Series: It’s Backwards
To Be First Be Last
Mark 9:33-35
How much of our life do we spending waiting? The doctor’s office, the store, the stoplight – there are hundreds of places we have to wait each day. There is probably a guy out there who has studied the amount of time the average person spends waiting and it probably is something like half of your life. King’s Island is not the place to go if you do not like waiting – most of your time in an amusement park is spent waiting in line. A few years ago the park began a “gold pass” program where on certain days of the week if you had a season pass which was at the “Gold” level, you had a special shorter line which allowed you to by-pass the normally long line for that ride. Sounds great until you realize that half the population of Cincinnati has a Gold pass and shows up on those days. Then you get to wait in the special line. Why don’t they sell the extra special “Go First on any ride on any day pass? Those would probably all sell out and then right back to the end of the line we go.
Stand in the room of kindergarten kids and say, “Ok everyone line up,” and you will see them all seek to be the first one in line – even without knowing exactly where they are going. That kind of captures the human attitude in life - Everyone wants to be in front of the line because it means you are able to go first and most of the time being at the front is the best spot to be even if we have no idea where the line is going. No one wants to be left behind or to be at the end only to find out there isn’t any left.
Jesus in his life didn’t care much for the race to the front or the corporate climb to the top spot, he would teach of the importance of individual sacrifice – sometimes to the point where you would voluntarily go to the back of the line of important people. His directions were opposite of the world – reversed of the common wisdom and backwards in the manuals of how to get ahead. And he was serious because he even would say that he came from heaven to be the lowliest servant of all.
This way of living doesn’t play big in the status driven world. Most are spending their time….
I. Striving for the Top.
A. From the moment we are born there is a desire to be first.
1. We know a healthy baby cries almost immediately from birth and continues to use that method to express a need or a pain. This is essential for the child’s survival because he is unable to effectively communicate or provide for himself. A baby is not concerned with anyone’s sleep habits or food availability; he wants what he wants when he wants it.
2. That desire doesn’t leave even as the child grows – infants are also naturally selfish and have to be taught sacrifice and self-control. If that isn’t learned as a child then a person can develop as a selfish adult as the attitude becomes solidified. It is almost natural to be selfish.
* Some become very skilled at putting themselves first without being concerned for what happens to those around them.
It is really bad when you have to work with people who have made it to adulthood but still have that infant mentality where they think they should be more important than anyone else. Leona Helmsley was a notoriously mean woman who prospered in real estate and was convicted of tax evasion. She was so ambitious to make sure she gained great wealth but often refused to pay contractors if she didn’t like their work. During her court case her housekeeper saying she overheard Mrs. Helmsley talking with someone about her tax liability when she said, "We don't pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes." She thought she was too important to bother with income tax. James 3:16 For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.
3. And it seems to be a general expectation that people should be selfish because if you don’t you will be taken advantage of or miss out on something. And that happens doesn’t it? The people who actually try to think of others just get drained and the selfish never give back.
*It is interesting too from that perspective to look at how the disciples struggled to find an place of importance with Jesus. It reminds me of a story I heard: A doctor, an architect, and a lawyer were arguing over who had the oldest profession. The doctor said, "Well the first operation was performed on Adam, so the medical profession is the oldest."
"No," said the architect, "Architectural planning and design was needed to create the earth and the universe out of chaos, so I represent the oldest profession."
"Where do you think the chaos came from?" asked the lawyer.
B. There seemed to be some regular maneuvering among the disciples to try and be his favorite.
Mark 9:33-34 They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, he asked them, "What were you arguing about on the road?" 34But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest.
They did the typical thing people do when they are trying to gain a top spot somewhere.
1. Pass the blame – the foundation of an argument usually has to do with a couple of elements chief among them is trying to assess blame. Work places see this kind of maneuvering where everyone tries to cover themselves and make sure they cannot be blamed for something that didn’t go according to plan.
*Earlier in chapter 9 the disciples had tried to help a young boy who was spiritually possessed by a demon. When they were unable to do it, Jesus had to step in and he chastised them for not being prepared – he indicates their prayer life has been neglected. From this point you can almost hear the blame game beginning as they say, “It was your fault it didn’t work if you would have let me handle it I would have done a much better job…” “It wasn’t my fault – the job was too hard for anybody but Jesus to do, he didn’t give me enough authority to get it done..” human nature is to avoid blame and the disciple were very human.
2. Or they could have doing some Self Promotion – You seen that happen. Where people list their accomplishments or talents to prove they deserve the top spot. Unfortunately it has some truth to it; if you don’t sell your talent boss or talk up that teacher or campaign then you often will be ignored and dismissed. Hey, it’s not that you are bad it is just that they are better. Peter, James, and John all had a special type relationship with Jesus so anyone who wanted to be closer better start showing something to make them stand out.
3. And it is likely they were also Positioning themselves. Whether we want to admit it or not every group has kind of an order – a pecking order
"The famous study made by biologists W.C. Allee in the 1920s establishes that the pecking order among hens has a definite prestige pattern, hens, like many humans, freely peck at other hens below their rank and submit to pecking from those above them. Hens rarely peck at roosters in the barnyard, but it was widely believed in the 17th century that they often pulled feathers from roosters below them in the pecking order." If we translated it into our modern television vernacular it would be like the show Survivor. A bunch of people on an island maneuvering, lying, tricking, and laboring to put themselves in position to win the big money by being the last one on the island. We all understand the idea because it is something seen all the time – people trying to get ahead of everyone else.
