Power to Serve, Not Dominate—Lectionary Reflection for Pentecost 22B (Mark 10:35-45)

Mark 10:35-45 New Revised Standard Version UpdatedEdition

³⁵ James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came forward to him and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” ³⁶ And he said to them, “What is it you want me to do for you?” ³⁷ And they said to him, “Appoint us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” ³⁸ But Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” ³⁹ They replied, “We are able.” Then Jesus said to them, “The cup that I drink you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptized you will be baptized, ⁴⁰ but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to appoint, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.”

⁴¹ When the ten heard this, they began to be angry with James and John. ⁴² So Jesus called them and said to them, “You know that among the gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. ⁴³ But it is not so among you; instead, whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, ⁴⁴ and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. ⁴⁵ For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many.”

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                Ever since Peter proclaimed Jesus to be the Messiah (Mk. 8:27-29), Jesus had been trying to help his disciples understand what that meant. It’s clear that they didn’t understand. In fact, at one point, Jesus caught the disciples arguing over who was the greatest. Jesus responded to their jockeying for position in his kingdom by telling them that those who are first will be last of all. He offered up a child as a symbol of God’s realm (Mk. 9:33-37). He would further suggest that to enter the kingdom one do so as a child (Mk 10:13-16). Not only that but he told his disciples that it is easier for a camel to walk through the eye of a needle than for a wealthy person to enter the realm of God (Mk. 10:17-31). Even as the disciples imagined Jesus’ kingdom in glorious and triumphant terms, such that they could claim positions of power in Jesus’ future administration, Jesus kept telling them that his destiny lay elsewhere. So, as Jesus led his disciples toward Jerusalem, he kept telling them that he would suffer and die but be raised from the dead on the third day. It was a message they couldn’t comprehend until after his resurrection. Of course, in Mark’s Gospel, all we see is an empty tomb at the end.  

                The lectionary selection skips over Jesus’ third attempt to convey to his disciples, as they journeyed toward Jerusalem, that before too long he would suffer and die at the hands of the religious and political authorities (Mk. 10:32-34). Even as Jesus once again spoke of the path he was on, the disciples didn’t get it. I think it’s worth including this prefatory passage because it helps set the next phase of the conversation in motion. Jesus keeps talking about dying and rising, while his disciples keep imagining Jesus attaining power in Israel, such that they can share in his glory. We see this revealed clearly in our reading for this week. I think it’s an appropriate word for the church at this moment as we draw closer to an election that has significant implications for the future of the United States. At least for some Christians, a win for Donald Trump and his America First message offers them a place at the table, such that they can rule over the nation (See Matthew Taylor’s The Violent Take It By Force, Broadleaf, 2024). While there are significant movements that want to share in Donald Trump’s glory, should he attain the presidency once again, there are other Christians that might not have as ambitious a goal—that of instituting Christian supremacy in the United States—they too wish to have a place at the table. Power is intoxicating, as we see here in the response of James and John to Jesus’ revelation of his destiny.

                James and John, the sons of Zebedee, two of Jesus’ followers, approached Jesus as they walked along the road to Jerusalem. They asked Jesus if he could do something for them. After Jesus asked them what they wanted from him, they responded: “Appoint us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory” (Mk. 10:37). In other words, could one of us serve as Vice President and the other Secretary of State. That’s pretty bold. It didn’t go unnoticed by their fellow apostles, who became angry at this request.

                Jesus responded to this request by the Sons of Zebedee by asking them whether they were ready to drink from his cup and be baptized with the same baptism he was about to go through. Since they didn’t understand what Jesus had been telling them for some time, they told Jesus, “Sure, we can do it.” Jesus told them they would drink from the same cup and share in his baptism. However, when it came to who gets to sit alongside him on the throne of heaven, that wasn’t in his power to grant. Rather, those seats would go to the ones for whom the seat had been prepared. When it comes to the anger shown by the other ten, I’m assuming they were angry they didn’t ask first. Why didn’t think of that?

