“Servant Followership”
Mark 10:35-45
Bob DeGray
August 1, 2010
Key Sentence
We are called to follow; we are called to serve.
Outline
I. Followers must learn to serve (Mark 10:35-45)
II. We are called to Serve (Luke 17:7-10)
III. We are called to follow (Mark 8:27-38)
Message
I’m sure you’ve heard it often: “Hello, my name is Bob and I’ll be your server this evening. May I bring you something to drink?” When you go to a sit down restaurant you’re served, by a server, a waiter or a waitress. Readers Digest had a recent article called “50 Secrets Your Waiter Won’t Tell You.”
Number 1: “We’re not allowed to tell our customers we don’t like a dish. So if you ask your server how something is and he says, “It’s one of our most popular dishes,” chances are he doesn’t like it.” Number 5: “Our restaurant used to make this really yummy peach cobbler in a big tray. A lot of times, servers don’t have time to eat. So we all kept a fork in our aprons, and as we cruised through the kitchen, we’d stick our fork in the cobbler and take a bite.”
Some teach life lessons. Number 29: “When I’m hiring, I always look for someone who’s spent some time as a waiter. What I learned waiting tables was far more valuable than anything I learned in college.” Number 30: “Once on Mother’s Day, this older lady came in and told me her kids weren’t able to be with her, but they’d mailed a gift card. So I told my manager we had to make this exceptional. I told her to use her gift card another time: tonight her meal was on us. Then I sat with her through dessert while she told me about her kids. The woman said she’d remember that dinner forever.”
About a month ago I was walking in Webster and saw this sign on a restaurant marquee: “Experienced servers wanted.” I thought ‘Isn’t that the truth?’ As believers living together in community we are most blessed, and others are most blessed when we see ourselves as and behave like experienced servers.
Today we’ll look at three Scriptures that remind us we’re to be servant followers of Jesus: we are called to follow; we are called to serve. Let’s begin with a classic text, Mark 10:35-45: Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him. "Teacher," they said, "we want you to do for us whatever we ask." 36"What do you want me to do for you?" he asked. 37They replied, "Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory."
38"You don't know what you are asking," Jesus said. "Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?" 39"We can," they answered. Jesus said to them, "You will drink the cup I drink and be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with, 40but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared."
41When the ten heard about this, they became indignant with James and John. 42Jesus called them together and said, "You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. 43Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 44and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. 45For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."
James and John are self centered. They want the limelight, they want the prestige, want to be recognized as elite among the disciples. They have the gall tell Jesus “okay, someday when you’re in power we want to be your guys, your main men.” They recognize that Jesus is extraordinary and deserves the place of glory, but they think they’re almost there, just to the right and left.
Jesus says “you don’t know what you’re talking about. You don’t have a clue what I’m going to go through, the baptism I’ll drink, the cup of my passion, my death on the cross.’ Can you or I suffer and die for the sins of others? No: we’d first have to die for our own sins, and nothing would be left for others. Only Jesus can drink that cup and be baptized into that suffering.
But James and John don’t see the uniqueness of Jesus: Oh yea, whatever you do we can do: baptism, drinking, whatever you’re talking about we can do it. Jesus must have sighed: ‘You will. All of you are going to suffer, not with the same effect as my suffering, but in much the same way. But the Father will choose those who sit at my right and my left.’ It’s simply self-interest, pride, or ignorant foolishness to think they deserve the highest places.
And if these disciples are foolish and prideful to ask, the rest are no better. Verse 41 “When the ten heard this, they became indignant with James and John.” What makes you momma’s boys think you’re any better, deserve the highest place? Mark Lane says “The other ten were indignant because they were jealous, and fearful lest the two brothers should secure some advantage.”
This is human nature: fallen human nature, which reveals itself in every age, every organization, every situation. We all want recognition, all want influence, all want to make a difference. These aren’t bad things, until they express themselves as sin. If you find yourself thinking “Why can’t it all be about me sometime?” or “You can’t tell me what to do!”, if you find that you comparing yourself to others, trumpet your virtues, feel smug about their faults, you’ve got the disciple’s disease. If you find yourself miffed when people don’t do things exactly your way, that’s self, winning.
Verse 42 Jesus called them together and said, "You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them.” Jesus drives the point home by likening the disciples’ selfishness to the haughty attitude and petty tyranny of the Roman conquerors, using their domination to satisfy their lust for power or pleasure.
