Mark 9:33-37

Getting ahead, climbing the ladder, improving our lives, this is our nature. We’re driven to make our lives better this year than last year. It’s hardwired in us to improve our standard of living. There’s something wrong when we’re driving a nice car, and we have to trade down to an older model, with less options. It’s hard to give things up. It’s in to get ahead. That goes for cars and houses, for finances, for jobs. And it goes for relationships. We like to be valued. We like respect. We like to be talked about in a good way. We work hard for our reputations, and when someone threatens our reputation, we go on the attack. To be considered wise, powerful, and influential. To be known as somebody who has their act together, who does life well.

Now, to do that, we have to be very careful what we do and what we say, who we hang out with, and who we avoid. We have to make sure that we take the right opportunities, and say no to the activities that won’t help our goals. We need to make sure we are seen in the right places, and certainly not seen in the wrong places. We can be friends with some people, but if we’re seen hanging out with those other people too much, then people begin to talk. Who we spend time with reflects a bit on who we are as people, and when it looks like we are actually friends with some people, that says something about who we are. Even around church, we have to be careful. It’s one thing to serve on a committee. That’s important work. But changing diapers in the nursery, well, that’s a little beyond us.

Maybe it’s not outright pride or ambition that keeps us from certain activities, or certain people. Maybe it’s just moving outside of our comfort zone. Maybe we don’t want to look like a fool, make a mistake, or look like we don’t know what we’re doing. We like to stay safe, do what we’ve always done in the past, stick with the familiar. But either way, whether for pride and ambition, or safety and security, we’re putting ourselves first, our drive, our reputation, our comfort. It’s us first, others second.

This pride, this arrogance is not new. It’s as old as Eden. But though it’s not new, it’s as deadly as any other sin. It’s common, everyone feels it at times. But just because everyone knows this pride doesn’t make it any more right. The pride, the arrogance, the comfort, the hesitancy keeps us from obedience. Jesus told us to get down on our knees and wash each other’s feet, and we don’t want to.

This is our third week of washing. We saw Jesus, washing our feet, serving us with His life all the way to His death. And when He had washed our feet, He looked up into our faces and He told us to get down on our knees and join Him, to wash one another’s feet. We saw last week that one way we do this is to help each other with our sins, to be help carry someone’s burden as they fight their own temptations.

This week, we take a look at what might be standing in our way, what might be keeping us from getting down on our knees and living out our service to each other. What keeps us standing, what makes us avoid is that pride, that ambition, that discomfort that keeps us thinking of number one. These thoughts are sinful, these thoughts are natural in each one of us.

And those thoughts were in the disciples minds as well. What do I have to do, and what can I get out of? What can I make the other disciples do? How can I move up, get ahead, climb the ladder? After all, they’re already feeling pretty important. They’re the 12 disciples. They were right there when demons were cast out, thousands were fed, a dead girl was raised. Clearly, these disciples are more important than any other disciples of any other teacher. Now, the trick is, how do you get to be the most important of the most important, the leader of the pack, the closest disciple to Jesus? That was the question going through their minds.

And the questions, the feelings, the desires, the ambitions had grown so strong, they’ve overflowed from inside of the disciples and right out of their mouths. They’re walking up to Capernaum, walking in small groups, bunches, talking with one another as Jesus leads the way. Finally they arrive to the house where they’re staying, and when they get settled, Jesus springs a question on them. Verse 33:

When he was in the house, he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the road?”

Like He doesn’t already know. When the Creator of the Universe, the all-knowing God, the Maker of Minds asks you a question, something’s up. The question is to make a point. Jesus is setting up His disciples for a lesson.

But they don’t want to answer. As natural as their thoughts were, they were sinful, and the disciples know enough to keep their thoughts to themselves. Verse 34:

But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest.

How awkward, to be caught arguing about who is the greatest, in the presence of the THE GREATEST! How do you answer Jesus? How do we tell Him that we’ve just been looking out for ourselves, that it’s natural, it’s normal to try to get ahead?

Fortunately, Jesus doesn’t let that awkward silence hang there very long. Verse 35:

Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all.”

Jesus gets it. He understands. He realizes how twisted and upside down we humans can think, like how power means importance, how respect means honor, how comfort means happiness. The disciples understanding is wrong side up, and Jesus begins to straighten things out.

