Mark 9:30-37 Pastor Nathan P. Kassulke
Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost Sunday, September 26, 2021 “Correcting False Ambitions”
What do you want to be when you grow up? We start asking our kids and friends questions like that at a relatively young age. And they often want to be like someone they’ve seen on television: an astronaut or a sports star, maybe a cowboy or a superhero. Many of us made a decision some time ago about what we wanted to be when we grew up. Perhaps it affected what we did in school and the opportunities that we chose to pursue. But why did we decide what we did? How do you decide what you want to be when you grow up? What’s the criteria you use? For many, a big part of it is can I make a living doing this? Or maybe the question is “How good a living can I make?” There are other questions we ask about our decision: Will I enjoy what I do? Do I have the ability to do it? What will other people think of my choice? And that is often a big factor, isn’t it? We want to be respected. We want to be admired. We want to make a name for ourselves. In the account in front of us today, we hear the disciples talking about their futures. And their thinking sounds an awful lot like this sort of approach to the question “What do I want to be when I grow up?” Their discussion centers on a certain sort of ambition. They want to know who might be the greatest. And Jesus takes all of their thinking and speaking and turns it completely upside-down. He tells them what it really means to be the greatest. He tells them what godly ambitions look like. The discussion with Jesus happens in Capernaum, a town near the sea of Galilee in the region where Jesus and his disciples had spent much of their lives. This particular time in Galilee would prove to be the last for Jesus before his suffering and death. And on their way to Capernaum, the disciples had found themselves in an argument. So Jesus asked them, “What were you arguing about on the way?” And they didn’t answer. Jesus knew all along what this argument was about. He wanted them to think about it. Maybe Jesus heard the argument. Maybe he didn’t need to hear the argument because he simply knew what it had been. The argument had been about who was the greatest. This was not long after Peter, James, and John had been with Jesus on the Mountain of Transfiguration. Jesus had at other times taken those three disciples along with him. Maybe they were pointing out to everyone else what a special relationship they had with Jesus. Maybe Peter was reminding the disciples about how he was always the one to speak up, so of course he was the greatest among the disciples. Maybe they all had huge dreams about what it meant to be a disciple of Jesus and what might come out of it down the road. But who is the greatest was not the question the disciples should have been asking. It was a selfish question. It was a self-serving question. It spoke about fame and admiration. It spoke about success and power. Wo is the greatest meant who had risen above all the rest and succeeded even more than they had? And that is a question that makes perfect sense to sinful people. That’s a question that really comes naturally to us all. We do want to receive praise and honor. We do want to be recognized and applauded. We play that game all the time of comparing ourselves to someone else. Why do they get something I want? Why does he seem so popular? Why is she so adored? Why don’t people see how great I am? We saw a similar attitude in our first lesson from Miriam and Aaron. They saw how Moses was the leader of God’s people, how he spoke God’s Word, how everyone recognized him. He was their brother. Why did he deserve it more than they did? After all, God had spoken through them on occasion as well. Who was the greatest? They had ambition for themselves. They had jealousy. They were sinful, selfish human beings like the rest of us. We can see how prevalent these false ambitions are. We can see how natural they are to sinful people. Even Jesus’ closest disciples were prone to these attitudes, and that even after Jesus was trying to explain deeper
truths to them. The disciples’ conversation with Jesus in Capernaum was not the beginning of our lesson. Jesus had just been teaching them about his purpose and about his impending suffering. Right after such a solemn pronouncement about his suffering and death, that’s when they started arguing. That’s what made their attitude even more wretched. No wonder they were unwilling to answer Jesus’ question, “What were you arguing about on the way?” That very sinful, selfish attitude, though, was the reason that Jesus had come. As he told his disciples, again, that he would be killed and would rise from the dead, he was showing them his ambition. His ambition was not that others see him as the greatest, but that he serve others in the greatest way possible. He was not seeking his own earthly good, his own fame or fortune. He was seeking the salvation of sinners. He was living in a completely selfless way, a completely humble way. He was living in a perfect and holy way, in every regard different from our sinful lives. And that makes this verse in our reading one of the saddest of all to consider: “But they did not understand the statement and were afraid to ask him about it.” Thank God that Jesus did not leave his disciples in their ignorance. Thank God that Jesus has not left us without help or without hope. He did die exactly as he predicted. He sacrificed himself for the sins of the world and rose from the dead, assuring us of our forgiveness. And he led these disciples to finally come to appreciate and understand what he had done. Jesus doesn’t forgive us because we first change our false ambitions to be like his perfect ambition. He forgives us through his perfect ambition, through his perfect obedience, through his perfect sacrifice, and then he leads us to have better ambitions. Look at how Jesus taught his disciples. First he explained, “If anyone wants to be first, he will be the last of all and the servant of all.” He taught them that the greatest in God’s kingdom is the least from an earthly perspective. God’s ways turn completely upside-down the perspective of sinful people. Being great, truly great, means serving others. It means caring more about them than yourself. It means not trying to be the greatest at all. And the example that Jesus used to drive home the point was a little child. He took the child in his arms. He asked his disciples to welcome the little children in his name. That is how they would serve others. That is how they would serve and welcome him. So what does it mean to welcome a little child in Jesus’ name? First of all, it does not mean using them to gain fame or notoriety. People don’t stress about how little children perceive them. No, instead it means taking care of their needs. It means watching out for them, the most vulnerable among us. It means giving them loving care as parents and teachers and relatives and friends. And it means so much more. Welcoming in Jesus’ name means being concerned with their spiritual lives. It means sharing the good news of who Jesus is and what he has done for them. It means being concerned not only with what they will be when they grow up, but also and especially where they will be when their lives in this world come to an end. Jesus wants us to learn and apply the same lesson. He has forgiven us all our sins, including our selfish ambition. And now he wants our ambition to be serving others in every possible way, including and especially serving them spiritually, sharing God’s Word with them. See, like the disciples of Jesus, we have some growing up to do, don’t we? What do you want to be when you grow up? Make it your ambition to be great, not great in a worldly way, but in the way that Jesus teaches. Be great by loving and serving. Be great by welcoming the little children. Be great by welcoming all in the name of the Savior and sharing his love, the love of Jesus, with everyone.
The Text: Mark 9:30–37 (EHV) 30They
went on from there and passed through Galilee. He did not want anyone to know this, he was teaching his disciples. He told them, “The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men, and they will kill him. But three days after he is killed, he will rise.” 31because 32But
they did not understand the statement and were afraid to ask him about it.
33They
came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the way?” 34But they remained silent, because on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. 35Jesus sat down, called the Twelve, and said to them, “If anyone wants to be first, he will be the last of all and the servant of all.” 36Then he took a little child and placed him in their midst. Taking the child in his arms, he said to them, 37“Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me. And whoever welcomes me, welcomes not just me but also him who sent me.”