Jockeying For Position

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Remember gym class, when the teacher picked two captains and then let them choose teams one by one? Some kids got called first while others just stood there, waiting. Pastor Nick Gatzke takes us to a moment when several grown men—the disciples of Jesus himself—were playing that same game, just with much higher stakes

We live right now in a glory-seeking, fame-starving society. And it’s not really surprising with the explosion of multimedia. I mean, 40 years ago, you had to do something really significant, significant enough to make it into the limited number of words in a newspaper or be seen on the three or four television channels that most people had to become famous. Now, people go to great lengths to curate images in hopes of being admired by others. Because if we’re honest, there is a struggle within each of us to be known, but not just to be known, to be recognized, and probably for many of us, not just to be recognized, but to be admired. And for many of us, not just to be admired, but in that admiration, to be served.

In some way, we all struggle with that desire for fame or status and what it could possibly bring us. Even the disciples of Jesus were not immune to such a thing. We see this temptation of theirs found in Mark 9, starting at verse 30. So follow with me as we read, starting in Mark 9, verse 30. This is what it says. It says: “And passed through Galilee, and he did not want anyone to know, for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, the Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And when he is killed after three days, he will rise.

But they did not understand the saying and were afraid to ask him. And they came to Capernaum, and when he was in the house, he asked them, what were you discussing on the way? But they kept silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. And he sat down and called the twelve, and he said to them, If anyone would be first, he must be last and the servant of all. And he took a child, and he put him in the midst of them, and taking him in the arms, he said to them, Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me. And whoever receives me receives not me, but him who sent me.

John said to him, teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name and we tried to stop him because he was not following us. But Jesus said, do not stop him. For no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. For the one who is not against us is for us. For truly I say to you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink, because you belong to Christ, will by no means lose his reward.” The disciples had been through a unique past couple of days. Peter, James, and John had witnessed the glory of Jesus in the transfiguration, and it had bolstered their faith.

The other nine disciples had continued the work of preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, calling people to repentance, telling them the king had come and casting out demons in the name of Jesus until they came across that one demon that they couldn’t cast out.

However, when Jesus arrived, of course, he challenged the disciples and the father of the demon -possessed boy with regard to their belief in him and his ability to do anything, anything to fulfill his promises. And as a result, the boy was healed. Jesus and his disciples went on their way. And as they went on their way, we see that the writer tells them about the words that Jesus shares again. He shares with them, now for the second or third time, the plan that he will be delivered into the hands of men and they will kill him, but he will rise again from the dead. It’s a great reminder for us that in all the truths about God, all of the truths about how he interacts with the world, in all of the glorious realities that God communicates to us in his word, in all of the questions that you have when you think about following God, the central activity of God’s work in the gospel of Jesus Christ is found in that God shows his love for us that in while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. That’s God’s plan. It’s God’s plan to forgive sin and to give you an opportunity to be in relationship with him and cemented in a very specific accomplishment of Jesus that he is reminding his disciples about with regard to suffering and crucifixion and resurrection.

That’s why the apostles, as they would eventually go all over the known world proclaiming the good news of relationship with God and the resurrection of Jesus, would keep this one thing of the central importance, the heart of the gospel. The disciples didn’t understand it yet, but they would. And in the meantime, as they walked down the road and they processed what they had just seen, their short-sightedness and self-centeredness is quietly on display in direct contrast to the selflessness that Jesus had just told them about. It says that as they walked, they argued with one another about who was the greatest. You can almost picture the interaction. They were keeping score. And all of these things, of course, are just postulations about what could have been.

We don’t really know. But there’s a lot that happens in that little phrase. They argued about who was the greatest. And so the question is why? Why did they argue about it? Well, what was status and why was status so important even among themselves? Certainly pride. The idea of status itself, the jockeying for position and a rank order of favor. And I think that as we see the words of Jesus to come, that this status that they desired meant that they also desired to be served, not to serve. So like us, they’re tempted to think that this status would afford them special privilege. It doesn’t take a genius to figure that out. You see it all the time. People with certain types of status get to do things that you don’t get to do. They get to have things you don’t get to have.

They have access to things that you might not have access to. And many of those things offer meaning or even comfort. And it starts to point us to the truth that if you think too highly of yourself, You will always be jockey for position. You always have a need to be recognized. If you are impressed with yourself, you will not serve others. You will expect others to serve you. This wouldn’t be the last time that the disciples would argue about this. You might remember.

In fact, just all the way up into the evening before Jesus was killed, they were sitting together and arguing amongst themselves who was the greatest and what would their position be seated in the eternal kingdom of God. And Jesus would silence their arguing by serving them as he washed their feet. This idea of jockeying for position and status and rank ordering and the desire not just to serve but to be served creates all kinds of comparisons for us, all kinds of comparisons even in the life of the church. We see it throughout the New Testament. You can maybe even see it in your own heart and your own mind as you look around and you say, I don’t know why she gets to do that or I don’t have this or perhaps he is looked at in that way. Do other people look at him in that way?

I’m not sure. Do they look at me in that way? I wonder if they do. And so Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 12 to try to help us to understand this jockeying for position that God has actually placed us in a position and it’s for our good. He says: “For just as one body is one and has many members, all the members of the body, though are many, are one body, and so it is with Christ. For in one spirit, we’re all baptized into one body. Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, and we’re all made to drink of one spirit. For the body does not consist of one member, but of many. If the foot should say, because I’m not a hand, I do not belong in the body, that would not make it any less a part of the body.

And if an ear should say, because I’m not an eye, I do not belong in the body. That would not make it a lesser part of the body. And if the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? And if the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? And as it is, God arranged the members of the body, each one of them as he chose.” Jesus attacks their pride and the desire, for status and their desire to be served. And he does so through a very short living parable. Look at verse 35 with me. It says that he sat down and he called the 12 and he said to them, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and a servant of all.

