(Homily for Gayton Road Christian Church's Sunday Worship on Oct 18, 2015)
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The Jesus Train
In today’s story, James and John both stake a convincing claim to the role of the Disciple Dimwit. You’d be forgiven for wondering if they were auditioning for the parts of Ralph and Potsie on Happy Days…or Phoebe and Joey on Friends. Already Jesus has spent days teaching his disciples. Already he has preached about God’s kingdom of the last and the littlest (9:34-35), already he has proclaimed a gospel of downward mobility (9:37; 10:14-16). Perhaps James and John did not listen past the word “kingdom.” Perhaps they were too busy dreaming of triumph and power to hear Jesus talking about being last of all and servant of all. Because, in today’s story, they not only express their desire to be first and greatest. They practically demand it: “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you…. Grant us to sit [on either side of you] in your glory” (10:35, 37).
It’s easy to point the finger at James and John for such flagrant ignorance of what Jesus has been teaching them. Or at the very least, to chuckle at them as we might at Ralph and Potsie, or Phoebe and Joey. They just don’t get it, do they?
And yet the same could be said of many Christians today.
There’s a hip-hop song by a contemporary Christian music artist that my brother used to sing to me all the time…partly because he couldn’t sing at all and that made me laugh, but also because the song itself made us laugh. The song is called “J Train,” and its basic refrain is this: “I got a ticket to ride on the J train.” In other words, jump on board the Jesus express. He will do the heavy lifting. All you have to do is lift your feet and take it easy. Close your eyes, and when you open them, you’ll look out your window to the glory of God’s kingdom. Or as the song itself puts it, “Hades to glory in the blink of an eye.”[1]
James and John could just as well have been singing the same tune. They wanted to ride the train of Jesus’ robe into his kingdom of glory. They saw Jesus as a ticket to Easy Street. Jesus might have to do some hard work, but he was the Savior after all. All they had to do was pledge allegiance and reap the benefits: power, honor, glory. In the blink of an eye.
Bringing Glory Down to Earth
In his response, Jesus brings James and John back down to earth. As Jesus replies to their audacious request, he is, I imagine, gazing onward with unfocused eyes, seeing not the dirt road ahead of him but a dimly lit future in the front of his mind. “You do not know what you are asking. … To sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant” (10:38, 40).
The point to be made here is as simple as it is disturbing. The next time that the words “right” and “left” appear together in Mark is this: “They crucified two bandits, one on [Jesus’] right and one on his left” (Mark 15:27). Jesus, in other words, is suggesting that the thrones of glory that James and John are begging for are not the thrones that they imagine. The glory that Jesus speaks about is not Easy Street. It is a way that leads to a cross.
That sounds a bit harsh to our ears. The popular version of Christianity preaches something very different. It proclaims the cross, yes, but only as the means to a glorious end. Jesus, it says, endures the cross so that we can enjoy glory. Jesus bears the scars so we can bask in splendor.[2]
But this is not what Jesus suggests. Jesus suggests that glory is not a reward for selflessness but the way of selflessness itself. Glory is not compensation for sacrificial love but a commitment to sacrificial love. Glory is not some afterlife. It is the very fabric of a life well lived.
Bringing Power Down to Earth
And just in case Jesus’ words haven’t brought the disciples down to earth, just in case they haven’t digested the madness that he speaks, he proclaims a further word of madness. He says that the rulers of this world are known for “overpowering” others (10:42). Their power is “over” and “against.”[3] But the power of the kingdom of God, he says, is much different. The power of God’s kingdom is under and for others. The power of God’s kingdom is not having our way but rather making a way for others where there is none. Power is not getting what we want but giving what others need. Power is laying down our lives in love.
God’s power, in other words, is not the power of this world. It is not the power of control or force. It is the powerless power of love.
“The Kingdom and the Power and the Glory”
I wonder how far the church today has come from James and John on that day they approached Jesus with their bold request. Every week, we say these words: “Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.” On the weeks when we say these words and they actually sink into our hearts, what are we envisioning? What do we imagine? What pictures of power and glory do we see? As children, many of us perhaps thought of heaven as a place in or beyond the clouds, so maybe we see a clear, white, shining courtyard, and maybe we hear the victory songs of angels. Maybe we think of the stars and the universe and whatever exactly it is that set it all into motion. Whatever we think of, our hearts and minds are almost always directed upward.
But today in just a couple of searing sentences, Jesus has brought “the kingdom and the power and the glory” back down to earth. The kingdom and the power and the glory are found on the road that leads to a cross. They are found in a man breaking bread and passing a cup. They are found in simple acts of sacrificial and selfless love: a glass of cold water shared with the thirsty, a teddy bear shared with a sick person, a smile and a conversation shared with a homeless person. The kingdom and the power and the glory are not somewhere else, not in a heaven up in the clouds with bright shining lights and the wings of angels flapping serenely and a perfect performance of Handel’s “Hallelujah” chorus. The kingdom and the power and the glory are here on earth, are heaven on earth. The kingdom and the power and the glory are wherever we live for others like Jesus lived for us.
Centuries ago, Saint Augustine penned the famous lines: “God became [hu]man, so that [hu]man[ity] might become God.” It is easy to hear these words and imagine the transformation from a flesh-and-bones body walking this familiar earth to some triumphant body ascending to the heavenly courts. But if Jesus’ words and example today are any indication, St. Augustine’s catchphrase means just the opposite. God took on flesh in Jesus, not so that we might ascend into some heavenly otherworld, but so that we might become God, which is to say, so that we might embody the selfless and sacrificial Love that God was, is, and always will be.
Glory Lives Below
Where does the glory of God live? Glory does not live in the afterlife. Nor does glory live in a mansion on the hill, nor up in some ivory tower, nor in some hallowed hall of power. No, glory walks anonymously on common roads, kneeling before others. Glory is not found above but below.
Prayer
Christ, on that road to Jerusalem, you redefined glory and brought James and John back down to earth. Bring us down to earth today. Down to where yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
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[1] Jeff Savage, Randy Crawford, and Toby McKeehan, “J Train,” on Tobymac, Momentum.
[2] Or in the words of singer-songwriter Sam Beam, who sings the following words on “Innocent Bones,” on Iron & Wine, The Shepherd's Dog: “There ain’t a penthouse Christian wants the pain of the scab, but they all want the scar.”
[3] The two verbs Jesus uses here to refer to the actions of the rulers of the nations may both be roughly translated “overpower.” They have the connotations of a person above exercising authority “over” a person below. Both verbs also begin with the prefix kata-, which may be translated “against.”
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