It begs the question; what do you want? Are you sure what you want is the right thing
to want? And in a perfect world for you,
could you get what you want, if you only just a little more power over someone
else? Power is something the President
has. He uses it as he sees fit. Ideally for what is best for our
country. The President is responsible
for protecting the country, and he must from time to time, exercise power over
others, particularly those bent on hurting you and I. Do you suppose then, a President wishes for
more power, or less of it? With more power,
would come more control, or at least the illusion of control. With enough power, others would be afraid to
take actions against you, lest you use your power in a response to what they
did. But if behavior is only moderated
by fear, it cannot represent real change, or a real difference in motives. Even when it comes to how we respond to
God. If we only fear His power, we do
not really change, we just look to avoid getting caught, or rather, getting
punished.
It is Satan who looks to rule his empire by power over
others, and fear of reprisal. What Satan
wanted was to be like the Most High. It
was God’s power Satan craved, not His love.
Power is a strong aphrodisiac. It
is intoxicating. It is corrupting for
those who would crave it; or use what they believe they have of it. And most of all, it can blind you to the
truth, particularly to The Truth. Lest
you think otherwise, Matthew records for us a case of blinding truth, followed
by a complete deafness to the truth no one wanted to hear. It picks up in chapter twenty of his gospel
to the Hebrews. Keep in mind the common
belief about the Messiah was that He was to overthrow Roman oppression and
setup a kingdom that would never end. This
was a doctrine both the Pharisees and the Disciples of Christ shared. It was so common, it was a “known” truth,
something that could not be wrong, or false.
If you spoke against this basic doctrine, you were the heretic, not what
everyone else believed.
But Jesus knew a truth we did not. The kingdom He would begin, begins in the
heart. And it will have no end, as the
heart begins to transform here, and continues its journey past perfection in
Heaven. The overthrow of the Roman
Oppression would end, as when all evil ends, and how it ends. Evil ends only when we choose to submit to
Jesus and allow Him to transform us, putting an end to the evil within. So Jesus had a perspective on the common
belief of His day, that would never meet the expectations of either His
followers, or the Sanhedrin that rules the nation. It turns out, it is not the exercise of
Jesus’ power that ends evil, it is the outpouring of His transformative love
that ends it. Love is the kind of power
our God praises. Love that opens eyes
and ears to hear and see The Truth, and learn that what we thought we “knew”,
was not so common after all. Scripture
through the lens of Jesus, instead of the certainty of our own hearts and minds
about our particular interpretation, is a truth we have been deaf to, for quite
some time.
Case in point Matthew picks up in verse 17 saying … “And
Jesus going up to Jerusalem took the twelve disciples apart in the way, and
said unto them, [verse 18] Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man
shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and unto the scribes, and they shall
condemn him to death, [verse 19] And shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock,
and to scourge, and to crucify him: and the third day he shall rise again.” You and I know that the plain words of Jesus,
would come to pass exactly as He said they would. We have the benefit of hindsight. At this point in time, the disciples did
not. They were still looking forward to
an earthly kingdom with Jesus as King of Kings.
But a kingdom of power that begins in the here and now. Power that exerts control over others. Power they believed they would share by
reason of their service and closeness to Jesus.
This is what every other kingdom in history had looked like before, why
not the one the Messiah was destined to setup?
Yet what Jesus just said, in plain words, without metaphor, or
symbolism, just the facts – was that what they expected was not going to come
to pass. Instead something entirely
different would take place. Something
that would crush their earthly hopes, and establish their eternal ones forever
and ever. But they refused to hear. They chose to be deaf to The Truth, because
power looked more enticing.
Matthew continues the story in verse 20 saying … “Then came
to him the mother of Zebedee's children with her sons, worshipping him, and
desiring a certain thing of him. [verse 21] And he said unto her, What wilt thou?
She saith unto him, Grant that these my two sons may sit, the one on thy right
hand, and the other on the left, in thy kingdom.” James who would one day become the head of
the new church in Jerusalem; and John the beloved, who would one day become the
most significant prophet of any age – were looking for a different kind of
power from Jesus at this moment. They
had their mom make a request of Jesus, to place one son on the right, and one
on the left, the two most powerful positions in any earthly kingdom as they
were the two closest to the king. One
would be considered the second most powerful person in the new kingdom. The other would be considered the third most
powerful. Ages ago, Lucifer saw himself
as equal to Christ by sitting on the other side of the Father God. When He realized Jesus was actually second,
and he would never have “that” kind of relationship with the Father, he became
jealous, and over time enraged. Why not
him? He served God since the day of his
creation. But this is what he failed to
see, Lucifer despite his age, was in fact a created being. Jesus was not – He was God – infinite and
without end. And in all likelihood, the
creator of Lucifer and all the other angels.
But Lucifer hated this idea, to know that his power was not as great as
Jesus, was more than he would ever want to admit. A lust for power made him blind and deaf to
the truth. And nothing has changed.
Jesus had just told his disciples what was to come to
pass. They ignored it. They made themselves blind to it, deaf to His
words, and chose to pursue a path to power, based on a doctrine they held, that
the church affirmed, that was completely wrong.
