Jesus' Take on Power

Bethesda Lutheran Church, Moorhead

October 18, 2015

Mark 10:35-45

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

In case you haven’t noticed, the church has problems with power.

We in the church seem forever flummoxed by the question of power, usually finding ourselves caught between a rock and a hard place:  either trying to avoid the question of power entirely or adopting this world’s attitude toward power—hook, line and sinker!

Here in Mark chapter 10 the power issue rears its head in the form of a demand made by James and John, who seem to favor simply adopting, simply taking over the natural, human way of thinking about power:    ‘Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.’

The sheer arrogance of this request by the sons of Zebedee takes our breath away.

And the swift anger with which the other ten disciples regard this brazen request reveals that they were  thinking along the same lines—James and John were just cheeky enough to jump to the head of the line and ask first!

This unabashed power play by James and John stirs up powerful emotions in the circle of Jesus’ disciples.   Here’s how Eugene Peterson paraphrases it:  “When the other ten heard of this conversation, they lost their tempers with James and John. Jesus got them together to settle things down. ‘You’ve observed how [Gentile] rulers throw their weight around,’ he said, ‘and when people get a little power how quickly it goes to their heads. It’s not going to be that way with you. Whoever wants to be great must become a servant. Whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave. That is what the Son of Man has done: He came to serve, not to be served—and then to give away his life in exchange for many who are held hostage.’”

Jesus makes it crystal clear that simply adopting this world’s notions about power is not an option—either for him or for his followers:   “It’s not going to be that way with you!”

The trick here, though, is that just because the Jesus Movement refuses to adopt the natural human “take” on power—grab it and use it to control others—doesn’t mean that Jesus and his followers thereby are to avoid the power question entirely.

The choice isn’t between grabbing power or having nothing to do with power.

Rather, the question is what kind of power will Jesus wield?   What is the nature of the power that Jesus’s followers will exercise?

Perhaps you remember this old fable:   The Wind and the Sun were arguing one day over which of them was the mightiest.   Spotting a man trudging down a lonely road the two challenged each other to a contest:  who could get the man to take off his coat?

The Wind tried first, buffeting the traveler with his cold, biting wind….trying to blow the coat right off the man’s back…..but the harder the Wind blew, the more tightly the man wrapped his coat around himself!

Next the Sun gave it a try.   As the man trudged onward, the sky grew brighter, the air calmer….and the sun shone, warmer and warmer….so that shortly the man started to perspire, unbuttoned his coat and soon took it off.

There is power—and there is power!    Jesus describes two ways of holding power:  the Gentile way and the Jesus way.

The Gentile way is the garden variety way that power gets exercised in this old world.  The powerless seek to gain power, and the powerful cling to it for dear life.  Power makes the world go around.  It’s how you assert yourself, accomplish your goals, bend others to your will.  

The Gentle way is about “power over” others, whether through force or persuasion. It’s an ends-justify-the-means game, with winners and losers, no one willing to be at the end of the line or the bottom of the heap.

The request of James and John exemplified  the Gentile way--the default position we all have when it comes to power.

But Jesus will have none of it!   Not that Jesus avoids power, but that Jesus has a radically different “take” on power.  

Jesus’ power is a power unlike anything that we know in this world.  If the Gentile way is to exercise power over others….the Jesus way is a power under, a power with, a power alongside.

If the Gentile way is about grabbing and hanging onto power for dear life, the Jesus way is about letting go, giving up, tossing away your life….not to control others for your own sake….but to fulfill others for their sake.

Jesus knew full well the Gentile way.   But it was never his way.  It is not so among you; Jesus tells his disciples, but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all.

It is not so among you!   Jesus doesn’t say:  I sure hope I can persuade you to see things my way.  No.   Jesus announces a change that is already coming over us, simply because Jesus is the one standing before us, speaking to us, and we now belong to him:  “it is not so among you.”

Jesus imprints his topsy-turvy power upon us.   Jesus does that by living his “downwardly mobile” way of having and holding power, coming down from heaven, squeezing himself into Mary’s womb, being born in the crudest of surroundings, walking among the poorest of the poor, giving himself away at every turn, and finally allowing this Gentile-way-world to edge him out of it, up onto a cross “for us and for our salvation.”

Where the Gentile way says:  go, gain advantage, grab, hang on to power for dear life…..the Jesus way counters by saying follow, be vulnerable, let go of life, give yourself away for the sake of others—to help them be all that God has created them to be. 

That is Jesus’ way of exercising power—power that is demonstrated chiefly in showing mercy.

But what about us, Jesus’ followers?   Can we even come close to following Jesus in his single-minded focus on exercising power under, power with, power alongside others?

Although it seems impossible, there are those among us who regularly give it a go.

Just last month, here in the United States, we beheld someone on the national stage who day by day is trying his darnedest to walk the Jesus walk before the eyes of the world.

Pope Francis, leader of the largest branch of the Christian family, has been demonstrating the Jesus way with power ever since he was elected pope two years ago.

And that just could be why Francis is noticed, watched and admired…..because even in this world of “power over” people….we sense that Francis is on to something.

So instead of being caught up in a cloud of hangers-on and Vatican handlers…..Francis keeps breaking away, stepping out of his humble car, meeting folks who reach out to him from behind crowd-control barriers.  

Pope Francis must give members of his security detail fits!

The morning after he is elected pope, Francis shuffles to the front desk in the Vatican guest house where all the cardinal-electors were staying.  He gets out his own wallet and tries to pay for his room during the papal conclave.

Rather than taking up residence in the Papal Palace, Francis opts for the modest quarters of a guesthouse, where he’s still living.    He says mass weekly for and with all the servants who look after his needs.  

Francis comes to our country and addresses a joint session of Congress…..and then dines with down-and-outers in a homeless shelter in Washington DC.

It is Francis’s way, this priest from Argentina who was always attending to the poor, forever turning the church toward the faces of the neediest, in whom we truly see Christ.

We have come to expect from Francis words like these: "I prefer a Church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a Church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security." (Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium:  The Joy of the Gospel, par 49.)

Pope Francis is on to something—he is on to the Jesus’ way of exercising power under, chiefly by demonstrating mercy.

And the really cool thing about what Francis is up to is that any of us can look at him and say to ourselves:  “I could live like that.  I could turn aside from the Gentile way of power over.   I could give the Jesus way of power under a try.”

We’re noticing Francis, not because he’s a human hero, but because in him and his humble way, we see our Lord, who came not to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. 

In the name of Jesus.   Amen.