And he took a child and he put him in the midst of them and taking him in his arm, he said to them, whoever receives one such child in my name receives me. And whoever receives me receives not me, but him who sent me.” So the preoccupation with rank and authority was common in Middle Eastern culture because it was directly associated to showing the right type of honor.

The lowest rank in the culture was that of a child. And children were not looked at the way that we look at them today. They are not afforded all the privileges or all of the activities that we afford them today. They were viewed as those who had not yet arrived. They were viewed as free labor for the family. They did not have status or honor. You may have heard the old saying, children are to be seen, not heard. The idea did not just originate with the culture of Elizabethan England. Actually, in the Middle East, long before it, the question of status and convenience as it related to children was very much prevalent. And as they sit in someone’s house, Jesus calls the child of the house, and he receives him, it says. And it’s tender, and it’s a beautiful picture, and it’s a pointed picture for the disciples who are present. The point is not simply to welcome children. The point had to do with status.

The disciples of Jesus were called to serve those who had low or no status and to welcome them, even them, into the kingdom of God. People with no accomplishments, people with no special features, people who are lowly in appearance, people who can’t do anything for them, people that society thought to be insignificant. It says in verse 35, If anyone would be first, he must be the last of all, even the last of the last, even behind the children and be a servant of all. The way to preeminence in the kingdom is not to be served, but it is to serve. And not just to serve certain types of people, but to serve all kinds.

True status in God’s economy is found in serving people of all status. And Jesus makes this type of service even more explicit for us because he, of course, is telling us that the disposition of a follower of Jesus should be generally to serve people. But there’s a specific type of service that he illustrates and he elaborates on. He says in verse 37, “Whoever receives one child” — or you might say, “whoever receives the person of lowest status” — “in my name receives me, and whoever receives me receives not me, but the one who sent me.” There’s a lead on effect here. If you serve others and receive them, You receive them and you do so so they can receive Jesus.

And in receiving Jesus, they receive God, the father himself. You see how that works? That is a specific type of service. You receive the people of the lowest common denominator. You receive the one who has no status. You don’t position yourself of highest status. You don’t look to be served, but rather to serve. And in serving, you receive them. They have the opportunity to receive Jesus. And when receiving Jesus, they get to receive God, the Father. True status in God’s economy is found in serving people of all kinds of status for the sake of the gospel. After Jesus’s words cut against their desire for recognition and to be served rather than to serve, it would seem that John has maybe a moment of conviction or immediate application.

Look at verse 38. He said, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him because he was not following us.” Jesus said, So not surprisingly, the disciples thought that they could possibly be the privileged few that exercise power in Jesus’s name. He had commissioned them directly. They had been exercising that spiritual power in his name. And now they’ve come across someone who presumably had faith in Jesus and taken it upon himself to partake in the mission of the kingdom by casting out demons. But they didn’t know who this guy was. And so they looked at him with the hairy eye. He wasn’t as informed as they were. He wasn’t like them, and yet he was doing the work for Jesus in Jesus’ name.

And he tells them, Jesus tells them, “if he isn’t against us, then he’s for us.” Now, to be clear, because this verse is so often misinterpreted, let’s just unpack that phrase. “If he’s not against us, he’s for us.” What does Jesus not mean, and what does he mean? He’s not giving a general principle about approach to Christ. He’s referring specifically to his mission. He’s not saying people who are ambivalent toward me are still part of the family of God. That would contradict a lot of other things that he said. He is saying people of different status who have faith in me can serve in my name.

He’s not saying, theology and belief about who I am and what I do is not important just as long as your motives are good. He is saying people who come from different backgrounds, different places and growth in belief can still serve and even serve powerfully.

So in our context, it might look something like this. It might, you might hear someone think or say, I’ve been a Christian for 20 years and she’s only been one for four years. Can she still serve in Jesus’s name? Yes, true status in God’s economy is found in serving people of all status for the sake of the gospel. According to the author, Paul Metzger, one of his greatest living heroes was a man named John Perkins. Perkins, an African-American Christian leader from Mississippi who was nearly beaten to death in the 1970s for his work in racial justice. And from all accounts, Perkins could enjoy the status of Christian celebrity. But instead, he realizes the fleeting glory of fame. Metzger relates the following story about a conversation that he had in Perkins. He said, one evening in 2007 in Portland, Oregon, I was driving the now elderly Dr. Perkins to a benefit dinner. He was to serve as the keynote speaker at the dinner, which was raising money for an inner city community development ministry and brought jobs and housing to ex-offenders and to youth. And as we drove along, I asked Dr. Perkins what it was like for him now in Mississippi.

And he replied, matter of factly, I’m kind of a hero now in Mississippi. It seems that every… Time the state newspapers write something about reconciliation. They quote me. It’s as if I created the word, he said with a laugh. And there was a pause in the conversation. And then he was looking out the window and he said, but when I think about how many homes my fame has built for the poor in Mississippi, I realize that my fame hasn’t built any homes for the poor. So I don’t put no stock in my fame. There’s no television or newspapers, newspaper reporters in the car, just Dr. Perkins, his daughter, and me, his young chauffeur, and that young chauffeur almost lost control of the vehicle. I rarely come across such a value system in others or in my own heart. The Christian celebrity leverages the gospel for his or her own benefit. The saint asks God to leverage his or her own life for the fame of the gospel.

The celebrity wants to be famous. The saint wants to be influential so others can meet Jesus. Seek to be a saint, not a celebrity. True status in God’s economy is found in serving people of all status for the sake of the gospel.

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This transcript was generated with the assistance of artificial intelligence and has been reviewed for accuracy. Minor discrepancies from the original spoken message may exist.