| Mark 10:35-45 - 21 February 2010
Andrew Lim
In the early ‘60’s the National Institute of Mental Health in the USA
acquired a property in a rural area in the state of Maryland
And it was here that Dr John Calhoun
conducted his most famous experiment
He created what was called “a mouse universe”
An the experiment was reported in the 1970 Smithsonian magazine
The experiment revolved around a 9-foot cage
that was designed to hold mice
The cage was designed to handle 160 mice comfortably
It began with 8 of them
and the initial population grew rapidly doubling every 55 days
and in about 2 ½ years / the colony of mice
grew into an excessive number of 2200
And there they lived for a period of time
2200 mice in a confined area / from which they could not escape
Now there was always an abundance of food / an abundance of water
nesting material / and all the provisions needed by mice
There were no predators / And all the mortality factors were removed
except for aging of course
And Dr Calhoun watched these mice to see what they would do
and how they would perform
in an overcrowded / confined environment
And he made some very interesting observations
For example / he noticed that in order just to exist / and to stay alive
the mice formed little cliques of 12-15 each in their groups
He noticed an increase of aggression among the females
and the male mice that once dominated the territory & protected it
now gave up their position of dominance
relinquished it / and became passive
He noticed that the mother mice expulse the young from having milk
before weaning was complete / wounding them in some way
and this sort of disrupted the entire mice colony
But most important of all / he made this observation:
Their male mice withdrew completely
they stopped fighting / they ate / they drank / they slept
they began to engage in all the solitary pursuits
they groomed themselves / pleased / entertained themselves
Not only did they become completely interested in themselves
they gave up courtship / mating / and reproduction
In fact in 5 brief years / every single mouse had died
though there was plenty of provision
and a complete absence of disease
Now what's happening here / Here was an ideal colony
they had everything going for them / they had everything they needed
Yet in the end / all of them perished / every single one of them
Though Dr Calhoun was a scientist
he made some startling philosophical observations
he took the fate of the population of these mice
to be a metaphor for the potential fate of human people
Interestingly / he considered the social breakdown as a “second death”
with reference to the “second death” mentioned in Revelation 2:11
But someone asked Dr Calhoun this question:
“What result would such overcrowded conditions have / on a humanity
grounded on a planet / from which there is no escape?”
His answer was somewhat prophetic / and I quote:
“We would first of all cease to reproduce our ideals
and our basic purpose would be lost”
“Our basic purpose would soon be lost”
What's that?
Dr Calhoun may be thinking of something else altogether
but what is our basic purpose / here on this crowded planet?
Jesus Christ put His finger / right on it / when He said:
"The Son of Man came into this world
not to be served / but to serve
and to give my life as a ransom" / Mark 10:45
This is rather riveting / Jesus is here saying
that the reason why He came to the world
was so He could serve people / “I came into the world to serve”
He considers His purpose to be that of a servant
The one thing the mice missed in the cage / is the very thing
Jesus wants for us to have / the heart of a servant
to look out for the other creature
If you find this difficult to understand
just remember that the disciples in His day / were equally confused
They couldn't understand why Jesus
should have had to humble Himself to the point of death
When He told them that he was to be rejected and killed
Peter rebuked him for speaking such nonsense
The disciples saw a path that led to pomp and glory
He saw a path of service / submission and ultimately death
They thought He would come riding on a white stallion
He came riding on an ass
In our story this morning
we come upon two brothers / James and John / sons of Zebedee
They come up to Jesus and told him:
"Teacher we want you to do for us whatever we ask
Lord / when you finally come into your kingdom
let one of us sit on the right and the other on your left
Now James and John may be close to Jesus
but where their ambitions were concerned they it all mixed up
and their mother Mrs Zebedee got it all mixed up too
They want prominence / recognition / renown
And Jesus says to them / Mark 10:42
“You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles
lord it over them / and their high officials
exercise authority over them
It's true in our own world
If you work in a factory / you have workers and managers
If you work in an office / there are bosses and there are employees
If you are in a school / there are students and there are teachers
If you are in a team / there are coaches / and there are players
And Jesus is saying here / that that's the nature of bosses
Bosses boss over people
Then he says this / verse 43 / “But it shall not be so with you”
Instead / whoever wants to become great among you
must be your servant / and whoever wants to be first must
be slave of all.