4. But then Jesus delivers the kicker: He tells them that his Kingdom isn’t going to be structured like the other power brokers or pharisaical hierarchy. It was going to be from the bottom up.
35Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, "If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all."
This was completely backwards – he wasn’t telling them to not desire to be first but that the path to get there was by putting themselves last.
II. Working toward the Bottom.
A. Jesus set out to retrain his followers through the process of becoming less important.
1. On the surface it might have seemed that Jesus was telling his disciples to be the best servant because he wanted to keep them in line or wanted to maintain his control over them.
2. That would be the common motivation encountered in the world.
Mark 10:41-43 the disciple maneuvering continues 42Jesus called them together and said, "You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. 43Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant,
3. There is something more fundamental he was trying to make them aware of because to live out the mission they would be sent on would take more than just making it look good on the outside.
B. What choosing to be last would do.
1. Combat their natural selfishness – if humanities biggest struggles begin with selfish desires then the obvious battle ground is right in the human heart and mind. The instruction to put ourselves last is about addressing that tendency. The foundation of following Jesus was built on the willingness to be humble and if that isn’t important then the rest of what he said would not make any sense.
2. It would focus them on individual sacrifice – because the world was all about being served and making other people do the work. That kind of philosophy never changes because who really wants to do the work if you don’t have to? Jesus was telling them that what effort they put into serving would be the real measure God would value in their work.
3. And it would make them aware that they were God’s selection – by willingly lowering themselves it the world’s view, any important thing which would occur from their life it would be from God’s power.
*The world puffs people up and treats them as important usually because they want something from them. Instead of really making them important it is a façade that quickly vanishes the moment a prettier, richer, more talented, or more ruthless person is lifted into their place. As a servant of God we are told by him that we actually are valuable no matter what spot in line or position at work or grade point average or score on a scale of 1 to 10. This is part of what we miss if we quit trying to be servants of God; we miss the ability to be content with who we are in Christ Jesus. Humble yourself before the Lord…..
Becoming a servant of all was the manner
III. Content with His Value.
A. The ability to humble yourself comes from being convinced of your value.
1. Because the world judges the value of people who do the little things as not so important. They look at those who are serving simply because God said to do so as weird or ignorant or a waste of time.
2. And if you offer to serve the world they would let you and have no problem taking because everyone wants to be first. If we expect to receive rewards and pats on the back for serving on this earth we have to let go of that unreasonable expectation.
*I have seen people excited about doing something for God or getting into ministry or doing things in the name of Jesus and they expect to feel some sense of exhilaration every time they serve or some type of God-approved sign that they are doing the right thing. When they realize that it involves serving thanklessly, helping people who insult them, watch as their fellow believers sit by doing nothing while they give their heart, and feel like they can never do enough – some of them just decide to quit. What they don’t realize is that in the moments where they are most mistreated is the time where God really sees how much the love him when they don’t give up. If you want to live a life with God it truly is about how much you value him and He values you, no one else matters in that moment. And when you truly believe in that truth then it doesn’t matter if you are first or last in line in the earthly things.
3. The main goal of Jesus was not to make life harder; it was to keep us on the right track away from the destructive tendencies we fall into so easily. He was giving us the advantage by letting us know things more fulfilling and lasting happen when we serve.
B. Later the Apostle Paul would basically restate what Jesus said - but he boiled it down to some things we can do to practice being a great servant.
Philippians 2:3-4 3Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. 4Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.
1. Be Content – meaning you may not like the situation your life is in right now but that doesn’t mean you cannot be confident in your relationship to God. He doesn’t measure your value like the world does – you can be last and still be valuable to him. And if you are down low then he says you are closer to being on the top of his list! That truth is meant to encourage us to keep trying.
2. Release Ambition – not the drive to do more and be better, but that bad ambition that looks at everyone else like an obstacle or obligation – a means to an end. Selfish ambition is ultimately self destructive. God made you for his purpose and you will only be completely fulfilled when you are working where he wants you.
3. Let them go first – In the simplest things – when you do that there are other people in the world who will appreciate it so much that they will remember to do it for someone else when they have the opportunity. Letting someone else go first gives them a blessing – that person might be on the edge of despair or anger or pain, and the smallest gesture can be the turning point of their day and possibly their year. The world doesn’t have much compassion for people; we are to be that person – it is where God’s grace shines through us.
4. Plan a sacrifice – Everyone will sacrifice when they have to, but do we make plans to sacrifice? Do we save or skip or rearrange things in order to give something valuable away so that someone else may benefit? That is the kind of spirit God wants us to have. And we can hope to be there one day or we can start now by planning to do it even from the little that we have and watch God use it to do more than we can imagine.
*One Sunday I had a young man come to me with an envelope with a dollar insisting that it be given to the offering because it would make a difference. Now if you look at the budget of our church then a dollar really wouldn’t seem to change a whole lot. A couple of things happened in that moment. First the young man’s family suddenly saw an example of pure and simple generosity - it made them excited to see this young man understand that at such a young age. Second it encouraged me to believe in next generation and how important it is we keep challenging and encouraging them to be people of character – how some of them will rise to be the lights of hope God intended them to be. But lastly was the dollar itself. If we followed that bill through the process of putting it into the plate, into the bank account then out to pay for something we do as a church, could it be that particular dollar would do something larger than any economist could forecast. And according to Jesus, the attitude is what God is most pleased with. To belong to God means lowering your own importance and living like God is more important.
