Sermon Lent 5 (Series B)

Baptism and the Cup

Mark 10:35-45

5^th Sunday in Lent, 2009 B

Zion Lutheran Church

Mount Pleasant, Michigan

Pastor Jonathon Bakker

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord, Jesus Christ, amen. The Holy Scripture for our consideration this 5^th Sunday in Lent is the Gospel from Mark.

And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to [Jesus] and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” And he said to them, “What do you want me to do for you?” And they said to him, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” And they said to him, “We are able.” And 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, 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.” And when the ten heard it, they began to be indignant at James and John. And Jesus called them to him and said to them, “You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, if there is anything I have tried to be sure to emphasize to you in the sermons this Lenten season, it has been to pay close attention to the Scripture readings, so that we may take seriously the penitential and hopeful nature of this time in the church year. Last week we had a bit of a reprieve – not that the message changed, but that the Gospel showed us the rationale behind God’s sending of his son. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Today we have the same message, but this time our Lord tells us the price.

As we approach Good Friday and Easter Sunday, the twelve, and us, must learn exactly why what is about to take place must happen. We must learn this because it reveals the depths of the love God has for us – that he did not merely send his Son to live among humanity in human form – but that he sent his Son to suffer and die on behalf of sinful humanity. He must suffer and die, so that we may have life.

That we are sinful is clear. Intellectually, we know that we have sinful natures and we also know that we daily produce fruit keeping with our fallen roots. Our need for forgiveness cannot be measured by mere human instruments or scales. Our need for forgiveness can only be measured by its price – the suffering and death of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

We acknowledge our sin and sinfulness every time we gather for our services and even daily in our own lives and it is good and right for us to do so. Yet even as we make our confession, that same sinful nature works in us to rationalize the things we have thought, said, and done. It is not enough for our Old Adam to have his way with our actions; he must also have his way with our mind and turn us against ourselves. You see, the Old Adam hates absolution. He knows that he is powerless to stop our confession, but he rises up within each of us to dull the significance of that absolution. He leads us to soften, in our own minds, the severity of what we have done so that we will, in turn, value God’s absolution even less.

The wages of sin, however, is death. There is no softening of the demands of the Law, even though we have much skill in fooling ourselves. Just because we do, or feel, or think the same thing repeatedly does not make it any less serious. Just because it does not hurt someone, or just because it only hurts you does not mean it is not wrong. Sin is always deadly, and the devil, the world, and the Old Adam in us will work until our dying day to convince us otherwise.

Even the apostles struggled with sin, which is just one of the reasons this Gospel is so important. They were with Jesus when some went to ask him a question about his kingdom. Like so many others, it sounds like they were expecting an earthly kingdom. Did Christ ever promise an earthly kingdom? No, but here are James and John, the sons of Zebedee, asking for the prime seats in that kingdom. The other apostles hear and become jealous, speaking against the brothers amongst themselves. Even if Jesus had come to build and earthly empire, and even if the two brothers were given the seats and the right and left, could you foresee any two siblings, even the sons of Zebedee, agreeing over which one should sit on which side of Jesus?

There was no storing up for themselves the rewards in heaven; they sought earthly glory and thought that Jesus would deliver it to them. The other disciples fell for it as well. Even if they were unsure about what was to come, they did not want to be left out of the glory either. So Jesus explains to them, in great detail, that earthly glory is the last thing in store for him and his followers. There is a great price to be paid and Christ alone will pay it.

‘You do not know what you are asking,’ our Lord begins. ‘Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?’ Naturally the brothers say that they are able – they figure that any price is worth being seated with Jesus in his kingdom, but they do not know what it means. Drinking the cup and being baptized are things with which we are familiar, at least in one sense. We daily live in our baptism as we struggle with the Old Adam and we rejoice in the forgiveness of sins delivered in the cup or our Lord’s body and blood. These things mean more when it comes to Jesus, especially when it comes to the events surrounding his passion. Jesus’ baptism did not forgive his sins – he is sinless and had no need for forgiveness. Jesus was baptized for us, for the forgiveness of our sins. Our sins are washed away in that holy flood and drowned, but in Jesus’ baptism he took our iniquity upon himself and bore it to the cross. The cup, likewise, is not forgiveness for Jesus, but instead the opposite. The cup is the wrath of God against sin, to be poured out upon the Son of Man as punishment for the sinfulness of the world. The brothers think they can handle it, but they will learn otherwise.

