What a peculiar King, what a strange Kingdom.

Mark 10:32-45

We are in the season of Kingdomtide, also called the season after Pentecost or Ordinary time.  It started the Sunday after Pentecost Sunday, Trinity Sunday, and ends in just a few weeks, the Sunday before Advent starts.  Kingdomtide ends on a Sunday in which we usually celebrate as “The Hanging of the Green” – which is like a getting ready to get ready for Christmas, since Advent is our time of preparing for Christ’s coming.  But really that last Sunday of Kingdomtide is called Christ the King Sunday or The Reign of Christ Sunday.  There is no particular thing that is celebrated or taught during this season, it is the season in which we are challenged to live faithfully as a part of the story of Jesus that we spend the rest of the year walking through.  

On that Sunday we usually read Gospel stories from Jesus’ arrest, trial, or crucifixion.  And we are reminded and even celebrate that Jesus is a very peculiar King, a very different Lord, and brings a very real but very different Kingdom.  He is lifted high, he enters his glory, and he is crowned not in some mighty castle, or as the leader of a powerful military force, or in an oval shaped office.  Instead, He is King when he is lifted high on a cross.  

This has always been a problem for those who wish to be followers of Jesus.  And we spend a lot of our time, you and I, preferring to think of Jesus as the kind of savior that is big and strong and powerful and successful.  That kind of savior saves us from being a failure or being insignificant and wants to bring us meaning and success and power.

In our Scripture tonight this is precisely where we find the first followers of Jesus, wrestling w/ and having the hardest time coming to grips w/ the kind of King Jesus is and the kind of Kingdom he brings w/ him.  

We pick up right where we left off last week.  

Remember how astonished the disciples were, they were concerned and perplexed.  As we begin reading tonight they are still amazed and the Scripture tells us that the people who were following along w/ Jesus and the disciples are just flat out scared.  

You might remember from last week that Jesus was about to set out on a journey.  Here we find out exactly what that journey is – Jesus is marching to Jerusalem.  And Jesus isn’t confused about what’s about to happen there, the cross is not sneaking up on him, it isn’t Jesus' plan gone horribly wrong… Jesus is marching to Jerusalem and to the cross.  For the third time in as many chapters, he takes his disciples aside and tells them, “Look, we’re going to Jerusalem and here’s how it’s gonna play out:  They’re gonna hand me over, beat me, mock me, kill me and then three days later I will rise again.”

And James and John here this and say something like, “Okay, so it’s gonna get ugly for a bit, but it’s only three days, how bad can it be and then you rise again, not sure what that means but sounds good, sounds like we win!  That’s when you go storming into the headquarters of the Romans who occupy Jerusalem and basically rule over us Jews, go right up to Pilate and say, “Okay buddy, you made a big mistake, it’s pay back time!”  So when that happens we want you to do something for us, Jesus.  I mean we have left everything to follow you, Peter pointed that out, and he did have a good point.  We wanna sit on your right and left when you enter your glory!"

But Mark wants us to know that, for Jesus the cross is not simply a rough spot in the road, a really bad day on the way to bright sunshiny things ahead.  The cross is Jesus entering his glory.  The cross is when he is crowned king.  The cross is when we can most clearly see God’s Kingdom begin to anchor itself in this world.   

Jesus calls the 12 together and says to them, “You know how the government works the ones who are the rulers lord it over everyone else and the greatest among them can do whatever they want, cause they’re in charge.  BUT IT IS NOT SO AMONG YOU (and it can never be so)!  The one who wants to be greatest must become the servant of all and the one who gets in first is everyone's slave.  I am not looking to be served but to serve and I came not for pay back but to give my life away – that is the cup I drink from, the baptism I’ve been baptized w/ -- And It will be no different for ya'll.  That’s how this kingdom of mine works.  Here you are thinking you know how this is going to go, but just wait.  Just wait until you see who gets to sit at my right and left, the one’s who get the positions of honor in my kingdom, as I enter my glory!”  

"They crucified two robbers w/ him, one on his right and one on his left."  Mark 15:27 

Let us Pray:

Father, Give us courage to follow your Son, Jesus.  Give us hearts eager to exchange our efforts and hopes for glory in order that we might take up our cross and follow You each day.  In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.