Making a gift of ourselves to others

Trinity 21 2024: Mark 10. 35-45

As Jesus was making His way to Jerusalem, and to His Passion and death, the Apostles James and John make a request of Him. In doing so they put us all forever in their debt. Thank God for their tactlessness and stupidity! They tell Jesus that they want Him to give them the top places in the Kingdom of God. Jesus’ response to their request allows us to understand how to think like Him.

Jesus doesn’t rebuke James and John. He doesn’t tell them off for asking for the top places in the Kingdom Why? Because it’s good to be ambitious for the higher gifts, as St. Paul puts it (cf. 1 Cor 12:31). We should all long to be saints! We should all long for a full share in the glory of the Kingdom, and in the victory of Jesus!

As a matter of fact, James and John would become saints. James would become the first of the Apostles to suffer martyrdom. John would become the Beloved Disciple of Jesus. But they didn’t get what they asked for that day on the road. Do you remember who got the places they asked for on the right and left of Jesus? It was the two thieves who shared his humiliation and suffering and shame on the Cross.

Jesus told James and John that they did not know what they were asking for. For Jesus entered His glory via the Cross. This is the Christian way.

We enter into glory through making a gift of ourselves to others; through humility; through love to the end; through letting go of life itself. Then we will have the glory that God wants to give it to us; the glory won for us by Jesus. As for pride, and a sense of superiority over others, and a desire to be celebrity Christians: these have no place in the Kingdom of God.

Every Christian is in great danger of lapsing into a mediocre worldliness. You may have noticed one form that this worldliness has now taken in the Church of England. The Body of Christ has entered the age of management. Since around 1990, the Church of England has been strangely convinced that it was poor management that was causing her declining attendance. The Church needed to be run more like a business dominated by its managers, just like any other business.

But Jesus said, The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. I think that we all instinctively know why He gave His life for us. We are not free. We are more like slaves. We are slaves to our weakness, and our habits, our addictions and compulsions. We know that we cannot free ourselves. We also know that we will die one day. We are like Israel in Egypt, oppressed by Pharaoh.

As well as slavery, there is debt. We owe what we cannot pay. Our sins are too great. But Jesus, our ransomer, has come to pay on our behalf what He Himself does not owe. He is the only one able to set us free, and He does that, through the total gift of Himself. Because of the death of Jesus we know that our sins are forgiven. We know that death is not the end. We know that God loves us. And we know, because of Jesus, that no sin and guilt, no calamity or affliction, no grief or loss can separate us from His love. Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom 5.39)

His blood has infinite power. Jesus has redeemed us, so we always have cause for hope, and even for joy, in whatever happens to us; even at the moment of our death.

Can you drink my cup? asked Jesus. With Saints James and John, we can answer “Yes! Yes we can! We are Christians! We believe that Christ has conquered death, and entered into glory. We are confident of His victory. And we claim His promises!”

As Christians, we are ready to drink His cup. That is, we are ready to share His sufferings.

Paul wrote, Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church … (Colossians 1:24) In his suffering, Paul says that he fills up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions, in his own way. Every Christian can do that too. After all, Jesus Himself never suffered from depression, or old age, or a handicap, or widowhood, or indeed from any of our own particularly difficult circumstances. So when I have anything at all to suffer, this can become for me a precious gift, which I can offer, in union with Christ’s Cross, for the life of the Church, and for my own salvation too.

Jesus pointed towards all this when He blessed the cup of the holy Eucharist. He said: Drink this, all of you, this is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins.

Drink from this cup, in order that you may have my life in you. Drink, in order that you may share in the fruits of my redemption. Drink, in order to participate in my saving work. Drink, in order to receive a promise of my love for you, to the end.

Amen.

The Rev’d Dr James Lawson, St Mary Magdalene Enfield, 20/10/24