                Before we get to what Jesus said next, we should think for a moment about the nature of power. The world tells us that if you have power you get to set the agenda. Once you have power it’s difficult to relinquish it. That’s the beauty of American democracy. With only one exception, that being Donald Trump in 2020, Presidents handed off power to their successors without complaint, even if they lost. They might ask for a recount, but in the end, they agreed with the outcome and stepped away. In the world of ancient Rome emperors rarely died of natural causes. Often, they either died in battle or were assassinated. That is often true around the world today. Power is intoxicating. Like wealth, the more you have the more you want to accumulate. That’s why the United States has the biggest military in the world. It helps the nation dominate the rest of the world. When it comes to Christianity in the United States, being the biggest and wealthiest of religions is something many work to sustain. As noted above, there are movements afloat that seek Christian supremacy, such that Christians can have dominion over not only the government but the culture as a whole. One version of that is called the Seven Mountains Movement. The message here is that Christians should exert power. If they can control a politician or a party, all the better. The point is, protecting our rights.

                Friedrich Nietzsche famously spoke of the “will to power.” That is what makes us human. He wrote that the will to power is the essence of life:  

Even that social body whose individuals, as we have just assumed above, treat one another as equals (this happens in every healthy aristocracy) must itself, if the body is vital and not moribund, do to other bodies everything that the individuals within it refrain from doing to one another: it will have to be the will to power incarnate, it will want to grow, to reach out around itself, pull towards itself, gain the upper hand—not out of some morality or immorality, but because it is alive, and because life simply is the will to power. This, however, more than anything else, is what the common European consciousness resists learning; people everywhere are rhapsodizing, even under the guise of science, about future social conditions that will have lost their ‘exploitative character’—to my ear that sounds as if they were promising to invent a life form that would refrain from all organic functions. ‘Exploitation’ is not part of a decadent or imperfect, primitive society: it is part of the fundamental nature of living things, as its fundamental organic function; it is a consequence of the true will to power, which is simply the will to life. [Nietzsche, Friedrich. Beyond Good and Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future (Oxford World's Classics) (p. 153). OUP Oxford. Kindle Edition].

For many people, even Christians, this is the central principle on which to build a nation and more. For many, power is revealed in one’s ability to cause fear among others, including one’s allies.

                The question is whether this view of power is true to the mission of Jesus. Does Jesus teach us that we are to seek power over others so we can dominate and exploit them? That’s what Nietzsche believed, but is that what Jesus taught?

                The question posed by James and John isn’t unique, even within the church. People have been jockeying power since the beginning of the church. This jockeying can be overt or covert, but lay people can seek to dominate the church by gaining a seat on the church board or working behind the scenes, manipulating people to get their way. We clergy quickly learn to play the game, lest we not survive. This occurs even in churches that have institutional structures that seek to prevent oligarchy. Thus, even in the church, the world’s methods of power politics show up.  

                James and John approach Jesus together. They simply ask to have the seats closest to him when he comes into his kingdom. It really doesn’t matter where one sits; they figure they can share power. But sitting next to the king reveals who has power. By getting to the front of the line they effectively pushed Peter aside, or so they thought.

                Once again sensing that something was brewing among his disciples, Jesus called them together so he could teach them what power looked like in his realm. It wasn’t the kind of power seen in the world. So, Jesus tells his followers that while Gentiles envision power as a top-down affair, that’s not the way it works in God’s realm. In the world, tyrants/autocrats seek to accumulate power to themselves so they can lord it over others. However, in God’s realm, if someone wants to be great, they must become servants. Those who wish to be great must become slaves to all. Just so they get his meaning, he tells them that the “Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many” (Mk. 10:45). So, what does this mean?

                Stanley Saunders writes:

Servanthood is too often a platitude in congregations, or a mantle thrust upon some to the advantage of others, rather than a defining shared practice. Where service is valued only by a few and consumed by others, the church merely replicates the politics of the Gentiles. Distrust and division, displayed here by the disciples, are sure symptoms of communal life disrupted by the quest for personal power. [Feasting on the Gospels: Mark, p. 331]    

Jesus, who is heading toward Jerusalem, where he faces suffering and death, offers himself as the exemplar of what it means to be a servant. It is a call that goes out to everyone in the community, not just the few. When it comes power, Jesus offers us a choice. Will we follow him or Nietzsche? Nietzsche teaches us that the essence of life is discovered in the will to have power over others. Jesus teaches that the essence of life is discovered in being a servant of others.