Rev’d Mark B. Stirdivant, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yucaipa, California
✝ sdg ✝

The end seemed to be on the horizon for those disciples. Jesus, who has been their leader for some time now, He was starting to talk a lot about being delivered into the hands of sinful men and being killed. Secretly, they must have all hoped that the government would be overthrown and the Roman scourge would finally leave their Holy Land. But the way Jesus was talking, it didn’t sound like that would be the way it would turn out. The followers were faced with the inevitable fact that their leader would no longer be with them. Though they were told He was the Son of God and that He would rise from the grave three days after being killed, it just didn’t sink in for them. They were slow of heart to believe, they had doubts, their faith was weak.

And so, when some of the disciples were faced with the reality that Jesus was going to leave them, they began to struggle and argue and position themselves to take over as the new leader of their movement. They fell for the very temptations that James spoke about in his warnings to fellow pastors and preachers of God’s Word. They were in love with the world, and in danger of being at enmity with God. The questions that matter most to the world were the questions that swirled in their heads: Who of them was going to be the greatest? Who would receive the mantle of leadership and take over for the Christ?

But hold on a minute– what kind of honor would that be anyway? Already they were going about from place to place hoping for a meal and a place to sleep. Jesus Himself said, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.” Even the greatest among the disciples was still going to be no better off than a beggar. And yet they argued over it as if some lucrative political position were up for grabs. Imagine: the creator of heaven and earth, living in human flesh, was walking with them on the road teaching them, saying He will give His very life for them, and they were preoccupied about who would be at the top of their little totem pole!

This was one of the disciples’ lowest moments. Not long ago three of them experienced the mountaintop experience of Jesus’ transfiguration. They got to see their Teacher lit up like a flash of lightning, talking to Moses and Elijah in a glimpse of heaven on earth. It seemed like they had all the proof they would need to believe that this Jesus truly is the Son of God and they would take Him at His Word. He would be killed, and then He would rise on the third day. Instead, they did not understand, and more than that, they turned their back on the way of humility and lowliness, and immediately they rubbed Jesus out of the picture and fought with one another about who would take over as the greatest.

And so, fears, doubts and trials in your life leave you dumbfounded just like they were. Perhaps for a little while you had the great, grand experience where you felt the Lord had really reached out to you. It was great during that time to be a Christian and fervently on fire for the Lord. And then, probably something happened that you didn’t expect. A sudden change in your income may have set you back, or maybe it was increasing tension in your family, or a close friend could have betrayed you. Now what would happen? Where was God when you needed Him the most? It was something you couldn’t understand, and yet you were afraid to admit it.

It’s easy to listen to the words of Jesus here and then turn around and beat yourself with them. You could take what He says as an impossible standard that you have failed to meet over and over again. You think, So many times I have dropped the ball–no, I’m not always acting like the servant of everyone I deal with on a daily basis. I could be more helpful to my neighbor than I am. I am in greater friendship with this sinful world than I am with my merciful Savior who has rescued me precisely from this world. I tend to argue with my loved ones and try to make myself to be the greatest. And to tell the truth, your conscience that condemns you with these things would be absolutely right in doing so. For you are a sinner, and you have a habit of doing the things sinners do.

But you would have also missed the point of Jesus’ Word here for you today. Your Lord Christ is not here just to remind you of your shortcomings and then turn His back on you. In fact, His talk about being a servant isn’t really about you at all. Jesus is giving you Himself in what He says. It was He who made Himself the least, the Almighty God who became a lowly servant, so that you could have the greatest honor of life forever in the arms of your heavenly Father.

You see, this was the very message that Christ was giving to His followers and they wouldn’t understand it. You wouldn’t understand it either if you preoccupy yourself solely in making this present life better or more comfortable for you. Your Lord has a reason for talking so much about His own death and resurrection. This is the source of true life for you; it is yours as a gift. This is the source of true greatness in God’s eyes. For Jesus became the least not merely when He was born into a poor carpenter’s home and walked about Galilee without a place to call home. He truly became the least for you when He took the load of sins from your back and laid it on His own. He served you in all humility when He was nailed to the cross and when He died for you in order for your sins and shortcomings to be wiped out.

Then He was raised in all glory to the greatest position in the kingdom of heaven. Jesus humbled Himself to the utmost and then He was exalted to the highest place. And since you are baptized into Christ and forever connected with Him, you as a sinner were also killed with Him, dead and buried; and you as a new creation are raised to life as well along with Him. He rules and reigns to all eternity, and because you belong to Him, you reign forever with Him. Christ the least has become Christ the greatest and the benefits are all yours. You have the privilege to eat and drink this Godly greatness when you kneel before this altar. For the body and blood of Jesus who was made the least for you is the very food that gives you the true life. This gift of forgiveness and life from God conquers all the worldly distractions that cause you concern every day.

Once you are filled with Jesus and His Holy Spirit, all those things that this world considers as great become worthless in comparison to Him. Providing for yourself and your family moves from your responsibility to God’s responsibility, where it belongs. Arguing with your neighbor and scraping against others to get earthly greatness seems absolutely silly in comparison to the wonderful gift your Lord is handing out to you. Worrying about the future of the church is displaced with confidence that God will reap His harvest as He pleases. Receive your Lord Jesus and the Father who sent Him. Be forgiven, washed clean by your lowly servant and highly exalted King, Jesus. He can remove the doubts and fears that shake your faith. He won’t remove the cross nor the trials from you, but He will strengthen you to withstand them and lay hold of His victory. He has promised never to leave you. Finally, at your last hour of death, your Lord has promised that He will take you into His arms as His little child. And you, who have been considered last in the eyes of this sinful world, will be first as you enjoy the presence of God in His heavenly kingdom.

In the Name of the Father and of the ✝ Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Readings:
Jer. 11:18–20 Oh LORD of hosts, You who judge righteously, Testing the mind and the heart
Ps. 54 Hear my prayer, O God; Give ear to the words of my mouth.
James 3:13—4:10 the wisdom that is from above is first pure… Submit to God, resist the devil
Mark 9:30–37 Whoever receives one of these little children in My name…