Wannabees

Mark 10:35-45

October 17, 2021

 

            A few years ago, Brent was downtown for work, and he ended up in a conversation with a visitor to Nashville. Brent asked the man how he had liked his visit to Music City. And the man replied that he had a great time, but he did not know how people could live in Nashville. He just couldn’t take the fun and partying every single night; it had worn him out. Brent, who is a native Nashvillian born to a native Nashvillian, knew that this guy had been doing all the touristy stuff Nashville has to offer. So, he smiled and said politely that most Nashvillians don’t do that every night. We work at jobs and go to school and raise our families and just get on with life. It’s not like most Nashvillians take their lunch break to go downtown, jump on a pedal tavern, and drink a few rounds before they go back to work. In fact, the quickest way to pick out the tourists in Nashville is to look for the people in cowboy hats. Unless you’re a country music artist, most Nashvillians don’t wear cowboy hats. If you come to Nashville and think you’ll fit in by wearing a cowboy hat, you’re more of a Nashville wannabee than a Nashvillian.

            But this kind of thing is true in a lot of places, probably most places. We have an idea of what something is like, but the reality is very different. The first time I went to New York City, I was both thrilled and nervous because I expected to be mugged at every corner. I mean that’s what happened in the police shows I watched. And I knew a woman who worked in Yellowstone National Park as a park ranger. One of her duties was to give tours, and she told me that the number one question she was asked by tourists over and over again was,

            “When do you let the animals out?”

            Ummm. This is a national park, not a circus. The animals live here. We’re just visitors. They came out when they want to. You’re not really into nature, are you? You’re more of a nature wannabee.

            This makes me wonder if the question that James and John asked of Jesus revealed that they were really disciple wannabees more than actual disciples. These sons of Zebedee, who we met first when Jesus called them to be his disciples, go to Jesus asking for glory. One commentator describes the way they make their request of Jesus as being like children to a parent, except these are supposed disciples making a request of their Rabbi.

            “’Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.’ And he said to them, ‘What is it you want me to do for you?’” 

Their request is that they be allowed to sit at his right hand and his left when he is in his glory. There’s a sense of kingship and royalty in their request isn’t there? You get the image in your head of a king on this throne, with his two most treasured and important advisors on either side of him. I suspect that’s how James and John viewed Jesus’ glory – a great kingship. I also suspect that Jesus recognized this too, because he says to them,

“You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” 

James and John reply with a resolute, “We are able.” 

So, Jesus says then you will drink this cup and you will be baptized with this baptism.  But I can’t tell you who will sit at my right or my left. That’s not my privilege to grant. And Jesus reminds them that the privilege is God’s alone. This would all sound, if not okay, perhaps understandable, if we just read this story by itself with no sense of what was happening all around it. But immediately before these verses, Jesus tells the disciples for the third time that they he will suffer, die, and rise again.

And they were on the road to Jerusalem. Whenever we read that Jesus is on the road to Jerusalem, we know that this is not merely a geographical destination. Jesus on the road to Jerusalem is Jesus on the road to the cross. Jesus knows that everything will come to a head once he reaches that city, so for the third time he pulls the disciples aside and tells them, point blank, I’m going to Jerusalem to die. I’m going to be handed over to the religious authorities. They’re going to condemn me to death. I’m going to be mocked, spit on, and I will die. But after three days I’ll rise again.

Jesus didn’t mince words because he did not have the time to do so. He did not try to soften the emotional impact of this truth. He just told them. And this is the third time that he has told them. And in response he has been rebuked by Peter, endured the disciples getting into an argument about who among them was the greatest, and now after telling them this third time, he is asked by James and John to promise them seats of glory next to him. I think this calls for a palm to the face. 

Because clearly the disciples do not get it. Do. Not. Get. It.  

