RAISING THE STAKES
Mark 10:35-45
Twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost, Year B
Analysis by Matt Metevelis
35James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came forward to him and said to him, ‘Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.’ 36And he said to them, ‘What is it you want me to do for you?’ 37And they said to him, ‘Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.’ 38But Jesus said to them, ‘You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?’ 39They replied, ‘We are able.’ Then Jesus said to them, ‘The cup that I drink you will drink; and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized; 40but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.’
41When the ten heard this, they began to be angry with James and John. 42So Jesus called them and said to them, ‘You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. 43But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, 44and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. 45For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.’
“On the cross we do not meet Christ in the status we long to attain, but are received by him in the places of dejection, lowliness, and humiliation where we fear to be.”
DIAGNOSIS: Low Stakes
When we seek to build ourselves up to gain benefits from others we falsely imagine that we can somehow game our relationship with God in the same way. Our lives become projects to win favor, acceptance, and even God’s grace on our terms.
Step 1-Initial Diagnosis (External Problem): Assistant Managers
Henry Kissinger once was asked to compare his work at the highest levels of the American government to his time teaching on the Harvard faculty. He responded that his time as a university professor prepared him quite well for Washington because Harvard was much more cut-throat and backbiting. When asked how this could be he quipped, “because the stakes are so low.”
Kissinger’s wry sense of humor illuminates something at once humorous and lamentable about human nature. People will compete, scheme, defame, campaign and jockey for position no matter what the final prize is. Movies and popular TV shows employ this for high comedic impact. Think of Dwight Schrute in “The Office” who insists on being called the “assistant regional manager” instead of “assistant to the regional manager.” Anyone who has dealt with aggressive neighbors at an HOA or that pushy mom in the PTA can attest to this. The human desire to succeed, be admired, or claim a piece of the pie almost never depends on how large the pie is. And as a result relationships deteriorate and organizations stagnate because people in so many situations can only see their neighbors as competition. Not even the twelve-member church started by Jesus himself was immune. In response to James and John’s attempt at a backroom deal we are told that the disciples “began to get angry.”
Even around Jesus we cannot be team players.
Step 2-Advanced Diagnosis (Internal Problem): : What’s Your Status?
The real prize in all our searching for promotions and honors is not in the titles themselves but in the esteem we earn from others. All the things we do, the positions we attain, and the respect we earn garner us a certain status among our peers. It matters to us where we are educated, what jobs we hold, what positions we attain, who we marry, how our kids turn out, and how well manicured our lawn is because of the respect we gain from others.
We refer to the accumulation of goods, titles, and esteem as our status. It’s very telling that in social media the way we interact with some platforms is called a “status update.” It’s the face we show to the world and the affirmation (or lack thereof) that the world gives us back. From whatever status we attain we then try and derive our identity. This is an utter lack of freedom. As philosopher Alain de Bottom described it in his landmark book Status Anxiety “Our sense of identity is held captive by the judgments of those we live among.”
Step 3-Final Diagnosis (Ultimate Problem): The Patron
Religion too often becomes a ridiculous quest for self-fulfillment treating God as the ultimate power player. No human status is greater than the ability to “sit at the right and left hand of the Son of Man.” This corner office that James and John are seeking denotes not only the esteem of human beings but also (they hope) will radiate the favor of God. If God is the boss a promotion to assistant manager is pretty spectacular.
It’s very telling that they try to trap Jesus into giving them this honor before they actually state what the honor is. Instead of merely being coy this points to the way that these sons of thunder conceive of their relationship to Christ. Before they ask for the prize they ask for a favor. They approach him as clients seeking a benefactor. The social life of the ancient world rotated on these patron/client relationships. In exchange for favors of more powerful people clients would perform services on their behalf. No doubt James and John considered themselves higher on the hierarchy than the other disciples because of things that they might have done to earn that place. It could have been their physical prowess, or the way that they got to make special trips with Jesus. But whatever it was James and John find themselves treating Jesus as some kind of heavenly patrician with offices and glittering prizes to dispose once the kingdom comes.