What we “know” is true, through the lens of Jesus, may not be true at
all. Scriptures were correct. Isaiah was correct. It was the interpretation of Isaiah, by the
church of His day, that was in error.
This was not a problem in the Word, as there is no problem with the Word
today. The problem is not in
Scripture. It is in our arrogance of
what we “know”, of how we interpret the Word, that so often is absent the lens
of Jesus, and therefore in error now, as it was in error then. And just like the first disciples of Christ,
we pursue positions of power, even if they are in the church. We reason that positions of great
responsibility come with “power” over the church itself. We have decision making authority having been
put “in charge” of something. Like James
and John, we seek to put ourselves over our brethren, based on our proximity to
Jesus. But Jesus has other ideas about
power, service, and authority.
Jesus responds to mom’s request picking back up in verse 22
saying … “But Jesus answered and said, Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to
drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism
that I am baptized with? They say unto him, We are able.” The cup Jesus refers to is not a royal
goblet. It is not a golden chalice
filled with the best grape juice (wine) that could be pressed by delicate
hands. Instead it is a cup of woe, of
pain, and eventually of death for a mission of redemption. This would be forever the cause of Christ, to
see the world redeemed, and evil ended because we ask Him to end it, in
us. The baptism Jesus refers to is not a
simple immersion in the river Jordan as how He once began His own
ministry. It is a baptism in blood, His
own. His entire body would be drenched
in His own blood. Bathed in it from
relentless torture, and sadistic cruelty.
The world has no tolerance for the Love of Jesus. The world run by Satan hates His love. For His love can redeem, cleanse, and remove
evil from the hearts of men. The
disciples having no idea what they are agreeing to, seeing only this question
as a stepping stone to the power they seek, agree to it blindly.
Jesus continues in verse 23 saying … “And he saith unto
them, Ye shall drink indeed of my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I
am baptized with: but to sit on my right hand, and on my left, is not mine to
give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father.” So Jesus tells them, they are to follow His
path, though they have no understanding what that means at the moment. In reality it is good news. They are to join His cause, and no matter
what it may cost them, or do to their bodies, or end their lives – it is worth
it. But the prize they seek, is not for
Jesus to hand out. It is for His Father
to decide who is to sit closest to Jesus in the kingdom to come. In this, as in ALL things, Jesus submits His
will to that of His Father. Jesus has
learned to trust His Father in ALL things.
Even if this is a disappointment to mom and her two sons, it is a truth
they must contend with. And deafness
persists, as even still they harbor hope the Father will still pick the two of
them.
Now things get tense.
When a co-worker stabs you in the back, you are likely not to take too
kindly to it. The remaining disciples
were not too happy either. Matthew
continues in verse 24 saying … “And when the ten heard it, they were moved with
indignation against the two brethren. [verse 25] But Jesus called them unto
him, and said, Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over
them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. [verse 26] But it
shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be
your minister; [verse 27] And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be
your servant: [verse 28] Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto,
but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.” The other ten want power too. Having two brothers try to propel themselves
to the front of the line and take power that might otherwise belong to one of
them, makes them all mad. Notice, it was
not just Judas who was mad. Nor was it
Judas scheming here to be number one in the new regime. Scripture never says Judas tries this. This was James and John scheming. And ALL the other ten mad about it – Peter as
much as Judas.
Then Jesus begins to explain that great positions in His
kingdom begin with great service. The
most important position, is a position that is able to “serve” all the
others. Jesus uses His own life, as a
key example of this fact. Nothing in His
church will be built on traditional ideas of power, or authority, but on
service and dependence upon Him. That
lesson lays in the same plain words Jesus has a habit of using. And still our modern day lust for power, even
in matters of religion and church authority, keeps us deaf to The Truth. While none of us are the President of the
United States, many would be content to be the President of our denomination,
or conference, or group of churches, or even our local church. Sure we may not refer to that role with the
term President, instead we call it pastor, or bishop, or priest, or elder. But at the core of our titles is an
assumption of power, not power based in service to all, but power based on the prowess
of our spiritual growth. And it keeps us
deaf to His truth, to The Truth.
We lust for power and shun humility and the service that might
accompany it. We find ourselves
following the same path as James and John before they really understood the
mission of Jesus. But we still have the
benefit of hindsight. We already know
the end of this story, the reasons for the story. And yet still we seek the aphrodisiac of
power, instead of the simple humble service we might perform upon our neighbor,
our family, our co-workers, or more profoundly upon the one who would call
themselves our enemy. It begs the
question; what do you want? Do you trust
what you want? Jesus didn’t. Jesus deferred to the will of His Father in
ALL things. The total absence of self,
and the absolute ability to serve everyone else, even if it cost Him His life;
in fact, knowing it would. Let us pray
for the transformation of our character’s, of who we are, of what we want, of
how we think and what we believe, until we are in full harmony with our God,
His laws burned into the fabric of who we are, and His love echoing through us
without reservation, or limit, for the world who remain in such desperate need
…
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