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Find Glory in Suffering

00:00 / 13:27

20 Oct 2024

Twenty-First Sunday after Trinity

Isaiah 53:4-5, Mark 10:35-45


“For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”


“What is good? All that increases the feeling of power, will to power, power itself, in man.” These words were written by the nineteenth century philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. Nietzsche’s view seems to have been that the great majority of human action is motivated by a desire for greater power, for the ability to self-actualise or to enact one’s own desires.

He may have been to something.

In our Gospel story, we see James and John very much wanting to get their own way.

For a start, they say to Jesus, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.”

Put yourself in Jesus’ shoes at this point. It reminds me of what I was told about pastoral ministry: if anyone ever says to you, “I am about to tell you something, can you keep it secret?” Don’t, whatever you do, say “yes”…for obvious reasons.

It’s the same thing here: Jesus can’t say yes because they haven’t revealed what it is they are going to ask. All they’ve revealed is their desire to have their own way. This is not the way to come before Christ and to learn humbly at his feet.

And then the request, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.”

What’s interesting here is that James and John are already part of Jesus’ tightest inner circle. That circle consisted of the two of them plus Peter. These are the three that Jesus’ took with him on the Mount of Transfiguration, for example. But that wasn’t enough for them. They wanted an even more exclusive circle that consisted only of the two of them. They believed that Jesus was going to become an earthly king, and they wanted to get their request for position in early.

Bad Power

Many commentaries at this point dismiss the request of James and John as selfish and ambitious. But this is to miss the subtlety of Jesus’ teaching and example.

To begin with, in the modern world we have been conditioned by various post-modern philosophies to think that any desire to have power or influence over people or things is necessarily wrong. That it is oppressive or colonialist or patriarchal.

Of course, certain types of power can be awfully destructive and evil, murderous, genocidal. And Christ indeed speaks about this type of power: “You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them.” Some translations say that these Gentile rulers “dominate” those over whom they have authority. Christ is here appealing to his disciples to consider what it is like to labour under the oppression of Roman rule. “Do you really want to be like that?” He asks them. “To become the thing that causes you misery? To become the thing you hate?”

Have you ever laboured under an evil overseer of some sort? Have you experienced the misery and the domination that they can exercise over your life? Why would you want to become like that?

Position, Power and Influence

But there are ways of exercising power that are better than this. This is summed up well by the modern leadership guru John Maxwell who says, “Position is a poor substitute for influence.”

What he means by that is that anybody can be given a position but whether they actually have power will mostly depend upon their ability to influence people.

So, here, James and John, young men both, are asking Jesus for a position, for a title, for a badge that will delineate their roles. They don’t understand that this is not the way to have true power.

True Power

And here I must disagree with the commentaries that rebuke James and John sharply for wanting glory and power from Christ. If Jesus had wanted to, he could have said, “Why are you worrying about having glory and power and position in my government? You shouldn’t even desire these things.” But he doesn’t say that at all.

Before we look at what he does say, pause for a moment and consider why he doesn’t say that. He doesn’t say that because power is not necessarily a bad thing. Power is actually necessary to bring about good, justice, peace, and life in the world.

At the end of his life, King David reflected upon the nature of power – power which he had at points used well and at other points used badly. His last recorded words:

“When one rules justly over men, ruling in the fear of God, he dawns on them like the morning light; like the sun shining forth on a cloudless morning, like rain that makes grass to sprout forth from the earth.” 2 Samuel 23:3-4

That's what a good ruler is like. That's what good exercise of power looks like.

Indeed, we call God all powerful in the creeds. And we know that he exercises his power rightly and justly in the right way. And of course, Christ himself was powerful, immensely powerful, the most influential man who has ever lived.

Power is not evil, therefore, and nor is the desire for it necessarily so. But we must be careful that we do not desire power simply to increase our ego or, even worse, to enjoy the feeling of dominating the lives and the wills of others.

Suffering is the Solution

What, then, is the solution? For this, we must attend to the words and to the example of Christ. He says to James and John:

“Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptised?”

He speaks here of his suffering and his death upon the cross, which we are reminded of today in our Old Testament reading from the Prophet Isaiah:

‘Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.’ Isaiah 53:4-5

And, again, Christ speaks to his disciples and to us: “…whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must 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.”

Notice here that Jesus does not juxtapose suffering or service with glory or power, as if it is one of the other. The message is more subtle than that: he is telling us that if we truly desire power and glory then we must become servants to all, as he became. And there is even more: it is not only that we must become servants but that we too must suffer in the service of God and others.

Getting our Hands Dirty

It is very easy in the age of social media to give the impression that we care about people and causes simply by sending out a couple of tweets or by putting up a status on Facebook. But there is also something inauthentic about doing just that. The fact is that the kind of service that Jesus talks about and demonstrates is a service that involves taking action and getting one’s hands dirty.

This came home to me recently when I was watching a biopic of the modern history of the British Royal Family. This included the story of the breakdown of the marriage of Princess Diana and Prince Charles as he was then. Whatever one might make of all of that now, the fact was that Princess Diana was so incredibly popular and loved because she was willing to go to places of danger and to embrace, quite literally, those who were suffering. In 1997, for example, she walked through a recently cleared landmine field in Angola. In 1987, she opened Britain’s first AIDS ward and was photographed shaking hands with people who were HIV/AIDS positive. She visited patients with Leprosy in India, Nepal, and Zimbabwe and said at the time: “It has always been my concern to touch people with leprosy, trying to show in a simple action that they are not reviled, nor are we repulsed."

This compassion that she demonstrated meant that she was a much more popular figure than Prince Charles and that she was ultimately much more powerful as a result. She may have been awkwardly related to the Royal Family and eventually detached from it. But she did not need such a position to wield global influence.

So this is the test of authenticity, in life in general and specifically in the Christian life: are you willing to follow in the way of Christ and to get your hands dirty? Are you willing to suffer and sacrifice, as he did, for many other people and for God? If you are, there is certainly a place of glory and power for you, but it is through all of that and on the other side of it.

Embrace the lowliest service. Follow Christ. Find glory in suffering.

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