But Jesus has a more excellent way: servanthood. Verse 43 “Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 44and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all.” In my kingdom, Jesus says, greatness is measured by how you serve; first place goes to the one who can be slave to everyone else. The path to true satisfaction is to lay aside personal plans and ambitions and pour yourself into others. Here at Trinity we see frequent examples of servanthood, whether at Life Action Week, helping the DeGrays move, or so many other places. Yet we all can get into the gentile attitude: what’s in it for me; what do I get out of it?
We’re called to a servanthood that imitates Jesus. Verse 45: “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.” The ‘for even’ tells us Jesus is making a comparison. If Jesus, being who he was, can humbly become a servant, how much more should I, being who I am, be servant to all. And the service he mentions is common, menial service: the waiter at the table, the one who washes feet. Yet he’s also the one who serves by giving up his life to be condemned, mocked, flogged and killed. Jesus, more than anyone knew what it meant to give his life away.
Why did he do it? As a ransom. The Greek word, ‘lutron’, implies deliverance by purchase, whether paying a price to release a prisoner, free a slave or buy someone out of debt. In our case, sin makes us slaves of sin and death. Only by the payment of a price, the blood of a sacrifice, can we be redeemed from God’s wrath. That’s the ransom Jesus paid on the cross. But his willing sacrifice is also an example. We’re called to pattern our lives after the humility of the Son of Man. We are called to selflessly serve others.
Let me pause to critique the application of this verse to Christian leadership, a subject written about way too much in Christian circles these days. I do recognize that Jesus says that we become great by becoming a servant, that we become first by becoming a slave. But I think it may be a sinful human twist to say that the technique of a Christian leader is servanthood, or that slavery is a means to the end of exaltation. No, for Jesus and for us the humility, the slavery, the servanthood is an end in itself: we live to serve.
Let’s take a quick look at a Scripture that affirms this, Luke 17:7-10. This is one of the most convicting Scriptures in the Gospels: “Suppose one of you had a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Would he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, 'Come along now and sit down to eat'? 8Would he not rather say, 'Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink'? 9Would he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? 10So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, 'We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.'”
This compelling story calls us to a heart attitude hard to achieve, a selflessness which doesn’t look for recognition or importance, but only looks for what needs to be done for our master and our king. If you have a slave, working in the field all day, when he comes in do you sit him down, wave a fan over him, drop grapes in his mouth? No, that’s not the way slavery works. You say: go change your clothes and fix dinner, and I’ll have it on the veranda at 7:00. Even with a kind master, the slave is expected to do his duty, to serve.
Jesus hands this image to the disciples saying: “So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.” Jesus intends this to be hard. He knows we expect recognition: we expect thanks and praise and gratitude. We expect and hope to hear it from our loved ones and from God’s people. And God’s people ought to show gratitude to those who serve. Gratitude edifies the body. But no matter how hard the people around you try, they can’t satisfy your desire for recognition and gratitude. By grace we need to find satisfaction in the service itself, done in love for God with the expectation of his well done.
But first we have to deal with the idea that God or anyone has the right to tell us what to do. Though we’re created beings and he is the creator; though he has the copyright on us, the patent, we don’t want to submit. But if he is all these things, won’t he tell us what to do out of wisdom, in our best interests? Think of this example: We feel a parent has the right to pull his child out of the street or require his child to learn to read, or have the child help around the house. The child is a dependant: dependant on the parent for provision, safety and growth. That means the parent has the right to make certain decisions, and require certain behavior in the child’s best interest.
And we are dependents: dependent on God for everything, from air to food to life itself. Compared to him we are less than little children, don’t grasp his wisdom. It is perfectly right that he should make some decisions for us, and require certain behaviors from us in our own best interest.
He has every right to tell us what to do, as a parent to a child, a master to a slave. But Jesus doesn’t actually treat us as slaves: in the upper room, on the last night of his life, Jesus took the cloth, and washed the disciples feet. He said “I no longer call you servants: I call you friends.” Jesus the Lord took the role of a servant: the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve, even to the point of giving his life as a ransom. He doesn’t treat us as slaves.
But does that take away our responsibility to serve him? No! We’re even more his servants because we know his compassion and love. We are made new in him so that we become bondslaves, choosing to serve out of love rather than compulsion. Our attitude is ‘knowing how much you have loved us, this is the least we can do.’ We don’t strive for recognition and gratitude, instead we serve out gratitude for what he’s done and out of love for him.
