, “it shall not be so among you.”
You know, we’ve looked at James and John, we’ve looked at the other ten disciples and the Gentile rulers, and we’ve looked at ourselves. But there’s one person we haven’t looked at yet, and that is 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 messianic title is taken from a prophecy in 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 rightfully could have demanded that others serve him, it was Jesus, the Son of Man. That was the kind of Glory-Messiah the disciples were expecting. And as his closest followers, they wanted a piece of the action, to share in that kind of glory.
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, namely, the “Suffering Servant” of Isaiah 53. This Suffering 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. 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”: This will mean for Jesus that he must drink a certain cup. “The cup that I drink,” he says. The cup that Jesus speaks of here is the cup of suffering. In his agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, he will pray, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not my will, but thy will be done.” By this “cup,” Jesus is speaking of the suffering he is entering into. He’s speaking of the cross. For on that cross Christ will 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 different cup, the cup of salvation. This cup of blessing for which we give thanks--we drink from this cup in the Lord’s Supper, 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. “The cup that I drink, you will drink,” Jesus tells them. They too will suffer for the gospel. And all of us Christians will, 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 into this world broken by our selfishness, and he came as a servant. He came to give his life as a ransom. “Ransom” was a term used in the ancient world for the price paid to release slaves or prisoners of war, to set people in bondage free who cannot free themselves. That’s us. We needed a ransom. We were slaves, self-serving slaves to sin and prisoners of death.
The Son of Man came to give his life as our ransom. Jesus paid the price that sets us free. He 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. Luther says it so well in his explanation of the Second Article: Jesus Christ is my Lord, who “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’ve been set free to serve. Christ has set us free from our slavery to selfishness, sin, and death. 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. This is what Jesus is saying in our text: “If even I, the Son of Man, came to serve, then that’s the way it will be among you also. My disciples will be servants of one another.”
The Son has set us free, and we are free indeed. We have been freed from our self-centeredness. We are free from selfishly seeking after position, because our position is secure in the Lord. We are 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 ambition, where people seek prestige through positions of power. Jesus is saying to us today, “It shall not be so among you.” Rather, as the church, we are a community of servants. And as such, we provide a real counterculture to the world. A serving, loving, Christian community is a refreshing oasis in this self-serving world. People will notice the difference.
We have signs of that servant spirit right here in our midst, here at Concordia. Since I arrived last summer, I have noticed, and I have been impressed by, the servant spirit in action here at our church. So many of you are stepping up and pitching in, in so many ways. I’ve seen it in the countless tasks there are to do in a congregation: serving on boards, committees, work days, serving in the kitchen. You name it, and I’ve seen you do it. Dear brothers and sisters, you are being Christ’s servant community. That’s how it is, and that’s how it shall be, among you.
Fellow redeemed, Jesus the Servant-Messiah gave his life as our ransom. He has set us free. And we have been set free for a purpose, namely, to serve as “little Christs” to one another. Both of Luther’s statements are true: “A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none,” and “A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all.”
Brothers and sisters in Christ, as the church, we are serving one another now, and we’re being stretched to serve one another even more. So look for new ways and new opportunities to do just that. Because of Christ, our Servant-Savior, you and I have been set free, “not to be served, but to serve.”
And they were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them. And they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. And taking the twelve again, he began to tell them what was to happen to him, saying, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles. And they will mock him and spit on him, and flog him and kill him. And after three days he will rise.”
And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to him and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” And he said to them, “What do you want me to do for you?” And they said to him, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” And they said to him, “We are able.” And 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, but 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.” And when the ten heard it, they began to be indignant at James and John. And Jesus called them to him and said to them, “You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Ping.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.