If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last and the servant of all

Mike Bowler

James 5:13-20   Mark 9:38-50

Mark wrote his gospel around the time of the Roman Jewish conflict of 67 to 70 AD. It was against this traumatising event that Mark was writing to the Christian community, to reassure, encourage and instruct his readers. The disciples were the main vehicle of instruction, perhaps even being portrayed as slightly slow witted or even blind. Mark’s gospel of all the gospels probably portrays the disciples in the severest light in this regard. Discipleship was a central theme in Mark’s gospel, but goes beyond just the study of the disciples themselves. The lectionary readings from Mark’s gospel in recent weeks have taken us through a number of significant teaching events that Jesus shared with his disciples.

In the verses just prior to the ones read today, while Jesus and the disciples were returning to Capernaum, the latter were arguing along the way about who among them was the greatest. It must have been somewhat tiresome for Jesus to hear this line of discussion, as he asks them “What were you arguing about on the road?” (Mark 9:33).

Upon arrival in the house, Jesus picked up their issue and declared: “If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last and the servant of all” (v. 35). Jesus took a child in his arms and said whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me, and who ever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me (Mark 9:36,37) By doing this, Jesus is reversing the honour and status driven society of his time where fame and greatness were often judged by whose company one kept. To welcome children who were accorded a low status at that time, would bring no honour.

Yet, Jesus wants to say that by welcoming the powerless actually welcomes the most powerful, i.e., the one who sent him.  There is a warning to us all here. It is easy to cultivate a friendship or an acquaintance with someone who can do something for us, or who may be useful to us. Our society today puts great store by those who are perhaps influential, powerful, wealthy, famous and attractive. I think we may have all used the phrase, possibly in jest, “ It is not what you know, but who you know that matters”  

It is also too easy to avoid a relationship with a person who is perhaps unattractive, dirty, needy or poor and inconveniently requires our help. Jesus is saying here that we should not be seeking the things that can be done for us, but rather the things that we can do for others. In the book The Purpose Driven Life, Rick Warren says that… Real servants don’t try to use God for their purposes. They let God use them for His purposes. (Day 34).

I used to work with a colleague some years ago who would share some of his work out to us, which in some respects was being efficient with time. We could help with components of the project that we were perhaps good at, freeing him up to deal with other aspects of the job. It was a collaborative use of our skills and resources. However, He would sometimes come into the office and ask “ What have you done for me today?”

I wonder what Jesus would think if we used that phrase frequently in our conversations with others?   
Continuing on to the reading from today, we may seem to be presented with a rather mixed bag of lessons that Jesus is trying to teach us. Jesus had just rebuked John, who with his brother James, were the sons of Zebedee. Jesus also referred to them as the Sons of Thunder. This nick name was possibly given them because they showed a feisty, personal loyalty combined with an impetuous nature. These brothers were close friends of Jesus.

John had taken exception to a man driving out demons in Jesus’s name, telling him to stop as he was not one of them.

Jesus responded by saying “Do not stop him, no one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, for whoever is not against us is for us.”  (Mark 9: 39,40).

Here is another lesson that Jesus is teaching the disciples and might be called a Lesson in Tolerance.

In the time of Jesus, everyone believed in demons. Demons were thought to be behind mental and physical illnesses. The practice of casting out demons required invoking the use of an even more powerful spirit that the demon was supposed to be powerless to resist.  John had seen a person driving out a demon by using the all-powerful name of Jesus, and John had tried to stop him, as he was not one of the close knit band of disciples.

God created Human Kind and we are given wonderful differences in size, shape, build, colour, language, culture and expressions. We are all individuals, with a free will and the incredible thing is that we are all created in the likeness of God. We all have individual backgrounds, family, experiences, thoughts and ideas. However, a human frailty is that we will often despise and condemn what we do not understand. In Jude verse 10 “Yet these men speak abusively against whatever they do not understand….” Christians are not immune from this malady and seem at times to be as prejudiced as the next person if not more so. No church and no man should think that they have the monopoly over Salvation. As God has blessed us with such diverse characters, there are also a number of paths that could lead to God.

To put it in earthly terms, as we now know that the earth is a sphere. If two people set off on a journey in precisely opposite directions, they would eventually arrive at precisely the same destination, probably having had totally different experiences on the way.  The Truth is often bigger than man can grasp. William Barclay says that Toleration means reverence for all the possibilities of Truth. Intolerance is a sign of both arrogance and ignorance. It is a sign that a person believes that there is no truth beyond the truth that they see.

Scientists are people who often deal in facts and truths. They understand what has been discovered in the realms of chemistry, biology, physics or maths. However, they are probably the first people to admit the more that they discover and contribute to the knowledge of man, the more there is still to discover. In other words, the more they know, the more they realise they don’t know.  

So often in our world today, the conflict that we see between men and cultures and beliefs is due to a lack of knowledge and understanding and respect for the others point of view. Of course, greed and power and insecurity can also drive conflict and the lack of consideration for another person’s rights.

We live in a democratic society where there is a right to free speech. However, in many of our societies, we are having to look at the problems of hate speech, and develop laws and controls over it. It is probably best to prove the perpetrator wrong than to remove the ability of the person to perpetrate his doctrines.
Voltaire, the 18th Century French philosopher, was a champion of Free Speech as well as having a liberal view of religious freedom, was once reputed to have once said “ I do not agree with what you have to say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it”

The question for our church should perhaps be not how well a church is governed, but rather what kind of people does a church produce?
 
“ For whoever is not against us is for us.”  (Mark 9: 40). The disciples that day, and in particular John learnt that Jesus understood the very much more inclusive nature of discipleship than the 12 disciples understood it to be., It could possibly be put into the modern language of a well known savings scheme of being an “opt out” arrangement rather than an “opt in” arrangement. 

Jesus’s team of disciples are far larger than just the twelve we read about here in the gospel. It may well include you and me and most people that we know.

It would appear to mean that by acknowledging the work of the spirit, we can be considered “ for Jesus”.  
However, in Matthew’s gospel, this statement is turned around when Jesus states “Who is not with me is against me” (Matthew 12:30). This version would seem to be somewhat more severe and require a more conscious effort to be a disciple of Jesus. Earlier, in Marks gospel, the teachers of the law, the Scribes, had attributed the work of the Spirit to Beelzebub (Mark 3:22) and yet here Jesus’ own disciples are admitting that a man has been driving out demons in Jesus’ name, but should be stopped because he was not one of them. What then was the difference between the Scribes and the disciples if they both want to dismiss the work of the Spirit?

We need to think of God’s purpose in our lives, to be prepared to welcome the child, the poor, the needy. Those with out influence, wealth or power into our church. Let us be less intolerant and understand that others may well have a different view point from us. Let us understand the lessons that the 12 disciples learnt during their journey with Jesus and be prepared to take our place as Disciples and Servants for Jesus.  Amen.