Sermon for 22nd Pentecost
The Irony of the Gospel
By The Rev. Eric Christopher Shafer -
We have heard this Gospel lesson before, just a few weeks ago. Once again, the disciples want to argue among themselves about who is the greatest, who will sit at Jesus’ right and left when he rules the world! Once again, Jesus, who must be really shaking his head and rolling his eyes by now, once again Jesus challenges their foolish talk and tries to get them to see, once again, that service is Jesus’ way and that real “glory” is found in serving others.
This time around I am struck by the IRONY of this text. Or, more precisely, the ironies of this text.
First, James and John come privately to Jesus to ask that they might sit on his right and left hand in glory. The irony is that they come just after Jesus, in the verses right before today’s text, they come just after Jesus declares that he, Jesus, will go to Jerusalem where, among other things, the religious authorities will “mock him, and spit upon him, and flog him, and kill him.”
Just what kind of glory are you thinking he’ll be giving you, James and John?
The second irony is that there WILL be two be seated at Jesus’ right and left in just another week or two. Well, they will not exactly be seated, but instead will be hanged, crucified with Jesus, “one on his right and one on his left.” They are the two thieves, of course, hanging in the place James and John said they longed to be, except, of course, that James and John never would have longed for that.
Are you sure you want to be on Jesus’ right and left?
Third, Jesus does not even want the cup that he is to drink, but James and John say that they do. Again, James and John do this because they have no idea what they are asking. That is why Jesus asks them, “Are you really able to do this?” Jesus will share a meal, including a cup of blessing, with his disciples soon. And then will come another cup, one Jesus does not want, when Jesus is not only hanged but offered sour wine while he hangs on the cross.
Is this the cup you want to drink, fellas?
Fourth, James and John claim they can be baptized as Jesus was and is. The first time Jesus was baptized he was immersed in water and then driven by the Spirit into the wilderness. In the second baptism, Jesus will be immersed fully into our human condition, even to death, and so be driven to the extreme of what it means to be human. Again, James and John have no idea what Jesus is saying or what they are requesting.
Drowned in death, really guys, are you sure you want this?
Fifth, and really underscoring the manifold irony to this point and James’ and John’s continued inability to understand what Jesus is saying and what is coming for Jesus and themselves, after all of this, James and John still respond to Jesus “We are able!”
Seriously?
2,000 years later, reading this text today, we recognize all this as highly ironic because we know what has already transpired even before today’s text. Peter has been rebuked for rejecting Jesus’ first pronouncement about Jesus’ impending death. The disciples’ have already argued about who is the greatest after Jesus’ second pronouncement of his coming death. John has been rebuked for forbidding someone who did not follow them from performing a healing. And, finally, Jesus has rebuked of all of them for keeping children away from him. All this has already happened before today’s text.
And we also know what is coming. Peter’s denial and all the disciples’ abandonment of Jesus in his hour of greatest need. Which is why these ironies are as painful as they are many.
But before we get too indignant or self-righteous, or simply compare ourselves favorably to James, John, and the rest of the disciples, we should ask ourselves whether we really do all that much better.
Next week when Wyatt is baptized during worship we will all be invited to join the parents and sponsors as they respond to the question, “Do you renounce the devil and all his empty promises?” And we will all say, “I renounce them!”
Do we really do that?
Do we not also too often assume if we are good, all will go well in this life? Are we not also tempted to assume that there is not enough to go around and, like James and John coming to make their request to Jesus apart from the other disciples, view those God has given us to be our companions merely as our competitors?
Perhaps the greatest irony of this story – and indeed the whole Gospel, both Mark’s account and the larger gospel of Jesus, perhaps the greatest irony is that even though we know it, have heard it, and even believe it, we still live the irony regularly. We are, in truth, not much different from those first disciples.
It is our human nature - to be human is to be insecure, to be tempted again and again not to trust but to fear, to put our confidence not in God but in our own abilities, to look out not for neighbor but for ourselves.
And, so, Jesus, saying pretty much the same thing he has said several times already, points the disciples and you and me, Jesus points us again back to servanthood and service: “Whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be servant of all.”
Except Jesus does not just say it, Jesus shows it, lives it, embodies it on the cross, “for the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.”
What if Jesus is saving us from ourselves? What if Jesus is ransoming us from the future we think we want, from the baptism and cup James and John believe they need, from the glory they misunderstood and we continue to misunderstand, from the life we have been urged to strive after but ultimately is not abundant life, from viewing all of our fellow children of God as threats?
The great irony of the human condition is that when God came to earth fully and completely human, joining God’s abundant love to human life in Jesus Christ, embodying God’s complete acceptance and grace in human flesh, when that happened nearly 2,000 years ago, people completely misunderstood it, fled from it, were threatened by it and, ultimately, put the Word of God and Son of Man to death.
And here is the point: With all of the irony and misunderstanding of his purpose and mission, Jesus came anyway.
Jesus came anyway.
And Jesus still does.
Three times Jesus tells the disciples what will happen in Jerusalem. Three times they misunderstand. And what does Jesus do? Jesus goes to Jerusalem anyway. Jesus keeps marching, keeps healing, keeps loving, keeps serving, keeps giving himself as a ransom, all to save us from ourselves.
And, Jesus will continue to do just that today, for us all. Until all of us are saved, overwhelmed, drowned, crucified, and raised again by God’s unending, all-encompassing love.
And that is the very Good News for today – God keeps coming for us in love. Even when we misunderstand. Even when we have a hard time believing. All part of God’s unending and all-encompassing love for us all.
Jesus keeps marching, healing, loving, serving. God keeps coming for us in love. This is the irony and glory of God’s immeasurable love for us all. Today and always.
Thanks be to God!
(With thanks to the Rev. Dr. David Lose.)
The Rev. Eric Christopher Shafer
Senior Pastor - Mt. Olive Lutheran Church
Santa Monica, California
Sunday,October 20 & 21, 2018
