ROME IMPROVEMENT October 17, 2021

MORE POWER!  MORE GLORY!!  MORE SPIRIT!!!

SURVEYING THE SITE—Mark 10:32-45

As we hear the words of the third prophetic announcement of Jesus’ trial, shaming, death and resurrection, we need to hold the last lines of last week’s text in our heads—those who give away for Christ’s sake and for the Good News will receive an abundance including fields with persecutions, for many who will be first/great/honored will be last/lowest/dishonored and those who might be last will be first. This subversive language, that is, this language of turning things upside-down, lays the groundwork for Jesus’ prophetic words and his encounter with James and John. Indeed, it sets the stage for Jesus saying, “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life, a ransom for many.”

READING THE BLUEPRINT

They were on the way going up into Jerusalem; and leading them was Jesus; and [disciples] were amazed and those following were afraid. And having taken again the twelve, [Jesus] began to say to them the things being that were about to befall concomitantly to him. Behold, in order that we go up into Jerusalem and the son of man will be given over to the high priests and the scribes, and they will judge against him to die (bring a verdict of death); and they will give him over to the nations; and they will mock him and spit on him and scourge him and kill him and after three days he will rise.

 

And coming before him, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, are saying to [Jesus], “Teacher, we want that what we might ask you would do to us.”

 

[Jesus] said to them, ““What you want me do to you?”

They said to him, “Give us in order that one might sit out of your right (be your right arm) and one out of left (be your left arm) in the glory of you.”

But Jesus says to them, “You know not what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink or to be baptized with the baptism which I am baptized?”

And they said to him, “We are able.”

But Jesus said to them “The cup which I drink, you will drink, and the baptism which I am baptized, you will be baptized, but to sit out of the right of me or out of the left is not mine to give but to whom it has been prepared. And having heard, the ten began to agonize over James and John.

And having called toward them, Jesus says to them, “You know that the ones, thinking to rule the nations, lord it over them, and the great ones of them exercise authority against them. This is not for you. But who might want to be great in you will be your servant, and who in you might want to be first in you will be slave of all for the son of man came not to be served, but to serve and to give the true life of him as ransom/release/liberated, in place of [the] many.

ROUGHING IN THE HOUSE

Again, as we hear the prophecy of Jesus’ death and resurrection, we have to choose whether we are reading this text on the way to the cross and empty tomb or from the cross and empty tomb. If it is spoken on the way to the cross, then it foretells what is to come, but, if it is from the empty tomb, it speaks of the reality we all know—those fields with suffering and persecution. These words explain the presence of the resurrected Christ active in the world.

In the same way, if the conversation between Jesus and James/John is about going to the cross, then their grab for power and glory looks like the authoritarian world in which they live, and the positions of honor appear to be the bandits on either side of Jesus at the crucifixion. But, if the conversation takes place in the resurrection world, the statements of drinking the cup and baptisms look more like the reality of Mark’s time and the glory looks more like the establishment of the church. As such, maybe Peter and Paul take those places of honor.

It is more likely, however, in a communitarian reading, that those places are held for all who follow Jesus on the way. As such, the hierarchical vision of the church is rejected. Dying to rise leads to Servant Leadership and is lifted up in the subversive message of serving instead of being served, of communal following rather than hierarchical leadership.

This subversive language claims the places of right and left as belonging to those who follow afterwards—us. Our rightful place is as the right and left arms of Christ. The question is, are we

• ·            exercising the authority that has been given to us?
• ·            being the servant-leader followers Jesus models for us?
• ·            bringing wholeness to the world around us or division?
• ·            challenging the oppressive powers of the world or supporting them?

PUTTING UP THE WALLS

The very subversiveness of the Gospel of Mark is the reason to read it as a post-resurrection narrative. If we read this Gospel as a journey to the cross with an empty tomb at the end, resurrection has this promise of some perfected, but uncertain future, ouranic (of the sky) theocracy. As such, world powers are not concerned about the Christian message as Christianity looks like so many other religions.

But, when we read the Gospel of Mark as a post-resurrection narrative, we witness the bodily resurrected Jesus, the Son of God, actively involving himself in the events of our world. We encounter God’s presence poking his nose into the injustices of the world and being indignant with our behavior. We have to acknowledge that resurrection-living is involved and engaged right now, and that following Jesus is not a passive thing. It involves repentance and doing something to change the circumstances of our lives and the lives of our neighbor. This is dangerous stuff because it gives license to question authority and challenges the status quo.

This active image of God’s immanence among us presents God actively bringing wholeness to a broken world. It is engaged in our midst and is less about curing through “sozo” and much more about salvific wholeness experienced through “sozo”. In this context, “sozo” takes on the multivalent qualities of shalom which is both abstractly concerned with societal peace and incarnational in hospitality and relationship.

This is the Jesus we meet in the Galilee of Mark’s Gospel, the one who brings “sozo” wholeness when he declares the leper to be clean, when the man with the withered hand is acceptable in the synagogue, when he, Jesus, confronts the power of Rome while listening to the Gerasene man who lived among the tombs, when he raises Jairus’ daughter from her death bed, when he makes clean the woman with the hemorrhage, when he feeds the five and four thousand, when he makes space for the deaf to hear God in the silence of the world, when the blind man can see the kingdom vision of people like trees walking around.

Each of these events is less about cure than it is about restoring the disenfranchised to the communities they should be part of in the first place. The true healing and salvific wholeness of “sozo” is for society rather than the individual. This is the subversive message of Mark. It shows how the kingdom of God is engaged, now!

And, if James and John cannot be the right and left arms of Jesus when he comes into his glory because it is for those for whom it has been reserved, then we need to look around. We are not to look backward to see the bandits at the cross, but forward to see ourselves and those places of loving care and advocacy that emanate from us.

This place of honor, to be present in Christ as Christ is present in us, speaks of the incarnational, resurrected body of Christ that continues to walk in the Galilees of our lives today. Yes, Jesus the Christ continues to be active in our world. We can witness the presence of Christ wherever there is need, wherever the oppressed are named, wherever abusive governance is seen. Christ is present among those fighting abuse and oppression, alongside the disabled and the chronically ill, at the bedsides of the dying, and in the midst of those who recognize everyone has gifts to bring to the table where we all are fed finding ways to advocate for the inclusion of all people.

These words and deeds of Christ are not done for some future idyllic, elysian utopia. They are done with love for us here today. If we are going to speak of Jesus as being the incarnate Word of God and that the resurrected body of Christ is the incarnational Word for the world, and we do not see ourselves as being part of that body, as being in his right or left side, then neither can we embrace the glory of his coming among us where we follow Jesus on the Way.

HANGING THE TRIM

We continue to come asking Jesus for favors. Many appear to be ridiculous after the fact, but Jesus continues to be patient with us, asking, “What would you have me do to you?” Then when our request is made, he tells us that our deepest wishes will be done to us. Through the cups we drink, the symbol of our covenantal relationship that promises forgiveness of sin, and the baptisms we receive which continue to hold us in that relationship of loving hope forever, we come to understand and value the reality of life.