What Christ Accomplished in Lowliness

Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone.

And now, here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg.

The Sons of Zebedee Ask for Seats of Glory

The Holy Gospel according to Saint Mark, the 10th chapter. Glory to you, O Lord. And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to Jesus and said to Him, Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.

And He said to them, What do 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. Jesus said to them, You don't know what you're asking.

Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized? They said to Him, We are able. And 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. And when the ten heard it, they began to be indignant at James and John. And Jesus called them to Him and said to them, You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them.

But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be the slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many.

This is the gospel of the Lord. In the name of Jesus. Amen. A little bit of a warning up front. The people who are control freaks are not going to like this sermon. Your toes are going to be stepped on, and rightly so, and you're going to be called to repent in this sermon.

And we've got to note this, there's a little control freak in each and every one of us, which is why we have the first commandment, You will have no other gods before me. And that includes you. You oftentimes make yourself out to be your own god.

Keep that in mind. So, you've been warned ahead of time, don't blame me if you don't like the sermon. Our text today, in this text, Jesus says to His disciples, You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles, listen to the word, they lord it over them.

Lord it. And they're great ones, they exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant. Whoever would be first among you must be the slave of all.

And even the Son of Man came not to be served, and that's the rub, isn't it? The people who are the control freaks. The reason why they're in control is because, really, it's all about serving them. Their desires, their needs, their passions, their agendas.

But the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many. Let's talk today about the will to power, shall we? It's a relevant discussion. Oh, the political rhetoric is all about it.

But we'll start with something simple. You guys remember the movie Back to the Future? I love that movie. I'm a child of the 80s, went and saw it in the theaters, but that's a different story altogether.

Yes, I know, I'm old and I look like it. But in Back to the Future, Marty McFly travels back in time to 1955 to the town where he, his parents, grew up, and he finds himself in a diner in the downtown area of this small town.

And there he runs into a fellow who was sweeping the floors, a person of color by the name of Goldie Wilson, right? And Goldie Wilson was talking about the need to clean up the town. And what does Marty McFly say to him?

You know, you're right, you're going to be mayor. And what does Goldie Wilson do? Mayor! Woohoo! I like the sound of that! And then he tells his boss, when I'm mayor, I'm going to clean up this town. And what does his boss say?

Good, start by sweeping the floors, right? But you'll note that that desire to be in charge, to clean up the town, you know, we're all tempted by this. But here's the thing, and this is the rub, is that this will to power on our part so often is so tainted with sin that we become the most like the devil when we desire, sinfully, to be in charge.

Consider this text. Isaiah 14 says this, Oh, how you have fallen from heaven, O day star, sun of the dawn, talking about the devil. How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid low the nations. You said in your heart, I will ascend to heaven above the stars of God, I will set my throne on high, I will sit on the mount of the assembly in the far reaches of the north, I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, and I will make myself like the most high.

But you were brought down to Sheol, to the far reaches of the pit. Think of it this way, there's a lot of talk right now. In fact, I would argue that there is a lot of malicious bickering going on in our country right now.

About what? Privilege. Privilege, right? Who has more of it? Who has systemic versions of it? Oh, and then along with the talk about privilege, and those who should have it, and those who should have it taken away from them, there's talk of reparations, too.

Reparations for slavery and things like this. And what is it all? All of this is about the will to power. And the idea that somehow, if we just elect the right people, put them in office, they're going to fix everything, and we're going to experience utopia.

Brothers and sisters, what is broken in our world, what is broken in you, cannot be fixed by a politician. It can't. What is broken in each and every one of us has to be fixed on a different level altogether.

And I would note this, that the current political atmosphere is so fully charged about this talk of privilege, and power, and all this kind of nonsense, that it's dividing churches, it's dividing our nation, it's dividing families.

If you don't agree with the prevailing ideology, well, you're just not woke, and you're out. Or if you agree with woke, you're just stupid, and you're out, right? This is how this goes. And one of the most politically charged things I've heard is the attacks against Christianity on this ground.

Here's the ground. Christianity and the Bible condone slavery. It is the Bible that was used to enslave people of color around the world, and we need to get rid of the Bible. You Christians are condoning slavery.

I want to make something very clear, that in our gospel text, Christ not only condones slavery, he's demanding it of every one of his disciples, you and me. We're not talking about the kind of slavery where somebody is enslaved and held bondage against their will.

We're talking about the slavery that comes when someone recognizes that what we are called to do is to not serve ourselves, but to serve our neighbors. And in all this political rhetoric that's running around right now, you know what I don't hear?

