Power (Mark 10:35-45)

On several occasions I have been to events where either the mayor of Long Beach or the mayor of Los Angeles was present.  A couple weeks ago I attended an event where former governor George Deukmejian was also in attendance.   

I found it interesting to see how there is always a group of people huddling close around each of these leaders, hoping to catch a ride on their coattails.  People who want to be seen alongside the most powerful person in the room, maybe have their picture taken with them, and be as close to them as possible, all in the hopes that some of their power and fame will rub off on them.

I imagine that’s how it was for James and John, the sons of Zebedee; or, as Jesus liked to call them, the “sons of thunder.”  They believed that Jesus was a man of great power.  After all, Jesus had told them he was the one to bring about a new kingdom, the “kingdom of God.”  He was on his way to being the man at the top, and James and John wanted to be right there with him.

So they asked:  “Jesus, when you enter into your power, can we be there right there with you?

Jesus said: “Um, guys, you don’t get it.  You have no idea what you are asking.  God’s kingdom is not that kind of kingdom, and I am not that kind of leader.  Do you really think you can share my kind of power, my kind of leadership?  Are you really able to lead as I lead, endure what I endure, and suffer the consequences that will result?  Are you able to drink of the cup from which I drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?”

Bible scholar Marcus Borg points out that “drinking the cup” and “baptism” are, in fact, images of death.  And Jesus had just finished talking about his death, his execution at the hands of the state, when James and John made their request.

But James and John were either undaunted or unclear on what Jesus is talking about, because they answered: “Yes, we can drink from your cup; yes, we can be baptized with your baptism.”

To which Jesus responded:  “Yes, you will endure what I will endure.  But whether or not that means you will share in my glory or sit by my side, only God knows.”

All the rest of the disciples heard what was going on.  They heard James and John make their request, and this got them all angry.  How dare they ask for the places of honor?  Did they think they were better than all the rest?

Jesus said to them:  “You don’t understand.  Haven’t you been listening to what I’ve been saying?  God’s kingdom is not what you all think.  In the kingdoms of this world, you know what it’s like.  But among you, it’s not going to be like that. 

“Haven’t I already told you the fate that awaits me?  I have; three times I’ve told you!  Death upon a cross is what awaits me. 

“My way is different from the way of the world, and the world hates what is different.  My power is not what you think.  My power will not be displayed on a throne; my power will be displayed on the cross.”

It is a difficult teaching.  We still struggle with it.  So many people carry with them “visions of rapture” (a concept not found in scripture), anticipating a Jesus who sits on a glorious throne of power. 

A kingdom-leader who is humiliated on a cross seems foolish to them.  As Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “The message of the cross is foolishness.”  The fact that Christ was crucified is “a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles…. [But] God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength… God chose what is foolish in the world… God chose what is weak, low and despised… that’s why my focus is on the crucified Christ” [1 Corinthians 1:18-2:2].

Power in the kingdom of God does not start at the top and trickle down.  Power starts at the bottom and trickles up.  Power is not found in the palace, but among the poor.  Paul goes on to say to the Corinthians, “God chose what the world considers low-class and low-life – what is considered to be nothing – to reduce what is considered to be something to nothing.”  Followers of Jesus are called to go to the bottom, to share the cup and baptism of Jesus by dying to themselves.  Instead of putting ourselves at the center of our life, we put God at the center; which of course means putting our neighbor at the center.  As it says in the first letter of John, you can’t love God and hate your neighbor.

What Jesus is saying to James and John and the rest of the disciples and to us is this:  It’s not a “promotion,” to sit by my side, to accompany me, to drink from my cup, to share my work, – at least not in the sense that you’re thinking.  It means humbling yourself.  It means stepping back from the limelight, into the shadows, the dangerous places, where there’s real work to be done.  It means associating with the poor, and bringing good news to them:  news that the wealthy and powerful may not want you to share with them, news that may get you in trouble with those in positions of authority.

I just finished reading a book I got from the public library about the lives of inner-city Black and Latino boys in Oakland.  The book talks about how, in theory, those in positions of power are there, at the top, to pull those at the bottom up and out of their lives of poverty, gangs and drugs … but in reality they do more to push them down than lift them up. 

And the reason, according to this book, is because any top-down approach is doomed to fail.  Any situation where someone at the top, someone who has all the power and authority, tries to reach down to someone at the bottom will not work, especially if those at the top try to help without sharing their power and authority and treating those they are helping as equals. 

So whether the one on top is using their power for good or for bad, the end result is failure.  They may succeed in controlling and subduing the one on the bottom, at least in the short term, but they will not be helping them.  Not as long as they attempt to do so from a higher position, a position of power and authority.