Jesus tells them that they will indeed drink the same cup and be baptized like him, but he cannot give them the seats at his right or left – they are for those for whom they have been prepared. Now he was speaking to James and John, but the message is for all of us. Those who are bound to Jesus will follow after him. In the grand scheme, this is good news; but in the short term, this makes for a difficult future. The disciples were clearly not worried about being associated with Jesus. Not yet, anyway. He was popular and had a following. There were certainly detractors, but those who were against Jesus were key members of the establishment – they all stood to be displaced when Jesus would take control of the kingdom, and replaced by Jesus’ followers. The very next event in Jesus’ life is Palm Sunday – Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. We will hear about that next Sunday, but today’s message of baptism and the cup foretold something much different than the disciples expected.

It is easy to fall into the same pattern of thinking as that of the disciples. We do not worry ourselves day in and day out, wondering whether or not we will receive eternal life in the kingdom of heaven with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – at least I hope we do not. We cannot, however, confuse that glorious future inheritance with some kind of present glory.

Jesus response to the disciples turns their focus away from themselves toward his work. He says, ‘The cup that I drink you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized.’ It sounds simple enough, and there is certainly a blessing attached to baptism and the Lord’s cup, but in the case of these disciples Jesus was also foretelling their futures – they too would lose their life for the sake of the Gospel. He then goes on, ‘You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you. Whoever would be greatest among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all.’ Remarkable words, because they turn the hopes of all of the disciples upside down. The marks of Christ’s kingdom in this earth are not glory or power, but rather mercy and service.

In this world we live under the cross. Being a Christian gives no earthly advantage or glory. In fact, more and more, it brings you under fire and ridicule. It is easy to stand up and proclaim your faith within these walls, but it is quite another thing to speak your beliefs outside this place. Your hands may be tied by your work place, your boyfriend or girlfriend might call you old-fashioned or a prude, or you may find yourself the target of ridicule. There is nothing glorious in this world about being a Christian – all the glory is for the world to come. Do not lose heart, for the church is at her best in the midst of strife. God does not allow the whims of humanity to obscure his witness. Earthly glory is not our goal or even our hope – it is not to be so among us who follow Christ. Instead, we serve and show mercy. We turn the other cheek. We do not return evil for evil. When we show mercy, when we serve our neighbor, God glorifies himself.

Jesus reveals this at the end of today’s Gospel, with some of the most remarkable words ever recorded. ‘For even the Son of Man,’ he says, ‘came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.’ Here our Lord puts things in the clearest perspective. He reveals the full price of humanity’s redemption. He reveals the depths of his great love for humanity. God himself in the flesh does not seek to glorify himself. His glory is in serving humanity, and he serves humanity above all else through his suffering and death upon the cross. No greater price could have been spent for our salvation and no greater mercy could he have shown than giving himself, totally and completely, into death in order to win the forgiveness of our sins.

The Father himself placed upon Christ the burden of our iniquity. He gave his own Son as our ransom; the holy one for the transgressors, the blameless one for the wicked. Nothing but his own righteousness could cover our sins. We could never have received forgiveness, life, and salvation, unless we were united with incorruptibility and immortality. And how could that happen unless incorruptibility and immortality become that which we also are? Christ became man to give us all of these things. Our Lord redeemed us through his own blood, giving his soul for our souls and his flesh for our flesh. He also poured out the Spirit of the Father for the union and communion of God and man, joining God to man by means of the Holy Spirit and joining man to God by his own incarnation.

The price of our forgiveness can only be measured by its cost, and that cost reveals the depths of the love God has for us. So take heart – your sins are forgiven. Receive God’s absolution with thanksgiving, because it was bought for you. We have surely been baptized with his baptism and we drink from the same cup. This, dear friends, is the great love God has for us. His own Son came to earth as a man, not for power, not for authority and not for glory. He came to serve, he came for the cross, he came to be the ransom and pay it to rescue all of us.

To Christ alone be all the glory, forever and ever, amen.

The peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus our Lord, amen.