I don't hear about forgiveness. I don't hear about mercy. I don't hear about grace. It's disgusting. I'm sick of it. And all of this has everything to do with our gospel text. Now, for the control freak in you that wants to be in charge, Isaiah chapter 47 has this to say.

Now, therefore, hear this, you lovers of pleasure who sit securely and who say in your heart, I am, and there is no one besides me. And that's the rub, isn't it? That's really the issue. When we want to be in charge, we want to call the shots, we are saying we know better than God.

In fact, we want to be God. And like the devil, we believe if only I were elected, if only I were put in charge, I will ascend, I will make do, I will make it all happen. History is littered with men who promise these exact same things.

Remember the Bolsheviks? They promised a worker's paradise in the Soviet Union. How did that work out? Remember Hitler? He promised a millennial Reich for the Volk, for the people. How did that work out?

And then you think of Castro and Che Guevara and Mao Zedong, right? Even in our own days, we have our own versions of this. I remember when Obama was elected and people thought that the Messiah had come back.

It was weird, right? And then Trump got elected and they thought he was the Messiah. You see the problem here? What's broken here cannot be fixed by them. And the one who thinks that they can pull this all off, well, and the one who says that I am, there's no one besides me, I shall not sit as a widow or know the loss of children.

These two things shall come to you in a moment, all in a day, the loss of children, widowhood shall come upon you in full measure, in spite of your many sorceries and your great power and your enchantments.

Now it seems a little odd to kind of talk about idolatry in terms of sorcery, but we have a cross-reference here in 1 Samuel where it says that the sin of rebellion against God is as the sin of witchcraft and adultery, not adultery, witchcraft and sorcery.

There we go. Those are the words. Witchcraft and sorcery. And you say, how so? If you know anything about the occult, what is the occult really all about? It's about learning the right spells. It's about learning the right incantations, making the right mixtures and potions so that you can control nature.

You can control your neighbor. You can control your own fate. That's what's at the heart of sorcery and witchcraft. It's idolatry and it's self-idolatry. So here in our gospel text, we need to back up in the context just a little bit.

Back up to verse 32 in Mark chapter 10, and here's our context. It's rather fascinating. It says that the disciples were on the road. They were going up to Jerusalem and Jesus was walking ahead of them.

So here's the context. They're all heading towards Jerusalem. There's a group. There's the disciples and everyone else who's following along. And Jesus is in the lead. And they're leaving him a little bit of space, right?

And they're all going, oh, this is it. This is it. Jesus is going to be king. Oh, I might be the guy who's like second in command and I'd be the grand vizier. Oh, he's going to hand out all these lustrous, beautiful ministry opportunities for us.

We'll have power. We'll have wealth. We'll have a security forever. Oh. So they were amazed. Those who followed were afraid. So Jesus, knowing full well what's going on, took the disciples again. The text says again.

And he said to them, we are going up to Jerusalem. The son of man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes. They will condemn him to death, deliver him over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, spit on him and flog him and kill him.

And after three days he will rise. Seems pretty straightforward, right? Pretty simple. Well, Jesus apparently was shooting BBs at a brick wall here because that didn't sink in. And you'll note that in Jesus's earthly ministry, there was zero talk of him going to Jerusalem to set up an earthly kingdom.

At no point in Jesus's ministry do you even get the hint that he's heading to Jerusalem in order to be crowned the king of Israel. At least not in the sense that human beings are talking about. In fact, over and over and over again, Jesus told them what was going to transpire.

And remember the first time that Jesus revealed what was going to transpire? What did Peter do? He took Jesus aside and rebuked him. And Jesus said to him, get behind me, Satan. Now, in this regard, I enjoyed preparing for this sermon by reading some of the sermons that the early church fathers did on this text.

One in particular stood out, John Christosom's sermon on this text. Here he talks about the mistaken premise of their request, the request of the disciples. Here's what John Christosom said, the disciples were expecting Jesus to enter into the kingdom, but not to go to the cross and to death.

Even though they had heard it 10 ,000 times, they could not clearly understand. Since they had not gotten a clear and certain knowledge of his teaching, they thought that he was going to this visible kingdom and would rule in Jerusalem.

So the sons of Zebedee caught up with him on the road, and they thought that they had found the opportune moment. So they put their request to Jesus, and they had broken away from the throng of the disciples just as if the whole situation had turned out exactly as they wanted, and they asked about the privilege of the first seats.