The book mentioned the role of community centers.  These centers are helpful, as long as they do not become the tools of the criminal justice system.  They are helpful as long as they help from an equal level, and not from a position of power.  Unfortunately, normal funding for community centers from foundations and non-criminal-justice government agencies has declined, while funding from criminal-justice entities has become available.  So the counselors and community organizers at the centers have been replaced by probation officers, who – due to their position – are seen as having authority over those they are trying to help, rather than working with them at an equal level.  And as a result, they lose legitimacy.  Not only is this not helpful, those at the bottom come to resent having so much power lorded over them, and they end up acting out in rebellion against that power.

When help came from volunteers and community organizers and people willing to work from an equal level and not from a position of authority or privilege, only then is the help truly effective.

You may recall that back in the days of Israel’s history, the nation was governed by judges, but the people really wanted a king.  You can read about it in the first book of Samuel.   God didn’t want the people to have a king, but the people insisted.  God said to them: “a king will not be like one of your judges.  A king will take your sons.  A king will have all the power, and will exercise that power over you, and you won’t like it” [1 Samuel 8:11-17].

But still the people insisted.

Many of Jesus’s followers expected him to be that kind of king.  Many today still do!  A king who exercises power over his subjects, a king who rules on high.  Throughout history, many have wanted Christ’s body, the church, to act with that kind of power and authority in the world, and (sad to say) many times the church has tried to exercise that kind of authoritarian, top-down power.

The results have always been a disaster.

The power Jesus exercised was very different.  To see this, all you’ve got to do is look at the people Jesus hung out with, and how he related to them.  Jesus hung out with tax collectors, prostitutes, the poor, the sick, the blind. 

All the “respectable” people of his day didn’t hang out with the likes of them, because all those people – the people Jesus hung out with – were spiritually unclean.  Their mere presence would contaminate any gathering they were a part of. 

The teachings of faith did instruct people to care for the poor and the sick, but you did so by setting out some food for them on the back porch, as Tim Chester points out in his book A Meal with Jesus.  You fed them from the back porch, but you didn’t dare invite them into your house, to sit at your table, and share in your banquet.  To do that would be to identify with them, to declare that you and they are equal.

So when Jesus did just that, the “respectable” people didn’t get it.  If Jesus was such a great teacher, a man of power and authority, why would he choose to sit and dine and relate to people who were unclean?

But Jesus knew that the poor need more than financial help.  The sick need more than physical healing.  The blind need more than the ability to see.  The sinners need more than a pronouncement of forgiveness.  These things are important; but they are not enough.

What they need, most of all, is community, friendship, love.  Tim Chester writes, “People don’t want to be projects.  The poor need a welcome to replace their marginalization, inclusion to replace their exclusion, a place where they matter to replace their powerlessness.  They need the community.  They need Christian community.”

Timothy Keller, in The Prodigal God, writes:  “Jesus’s teaching consistently attracted the irreligious while offending the Bible-believing, religious people of his day.  However… our churches today do not have this effect.  The kind of outsiders Jesus attracted are not attracted to contemporary churches… We tend to draw conservative, button-down, moralistic people.  The licentious and liberated or the broken and marginal avoid church.  That can only mean one thing.  If the preaching of our ministers and the practice of our parishioners do not have the same effect on people that Jesus had, then we must not be declaring the same message that Jesus did” [Timothy Keller, quoted in Tim Chester’s A Meal With Jesus].

Jesus had no problem identifying with those who are last, because he knew that a great reversal is coming.  Those who exalt themselves now are humbled in the kingdom of God.  Those who humble themselves now are exalted in the kingdom of God.

Consider the story Jesus told of the king’s banquet.  All the respectable people were invited:  the wealthy, the elite, the powerful.  But they all made excuses and didn’t come.  I don’t know why.  Maybe they were worried that they themselves would not receive a seat of honor, so they stayed home.

So the king welcomed to his banquet the poor, the people off the streets, those who are normally excluded from the banquets of the rich and powerful, those who normally aren’t considered respectable enough for either the palace or the church.

Well, no king would actually do such a thing!  Only in this wild, fanciful story that Jesus told, would a king do something like that.  A king would only invite – and would only allow into his home – those whose power and authority and respectability were comparable to his own.  To dine with the unrespectable people from the street, to welcome them as friends, to relate to them as equals:  that’s not how the kings of this world behave!  To do so, a king would have to give up some or all of his power.  To identify with the outcasts of the world, to dine with them and establish a relationship with them over the table, is to invite the world to treat you as if you were one of them!

No king would do that.

But our God is not that kind of king.