Mark 10.35-45
18 March, 2007

As long as we live in this world, the Spirit will be teaching us what it
means to be a disciple of Jesus. That is what defines us. That is what makes
sense of this life. For the sake of being faithful, for the sake of being
able to make sense of it all, we need to learn – and put into practice –
what it means to be a disciple. This is what our text is about. The Spirit
is filling in more of what it means to follow Jesus. This is a part of the
larger picture of discipleship. And it is a part that we need to return to
time after time. Our fallen nature is not attracted to the idea of being a
servant. As an aid here, Jesus provides Himself as a model. As we have found
so often to be the case, we need to listen to Jesus’ words and then watch
His life. As we do that, we’ll see more clearly exactly what it is that He
has called us to be.

When I was growing up, the notion of serving as a disciple was seen by so
many as nothing more than basically being courteous. It fit in with the more
general concept of the day that a Christian is to be a nice person. Now, I
hope that it is obvious to you that Jesus’ call to serving others is so much
more than just being courteous. But instead of simply dismissing this notion
and moving on, I want to spend a little time pointing out where it’s
actually right. What is an essential ingredient of courtesy? It’s being
aware of other people and what is going on with them. You open the door for
this person because you see that she is laden down with too many grocery
bags and has three young kids in tow. You see the need, and you do something
to meet it. The lack of public courtesy these days is simply a reflection of
the fact that people aren’t taught to be aware of those around them. Jesus
provides an example. ‘In those days, when again a great crowd had gathered,
and they had nothing to eat, he called his disciples to him and said to
them, "I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now
three days and have nothing to eat. And if I send them away hungry to their
homes, they will faint on the way. And some of them have come from far
away."’ [Mark 8:1-3] Feeding the four thousand wasn’t something Jesus had
planned for that day. But seeing the need of the people, being aware, He fed
them. The problem with what I heard in my younger days is not that being
courteous has nothing to do with serving. It has much to do with serving,
and it is a good place to start. It’s just that that notion of serving as
courtesy didn’t go far enough. No one talked about how much real serving
would cost.

If you are going to serve in the way Jesus calls all of His disciples to
serve, you are going to hurt. Being courteous does not necessarily require
that you hurt, but other aspects of serving as a disciple will. What makes
this clear is, again, Jesus’ example. There are many ways that Jesus hurt so
that He could serve. The Tuesday night Bible study just finished the Gospel
according to Luke. One of my goals was to drive home how Jesus was truly
man. I think that I got a couple of converts to that idea. If it’s true that
Jesus was (and is) a man, then this verse applies to Him, too. ‘It is not
good that the man be alone.’ Jesus never married. He could have. There was
no reason why He could not. And there is no reason to say that He need not.
But He chose not to. To quote Him, ‘…and there are eunuchs who have made
themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven.’ [Matthew 19:12]
Jesus remained celibate for the sake of the kingdom. Jesus remained celibate
for your sake. So, here we have a young man, built, as all young men are,
for marriage, who did not marry. Don’t you think that it occurred to Him at
times that it would be nice to have a wife to share His life with? Don’t you
think that He felt lonely at times because of that lack? Don’t you think
that there were yearnings that were never satisfied? But He chose not to
marry. He hurt so that He could serve.

Then there was this. He cared. Proverbs describes Foolishness as a woman
crying out, enticing the sons of men to follow her. Listen to how it
describes one who was falling into her trap. ‘But he does not know that the
dead are there, that her guests are in the depths of Sheol.’ [Proverbs 9:18]
Everyday Jesus saw people who listened to Foolishness and paid the
consequences. He cried out to them, ‘No, don’t listen to Foolishness. Come
to Me!’ But they would not listen, but went off to a living death. And
because He cared, it hurt. I remember a children’s Bible story book we used
to own. It showed the rich, young ruler turning away and Jesus, behind Him,
with a look of pain on His face. He could have shut His heart to what was
going on. He could have stopped caring. But doing this would have required
Him to stop loving. And it would have changed Him into someone else, someone
less than who He really was. If you would serve, you must care. And if you
will care, then you will hurt.