Now this / is counter cultural / This is not the way things normally work
And Peter and the other disciples never quite understood it
And we don’t quite get it too
But it is so clear to our Lord
To Him true greatness is found in serving people
In some cryptic way / John 13 reveals a connection
between being a servant and being willing to die for another
The story is told rather simply
you may easily miss out / on the depth of its meaning
It simply tells us that the evening meal was being served
and the devil had already prompted Judas to betray Jesus
Then it goes on to say that Jesus knew
that the Father had put all things under his power
and that he had come from God and was returning to God
Now / let’s not rush this
Jesus is here saying / the Father has put all things under His power
John 13:3
Now what’s that? At the very least / that must include
- power over all the kingdoms of the world
all the massive proud structures of this world
are in His hands to do as He please
the Eiffel Tower / that is only a match-stick in his hands
In His hands / is power over all the forces of nature
he controls the tornados / tidal waves / tsunamis
volcanic eruptions
the orbits of all the spinning planets in the entire universe
he assigns the birthday of each star
he sends them plummeting into black holes
by the power of his word / Hebrews 1:3
Closer to home / He has power
- over the hearts and minds of every human person
- over your lifespan on earth
This is utterly amazing / John 13:3 says
Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power
and the very next line very simply says
“So he got up from the meal / took off his outer clothing
and wrapped a towel around his waist / poured water
into a basin and began to wash his disciples' feet
and drying them with the towel” / That’s Jn 13:2-5
How are we to configure this?
Jesus / knowing that everything in the entire universe
is under His power
took a basin of water / and wash His disciples’ feet
We live in a time when many of us are terribly status-conscious
- we daydream of what we can be
- like James and John / we have delusions of grandeur
- each one of us hope to achieve a place of prominence
The Chief Executive Officer is in an enviable position
and each of his juniors / hopes to occupy his shoes one day
But Jesus tells us that the person who is great in God's eyes
should be more concerned to clean the other guy's shoes
than seek to occupy them
But you and I are infected by the selfishness of our present Me Generation
Selfishness and greed are not only tolerated
they are unashamedly promoted and encouraged
Did you ever think that you’d live to see the day
when people openly celebrate this sort of depravity
We've become so incurably preoccupied with ourselves
its become an obsession
Never mind if my child is missing me / I've got to be happy myself
Never mind if my spouse needs me / I’ve got to gratify myself
Never mind if the church of Christ is short-handed
I just haven’t got the time
And living in a time such as ours / it’s so easy to forget other people
Today / we see fewer and fewer decisions made with God’s will in view
On practically all issues / people unblushingly ask questions
that reveal / that they're putting their appetites first
Does this fulfil my needs? Does it quench my thirst for more?
Does it feed my lust for power?
Within one generation
our role model switched from Mother Teresa to Madonna
When I was growing up / my father kept chickens and ducks and turkey
Now when you take ten chickens / any ten / put them in a pen together
and spread a little chicken feed
in no time you will see something really amazing
In a matter of minutes / the chickens / previously strangers
will form a hierarchy based on dominance
They will establish / what we now call "a Pecking Order"
Very quickly / through a series of skirmishes
they will determine who No. 1 Chicken will be
- then the No. 2 / then No. 3
- all the way down to the unfortunate No. 10 Chicken
Chicken No. 1 pecks at Chicken No. 2
without any fear that it'll be pecked back by Chicken No 2
Chicken No. 2 will take it from Chicken No. 1
but it will turn around / and peck away at Chicken No. 3
who will / in turn / take out its frustration on Chicken No. 4
The Pecking Order continues all the way down to Chicken Number 10
who has a pretty miserable life: Pecked / but no one to peck
But let's not be too hard on the chicken !
You and I know that this kind of thing happens in real life / everywhere:
at sporting events / children’s parties / PTA meetings / class reunions
- sadly even at Church
Very few people are immune to this disease
Nearly all of us / we look at other people
we try to figure out where they fit in the Pecking Order
I've been to dinners / where I have to sit at table with nine strangers
not knowing a single person / and yet after a few initial questions
each one can generally tell / and sometimes quite accurately
the pecking order from 1 to 10
It doesn't take long / You listen for titles / You look for tip-offs
- names people drop / clothes and accessories people wear
- places they have holidayed / type of cars they drive
There is something very sick here
There is something here that runs deep / in every human heart
and it is not just a little game that we play
We want to be somebody / it counts being somebody
We enjoy the attention / the focus / the admiration
When you take a long hard look at the matter - its ultimately pride!