So much of our religion, manufactured pieties, and self-chosen works make us relate to Christ in this way. We imagine that following the law is the way to earn a better place or climb into God’s favor. The risk of a religion based on the law is that we see God, even a powerful God, as a patron to bless a status games. The God that we find at the end of our efforts can only be a means to our own ends. Talk about low stakes. When status becomes our idolatry, we are trusting another god. Don’t think God does not notice – and how low that ultimately puts us.
PROGNOSIS: The High Stake
On the cross Christ becomes our servant to redeem us and build us up. This frees us from trying to build and define ourselves through our status and allows us to live for our neighbors instead of competing with them.
Step 4-Initial Prognosis (Ultimate Solution): The Servant
Jesus’ admonishment to the disciples is that he is not playing their game. He is not a patron, instead he is their client. He is not the one “lording it over them” as gentile rulers do. Instead he is “giving his life as a ransom for many”, pledging his own life as some would do in dire circumstances, selling themselves into slavery to remit a family debt. While this is a supreme act of sacrifice it came with intense social humiliation. While we seek status, Christ sheds status for debasement – for our debasement. All our self-chosen works are negated in the work Christ himself chose. On the cross we do not meet Christ in the status we long to attain, but are received by him in the places of dejection, lowliness, and humiliation where we fear to be.
He has not come to be the biggest player in the social system as the disciples imagine but to uproot the system entirely. Instead of waiting for people to climb the ladder to him Christ races as fast as he can to the bottom of the pack. Some imagine that Christ is there to hand out prizes and blessings to the most pious, the most deserving, the most righteous. But in the gritty reality of the cross, Christ is hanging there with the least, the lowest, and the lost giving only himself. The cross is the high “stake” (pun intended) that exposes all of our schemes, ploys, ambitions, jealousies, and pettiness and forgives them. In the cross we are not rewarded, we are claimed once and forever.
Step 5-Advanced Prognosis (Internal Solution): A New Identity
Hanging with Christ on the cross we are not rewarded, we are claimed once and forever. Both in baptism and in the faith worked in us we are given an identity as a pure gift. This identity is not to be the assistant manager with Christ but to be Christ’s brothers and sisters, fellow children of God. This identity speaks about us to God throughout our lives and endures into eternity. It persists in us no matter what distinctions we make among ourselves (Galatians 3:28) and no matter what we accomplish or fail to achieve. Instead of being dependent on our status this identity grants us status with God as redeemed, righteous, and favored. It remains no matter what gains and losses we make in this life.
Step 6-Final Prognosis (External Solution): From Competing to Called
The freedom we have in our identity as Christ’s children spills out into our life with our neighbors. Instead of being at the mercy of our desires and their favor we are free to help meet their needs. The work of this life no longer becomes the arduous and at times comical process of puffing ourselves up in every situation. The stakes are now much higher. At work in us now is the freedom to be present to our neighbors in their every need and to respond to that need without worrying how things will reflect on ourselves. With all questions of status and worth out of the way we are now able to go where we are called and take up our crosses there, working hard to bear burdens with and for our neighbors.
I can definitely attest to this in my own work as a chaplain. Whenever I am at a visit worrying if someone is going to think I’m a good chaplain I get totally lost. I fuss over giving the right advice, maintaining the right demeanor, saying the right words in a prayer. These visits are usually slow-motion disasters because I’m chasing my own worth. But when I am able to be free of that, trusting the high stake of Christ, I get to just pay attention to where suffering is and seek to understand and be present within it even if I can’t mitigate it, and when I’m out of my own head and in the moment I tend to do Christ’s good and hopeful work.
When we try to build ourselves up no matter what we think we are aiming for we’re like Kissinger’s colleagues at Harvard who play for low stakes. But when we are given our new identities as children of God we are free to aim for the high stakes of loving our neighbor as Christ does. As Luther put it in his commentary on 1 Peter:
“For through faith the spirit is already in heaven, and this makes him lord over all things. But God permits him to remain alive in the flesh and lets his body walk the earth in order that he may help others and bring them to heaven too.”
Living Christ’s crucified-and-risen promise for the world, the stakes do not get higher than that!