A couple of weeks ago I preached to you about friendship. I told you that
being a friend meant allowing people to see something of the real you,
something of your soul. But what happens when you try to do that, you try to
let them see the real you, but they just aren’t interested? Did Jesus have
any friends? Well, He did. There were these twelve guys. But how well did
they understand Him? Could He unburden Himself to them and have them respond
in a way that helped Him? Remember Gethsemane. And yet, He didn’t give up.
Through the frustration and the loneliness, He still reached out to them,
still worked to develop real friendships. He still served them.

There are many other ways in which Jesus’ life shows that serving includes
hurting. The obvious one, the one that is included in our text, is the awful
fact of the cross. I don’t know how this aspect of serving can be made any
clearer than by pointing to that. But I do want to add one more example from
Jesus’ life. And I do this because we don’t think about it as much as we
should. Listen to just a bit of something from our Shorter Catechism.
‘Christ's humiliation consisted in his being born…’ I grew up in Brooklyn. I
have good memories of playing stickball in the street, walking to the stores
a few blocks away with my mother to buy the week’s food and going to the
little store around the corner to buy cigarillos for my grandfather, and
comic books and candy for me. But I have absolutely no desire to live there
now. While parts of the city are quite impressive with their massive
architectural feats, other parts are dirty and dangerous and depressing. And
I hate rats. I cannot imagine moving there. Do you think Jesus thought of
moving to our world as anything more inviting? Heaven is a place of peace,
joy, beauty, truth and goodness. This world is anything but. If you would
serve – serve as Jesus calls you to, serve as Jesus Himself did – then you
will hurt.

It is important that you understand why I am bothering to preach on this
topic. We all know that it is in the Bible, but so are a lot of other
topics. Why pick this one? Imagine being at the mall and hearing shots being
fired. Your response is immediate. If the shots are coming from over there,
then you, and everyone around you, will quickly move in the opposite
direction. Unless. Unless you are a cop. In that case, you move toward the
danger, toward the place where, potentially, much pain awaits you. And you
do that because of who you are. It is an unwritten but clearly understood
law of our society that we are to live for pleasure and do all that we can
to avoid pain. All that we can. And so, here you are, striving to serve
Jesus, experiencing the pain that goes along with that. And people look at
you as if you are crazy. But you move toward the pain because of who you
are. Jesus says, ‘Come, follow Me.’ You are His disciple. And so you do. You
trust Him. You love Him. So, you follow Him. You serve Him and others, and
you hurt as a result.

Jesus knows that this is hard, so He encourages you. And one key way that He
encourages you is by telling you, ‘This is the way to heaven.’ Listen. ‘For
whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my
sake will find it.’ [Matthew 16:25] To the people out there, serving Jesus
and enduring the hurt is wasting your life. It’s moving in the wrong
direction. But Jesus tells us that ‘wasting’ your life in this way is the
only way to real life. Serving Jesus like this is the only way to heaven.
And, again, Jesus is the example. After a life of painful service, He now no
longer hurts.

That leaves one last question: ‘How do I do this?’ If, as you strive to
follow Jesus, you do not learn to depend on the powerful and pardoning grace
of the Gospel, you will end up depressed and defeated. Jesus calls us to
follow Him. He calls us to serve others. But He is so very aware that He is
calling sinners to do what is completely unnatural to us. Left to ourselves,
Jesus’ appeal can only crush us. There is no way we can do what He calls us
to do. But He knows that. And so, even here, the key is to look to Him as
Savior. ‘Jesus, save me from my selfishness. Save me from my desire not to
hurt. Save me from myself, so that I can become more like You.’ We are able
to follow Jesus as Lord only by depending on Him as Savior. He has grace for
sinners like us. And this is the only way that we will be able to serve. The
only way. So, we present ourselves to Him, joyfully and eagerly. ‘Here am I.
Send me.’ But we do that, oh so very aware that apart from His grace we will
utterly fail. But the promise is ours. ‘My grace is sufficient for you.’ So,
we return to the world confidently. ‘I can do all things – even serving –
through Christ who strengthens me.’