You can't get to the front of the line by way of the cheeseburger.
Comfort food cannot be found in a fast food line.
I have stood at the counter of many a fast food joint in my time.
I have eaten plenty of cheeseburgers and chicken nuggets and french fries.
None of those foods even ranks close to being 'comfort food' for me.
Nothing beats the real stuff, made at home.
I enjoy the occasion buffet and, yes, that stuff is much better than any McSomething.
But, it's still not the same at eating at my mother-in-law's.
My mother-in-law makes the most awesome lasagna ever known to mankind.
Never had a bad lasagna at her house.
My father-in-law can grill these plump, juicy deer meat burgers.
GOOD GOLLY, I can eat three in a sitting and I still want more.
The man is awesome on a grill.
Then there is this cheesy chicken recipe. HALLELUJAH! (Handel's Messiah chorus beings...)
It has something to do with crescent rolls, cheese, sour cream, cheese and chicken.
Did I mention cheese?
Good Lord, when i first moved down to my wife's hometown I spent a lot of meals at the home of my future in-laws.
I think I gained thirty pounds the first year I moved down here!
The issue was, I was actually getting the real thing.
Real food. Real home cooking.
I had lived on my own since I left home at 18.
I really hadn't had a regular home-cooked meal (outside of a holiday meal) in a long time.
Spiritually speaking, many people long for something real.
Something that will fulfill their souls.
Something that will fill the void.
Nothing fills that place in inside of us like purpose.
We want something to do, something with our hands, something that makes us feel important and useful.
It is just such a longing that brings James and John to ask Jesus to fulfill their request.
Take a look.
Don't they sound like little kids?
How many of us shyly, covertly, sneaked up on our parents with a request we weren't sure they would fulfill?
“we want you to do for us whatever we ask.”
I don't think so!
But, James and John are not little kids.
They are full grown men with fishing careers.
Those careers are not going to lead them anywhere in life.
Nothing that will amount to anything important, anyway.
So, they come asking.
“Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory.”
In our culture and society here in America, one of our biggest drawbacks is that we have a 'fast food' mentality.
I'd say it began back in the 1940's.
The 50's and 60's escalated the push to the fast and the quick.
"All you need is this hand dandy little gadget and you'll be on the easy road to good & successful."
The push in the decades following would lead us to infomercials, do-it-yourself schemes, anything to get people to think that they could find a simplified way of fixing everything.
It really wasn't much different for men like James and John.
These two guys had been walking with Jesus for quite awhile now.
The talk around town was that this Jesus was going to become King of Jews and restore Israel to it's rightful place of glory among the nations.
Why not get a little glory for themselves?
Mark 10
38 “You don’t know what you are asking,” Jesus said
Such is the case with so many of us.
We don't understand what it is we are asking for, but it doesn't stop us from piling on all the things we want God to do for us.
“Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?”
What? All I was asking is for you to help me get ahead a little bit.
Maybe move me on up like George and Weezie, to the east side.
What is this stuff about baptism? I didn't ask to be baptized.
That's just it. You don’t know what you are asking.
Jesus wants these two guys to stop for a second and think about what it is they are saying.
"You want glory? You want to sit with me, on my left and right? Do you understand what it takes to be in glory with me? Are you willing to walk that road?"
39 “We can,” they answered.
Just like little kids.
They have no idea what this road is really all about.
All they know is they want this thing so bad, they would do anything to get it.
"I'm telling you right now, you stick your hand in that trap, you're gonna get bit."
"I'm telling you, if your momma catches you doing that, she is gonna be mad."
"If you don't get in here right now, that bee is going to sting you."
We don't listen.
And, we don't realize there are consequences to our choices.
So, we get bit, we get stung. Mom gets mad.
If Jesus was speaking to them in our plain English, he'd probably be saying,
"You guys don't get it at all. But, here's the truth. You're going to walk this road. And, it's going to be painful."