You think that to be first, you need to be first. Uh uh. To be first, get this, you have to be last, the very last, the servant, the slave of all. To be first, we have to get down on our knees and wash the feet. To be first, our pride, our ambition, our comfort level is thrown out the window. Even our desire to be first has to be forgotten. Our drive to get ahead is thrown into reverse. We not only settle for being on the bottom of the heap, that is where we want to be, serving anyone who needs service, the servant of all.

When we hear this, if we hear this, our minds are probably doing a little calculating right about now. What exactly is that going to look like? What am I going to have to do? Who am I going to have to do that for? Who are the people in my life, in my community, at my job that I’m going to be serving? When it comes to some people, in each of our lives, we’re going to have to change our attitudes in some pretty major ways. There are some people we just don’t like, and if we’re going to be a servant of all, we’re going to have to serve them. Serving sinful people who value the things that repulse us, we must serve them. Serving arrogant people, who know that they are better than us already, we must serve them. Serving ungrateful people, who expect to be served, we must serve them.

And there’s some things that we’re going to have to do that will make us feel very uncomfortable. Servants can’t use the excuse that we’re not gifted, that we’re not comfortable, that that’s not really our thing. A servant serves, no questions asked. Nothing is below us. We just show up.

But we don’t serve because they need us to do serve. We’re not showing up just because people want us to do their dirty work. We’re serving, we’re helping because Jesus served, because Jesus helps. Want to see a good example of what it looks like to be the very last, to be a servant of all? Take a look at Jesus. Philippians 2:5:

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross!

Our attitude should be the same as Jesus, who became a servant, humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross. Jesus was a servant to all. He took care of Himself. He rested. He got away for alone time with God. But He was also available for the sick, the poor, the hated, the outsider. He wasn’t too good for them. He wasn’t uncomfortable in their presence. He never had an excuse, something else He needed to do. He served.

To show what He’s talking about, verse 36:

He took a little child and had him stand among them. Taking him in his arms, he said to them, “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me.”

Now, we love children. Children are precious, they’re valued, and sometimes they’re easy to ignore. You know, when we’re trying to have a grown up conversation with someone, we’re on the phone, we run into a friend at the store, we’re trying to carry on an adult conversation about something important… and someone is trying to get our attention. Mom…mom…mom…mom…dad…dad…dad…dad. Maybe they’re even polite about it. Excuse me…excuse me…excuse me…excuse me. And we’re trying to have this conversation, and we keep getting interrupted. We’re trying to do important business, and we keep getting interrupted. And we’re getting exasperate and tense, and pretty soon our anger over flows.

And we haven’t received this little child. We didn’t welcome them. And Jesus says that whoever welcomes one of these little children in His name, welcomes Him. We were too important. We were too busy to stop. We needed to do what we needed to do and we didn’t spend the time to pay attention to the needs of this little one.

Let’s put a little qualifier in here. Of course, children should be respectful. Children should be patient and not butt in. But the point of this parable is directed at us, here. The important busy people needing to take care of business. Jesus is bringing us down a notch here. If we’re too busy for our children, if we’re too busy to pay attention, if our minds are so much on us and our stuff, we probably are not doing much serving of others. We’re probably not a servant of all.

In other words, we need to tear our eyes off of our important lives, and look around to see who might be trying to get our attention. Who needs us? Who needs our help? Who needs our service? Who needs a friend? Who needs a phone call? Who needs a hug, or are we uncomfortable with that? Who needs the meal? Who needs the babysitter? Who needs to cry on your shoulder? Who needs to be invited to go hunting or fishing with you? Who needs to be invited over for supper?

Who needs a servant? Who needs us? And we can’t get an advance on the greatness. We can’t be serving others, while we’re looking around hoping that everyone notices how much we’re serving others. We serve, because Jesus served. We help, because Jesus helped. We’re available, because Jesus was available. We’re not too important, we’re willing to step out of our comfort zones, to be there for people, because Jesus stepped out of His comfort zone to be there for us.

It takes a bit for us to adjust our eyes. If we’ve only been available for certain people, if we’ve only offered help for certain jobs, it’s hard to see anyone and everyone, it’s hard to be available for anything. It takes practice to look carefully, intentionally, to make sure we’re not overlooking anyone. It takes some work, maybe a little courage, to be available for whatever help they need.

Ephesians 5:21 tells us to:

Submit to one another out of respect

We saw Jesus do it, when He washed the disciples feet. We saw Jesus do it, when He offered up His body on the cross for anyone, anyone who would believe in Him. We saw Jesus serve, and now we serve. We offer our time, we offer our resources, we offer our abilities, and we offer to help even when we don’t feel able. We are servants, like Jesus, servants to all.