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Manual for life: God is about serving and compassion
you can hear a MP3 recording of sermon here
Matthew 20:17-34
Sunday, 9th November, 2014

  Matthew 19:30  - Rich young man

“But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first.”

 Matthew 20:16 – workers in vineyard

“The last will be first and the first will be last”

 Matthew 20:27 – John & James seeking privilege position

“Whoever wants to be first must be your slave”

Jesus does seem to bang on about this. And if you feel maybe a little disappointed that we are lingering on this subject then ask why? Jesus is not building a kingdom like the one we want, he is building a kingdom that will work for eternity. So if he is insistent that we must understand the implications of the kingdom in the area of power and leadership and hero-worship in the kingdom we must pay attention.

So we have seen that maturity, experience and knowledge do not put us up the ratings. We have seen dramatically that wealth is a barrier to entry to the kingdom. We have seen that grace is not measured by our length of service or how hard we worked. 

At this point Jesus repeats and expands what he has said twice before.

 READ Matthew 20:17-19

This is a very specific prophecy, so liberal theologians will tell you that these are words put into Jesus’ mouth. Not at all, God has been revealing that the Servant would die back in Isaiah 52-53 600 years earlier, so Jesus knowing the detail is not surprising. You will only believe when you accept that Jesus is the Son of God. If that is not true we explain away his miracles and his prophecy. But Matthew was there and heard Jesus say it more than once. Following the revelation that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God he says this

READ Matthew 16:21-21

Notice Jesus began..

At the transfiguration in Matthew 17:12 we read Jesus saying “ In the same way the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands.”

 

So Jesus was repeating himself on two subjects, his death and resurrection and “The last will be first and the first will be last”

 

 It is somewhat disconcerting that the Mother of James and John blunders in at this point asking for her sons to get privileged status. But that is the human problem. Jesus had promised them thrones in 19:28, she was only asking to position them in the nearest seats to Jesus. We hear what Jesus says but we interpret it in terms we understand. Jesus has just blessed little children; surely he will not reject a mother asking a blessing for her children?  But this is the kingdom of God not a human kingdom. She has missed

“The last will be first and the first will be last”

But John and James have heard, yet, as Mark and Luke record, they are seen fully involved in this attempt to pervert the Kingdom.

 

You may ask why Jesus did not simply dismiss the request. Jesus knew what life in the kingdom was. He was going to Jerusalem to die and rise again. He knew that they,  far from being some grand minister of state or archbishop in the church, would soon find themselves imprisoned,  James would be beheaded by Herod in Acts 12:2. John on the other hand would labour for many years, ending up exiled in Patmos and probably dying in Ephesus. John was the only apostle to die of old age, the rest were executed. So the choice of the Kingdom was about persecution and martyrdom.

Jesus is teaching them what to expect. You want to sit on those thrones I promised in 19:28 but the kingdom of God is the path of suffering and death. For Jesus this was weighing heavily on him as he was heading for Jerusalem, not to fight a battle, but to surrender to his enemies and die for your sins and mine. And we as his followers can expect the same treatment. This week someone has produced a survey that says the overwhelming majority in this country think that religion is the cause of suffering. It will only take a small step for that to be turned to hatred and persecution by a popularist politician looking for a quick vote catcher. We are already hated by the secularist for being for marriage as God created it. Pro-life rather than for abortion and euthanasia. It won’t matter that we are more pacifist than warmonger, more integrating than racist, more caring than selfish, we will be persecuted as our brothers and sisters across the world while seeking the welfare of those around us.

 

That is the expected lot of Christians, We received grace that we don’t deserve, we have the presence of the Holy Spirit and the promise of eternal life but in this life we are promised a hard time.

The question remains “Do you think being a Christian is worth it?”  Faith says “Yes!” 

Read Hebrews 11: 32-40,

read up in Barnabus Fund and Open Door literature on 21st Century Martyrs and persecuted Christians.  They are the men and women of faith. They are the heroes we should seek to emulate, which brings me back to the main issue.  Jesus says

 “The last will be first and the first will be last”

How do you rate Christians? The cult of celebrity has inundated the church, so we are often measured by our following. For those that care I have 24 followers on Twitter so my not-so profound thoughts get viewed by 6 people according to Twitter!  But small churches are out of fashion, prayer meetings, as always, for the few, there is an endless stream of new church plants, new organisations whipping up enthusiasm for new ventures. Events headline a bred of ‘super-christian’ who is suitably humble but is measured by their ability to draw a crowd.  Jesus tops 5000 which is very impressive in the day in which he lived, yet in the resurrection appearances he was seen by a little over 500.  And we do the same in our small church. We have our ratings of spirituality. As if we are likely to know who is really spiritually minded. We only know what they are like when they are on show. Sometimes we get a hint when God sends them to ring you up or pray with you or share their path of faith. Jesus simply says

“The last will be first and the first will be last”

 He rates people by these criteria.

Jesus called them together and said, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave --  just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."

So who is the slave? Who is the servant?  Trouble is we use the terms and then change their meaning ‘Minister’ is meant to indicate servitude, instead it is taken to mean some special elite whether political or religious.

So understand Jesus we must listen to him. He says “Follow me” and he is on the road to die in Jerusalem. He says be a servant or slave and adds “just as the Son of Man”. Hang on a tick, haven’t I heard something like that before?  “You should love one another just as I have loved you” Here then is the rating

 “How much is your life a copy of Jesus?”

- In servitude

- In love

- In following

- In giving

You know when you are being treated like a servant, when you are annoyed by people taking advantage of you.

You know when you are loving when it hurts that your love is not reciprocated

You know when you are following when you are treated as Jesus was treated.

You know when you are giving when it costs you for others to be blessed.

 

Look at Jesus, he stopped for a woman who needed more than healing, he crossed Samaria to meet an adulteress, he picked a man who had given up on life by the pool of Siloam, he took time to bless the young children, he will stop in a crowd to seek hospitality from a collaborator with the oppressor, he stops to give two blind men sight. I could go on. Are you getting the point?  He was in with the wrong crowd, spent most of his time in decadent Galilee instead of upright Jerusalem.  And he went to Jerusalem knowing it would cost him his life. Why? Because he loved you and was willing to die for you.  The cross was never a disaster but the planned for means of our salvation. And Jesus, rates people by the measure of how they think,  behave and act as he did.  Where do you come on the discipleship scale?

 

 Before we leave this passage we need to be reminded of Jesus’ uniqueness.  Jesus came

 to give his life as a ransom for many.

This is Matthew’s only time he refers to this. In the shadowy world of kidnapping and hostage taking, this word pops up. It is British Government policy not to pay ransoms as it encourages repeat abductions. The pirates of Somalia were good examples of this. But if your loved one was being held, how much would you pay for their release? People have sold their homes, their businesses, their pensions and everything to obtain the freedom for the one they love. In war soldiers give up their lives for your freedom, which is what we will remember next week.  

Jesus loves you this much. He gave his life, so that you could live. Hid death is unique because he was sinless, he died that you may be forgiven. He died so that you might have eternal life.

 

Here is love, here is servanthood, here is the model of the disciple, to be like Jesus. James and John were great in the Kingdom but not because they got special treatment. They served us and the kingdom in laying down their lives for us to hear the good news and be able to receive grace. We are called to follow just as they were. Paul put it this way.

READ Philippians 3:7-14

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