39 Jesus said to them, “You will drink the cup I drink and be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with, 40 but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared.”
There's that baptism thing again.
Many of you have most likely been baptized at some point in your life..
Most likely you have been dunked or sprinkled or poured on.
But, lets just see what kind of light Webster's can shed on this subject.
All so you can get ahead and become all you can be.
I interpret Jesus saying, "Ok guys, I get it. You've seen these Gentile rulers, and when they get into office and have power, they lord it over their people. They make them follow or else. But, this is not how you guys are going to do it."
Jesus wants his followers to know they are going to have power and glory.
But, to have it, they need to live the life they were baptized into.
A baptism into servitude.
Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant
This initiation into the Christ following life would hinge on whether they could shrug off the idea of greatness and glory that had been rumored with the coming of this 'King'.
Jesus didn't come to smite all the enemies of Jews.
He came to lay his life down and offer it to be broken for the sins of many.
And, to be great in His Kingdom means we lay down our lives, forget about our greatness, in order to be great one day...later.
Serving others and putting their needs above our own.
That's what it takes to be great.
McDonald's toots it's own greatness having served 'billions and billions' as we see on their signs.
Jesus wasn't looking to toot his own horn.
He wasn't looking for a number of how many would/has/could be/been saved.
He just came to serve.
When he came to the Jordan River that day, what was that all about?
What happened there?
What did he take upon himself?
To look at the scripture in Matthew 3, why was the Father pleased?
If we take Jesus' words seriously, then we have to believe.
He came to serve, and for no other purpose.
To give his life and to have it spent on others.
This was His Father's will.
When you were baptized, what was it all about?
Was it a formal notion of church membership?
Was it simply an 'outward sign of an inward decision'? (Why does that sound so lame to me now?)
Or does it go deeper than that?
To be baptized into a holy calling.
To follow in the footsteps of Jesus.
Giving all that we have to God so The Almighty can use us for his will.
The United Methodist adage means much to me now.
"Remember your baptism".
And, remember, that this Christian life is not about ourselves.
It is about Jesus and serving others.
Serving others.
I learned a lot about that the first year I moved down to my wife's hometown.
My now in-laws of 10 years took me in, let me sleep on their couch, fed me, put up with my sorry self, helped me with countless things and even pulled me out of a financial jam or two.
God will take care of you.
Just like my mother-in-law's home cooking.
It's the real thing.
Comfort food cannot be found in a fast food line.
I have stood at the counter of many a fast food joint in my time.
I have eaten plenty of cheeseburgers and chicken nuggets and french fries.
None of those foods even ranks close to being 'comfort food' for me.
Nothing beats the real stuff, made at home.
I enjoy the occasion buffet and, yes, that stuff is much better than any McSomething.
But, it's still not the same at eating at my mother-in-law's.
My mother-in-law makes the most awesome lasagna ever known to mankind.
Never had a bad lasagna at her house.
My father-in-law can grill these plump, juicy deer meat burgers.
GOOD GOLLY, I can eat three in a sitting and I still want more.
The man is awesome on a grill.
Then there is this cheesy chicken recipe. HALLELUJAH! (Handel's Messiah chorus beings...)
It has something to do with crescent rolls, cheese, sour cream, cheese and chicken.
Did I mention cheese?
Good Lord, when i first moved down to my wife's hometown I spent a lot of meals at the home of my future in-laws.
I think I gained thirty pounds the first year I moved down here!
The issue was, I was actually getting the real thing.
Real food. Real home cooking.
I had lived on my own since I left home at 18.
I really hadn't had a regular home-cooked meal (outside of a holiday meal) in a long time.
Spiritually speaking, many people long for something real.
Something that will fulfill their souls.
Something that will fill the void.
Nothing fills that place in inside of us like purpose.
We want something to do, something with our hands, something that makes us feel important and useful.
It is just such a longing that brings James and John to ask Jesus to fulfill their request.
