( Mark 10:35-45 ) - [ Deutsch ] - [ Akündigungen629.55 KB ]
Dear congregation, today I come with a big question.
But I think, I may – after all, it’s the last Sunday before Palm Sunday when Jesus enters Jerusalem and everything goes its course, the last supper on Maundy Thursday, the betrayal by night, crucifixion on Good Friday – and of course, resurrection on Easter.
We know it: Jesus overcomes death and deprives it of its terror and last word.
But today is the last Sunday before all that happens. Jesus is still with his disciples and in conversation with them about the big questions of life. At the core, it’s about the one question: What is life actually about?
Certainly, each person will have his or her very own answer. And surely this may change during the course of life.
I enjoy watching the reportage series ”37 Grad – Geschichten aus dem Leben“ (”37 degrees – stories of life“) by ZDF in addition to that which I am lucky enough to experience in my office as pastor anyway. For me it is grace. I hear stories of people, their lives, special challenges or goals in life. And I hear where they commit themselves, what is important to them, how they face death and, in the background, it is always about the question: What is your life actually about? The answer to this question for three people is:
“Of course it’s about saving the earth!” Luisa from Fridays for Future calls into a mic during a demonstration. “It’s about the future, it’s about life! It’s about time that we all take responsibility for our planet – there is no Planet B!”
“It’s about living in relationships. About taking care of each other, especially when another person needs me. At the moment, these are my grandchildren,” I am told by a woman who I have known for many years from church, always willing to help in an honorary capacity. Who first cared for her husband and is now there for her grandchildren.
“It’s about transforming our village into a peaceful space where different people become involved in the challenges of our times.” This is how I got to know a man who invited lonely people at least once a year on Christmas and cooked for them. And he is a good cook. He established an aid association “Maulburg helps” to assist refugees in 2015 and now again for people from the Ukraine directly and without bureaucracy.
People and their different topics that determine their lives – saving the earth, being there for the family when needed, becoming involved in the village where you stay and spreading peace.
The Bible, too, has different answers on what life is actually to be about. Right at the beginning when man was created, God blesses him and gives him an important task.
The further we page, the more tasks God gives to people, commandments and rules are established.
Abraham, for example, is to become a large nation, Moses is to lead the Israelites out of Egypt and Joshua then is to bring them into the promised land.
When Jesus is asked about the highest commandment, God’s task for people, he repeats that we are to love God. And then he adds: and your neighbour as yourself.
The disciples who walked with Jesus must have known all these answers. They knew from the Thora, the five books of Moses and from Jesus that God calls certain people for specific tasks.
And they had experienced this themselves
The text from the Bible for today, the Sunday of Judica, tells us about one such conversation that James and John, the sons of Zebedee – or we could say the core congregation of Jesus – have with Him (Mark 10:35-45):
35 And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to him and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.”
36 And he said to them, “What do you want me to do for you?”
37 And they said to him, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.”
38 Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?”
39 And they said to him, “We are able.” And Jesus said to them, “The cup that I drink you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized,
40 but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.”
41 And when the ten heard it, they began to be indignant at James and John.
42 And Jesus called them to him and said to them, “You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them.
43 But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant,[4]
44 and whoever would be first among you must be slave[5] of all. 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.”
The twelve had become restless; restless even before the conversation between James, John and Jesus. Was Jesus really serious about suffering and dying when they came to Jerusalem? Would Jesus really be killed?
At first covertly, but then more and more overtly the disciples started wrestling for ranks.
James and John don’t want to wait any longer, they simply ask Jesus directly: grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left in your glory.
“We have given up everything... surely we must be compensated in some way.” That is what they probably would have been thinking. “And, after all, we have been part of it all, virtually from the beginning.”
I find that the thoughts of these two people aren’t that far-fetched. And – if we’re quite honest – they aren’t that unfamiliar to us. So often people think that there must be something in it for them.
But Jesus does not comply with their request.
They are following Jesus, but that Jesus is the Christ not of this world is still obscured from them. They are assuming a barter trade in terms of earthly rules: we invested time in following you, in return we’ll be getting a good position in God’s glory. But they seem to forget that Jesus as Christ does not act according to earthly rules. Their question as such is cheeky and he could have been angry at them. They don’t even realise that their question is completely absurd. But Jesus reacts calmly and explains to them yet again: if you want to do something big, then you need to become really small, you need to serve and not bear your own benefit in mind. That is the nature of God and that is how I will die: I will be gaining nothing from it, absolutely nothing, and I will not be a hero in death, but will simply despair. But I will be doing this because I love you, you that do not even understand that you need this love.
We are not told what the reaction of James and John is, whether they turned away angrily or whether they reflected the goal of their life again. We are not told whether they feel at this moment that Jesus as Christ is God among mankind who will be giving us our place and not we him. And not one another either. Competitive wrestling is absolutely not necessary with Jesus and not possible either. Whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. God applies different standards than we know them from so many situations.
Prof. Dr., President, chairperson of the board, director of the bank, general... All these positions and titles... may be important in this world...
With Jesus they are not.
What is this life about?
It’s about serving. Each person has received a task from God or also multiple tasks during the course of life. We can wrestle with these, question these, but we cannot escape them. The responsibility that God has given us remains. Doing what he tells me to, that is what it’s all about in the end.
The people that I sketched briefly in the beginning with their tasks and topics in life may not be doing this publicly, may not be in the limelight. But they are convinced that it is worthwhile subordinating their own goals to “God’s goal with us”. And they accept whatever task is placed before their feet. God wants us and needs us just the way we are. So that we can become the persons he has intended us to be. Amen