The First shall be last
When asked what was the most difficult instrument to play Leonard Bernstein replied ‘the second violin’. He explained that there were plenty of people wanting to play first violin, but to get them to play second violin was much more difficult – yet without them there is no harmony in the music.
In today’s gospel (Mark 9:30-37) Jesus talks to his disciples again about the need for him to be betrayed and to die but the disciples didn’t understand, and we’re told that they were even too afraid to ask him to explain more – the one thing that seems certain is that they didn’t really believe him. They had their own picture of what was going to happen – it involved the overthrow of the religious authorities, and probably the Romans as well – a new order would begin.
And it was this new order into which they were keen to strive for position – it’s quite an easy picture to relate to today as we look at the politics of our own country, and people vying for the leadership of the Labour party. Some of the disciples were expressing their desire for prominence openly whilst others were perhaps hanging back waiting to be noticed.
It was into this discussion that Jesus walked and he began to teach them a little bit more about his kingdom, and what it really meant, and he offered them a statement which immediately turned their expectations upside down – a statement almost too ridiculous to be taken seriously, ‘whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all’.
All of the things the disciples had been taught about status suggested that the successful people were at the top and the unsuccessful were left behind, but Jesus was now telling them that this was not the case. It was part of a journey for the disciples that led them away from hopes of earthly status and maybe even wealth into lives of fear of persecution and death – a journey that they wouldn’t even begin to understand until after the death and resurrection of Jesus.
And Jesus then uses the illustration of a little child – the child representing innocence, vulnerability, powerlessness, dependence. The child who is perhaps easily wound up but very quick to forgive and forget, the child who has no wealth…
Jesus tells the disciples to welcome children because that this is the model that he is trying to get the disciples to follow, and yet as Christians today we do so often misinterpret his teaching. The qualities he wanted for his people were qualities that made them dependant on him, and a servant of other people. He did not mean for them to be quiet or weak – yet quiet and weak is what we have so often allowed the Church to become.
This week on the news the Home Secretary John Reid was shouted down as he spoke to a group in East London – I am sure that, whilst I would defend the right of free speech for all people, many of you will have been as horrified as I was at some of the things the man was saying about this country, and I was even more horrified to hear him given a full interview on Radio 4 a couple of days later, however one thing that he was doing was expressing his views strongly.
As Christians we too need to be expressing our views strongly – not by shouting down politicians or by words or actions of hatred to people of other religions, but by living out the gospel of Jesus. On Thursday I went to see the author Philip Yancey speaking and he mentioned that if our God didn’t look like Jesus then we should get rid of him, because that wasn’t God – if we want to see God then we look at Jesus.
Jesus who displayed qualities of love and compassion, Jesus who spent time with people doing real things not just talking about them, Jesus who forgave those who attacked him, Jesus who never tried to use any sort of force to overcome evil and tyranny, Jesus, God on earth, who came humbly as a servant…
Some well known people have made claims of greatness, often not particularly seriously – Winston Churchill once said, ‘I think we are all worms, but I do believe I am a glow worm’, and famously Muhammad Ali often claimed to be ‘The Greatest’, even adding, ‘it’s hard to be humble when you’re as great as I am’.
But today we are reminded by Jesus that earthly success is not great – those who achieve it do not achieve greatness, greatness is achieved by serving – serving God and serving other people.
A young student asked a wise old Priest one day why people don’t see God as much as they used to in the olden days, and the wise Priest replied, ‘the answer is because nobody is willing to stoop so low.’
So often we look for comfort in God, we look for assurance and security, we look for the love and compassion, for the salvation, but we choose to ignore the other parts of discipleship – the need for commitment, the need for servanthood, the need for trust and dependence upon God…
Somebody once told a true story about an experience he had when he went for army training. When the day came to go and practice shooting on the firing range the man went along with the others who were boasting about how they had to learned to shoot at an early age, and how they knew how to handle a gun really well. This man had never touched a gun and had no idea – at the end of the first session they had a competition and out of 20 the man finished second, ahead of all the so-called experience shooters.
The disciples couldn’t hear Jesus’ teaching properly about suffering, about death and about servanthood because they already had their own vision, and perhaps that is where we as a Church stand - the Church has done wonderful things through the centuries, but as with all institutions there is a danger that, in time, we have lost sight of what we really should be doing - serving God, serving others, sharing his love and helping to build his kingdom.
Let us pray : Lord we thank you for your teaching, but above all we thank you for your example of selfless love. Help us to be servants of you and of other people. Help us to share your love through our words and our actions, and so fill us with your Holy Spirit that in all the things that we do your name may be glorified. AMEN
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