Take a look.
Mark 10
New International Version (NIV)
The Request of James and John
35 Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him. “Teacher,” they said, “we want you to do for us whatever we ask.” 36 “What do you want me to do for you?” he asked.
37 They replied, “Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory.”
Don't they sound like little kids?
How many of us shyly, covertly, sneaked up on our parents with a request we weren't sure they would fulfill?
“we want you to do for us whatever we ask.”
I don't think so!
But, James and John are not little kids.
They are full grown men with fishing careers.
Those careers are not going to lead them anywhere in life.
Nothing that will amount to anything important, anyway.
So, they come asking.
“Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory.”
In our culture and society here in America, one of our biggest drawbacks is that we have a 'fast food' mentality.
I'd say it began back in the 1940's.
The 50's and 60's escalated the push to the fast and the quick.
"All you need is this hand dandy little gadget and you'll be on the easy road to good & successful."
The push in the decades following would lead us to infomercials, do-it-yourself schemes, anything to get people to think that they could find a simplified way of fixing everything.
It really wasn't much different for men like James and John.
These two guys had been walking with Jesus for quite awhile now.
The talk around town was that this Jesus was going to become King of Jews and restore Israel to it's rightful place of glory among the nations.
Why not get a little glory for themselves?
Mark 10
38 “You don’t know what you are asking,” Jesus said
Such is the case with so many of us.
We don't understand what it is we are asking for, but it doesn't stop us from piling on all the things we want God to do for us.
“Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?”
What? All I was asking is for you to help me get ahead a little bit.
Maybe move me on up like George and Weezie, to the east side.
What is this stuff about baptism? I didn't ask to be baptized.
That's just it. You don’t know what you are asking.
Jesus wants these two guys to stop for a second and think about what it is they are saying.
"You want glory? You want to sit with me, on my left and right? Do you understand what it takes to be in glory with me? Are you willing to walk that road?"
39 “We can,” they answered.
Just like little kids.
They have no idea what this road is really all about.
All they know is they want this thing so bad, they would do anything to get it.
"I'm telling you right now, you stick your hand in that trap, you're gonna get bit."
"I'm telling you, if your momma catches you doing that, she is gonna be mad."
"If you don't get in here right now, that bee is going to sting you."
We don't listen.
And, we don't realize there are consequences to our choices.
So, we get bit, we get stung. Mom gets mad.
If Jesus was speaking to them in our plain English, he'd probably be saying,
"You guys don't get it at all. But, here's the truth. You're going to walk this road. And, it's going to be painful."
39 Jesus said to them, “You will drink the cup I drink and be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with, 40 but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared.”
There's that baptism thing again.
Many of you have most likely been baptized at some point in your life..
Most likely you have been dunked or sprinkled or poured on.
But, lets just see what kind of light Webster's can shed on this subject.
Definition of BAPTIZE
transitive verb
1: to administer baptism to
2 a : to purify or cleanse spiritually especially by a purging experience or ordeal
b : initiate
3: to give a name to (as at baptism) : christen
intransitive verb
: to administer baptism
There's that transitive verb thing again.
If you've read enough of my posts, you probably have this down by now.
Lets look at that last part and get that out of the way.
Since I am a minister and perform baptisms, I don't transfer anything to the person I dunk or sprinkle.
I just administer the baptism. I am there to perform it.
Ah, but something is transferred to the person in question.
Webster's would call it a purging experience, an ordeal.
He would also call it a way to initiate.
OOOOO, college people probably get that word more than most.
To enter a fraternity or sorority, what kind of initiation process were you subjected to?
That first year of college can be torture if you don't understand what you are getting yourself in to.
In any job, there is most likely some sort of way to initiate a new employee.
You get to be the one to clean up the messes, take out the trash, tell that other employee they are fired.
All so you can get ahead and become all you can be.
What are we being initiated into as Christians? What are we being baptized for?