When the other ten hear about James and John’s request, they get angry with them. But I don’t think it’s because the ten were upset that James and John remain clueless. I think it’s because they were offended that James and John would go grabbing for glory ahead of them. What about their glory? James and John had the audacity to ask the question before they got a chance to. My reason for believing this is because Jesus then pulls them all aside, one more time, and tells them that with Gentiles, or others, there are lords and tyrants that have the power. But that’s not true for them. If one of them wants to be great, then they must become a servant to everyone. If they want to be first, they must become a slave. The Son of Man came to serve, not be served. The Son of Man came to give his life as a ransom for many.

One commentator at WorkingPreacher.org said that folks get so caught up in this last line in verse 45 that the rest of the story tends to get glossed over. It’s a powerful image, indeed, to think of Jesus giving his life as a ransom for ours; to understand this literally is to believe that Jesus buys back our lives with his own. But when James and John ask their question of Jesus, they were not thinking about giving their lives as a ransom for many. I doubt they were thinking about giving their lives up for anything at all. Their question was about power and fame, and dare I say it, celebrity. They saw glory as something bright and shiny and worldly to be grasped. They saw Jesus as having worldly glory. To James and John, I think glory equaled with success and they were success wannabees. They wanted to be seated next to him in all that splendor. They wanted to be next to him in those seats of power. They were wannabees when it came to glory, and they were wannabees when it came to discipleship. And all I can say, is it’s a good thing we don’t fall into that same trap, amiright?   

But we do fall into that trap. I know I do. The disciples, especially as Mark portrays them, had to battle their cultural understanding of the way things should be in contrast to the way Jesus said they were.  A messiah was supposed to be strong, invincible, a warrior, someone who would come and, you should pardon the expression, kick the butt of the oppressors. Following that, messiah meant greatness and it meant glory. It should bring about accolades and victory. But Jesus turns all these cultural assumptions on their head. The Messiah has come to die. In his weakness, there will be strength. In his dying, there will be life. In his sacrifice, there will be glory. Jesus did not come for military uprising or earthly victory, he came to make the love of God and the kingdom of God visible. But guess what? That happens through suffering, through serving, through compassion, through death. 

So Jesus tells James and John and the other ten, that if you truly want to be great, if you really want to sit with me in glory, then you must share with me in my baptism and drink from the cup I will drink. If you want to be first, you will have to be last. This was not easy for the disciples to hear.  It wasn’t easy for them to comprehend or to live. They wanted to be the disciples Jesus called them to be, but reality was very different from their expectations. And even though we know the rest of the story, it’s no easier for us. What James and John asked for, and what the all the disciples misunderstood comes from being very, very human. They wanted some acknowledgement for discipleship. They wanted some worldly glory, and so do we, so do I. It’s hard not to want some acknowledgment for discipleship, for trying to live lives that have purpose and meaning. Whatever criticism I may level at the disciples for just not getting it over and over again, the truth is I also want a little of what they asked for. I too am a wannabee when it comes to glory, which in turn makes me a wannabee when it comes to fulfilling true discipleship.

It’s not just that I hope to be rewarded in the sweet by and by for anything that I have done for Jesus, for anything that I have sacrificed, it’s that I wouldn’t mind a little glory, a little reward, a little success in the right now. It would be nice to have just a taste of glory, and it would be nice if Jesus would just give us all what we ask for.

Yet I think what Jesus want the disciples and us to understand is that the reward of discipleship doesn’t come at some point down the road, at some future, far off moment in time, the reward comes from doing now. The reward comes from serving now. The reward comes from giving more than receiving. Glory comes when we are finally and truly willing to share in his baptism and drink from his cup, no matter what the cost may be to ourselves. That’s when we are no longer wannabees but become true disciples. And that does not happen quickly or easily. It is a lifelong pursuit. But how wonderful it will be when we fully understand, when we fully embrace this truth: in turning the world upside down, Jesus made and is making everything and everyone all right. Thanks be to God.

Let all of God’s children say, “Alleluia.”

Amen.