+ 18th Sunday after Pentecost – September 22nd, 2024 +
Series B: Jeremiah 11:18-20; James 3:13-4:10; Mark 9:30-37
Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church
Milton, WA
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
J.R.R. Tolkien – author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings…and a Christian too – once said that the great policies of the world history, “the wheels of the world”, are often turned not by the Lords and Governors…but by the seemingly unknown and weak.
This is quite often the case in his stories – and others like it. It’s not the powerful wizards or dark lords that rule the world and win the day – though it appears they might for a short time – but it’s humble hobbits from the Shire – or little Lucy in the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, that are the real heroes of the story, for their greatness is seen in littleness, weakness, and lowliness.
And what’s often true in some of the great stories, is abundantly true in the greatest – and true – story of all: the story of salvation in the Scriptures.
God has a habit of doing his great and gracious work in weakness, lowliness, and humility. He packages his great holiness and mercy in the humble and the littlest. He reveals his greatness in weakness.
God chose not the firstborn Esau, but the younger twin, Jacob to carry on his promised Seed. God chose – not Jacob’s firstborn Reuben, but Judah, the 4th in line to be the lineage from which the Messiah would come. God chose the littlest town of the clans of Judah – Bethlehem – to be the birthplace of Jesus. And Jesus, well, God in the flesh follows the same pattern. Conceived in the womb of a Virgin. Born in a feeding trough. Born in lowliness, weakness, and humility to one day go to the cross and suffer in lowliness, weakness, and humility.
Yes, God has a habit of doing his great and gracious work in weakness, lowliness, and humility. This is what he has been trying to teach to his disciples – and us as we read the Gospels.
The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And when he is killed, after three days he will rise.” 32 But they did not understand the saying, and were afraid to ask him.
Perhaps they were silent because they all – especially Peter – remembered the last time Jesus said this seemingly crazy thing about suffering and dying – and he was told, “Get behind me Satan.” And yet, the disciples are slow learners sometimes.
As they traveled the roads to Capernaum you can imagine their conversation turned into an argument: “Who got the closest to casting out that demon? Who was it who went with Jesus up on the mountain when he was glowing with glory? Who of us gave up the most to follow Jesus? Who’s gonna be Jesus’ right hand guy?” And on it probably went. Until Jesus asked them, “What were you discussing on the way?” 34 But they kept silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest.
It’s hard not to laugh a little at the disciples’ foolishness and arrogance. It’s easy to see their pride and selfishness and their sinful delusions of grandeur. Why is that? Because we’re just like them. The disciples are our doppelgängers. When we read and hear stories like these – with their foolishness, selfishness, and pride on display – we wind up looking at ourselves in the mirror. Their pride and sin reveals our own. Deep down (and often not so deep down) our old Adam – our sinful flesh – reveals that we’re like that one kid on the playground always yelling out, “If you ain’t first, you’re last.” “Last one to the door is a rotten egg.”
This is greatness in the kingdoms of this world: Being first. Being on top. Being strong. Being great.
Greatness in the kingdom of God looks far different however. In fact it’s the opposite. Jesus has a far different (and better) plan. God’s ways – thankfully – are not our ways. Not power but weakness. Not glory but a cross. Not the greatness of winning but the greatness of losing, losing one’s life in order to gain it, losing it all in order to gain it all, laying down His life as our ransom from Sin and Death. There’s no ranking in God’s kingdom when standing before the King, there’s only his declared righteousness revealed and made perfect in weakness.
True greatness, Jesus is teaching us, isn’t found in our greatness, in our humility, or our anything of ours at all. Greatness is found in Jesus who though he was the greatest, yet for our sakes became the last. Greatness came to us in the weakness of a child born of a Virgin in a manger in Bethlehem, and in the humility of the Suffering Servant on the cross. Greatness comes to us ordinary bread, wine, water, and words that do as Jesus declares: give the greatest gift of all: forgiveness, life, and salvation.
Remember, God has a habit of doing his great and gracious work in weakness, lowliness, and humility. “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.”
To illustrate this, Jesus picks up a little child, plops him down in front of the disciples and says, look guys. You want something truly exceptional? You want to be first? You want greatness? Take a good look. Here’s what greatness looks like.
For the disciples, this would’ve been shocking. In Jesus’ day, children weren’t cherished the way they often are in our day. Children were weak and worthless until they could come of age and work or be married. They had no status, no standing and were about as low as slaves, maybe even lower.
This, Jesus says, is greatness. Someone who’s utterly dependent, no self-importance, no status, no greatness, nothing but humility and lowliness, and weakness. That may not sound like greatness in the kingdoms of this world, but this is greatness in the kingdom of God.
In God’s kingdom, weakness is greatness, his cross is glory. God works his great and gracious salvation in humble, lowly ways. God became man – a child in our midst – that through him, through his suffering and death – we might become children of God. Greatness is seen in Jesus the man of sorrows and the cross. In the Servant of all who gives his life for as a ransom for his enemies.
God also works his great love and good works through the ordinary, daily service you perform in your vocations – as you teach, care for patients, deal with clients, watch grandkids, pack lunches for your own kids, or all the little, seemingly lowly and ordinary things you do – Christ the Servant of all is there as you serve others.
This is how God loves to work – here in his church, at his table, in his word, and in your lives as well. God takes his great and gracious work, wraps it all in weakness, lowliness, and humility – and through it all he blesses you and receives you as his own dear child.
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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