What does this look like in the church? It looks like serving for the good of the community. Let me give an example, not because it’s the most significant thing in your Christian life, but because it’s specific and practical. A few weeks ago Murry gave some reminders about the use of the cry room and prayer room. That’s part of a larger concern we have for the practical care of this building God has given us. Put simply, all of us, whether adults, young people or children, should care for this building like slaves serving a master.
A selfless servant looks for ways to leave the building better than he found it. This starts with constantly cleaning up after ourselves. But it also means all of us, not just the few, see the mess in the kitchen: Even though we didn’t make it, we clean it up. A servant gets the vacuum cleaner for the crayon wrappers even though he isn’t getting paid to do it or recognized for it. Further, a servant spends time in the building carefully, so as to not to damage things. During Life Action Week I believe we counted five or six doors that have been busted or knocked off their hinges: and it’s not because of the power of my preaching. It’s because we are not doing our duty that grows out of gratitude for God’s provision of this place, and for the others who use it.
That’s just one example of what I call being a servant follower. The Mark passage is used to teach servant leadership, but if ministry is going to work, servant leaders must have servant followers. We need to be willing to follow, to commit ourselves to someone else’s vision, to accept direction, to give our energy even when something isn’t being done just the way we’d do it. I’m afraid our culture has no applause for followers. We are taught from youth that the heroes are those who go against what others tell them. We are taught to value individualism and ‘what works for me’ and personal satisfaction rather than the good of the community, or even of our closest loved ones.
There is something in God’s way of doing things, in community, in shared vision intended to call us beyond ourselves to become selfless servant followers. This is Jesus’ own message: our last text makes plain where he leads and how we are to follow. Mark 8:27-38 Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked them, "Who do people say I am?" 28They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets." 29"But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?" Peter answered, "You are the Christ."
30Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him. 31He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. 32He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 33But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. "Get behind me, Satan!" he said. "You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men."
34Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. 36What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? 37Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? 38If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels."
Jesus is ‘the Christ,’ the anointed one, the long-awaited Messiah promised to the people of Israel. He’s not just a preacher of repentance like John the Baptist, but he is the one John pointed to.’ He isn’t just a prophet like Elijah: He’s the one Elijah and the prophets foretold. Peter recognizes him as uniquely from God, uniquely worthy of worship, the only hope of his people.
But Jesus wasn’t content to be recognized in general terms as the Messiah. He was here on a specific mission, to fulfill not only the prophecies of a coming king but of a suffering servant: “He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again.” These words distinctly echo the suffering servant texts of Isaiah: “He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.”
But his followers did not immediately see this as the right path: “He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.”
As in so many things, Peter stands in for you and me, reluctant to follow Jesus the servant leader on his mission of service and suffering. But Jesus publically corrects Peter. "Get behind me, Satan!" he said. "You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men." The great hindrance to servant followership is man’s point of view, culture’s point of view rather than God’s. Like Peter we place ourselves in front of God to lead rather than behind God to follow. Why? Because we think the path of suffering and service cannot possibly be God’s path. We look for the easy human ways out, the way of conflict avoidance, the way of pleasure, the way of safety, rather than following God on his hard mission of compassion and holiness.
But Jesus tells us plainly what it will look like to get behind the servant leader: “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.” Jesus is the great servant leader; he’s noble and bold, kind and compelling. We do want to follow him. But to do so we must first deny ourselves – reject our selfish human nature.
Then we must take up a cross. Remember that a cross in that culture had only one meaning: death. If you carried a cross it meant you had been condemned to die. Jesus took up his cross and went to his death for the sake of others. And he calls us to follow, to do the same thing in our circumstances. If we want to hold on to our own lives, our own comfort, our own preferences, we will lose out on the rewards of following. But if we die to those things and live only as unworthy servants doing our duties, we will receive the reward of eternal life and his “well done good and faithful servant.”
So do you see how all this fits together? In Mark 10 Jesus says that our greatness, our goal, our fulfillment is found in being a servant, a slave. Our ambition as believers should be to see how much we can serve. In Luke 17 we are starkly reminded that serving is not about us, but about the one we serve. We are only doing our duty, what is expected of us, when we serve and keep serving. And Mark 8 reminds us that we are called to be followers, to deny ourselves and take up our cross daily and follow Jesus, who himself came to serve and to be the suffering servant for our sakes.
Human nature cries out: “I don’t want to serve. I don’t want to follow.” But look who you serve; look who you follow. If the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, how can we do less? If the Son of Man came to carry a cross, how can we do less? We are called to servant followership.