James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came forward to him and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” And he said to them, “What is it you want me to do for you?” And they said to him, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” But Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” They replied, “We are able.” Then Jesus said to them, “The cup that I drink you will drink; and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized; but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.” When the ten heard this, they began to be angry with James and John. So Jesus called them and said to them, “You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.”
(Mark 10:35-45)
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When I was in Grade 6 at Knob Hill Junior Public School in Scarborough, I won something that was called “The History Award.” I’m not sure really why it was called The History Award because it really had more to do with current events than anything else. To be eligible you had to be in Grade 6, be nominated by your teacher, take a multiple choice quiz and write a short essay about leadership. I remember that I wrote about the different people who were leading Canada at that time: what their backgrounds were, what their goals were and what kind of people they were. I think back to that and I remember that there were a lot of people who seemed really important to write about: Pierre Trudeau, Peter Lougheed, Bill Davis, Allan Blakeney. Rene Levesque came along about a year after I graduated from Grade 6, but I’ll add him to the list today. These were significant people who I still remember today. Different parties, different philosophies, different styles – but I look back at them and I think of leadership. They had it. They had not just charisma, but what we’d call today “gravitas.” I can’t help but wonder what I’d write about today if I had to do it over again. I don’t mean to criticize but somehow Justin Trudeau and Rachel Notley and Doug Ford and Scott Moe and Francois Legault just don’t seem to have “it” - whatever “it” is – in the same measure. There are times when I lament the state of leadership in our country and in our world today. I find myself thinking about leadership today. Once again we’re a day away from electing new people (or perhaps some of the same people) to positions of leadership and entrusting them with the responsibility of leading our townships and towns and cities for the next four years. I have not voted yet. It’s a mail-in ballot, but I haven’t filled it in yet and I’m going to hand deliver my ballot to the Brock Township office in Cannington tomorrow. So I have a few decisions to make over the course of the next 24 hours or so. Which forces me to ask myself: what am I looking for in a leader? It was Abraham Lincoln who said “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.” Whose character will I be testing, and whose character will we all be testing, over the next four years of municipal government in Ontario? And what will be my standard for deciding whose character is deserving of being granted that test? It seems to me that maybe the thoughts of Jesus have something to teach us about the qualities we should be looking for in those we select to lead us.
“James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came forward to him and said to him, ‘Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.’ And he said to them, ‘What is it you want me to do for you?’ And they said to him, ‘Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.’” That’s how our passage from Mark’s Gospel opened this morning. James and John were part of what you might call the leadership team; pretty important disciples in the band of followers that had coalesced around Jesus. But what becomes clear just from those few words is that they didn’t as yet understand the concept of leadership as Jesus wanted to see it exercised. Did you notice that they actually seemed so full of themselves that they began by essentially giving an order to Jesus: “we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” In the overall scheme of things – the church at this point being little more than a tiny band of ragtag disciples following an itinerant preacher – there wasn’t much power to be had here – but apparently even a tiny little bit of power corrupts! “Do this for us,” they said to Jesus. And they wanted the places of glory: one to Jesus’ right and one to Jesus’ left. They’d be sure to be noticed there. Everyone would see them and be impressed at how important they were. They would have the importance and the power of sitting beside Jesus through all eternity. Oh yes. What a gig! But that wasn’t going to happen. James and John instead were going to have to be taught a lesson about the true nature of power and what it was all about.
I think there are actually several things we learn about power and authority from this passage. The first is that power isn’t taken – it’s given. In some way, power has to be derived to be legitimate. If you seize power – well, you might have the ability to force people to do the things you want them to do or to silence them from speaking against you – but it won’t be real; it won’t be legitimate. Because it will have been taken rather than given freely. You can’t really be in any honourable position of authority over people if you have to force your authority upon them. And so Jesus said to James and John “… to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.” You can’t have power just because you want it. You’re not entitled. It’s not your right. That’s lesson one.
The second thing we learn is that power shouldn’t be about a competition that divides people, but should rather be about co-operation and bringing people together. That doesn’t mean that there can’t be legitimate disagreements among those seeking power or in power, but it does mean that behind it all is a common commitment to a common good; that there has to be a common goal that we’re all working toward, even if we may have different ideas about how to reach the destination. We fail in exercising power of we start to demonize others; if we start to set those who disagree with us up as enemies; if we start to pit this group against that group. Those are all failures of leadership. James and John set themselves up above the rest of the disciples. They felt entitled to these positions of leadership. They thought they were better than Peter and Andrew and Matthew and the rest. Rather than working together for a common cause, they wanted to be the ones directing the cause with everyone else working for them. But Jesus said that wasn’t what it was about. Being a leader doesn’t set you up above everyone else. In fact, that’s the third thing we learn about power.
Power is the opposite of what we usually think it is. We think of power as the ultimate achievement. We think of power as having the right to make decisions and to set agendas and to direct others. We think of power as something that fills us. We talk of people taking power or assuming power. But then we listen to Jesus and we’re struck with the reality: power doesn’t fill us – power leaves us empty. Power isn’t about getting people to serve us – it’s about us accepting the responsibility of serving others. “… whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all.”
The concluding verses of the passage force us to abandon the earthly understanding of power and to confront power as it looks in the Kingdom of God – and in that Kingdom what we see is the exact opposite of how power is usually exercised in the world. Jesus becomes for us the ultimate example of how power should be exercised. “… the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.” Jesus – with the power to command legions of angels to rescue him from his fate as he said in the days leading up to his death – displayed his power in the ultimate sacrifice, on the cross, his life ebbing away, giving everything for the sake of those he came to serve.
I wonder: what would the world be like if our leaders and politicians understood power this way? I wonder: what would the church be like if our clergy and lay leaders understood power this way? I wonder: what would the world and the church together be like if we all accepted a call to power by committing ourselves to the simple service of all around us rather than grasping at power as a means to push our own agendas? I wonder?
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