12^th November 2009

(Sunday 18 October 2009)

Rev Dr Max Champion at St John's UCA Mt Waverley

Lessons -- Isaiah 53:10-12; Hebrews 5:1-5; Mark 10:32-45

For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his
life as a ransom for many. (Mark 10:45 NRSV)

In view of everything that has already taken place in Jesus' ministry the demand of James and John for special privileges is breathtaking for its stupidity. It comes straight after Jesus has told them (for the third
time) of the terrible ordeal that he must undergo ahead of resurrection (vv32-34). His fidelity to God the Father and his love for flawed humans will end, not in being rewarded by religious and political leaders, but in being dishonoured.

Why then should his disciples expect special rewards -- even for heroic faith or martyrdom? It is enough, as he has said already, that they have a child-like faith unconcerned about their own religious achievements (vv 13-
16) but concerned to serve 'the little ones' without thought of reward (vv 17-31).

Jesus' response to James and John puzzled and shocked all of the disciples. Not unreasonably, they expected a 'Son of Man' to come from God to free them from persecution and to reward those who had bravely suffered or died for their faith. Hope of reward was the least that might be expected from a grateful God!

They have already been assured by Jesus that all who have left everything will receive the blessings of 'eternal life' now, in the midst of strife, and in future (10:29f). Despite this incredible promise, they haven't yet twigged to the transformation required of them as disciples of Jesus. They have a consumer approach to religion. 'Teacher,' they say, 'we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you. (v35)' They want discipleship 'to produce rewards, deliver the goods, work to their advantage'. (W Clarnette, Take and Read: The Year of Mark , p54)

They haven't understood the 'logic of sacrificial love'. Like us, they 'take an inordinately long time to wrench their thinking out of the world's mould to think according to the mind of Christ' (W Clarnette, p53). Nothing in our normal social experience prepares us for the logic of grace!

If we are still looking for rewards for faithful service, we come up against the example of Jesus. 'For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. (10:45)' This involves much more than serving God and others by trying to be more humble. Disciples must learn from Christ the way of costly love: a unique form of sacrificial service in which 'he gave his life as a ransom for many'.

The use of 'ransom' as a metaphor to describe Christ's 'service' helps us to see something of the depth of God's love for humanity, the 'many'
referring to the vast majority in contrast to a few faithful souls. A ransom is paid only in situations where people are living in bondage:
slaves, hostages, prisoners. A benefactor comes forward and hands over money to buy their freedom.

In the Old Testament the image is used in a general way to describe Israel being redeemed from 'slavery' in Egypt (Exodus 6:6) and her return from exile in Babylon (Isaiah 43:1f). As a free man arranges the release of a slave, so God frees slaves from bondage and captives from exile. It is also used of the hope that a Suffering Servant would come to pay the price of the nation's rebellion against God (Isaiah 53:10f). As a free man bears the cost of a slave's freedom from bondage so One would come to bear the cost of the nation's bondage to sin.

Behind the use of 'ransom' to describe the plight of Jews and the actions of the Son of Man is the idea that God acts 'on our behalf' in a dire situation similar to slavery, bondage or exile. As flawed human beings, we cannot free ourselves from who we are: namely, people who neither love God with our whole being nor our neighbour as ourselves. We cannot free ourselves from being curved in on ourselves. (Luther: We think that everything revolves around us.) Like James and John, 'we all want Jesus to do whatever we ask of him'. We all want to be rewarded for our faith.
That is who we are!

In view of what Jesus says to them about 'having come to serve' and 'given his life as a ransom for many' it is clear they have asked for the wrong thing. They should have asked to be forgiven their arrogance in the light of what he has done for them and all humanity -- the many, not a select few.

And what has he done for all? What he has done is so remarkable that the image of 'ransom' has to be stretched beyond its usual meaning. Now, the image is used of a person who voluntarily sacrifices himself for slaves, hostages or captives so that they are freed. He takes their place. The Son of Man sets us free from the bondage of sin, not by paying money but by dying on a barbaric cross.

This kind of sacrifice is not unknown in our experience. There are stories of incredibly brave people who have died or risked death by stepping forward to take the place of a brutalised prisoner of war or frightened hostages. By their sacrificial actions they have 'paid' for the freedom of those who were captured, imprisoned or condemned -- sometimes with their lives.

Such analogies help us to understand, however imperfectly, that Jesus 'serves humanity' by dying in our place. He dies, not like us as one who thinks that everything revolves around him, but because 'for our sake'
everything revolves around him doing the will of God the Father. He was prepared to die 'in our place' as if he were like us in being 'self- serving' in all things. Thus we can and must say that Jesus dies on behalf of us all.

The universal scope of what Christ has done for us flawed human beings is splendidly put in two of our hymns. Australian Hymn Book 68 praises God because we have been 'ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven'; Charles Wesley rejoices that even 'for those who will not come to him the ransom of his life was paid' (AHB 142, v4). Unlike other forms of 'giving up life as a ransom for others' Jesus acts for the whole of humanity in relation to our failure to truly serve God and our neighbour. What he has done is unequalled in history!

The image of ransom shouldn't be pushed too far. No 'theory of the atonement' is satisfactory. Jesus is not 'buying off' his Father or the Devil to stop them doing to us what they would otherwise do. It is a costly act of grace for sinful humanity which expresses the unity of love that exists between Father and Son and frees us from ourselves.

If, like James and John (and the other disciples), we still do not see something of the magnitude of God's self-giving grace in Christ, then fast- forward to Mark's account of the crucifixion (15:27-32). The places on the right and left of the dying, crucified Jesus are criminals who abuse him.

Is it too much to suggest that on the cross, where the glory of God's love for all is displayed, the places of honour belong to dishonourable criminals? If so, then the magnitude of God's love for sinful humanity exceeds all expectations. The Son of Man who came 'not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many' doesn't die between two faithful martyrs being punished for their faith (and rewarded by God) but between two criminals -- one on the left, the other on the right. Is it too much to suggest that there is a place for scoundrels who, as yet, show no desire to be 'ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven'? Is this what Charles Wesley meant by saying that 'the ransom of his life was paid for those that will not come to him'?

Perhaps, though, this is not what is meant by our text. Perhaps it is about future rewards. Jesus has said that those who have left everything to follow him will receive their reward, but that, in his grace, God decides special places of honour. It is not up to us to ask for whatever rewards we want!

Two things are certain:

* Dedicated disciples (who cannot fathom the logic of Jesus' 'service' or the requirements of following him), and hardened criminals (who pour scorn on his mission), both share in the benefits of his sacrificial death.

* Only those will sit at the right and left in the future Kingdom who understand, however dimly, that Christ died in place of both righteous and unrighteous sinners as the sign of God's undying love for humanity.

No wonder that disciples, then and now, are perplexed and astonished by the depths and breadth of God costly grace in the 'Son of Man who came not to be served but to serve and give his life as a ransom for all'.

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Rev Dr Max Champion is minister in the St John's Uniting Church, Mt Waverley, Victoria, Australia. Dr Champion is Chair of the Assembly of Confessing Congregations within the UCA.

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