And not one of us here is spared
We all easily fall prey to that dangerous game
When you've known some measure of success
in your profession or career or even ministry
When you're put in a place of authority
the quickest thing you will forget
is that you are a servant of Jesus Christ and servants to people
Thomas Carlyle / the Scottish essayist once said:
"For everyone who can handle prosperity
there are hundreds who can handle adversity"
You think you are humbled by adversity
the real test of humility / comes when you've made it good
Yet in all of history / no one was a more qualified candidate
to stand right at the apex of the Pecking Order / than Jesus Christ.
Just think about it
- He owns everything / He owns every person
- Every piece of all the real estate in the world / is His
- the destiny of every man / woman and child / is in His hands
- He has a rightful place to the right hand of the throne of God
- He has the supreme place of honour in the cosmos
The First Place in Pecking Order was His for the taking
Yet He divested Himself of all that
He hated the Pecking Order / He spurned it
To Jesus / the Pecking Order is not only inherently flawed
it is a working definition of evil
That was why He threw a wrench into the whole depraved system
He spent His entire ministry ripping at its foundations
He seized every opportunity to turn the Pecking Order
upside down and inside out
He is God but not once
did He look upon His divine status as something to be grasped
He used His power / for the powerless
He showered love / upon the loveless
He served those / who couldn’t possibly return the favour
Only once in the entire Bible / did Jesus describe His own temperament
And this was what He said: “I am meek and lowly in heart”
He visited those in prison
He invited orphans and widows to banquets
He threw parties for those on the fringes of society
He cared for the elderly / the blind / and the sick
He healed the lepers / He fed the hungry
He ate and drank with the worst of sinners / He loved them
He was always looking out for Chickens No. 9 and 10
Jesus took the world’s value system /ripped it right across the grain into half
And He tells you and I to do the most troublesome thing
we've ever been told to do
He said if you want to be authentic and real
you need to be stubbornly defy what the world is telling you to do
He's saying to us:
"Look / Its a dog-eat-dog world out there
and people everywhere are grabbing all they can for themselves
Don’t do that!”
“Do nothing out of selfish ambition Instead / be humble
Consider others better than yourselves” / Phil 2:3
And He didn't put a footnote at the bottom of the page
He didn’t say / “Do this / if you feel you like doing it”
No / He attached no qualifiers to it
Instead / He says / “You call me Teacher and Lord
and you are right / for so I am
If I then / your Lord and Teacher have washed your feet
you also ought to wash one another’s feet
For I have given you an example
that you also should do just as I have done to you”
John 13:13 - 15
He’s saying / “Unless you're willing to serve people
you cannot say that you are following Me”
Pride / or greed / or selfishness is not simply a virus that can be killed off
by taking a pill for it
Jesus told us it is a disease from hell / deeply rooted in the human heart
And only by dying to our selfish self / can that disease be rooted out
He said unless a seed falls down and dies / it cannot sprout to new life
He wasn't talking of dying a biological death here
He was talking about our need to die to ourselves
- to say "No" to our selfishness and greed
But really / if you are a Christian you have already died
And let’s never think that / it will take a few years of spiritual maturity
before we can truly die to the world
You don’t die is stages to your selfishness
You died / the day you became a Christian
This is the true meaning of becoming a Christian
Becoming a Christian involves your dying
the very first day you became a Christian
The Bible couldn’t make it anymore clearer
Galatians 5:24 / “Now those who belong to Christ Jesus
have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires”
And not only have we died / in some paradoxical way
we are to die daily / to the values and passions of this world
Luke 9:23 / “If anyone wishes to come after Me
let him deny himself / take up his cross daily / and follow Me”
I want for us all to leave church this morning aspiring to be humbler
than we were when we walked in this morning
For that / I want to challenge us by asking ourselves a few questions:
When people don’t thank you / are you offended?
When people give you one task after another / are you offended?
When you are not recognised / are you offended?
When people don’t think highly of you / are you offended?
If your answer and my answer / to all those questions
is a resounding “Yes”
then we are serving / even before we have come to terms
that we are no more than servants
Someone has wisely said
“Don’t serve until you’ve first settled / the servanthood issue
Don’t serve / until you have come to terms
with the teaching of Jesus
that you are truly / only a servant”
This is quite profound really
As Richard Foster rightly observes
there IS a difference between “serving” / and “being a servant”
Not everyone who serves / is a servant
Serving people alone / doesn’t make you a servant
But if you are truly a servant / you will serve
gladly / thanklessly / humbly
without a murmur / without a complaint
A servant does not serve himself / at least not firstly
A servant does not look out for himself
his job is to make the lives of other people better
his job is to serve people / attend to their needs
he has no standing
he is often the last to eat
He does not look to be thanked / or wait for appreciation
He expects no speeches made about his contribution
He does not expect to be repaid
He does not expect to be noticed / or commended
He is at someone’s beck and call
and indeed he is called on at odd hours
His place is to quietly serve
saying nothing to himself / saying nothing to others
knowing his place / and quietly content about his place
If people in church serve this way
we will see little of the disruptions of relationships we see
Lorne Sanny / one of the heads of the Navigators was once asked
how we can tell if we have the attitude of a servant
His answer is profound / he said
“You know you’re a servant
by how you react / when you’re treated like one”
This / is the heart of the matter
Have I come to a quiet / settled / acceptance / that I am only a servant
Isn’t it the case that if I am a true servant / I should be treated like one?