Oh, there it is. See Christosom, all the way back in what, the fifth, sixth century, is preaching about privilege. Hmm, does anything change? Does anything change? Nope. They were asking about the privilege of the first seats and about being the first among others.

So they asked for this because they assumed that everything was finished and that the whole business was over and done with, and they made their request because they thought that now was the time for crowns and rewards.

Is today the day of crowns and rewards? Yeah, no. That's not until Christ returns. Putting it another way, their timing was precisely wrong, for this was not the right time for crowns or prizes. It was the time for struggles, for contests, for toils, for sweat, for wrestling and battles.

You almost remember Churchill's speech that he gave at the beginning of World War II, I promise nothing but blood, toil, sweat, right? That's what we have to face now as Christians. This is not the time for rewards and crowns.

The Cup, the Baptism, and the Cross

And so with that, consider then how the request went down. James and John, and we learn from another gospel that their mom was involved. Okay, they didn't even have the guts to do this themselves, they got mom involved, right?

Who does that, right? So they came up to Jesus and said, teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you. And he said to them, all right, what do 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.

Now, some of the other church fathers know that they rightly understood that they did have a place, a very important place in Christ's ministry and in the kingdom. And we learn from the book of Revelation that these disciples, these apostles of Christ are part of the 24 elders, if you would.

So they even have a place of honor in the heavenly kingdom. But again, we have to recognize the now and the not yet aspects of the kingdom. And so they don't even know what they're talking about. They don't even know what they're asking.

And that's what Jesus said, you don't know what you're asking for. And then he says this, he asked them the two questions, are you able to drink the cup that I drink or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?

Ooh, cup and baptism. You know, it's as if Christ is somehow making a little veiled reference regarding the waters of baptism in his blood and also the Lord's supper in his blood. And I think that's a pretty good little allusion, all pointing back to his sufferings.

Well, they said to him, we are able. Of course, they don't know what he's talking about. They think in glory, Christ is talking death. He's talking suffering. He's talking persecution. And so Jesus said to them, and this is where they should have said, oh, 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 my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared. Now, in this regard, then, I love what Augustine had to say regarding this text.

And it's in the Augustine sermon on this text, he makes a big distinction between the loftiness of privilege versus the lowliness of Christ. Next week's epistle text is going to be that wonderful text from Philippians chapter two, where it says that our attitude should be the same as Christ Jesus, who though he was by nature, God did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped, but he humbled himself.

He humbled himself, was found in the form of a servant and was obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross. And so the idea here is that when you think of power, when you think of glory, think of it in terms of loftiness.

But then what Christ accomplished, he accomplished not in loftiness. He accomplished it in lowliness. So Augustine says this, ponder how profound this is. They were conferring with him about glory. He intended to proceed loftiness with humility and only through humility to ready the way for loftiness itself.

For of course, even those disciples who wanted to sit one on his right and the other on his left, they were looking to glory. They were on the lookout, but did not see by what way in order that they might come to their homeland and do order.

The Lord called them back to the narrow way. And Augustine's point is something along the lines of this. I remember when I was a kid growing up, one of the things we did, we did a lot of hiking. And so we liked to visit particular trails and mountains and stuff like that.

And one of my favorite hikes when I was a kid growing up was to go to the top of Mount Baden Powell in Southern California. I summited Mount Baden Powell a couple of times, but the one thing I remember very clearly about that particular trail is that it starts off pretty easy, but the next thing you know, it's switch back after switch back after switch back.

And oh my goodness, the ascent is torture. It was actually pretty hard, even as a young man. And there was sweat involved and dust. And there were times when your legs were aching so much and you kept looking up and going, how many more switchbacks are there?

And so you trudge along, it got to the point where at times it felt like the only thing I could do to survive the switchbacks was just to watch my feet, watch my boots and just put one foot in front of the other, in front of the other, in front of the other.

But eventually the switchbacks give way to more, a more steady ascent. And then you finally summit Mount Baden Powell. And when you do, it's absolutely glorious, especially if you do it on like a clear day in Southern California, you'd look out over the whole Southern California basin.

And in fact, Baden Powell is high enough that beyond the basin, you can actually see parts of the Pacific Ocean. It's absolutely beautiful. One time when I summited it, we actually ascended through the clouds and when we got to the top, it was like looking down on this blanket of pillowy white stuff with the sun gloriously shining and it was so beautifully cool and stuff.

