This sermon was preached at Glenwood and Canoe Ridge Lutheran Churches, Decorah, Iowa, on September 23, 2018. It’s based on Mark 9:30-37. If you’d prefer to listen to it, find it at https://soundcloud.com/stacey-nalean-carlson.
Mark 9:30-37
30[Jesus and the disciples went on] and passed through Galilee. He did not want anyone to know it;31for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, “The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed, he will rise again.” 32But they did not understand what he was saying and were afraid to ask him.
33Then they came to Capernaum; and when he was in the house he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the way?” 34But they were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another who was the greatest. 35He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” 36Then he took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to them, 37“Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.”
I’ll admit it. When I first saw the term GOAT, G-O-A-T, being used to describe everyone from Serena Williams to Aaron Rodgers, I had no idea why these phenomenal athletes were being compared to a goat, of all animals. Nothing against goats, but really? I’m not sure how long it took me to realize that GOAT was actually an acronym that stood for Greatest Of All Time. That made a whole lot more sense.
In my confusion, I must have looked nearly as foolish as the disciples in our gospel reading for today. Could they be any more clueless?
Last week we heard about their journey with Jesus to Caesarea Philippi. On the way, on that difficult uphill climb, they recognize Jesus as their long-awaited Messiah. But then Jesus turns their notions of what this Messiah will do for them upside down. He tells them he will suffer, and die, and after three days rise again.
Six days later, Jesus takes Peter, James, and John up a high mountain where he is transfigured before them. And from a cloud, these clueless disciples hear a voice: This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him! Meanwhile, the rest of the disciples have been approached by a father, begging the disciples to cast a demon out from his son. They’re not able to do it. And later, after Jesus has cast the demon out himself, the disciples ask him privately, Why could we not cast it out? Jesus said to them, This kind can come out only through prayer.
That leads us to today’s reading. For a second time, Jesus tells his disciples what to expect on the road ahead: the Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed, he will rise again. But they did not understand what he was saying and they were afraid to ask him.
So instead, they argue with one another about who is the greatest. Who is the GOAT in the kingdom of God?
They’ve just absolutely failed at bringing healing to a boy and his family who desperately needed them to step up and make it happen, apparently because they haven’t yet understood the power of prayer.
Some of them have just seen Jesus talking with Elijah and Moses (two characters from their faith tradition who could have made a legitimate case for Greatest Of All Time).
They’ve all just heard Jesus talking not about glory and power and earthly success—but about rejection, and suffering, and death.
How in the world do they experience all of that and then go on to have a conversation about which one of them is the greatest?
The Greek word that’s used to describe their arguing implies one confused mind interacting with other confused minds, each further reinforcing the original confusion.1
Yep. It would be like me asking my mom why all these awesome athletes are being compared to goats. She wouldn’t have a clue. I wouldn’t have a clue. And all we’d be able to do for each other is reinforce the original confusion. What we would need to do to break out of that cycle is to ask an authority, someone like my brother, who would laugh at us, perhaps, but then give us accurate information: GOAT refers not to the animal; GOAT stands for Greatest Of All Time.
The disciples are confused. They don’t understand what Jesus is saying about being betrayed, and killed, and rising again. And instead of asking him, they argue among themselves about who is the greatest.
In their arguing, they demonstrate their complete and utter inability to understand the way of servant leadership that Jesus has come to model and to live–not to demonstrate his greatness, but to demonstrate God’s radical love for the whole world.
In their arguing, they reinforce the original confusion.
They would need to ask an authority—namely, Jesus—in order to get accurate information, but they’re afraid to ask him.
It’s easy to fault the disciples, but honestly, it seems like far too often we’re just as confused today.
We think the church ought to have power and influence.
We’re timid in proclaiming the gospel, for fear of losing the support of those who do wield power and influence.
We too often act as though pointing out someone’s faults is our job, our responsibility—instead of recognizing the power of grace, recognizing that our job, our responsibility, is to simply love and assure and welcome wholeheartedly.
Whoever wants to be first, must be last of all, and servant of all, Jesus tells his confused disciples. The GOAT in the kingdom of God is the servant of all. The Greek word here for servant (diakonos) is made up of the word dia (thoroughly) and konis (dust), so that quite literally to be a diakonos is to thoroughly raise up dust by moving in a hurry, and so to minister.2
Whoever wants to be the greatest in the kingdom of God kicks up dust, works hard, gets moving for all.
And then, just to make his point painfully obvious even for the most confused disciples, Jesus places a child among them and holds that child close to his heart. Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.
This welcome is not a begrudging welcome, an if-I-have-to kind of reception. This welcome is wholehearted. This welcome is holding the most vulnerable in your world—the voiceless, the discarded, the powerless, the overlooked—close to your own heart.
Maybe eventually I’ll stop sharing stories from the ELCA Youth Gathering, but I’m sure not ready to yet. Bryan Stevenson was one of the first speakers we heard from there. He is the founder and Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama. A widely acclaimed public interest lawyer, Mr. Stevenson has dedicated his career to helping the poor, the incarcerated and the condemned.3
He told us, God is calling us to get closer to the poor. The answers come in proximity. You don’t have to wait until you know everything. There is power in proximity…When we get close to the marginalized, we can wrap our arms around them. If we choose to get closer to those who are suffering, we begin to change the world.
Jesus took that child in his arms, wrapped his arms around the most vulnerable in his world, and told his disciples that when they welcome such children, they welcome him.
And maybe those disciples won’t ever really get it, won’t ever truly understand Jesus and his servant heart. But they don’t have to have all the answers. They don’t have to have it all figured out. In the gospel of Mark, to be a disciple of Jesus is to simply follow him.
And so, church, we follow Jesus into all those places of injustice and sorrow that we’d rather not go. We follow Jesus, until we see every last person as a beloved child of God. We follow Jesus, and we welcome him wholeheartedly, as we wrap our arms around the most vulnerable among us.
We embrace the vulnerable and vulnerability itself. We look not for power and influence, but to be transformed by God’s radical love embodied in Jesus.
Jesus is the GOAT in the kingdom of God. We follow him. Amen.
1 https://biblehub.com/greek/1260.htm