And isn’t it the case that if I am a true servant
then / when I am treated like one I should react like a true servant?
subservient / unassertive / and servile
A servant heart is the ground
upon which / every other aspect of our Christian life is built
A servant heart is everything
Without it / you can’t have faith in God / you can’t pray / worship
If you will not truly humble yourself
you will not choose to make yourself dependent on Christ
you will not see yourself as a weak and sinful person
Without a servant-heart / you will not have faith in God
If you will not truly humble yourself
you will not make much of the worth of God
Without a servant-heart / you will not worship God
If you will not humble yourself
you will not submit to God’s laws and desires / and obey them
Without a servant heart/ you will not obey God
If you will not humble yourself
you will not go out of your way to love people and serve them
Without a servant heart / you will not serve
If you will not humble yourself
you will imagine that everything you have / you’ve got it made
Without a servant heart / you will not be thankful
But if you have a servant heart / you will see
that your skills / talents / wit / looks / intelligence / possessions
savings / family
everything / including whatever influence you might have
have come as a gift from the gracious hand of God
and there is absolutely nothing in me to boast about
Sometimes we are afraid to be servant-like because we imagine
that being servant-like will reduce us
to someone who is weak / timid / soft / afraid / gutless
That / will be so if all this time / that you are confident
your confidence has been that of your own / self-confidence
But self-confidence can never be a source of true strength
It is not true that being servant-like
will reduce you to be a fearful timid person
In fact the very opposite is true
If you really want to be strong bold unafraid and filled with courage
choose to be a nobody
but a nobody / who has God ONLY on his side
When the people of Israel became filled with fear
Isaiah rebuked them saying “Just who do you think you are
that you should be afraid of man / who dies
and who have forgotten the Lord / your maker?
I am He who comforts you” / Is 51:12
Why are you even afraid of man?
Do you think
that if you have your own strength and yourself-confidence
that you will then be able to subdue your enemies
and have forgotten the Lord your Maker?
Just what have you been you thinking?
It is when you throw your pride away
and throw yourself on My mercy
and humble yourself
that you are the boldest / and most courageous
We are the boldest / when we are humblest
At the point that you hand your pride over to God
at that point / when you are the boldest
because that / is the moment
when you most remember the Lord your Maker
you are most dependent upon God
If that is the case / then if you are timid and weak and afraid
you are most proud
A humble servant heart makes for the best source of courage
You serve by giving your time / your money
you serve by giving a listening to someone in pain
you serve by teaching someone a new skill
you serve when you give advice and counsel
And all that are means by which you serve
But supremely there is one ultimate way you serve another person
it is when you lay down your live / and die for someone
The founder of the Navigators / Dawson Trotman
was such a servant
On June 18 1956 / Dawson Trotman clambered back into a motorboat
after two hours of waterskiing on Schroon Lake / New York
He was dog-tired / but before he settled down
he asked one of the two girls in the boat / Allene Beck
if she could swim
When she shook her head / he traded places with her
so she would be in a safer spot
Minutes later the speeding boat bounced on a wave
and all three of them / the 50-year-old man and the girls
fell into the water
He swam to the first girl and held her head above water
until the boat could circle back and she was hauled aboard
He went down and got the other girl and lifted her too
out of the water
But as hands reached down to seize Trotman's hand
he sank out of sight / and was not found again
until the dragnet found him a few hours later
A few days later there was a memorial service for Trotman
Dr Billy Graham gave the message
And the following week / Time magazine ran an article
on Trotman’s life / and beneath his photo was this caption:
‘Always Holding Somebody Up’
And that is perhaps as best a definition of a servant as you can get
Jesus says it in so many words
“Greater love has no one than this
that he lay down his life for his friends” / John 15:13
Dying for someone / that is the ultimate expression of servanthood
And that / is what Jesus has done for you and me
He died / for you and me / so that we might be lifted up
And He’s always holding us up / a true servant
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