Hebrews 5:1-10
Every high priest chosen from among mortals is put in charge of things pertaining to God on their behalf, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. 2 He is able to deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is subject to weakness; 3 and because of this he must offer sacrifice for his own sins as well as for those of the people. 4 And one does not presume to take this honor, but takes it only when called by God, just as Aaron was. 5 So also Christ did not glorify himself in becoming a high priest, but was appointed by the one who said to him, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you”; 6 as he says also in another place, “You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.” 7 In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. 8 Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered; 9 and having been made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him, 10 having been designated by God a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.
Mark 10:35-45
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, “Grant 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 grant, 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; but 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.”
Both of these texts, but especially the one in Hebrews, is kind of like walking through really deep sand or mud with really heavy boots. But the Hebrews text tees up a really important difference between who and what a high priest does and how one gets to be a high priest. Notice there's no discussion about crowns or robes or anointing or jubilant celebrations or even a lavish lifestyle. There’s only discussion of the role, responsibilities and the characteristics that are required to be a high priest. Additionally, it's not an event of succession or even self-proclamation, but only when called by God, as was Aaron, the brother of Moses. And you may remember that Moses said no the first time he was called to be a leader. Does anybody remember why? He had a stutter and he was not confident in his own abilities to speak and he thought that would preclude him from being effective. And God persisted; and Moses acquiesced; and then carried out Yahweh's commands faithfully. The same was true for Aaron when he was called. As the text reads, “he is able to deal gently with the ignorant and the wayward, since he himself is subject to weakness”. The weak leader is not the kind of leader we want to spend any time with. It's not the kind of leader that the world expects and demands; one who's clever, powerful, agile, and insightful, and leads with strength and might.
Hebrews goes on to say that Jesus, as our high priest—is not the Jesus that we know who is outsmarting the scribes and Pharisees or overturning the tables in the temple with the money changers. This Jesus is one who offers up prayers to God and cries out loud with tears. He does not name himself as the high priest caring for the lowly, but instead he acts with reverent submission. And because of this, a high priest can reflect that leadership; a model that is foreign and uncomfortable, even as we seek to be leaders in the faith and in the world. Additionally, at the very center of that role, is not unending strength, but a courage to be vulnerable. That's a word we really don't like. It's an experience that we run from. It's an affect that we deny, because we translate vulnerability as weak; helpless; needy. Yet, I fear that in the Mark 10 text that we also are resembling James and John. All too often, we may not say it out loud, but we all know that our behaviors, our words, our actions reveal the hunger we all secretly have to be elevated, to be valued more than others, to be perceived as brilliant and successful, agile in crisis and impervious to difficulty and strife.
And that's not how we were raised and schooled. It's certainly not how we're rewarded in our jobs, in our communities, even sometimes in our families. Yet, we are here and worshiping together, because we seek to be followers of Christ. And herein lies the tension. We want to serve. We care about serving, but we still want the power. We want to serve. We want to be Christ-like, but we still want to be in control. We want to serve, but we want to be first, so we can avoid being last. We're joining the disciples in what in modern times call being “tone deaf” to what Jesus is calling and asking and predicting.
Further, in the previous text in Mark this is the third time now that Jesus is telling his disciples (and us) that life is going to get a whole lot worse before it gets better. He says to the disciples, “as they were going on the road going up to Jerusalem... he took them aside, and began to say... “the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes and they will condemn him to death. Then they will hand him over to the Gentiles. They will mock him. They will kill him and then after three days, he will rise again.” And as we know in the Matthew text, the next thing that Peter says is, “Lord, forbid it.” In this text, Jesus is trying to help the disciples think differently about how they're being called. One of the scholars on this text, Eugene Boring says, “To get to the road of glory, (let alone occupying seats of authority and prominence), we cannot bypass the events of Good Friday and their implications.” Again, this is not what we want to hear.
The timing of this lectionary text may feel like it's heaping coals since we're still struggling. We're suffering, because of Covid with still an uncertain future, and pretty much…a miserable recent past. And, I'm sure you've noticed that we're still all not too happy. We're still stressed. We're still worried. We're still tentative. We're anxious and deep down we're just downright angry that we've been forced to change so many of our plans and our arrangements and our engagements. It's been hard and it feels downright unfair, but that's the suffering of life. That's not the kind of suffering Jesus is talking about. That's not the kind of vulnerability that Jesus is talking about. The vulnerability in Hebrews and the vulnerability in Mark is what we endure for the sake of Christ. But it's where the disciples, and we, get stuck. Because in and when we seek leverage and power and status as the world defines, we don't get any further... we get further behind. The invitation, I think, is for us to shift our understanding of leverage and power and control to what actually God wants and how Aaron responded. How Jesus responded.
I want to tell you a story that I think exemplifies this in sort of a weird way, that talks about how we can be changed by God's activity and see a vulnerability that can be meaningful and life-changing. So some of you probably know that Jeff Bezos and his friends just sent a rocket into space and among one of those passengers was ‘Captain Kirk’, (William Shatner) who is now 90 years old. Now, I've never met William Shatner, but from all the things that we've seen of him on TV in the last 20 years, he's not the most subtle, gentle fading flower. He's pretty darn proud of himself. You see him puff himself up. You see him continue to take on the role of Captain Kirk. Whether it's in a commercial or in a movie, he's still William Shatner. But I saw a different side of William Shatner this past week. I saw a clip of him with Jeff Bezos out in the desert, after they had gotten outside the capsule, after landing back on Earth safely. The entire staff of Bezos’ that organized this whole thing are there around the capsule out in the desert. They're yelling and screaming and cheering and celebrating. Off to the side is William Shatner talking one on one with Jeff Bezos. They’re still in their jumpsuits and Shatner is starting to articulate to Jeff Bezos how much this experience was life-changing. He starts to weep, because he's beyond words to describe this other worldly experience. He starts to say, “I'm not a religious man. I can't necessarily say it was a religious experience, but life-changing to be up in space and look down on the Earth. I can’t quite put it into words to describe this experience” At which point, Jeff Bezos stops listening, turns away from Shatner, and shouts to his staff “Excuse me. Um, I'd like some more champagne over here! Get some champagne over here! Get some champagne over here!” And all of a sudden somebody comes over with a bottle of champagne and he starts to pass the bottle of champagne to Shatner, who hasn't had a drink, I think, in like 30 years. Shatner says, “no thank you”. Shatner wants to keep talking about his experience, this (God-given), life-changing experience; but Jeff Bezos wants to celebrate what he's done. And so instead of being attentive to Shatner, what he does is he takes a champagne bottle and then starts squirting everybody including Shatner. Shatner just sort of turns around and slowly walks away.
Friends, we may not have something that big in our lives, but you know what? God is calling us to pay attention to vulnerability--the vulnerability in others, the vulnerability in ourselves. We don’t want to go there. How many times have you found yourself welling up in tears and then apologizing for it? I know I'm not the only one. And I'm not saying that William Shatner is the next coming of Christ or even a disciple; but let me tell you something, God's at work in him. And Jeff Bezos is not aware yet of what's going on there. But we are, because we've been there. We know how God can change our lives. We know how God can change the lives of others. We also know how God can change the lives of others if we become servants and put everybody else first and make ourselves last.
So friends, this is not an easy journey, but it's the best one I know.
Thanks be to God. Amen.