DS 002

The Meaning of Lordship

Mark 10:35-45

Has anyone ever asked you for a favor without telling you what was wanted? Have they ever asked you for the equivalent of signing a blank check? That was how these disciples began their conversation with Jesus. “Teacher, say 'Yes!'”

That kind of request puts me on my guard. It makes me uncomfortable. It just sounds too much like a trap. “Tell me that you will do whatever I ask you.” It is really just another way to say, “I want you to obey me.” While it is not a very effective strategy, it is an attempt to manipulate someone else into submission, specifically someone whose authority is greater than our own.

Jesus did not fall for that any more than most parents would answer their little children affirmatively. Instead of answering their request directly, he asked for more information. “What is it you want me to do for you?” “What did you have in mind?”

That is where things started to go off track for them. That was not exactly how they wanted Jesus to answer. Then again, it was the response they somewhat expected, or at least it should have been. When it came time to place their request openly before Jesus, though, they started to become a little uncomfortable.

What they really wanted was privilege. They wanted power. They wanted security. They wanted others to bow to their whims, to serve them, to make them comfortable. They wanted to live at the top of the pack. They did not want to struggle for survival, worry over economic issues, or face the hardship of poverty. That is what they were really after. They wanted isolation from the strains and stresses of life through positions of power, prominence, and authority. They were just a little too ashamed to come right out and confess what they were after.

Instead of directly asking Jesus to fulfill their request, they had decided on a different approach. To be honest, they probably were not sure what it was they wanted. They were not likely all that clear as to their desires. They simply knew that those in authority over other political institutions did not face the same issues they faced. They figured that gaining similar positions would resolve their problems. Power would overcome the struggles of life they faced. Position would isolate them from their concerns and worries.

Oh, they wanted power and authority, all right. They asked to be numbers two and three in Jesus' coming reign. They wanted positions of privilege. They wanted control and influence over others. They wanted to follow the examples they had seen enacted around them in all the political circles of Israel, Rome, and the rest of the world. Power, privilege, control, and influence, is what they wanted.

They wanted what they knew. They wanted the trappings they associated with success. It was not life according to their own personal history and experience, but as they had come to view and understand the realities of life in the public eye. They simply could not imagine that the organizational structure of any kingdom could be different from the kinds of privilege and power they were used to seeing all around them. If some were going to benefit, they wanted to be in the innermost circle. After all, they were already in Jesus’ innermost circle of disciples. They wanted some assurance from Jesus that they would not be forgotten when Jesus passed out the blessings of privilege in God's reign.

So they asked Jesus for what they wanted, but they did not get the answer they were expected. Jesus began to question them about some of the trappings of position in the reign he was establishing. He began to clarify that serving God did not revolve around issue of comfort and the trappings of political privilege. Instead, position in Jesus’ reign required sacrifice, suffering, and service. It required self-denial. Jesus’ words regarding the path of suffering that lay before him would not become clear until after the fact of Jesus' death, but Jesus expanded on the concept of position in regard to service.

As seems to have happened continually, Jesus' words took the wind out of their sails. He once more turned the world of their expectations upside down. He forced them to try to view life from a completely different angle. He pressed them not to force God and God's plans into their own set of rules, models, and expectations.

The other disciples got wind of what these two were asking. They took this request for positions of privilege as a personal affront, since James and John were asking for positions of authority above them. They did not like the tenor of the requests, for they did not want to bow and scrape to these two any more than the two to the rest. They were likely angriest of all, however, because they had not thought of or mustered the courage to make the same request of Jesus first. After all, they all wanted the very same positions of privilege!

Jesus shifted the conversation from privilege to service. He shifted the context of the discussion from a matter of pride and self-importance to a matter of humility and building up others. Jesus’ reign would be very different from the kingdoms of the political realm. Those wielded power for selfish gain, while position in Jesus’ reign would wield influence and authority to serve the needy. The focus would be on the benefit of others instead of seeking benefits for self.

The reign of God would be vastly different from the character of the political structures of the world they knew, of the world we know. Rather than struggling for self-promotion, the struggle of God's reign would be for offering justice, grace, mercy, and love to one another. It would not seek to build us up as servants of God, but to take the blessings of God to those who were still living beyond the reach of God's reign. Its focus would be on sacrificing and giving on behalf of others, rather than forcing others to sacrifice for our benefit.

In essence, that meant there would be and could only be one Lord and Master in the entirety of Jesus’ reign. That Lord must be followed and served according to the very same manner of Jesus’ service. His was not a life of privilege and wielding power over others. Rather, it was a reality of service toward those in need. This reign would harness the power and authority of God to set personal issues aside in order to minister in submission to all. It was a reign of selflessness, of humility, of service to the most needy.

The lordship of Jesus is not about our position. It does not communicate comfort, wealth, power, or worldly definitions of importance to the believer. It calls us instead to live according to the pattern and motif of Jesus' own life, of the example of service he set before us. Jesus called the disciples to live as he did, not simply as the means to an end, but as the living reality of God's reign. His life was not a message about an interim period of awaiting God's reign. It was a demonstration of what experiencing God's reign meant.

To follow Jesus as Lord is so much more than stating the fact that Jesus is sovereign. It is so much more than respecting Jesus as we would respect the president of one or another nation. It is so much more than adopting the trappings of a political structure for personal benefit. It means instead, that we offer our lives, attitudes, and priorities in subjection to the life, attitudes, and priorities we see in Jesus' own life and ministry. It means becoming Jesus' representatives to the world in which we live. It means being transformed by so doing. When we make Jesus Lord of our lives, it means giving up everything else to make Jesus' attitudes, purpose, and priorities first place in our lives.

Are we ready to appoint Jesus as Lord of our lives? It requires placing the entirety of our lives in submission to God's will and purposes.

—Pr. Christopher B. Harbin

© Copyright 2017 Christopher B. Harbin.