We'll save that for just a moment, because Jesus will address the whole twelve in a minute.
41 When the ten heard about this, they became indignant with James and John.
Why did they become indignant?
More importantly, what does that word mean exactly?
Definition of INDIGNANT
: feeling or showing anger because of something unjust or unworthy
: filled with or marked by indignation [became indignant at the accusation]
OK, so, this isn't just mildly irritated. They are hopping mad!
But why?
"You upset Jesus. And, you just don't upset Jesus. Now we are all in trouble."
No.
I think it goes way further than that.
: feeling or showing anger because of something unjust or unworthy
Who in the world do you think you are asking Jesus to put you in a high place of glory and honor? You think you're more important than we are?
This isn't the first time the disciples argued amongst themselves about greatness and importance.
Matthew 18 they come to Jesus asking who was the greatest in the kingdom.
Luke 9 starts with Jesus sending out the Twelve to do great works and by the end of the chapter they are back, arguing about who amongst them was going to be the greatest.
Luke 9 ends with Jesus, again, speaking about what it means to be a follower of Himself.
“No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”
Catch the key word there. Service.
Something to do.Work to be done.
For myself? Well, I could.
I can service my own vehicle.
I can fix my own garbage disposal.
I can unplug my storm drain.
But, the word goes much deeper than that.
Webster's rips off a long 11 lines of explanation on service.
I'll let you look at it yourself.
The word can be used as a noun, a verb (action), or an adjective (description).
The word can be used as a noun, a verb (action), or an adjective (description).
With so many ways to use the word, all that right there says loudly that the world of service goes way beyond the world of 'me'.
If you bothered to check out Webster's page, the line that stood out to me was contribution to the welfare of others.
This is what they were baptized into.
Jesus would get them all together and spell it out.
Verse 42 might be a little tricky to understand.42 Jesus 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. 43 Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 44 and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. 45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
I interpret Jesus saying, "Ok guys, I get it. You've seen these Gentile rulers, and when they get into office and have power, they lord it over their people. They make them follow or else. But, this is not how you guys are going to do it."
Jesus wants his followers to know they are going to have power and glory.
But, to have it, they need to live the life they were baptized into.
A baptism into servitude.
Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant
This initiation into the Christ following life would hinge on whether they could shrug off the idea of greatness and glory that had been rumored with the coming of this 'King'.
Jesus didn't come to smite all the enemies of Jews.
He came to lay his life down and offer it to be broken for the sins of many.
And, to be great in His Kingdom means we lay down our lives, forget about our greatness, in order to be great one day...later.
Serving others and putting their needs above our own.
That's what it takes to be great.
McDonald's toots it's own greatness having served 'billions and billions' as we see on their signs.
Jesus wasn't looking to toot his own horn.
He wasn't looking for a number of how many would/has/could be/been saved.
He just came to serve.
When he came to the Jordan River that day, what was that all about?
What happened there?
What did he take upon himself?
To look at the scripture in Matthew 3, why was the Father pleased?
If we take Jesus' words seriously, then we have to believe.
He came to serve, and for no other purpose.
To give his life and to have it spent on others.
This was His Father's will.
When you were baptized, what was it all about?
Was it a formal notion of church membership?
Was it simply an 'outward sign of an inward decision'? (Why does that sound so lame to me now?)
Or does it go deeper than that?
To be baptized into a holy calling.
To follow in the footsteps of Jesus.
Giving all that we have to God so The Almighty can use us for his will.
The United Methodist adage means much to me now.
"Remember your baptism".
And, remember, that this Christian life is not about ourselves.
It is about Jesus and serving others.
Serving others.
I learned a lot about that the first year I moved down to my wife's hometown.
My now in-laws of 10 years took me in, let me sleep on their couch, fed me, put up with my sorry self, helped me with countless things and even pulled me out of a financial jam or two.
God will take care of you.
Just like my mother-in-law's home cooking.
It's the real thing.