It was a June day that particular day. But our trip to the glorious kingdom of Christ is like that. What they wanted was the summit, but they didn't want the switchbacks. But that's not what we're called to as Christians.

We're called to the lowly, difficult, trudging, working through the difficult trails, ascending slowly, methodically in pain. And that's the idea. And so Augustine then says, the homeland is life in Christ, but the way is dying with Christ, the way is suffering with Christ, and the goal is abiding with him eternally.

So why do you seek the homeland if you're not seeking the actual way to get to it? It's a good question that he asks. And in that particular sense then, consider Christosom's last thoughts on this. Christosom then points out that we, we seek loftiness and think that through loftiness and glory that we can accomplish things.

But I would argue this, the ones who've tried to attain perfection in this life or give us things by loftiness and glory and power, they are the big wrecks of human history. And they accomplished nothing.

In fact, this oftentimes creeps into our thinking. I think again of the purpose-driven movement that over and again has changed the Great Commission from go and make disciples to go and make a difference.

Hitler made a difference. It wasn't a good one, but he made a difference. And that's not what we're called to do. We're not called to make a difference. We're called to make disciples. And so consider then what Christosom says that Christ accomplished, and he's right, not in glory, not in loftiness, but what Christ accomplished in lowliness.

Listen to the list. Christ erased the curse. He triumphed over death. He opened paradise. He struck down sin. He opened wide the vaults of heaven. He lifted up our firstfruits to heaven. He filled the whole earth with godliness.

He drove out error and he led back the truth. He made our firstfruits mount to the royal throne. He accomplished so many good deeds that neither I nor all of humanity together could set them before your minds and words.

Before he humbled himself, only the angels knew him. And after he humbled himself, all human nature knew him. You see how his humbling of himself did not make him have less, but produced countless benefits, countless deeds of virtue, and made his glory shine forth with greater brightness.

God wants for nothing and has need of nothing, yet when Christ humbled himself, he produced such great good, increased his household, extended his kingdom. Why then on earth are you afraid that you will become less if you humble yourself?

And isn't that what it is? Well, if I humble myself and I make myself a slave to all, as Christ has said, then I'll become less and I'll do less. That's the devil's lie. The one who exalts himself will be humbled.

The one who humbles himself will be exalted, Christ says. You really want to do something? Serve at the bottom. Believe what Christ says here. The greatest among us are servants and slaves. And he modeled this for us because the greatest, the king of kings and lord of lords, God the almighty, son of God, was found in the form of a servant, was born of the Virgin Mary, laid down his life, suffered under Pontius Pilate, and through his lowliness, he's accomplished more in human history than everybody who tried to accomplish things through loftiness and glory.

Christ did it through lowliness. So what's the point? We need to repent. We got it all wrong. The lies of the devil, the world, your own sinful flesh, it's all about glorifying you, exalting you, you being in charge.

Put it all away. Deny yourself. Take up your cross and follow Christ. For this Jesus, just like he said, he did go to Jerusalem. He was arrested. He was flogged. He was beaten. Beaten so badly you wouldn't have even recognized him.

After that, they nailed him to a cross. He was suspended between heaven and earth, bleeding for all of your vainglorious desires and actions to exalt yourself over God and others, to make others serve you rather than you serving God.

He bled and died for all of that. And as for those seats at the right hand and the left, in the book of Exodus, we remember that Moses asked to see the glory of God. He asked to see it. And God wouldn't allow him to see it.

God instead came up with a other idea. God took Moses and he hid them in a cleft of a rock while he made all of his glory pass by. And while God's glory was passing by, Moses didn't see the glory of God, but he heard it.

And he heard these words, Yahweh, Yahweh, slow to anger, abounding in vast love, pardoning iniquity. It is the glory of God to forgive us of our sins. So Christ enters into his true glory, in the glory of God in that sense, when he is on the cross bleeding and dying for our sins.

And that day, the men who were chosen to be on his right hand and on his left were two thieves. He was crucified between the two of them. Is it any wonder that Jesus says you don't know what you're asking for?

And so brothers and sisters, we too, like the disciples, are called to deny ourselves, to suffer, to be persecuted, to struggle, to toil now. This is not the time for crowns and rewards. This is the time for slavery.

Christ has set us free from slavery to sin, death, and the devil so that we can freely be slaves to others and love them as Christ has loved us. So let us repent, lay down our idolatry and our vain glory, receive the forgiveness so freely won for us by Christ on the cross, and let us now take up our crosses and follow him as he leads us home.

In the name of Jesus, amen.

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