Matthew 20:17-28

With just a little over six weeks until the election, I don’t know about you, but I am already sick and tired of all the ads on TV.  It’s bad enough to have all the ads for the presidential candidates, but then there are the ads for candidates running for governor, the state house, and the U.S. Congress.  Depending on which channel you have on, you even have to listen to candidates who are running in other states besides New Hampshire.  Politics has become such a harsh, ugly, polarizing force that I just wish I could ignore the whole thing.

This story from Matthew has everything to do with politics.  And I think it sheds some positive light on a troubling subject, giving us a new framework to look through.

Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem for the last time.  It couldn’t have been an easy journey.  While he was experiencing success in his ministry, with crowds following him all the time, to the point where he could hardly find time alone to eat or to pray, he was also realizing that his closest disciples didn’t have a clue what he was all about or what he had really come to do.  He had tried before to tell them the truth, and he tried again here.  He took the Twelve aside in private and laid out the cold, hard facts:  he was going to be arrested, condemned to death, mocked and beaten within an inch of his life, and then put to death on a cross.  And on the third day, he would be raised from the dead.

Matthew does not record any response from the disciples to what Jesus had said to them.  We don’t know what they were thinking, or if they understood any of it.  We don’t know if they believed that these things would really happen, or if they thought Jesus was just overreacting to the threats and rejection of the religious leaders.  They didn’t say anything, and so we are left to wonder what was going on in their heads and in their hearts.  Except for James and John.  We soon find out exactly what they were thinking.

James and John apparently missed the message about suffering and death and crosses, and they were hung up on the idea of a kingdom with Jesus sitting on the throne.  They wanted to be a part of that, an important part.  But they didn’t go to Jesus and talk to him about it directly for themselves.  Instead, in good political fashion, they brought in a lobbyist to argue their case for them.  And who would make a better lobbyist than their mother?   She would surely present all their good points in the best possible light.  And so she approached Jesus and asked if he would do her a favor.  When he became king, would he appoint James and John to sit at his right and at his left?  In other words, would he make them second and third in command?

I can only imagine the disappointment of Jesus when he heard this request.  Clearly James and John and their mother had no idea what was really going on.  They had their heads in the clouds of wishful thinking and grandiose plans.  They missed the entire point of Jesus’ previous remarks about going to the cross.  They were only thinking of all the power and glory and authority that could be theirs if they followed Jesus as he established his reign on earth.  They believed that Jesus was soon going to be crowned as the rightful ruler of Israel, kick out the Romans by force, and bring about peace and prosperity for all the people. And they wanted to be at the top of the new regime.  Jesus could only shake his head in despair and reply to them and to their mother, “You don’t know what you are asking.  Can you drink the cup I am going to drink?”  When they quickly responded, “We can!” he knew that they really didn’t get it.  All he could say was, “You will, in fact, drink from that cup.  But it is not my privilege to grant you these positions on my right and my left; that is my Father’s prerogative.”

When the other ten disciples heard about James’ and John’s efforts to seal a back-room deal, they were greatly upset.  Perhaps they were angry that they had not thought of it themselves.  Or maybe they were offended that two of the group thought they were better than the others.  Or it could be that they were worried that Jesus might give them what they wanted.  But in any case, their arrival on the scene created an opportunity for Jesus to teach them more about the kind of leadership he expected from them.

Jesus said that the political rulers exercised authority over others and lorded it over them.  But it was not to be that way among his disciples.  Instead, whoever wanted to be great among them must be a servant, and whoever wanted to be first among them must be their slave.  That was the way it was to be among them, and that was the example Jesus had set for them.  Just as he did not come to be served but to serve, so they were to serve.  Among Jesus’ disciples, power was not the goal; service was the goal.  Alan E. Lewis, in his book, Between the Cross and the Resurrection, writes that “the surrender of power is the form, and the only form, that God’s power takes.”  It is a paradox: service is powerful.

This is, in fact, a Christian revolution in the way we think of the world, of power, and even of politics.  It is the complete reversal of the world’s standards and a totally new set of values.  Just imagine what it would be like if, instead of aspiring to power and authority and privilege, those who were in positions of leadership focused on how they might serve others?  If they were more concerned with the well-being of those they served than they were on getting all they could for themselves?  I have been impressed by one candidate’s ads this campaign season.  I don’t know anything else about him, but Congressman Chris Pappas is the only candidate I have heard of recently refers to public service as his focus.  I wish there were more out there who made that a priority.

There is a huge difference between politics and public service.  Politics is defined as “factional scheming for power and status.”  On the other hand, public service is defined as “work done for others; giving assistance to others.”  Jesus had no interest in politics.  Jesus had no desire to gain political power, or even religious power.  He often criticized the political and religious leaders for their skewed values and unethical practices.  Instead, Jesus was all about serving others, especially those who were at the bottom of the heap: the outcast, the sick, the shunned, the injured, the poor, and the sinners.  Jesus wanted to make their lives better, even at the cost of his own life.

Tohohiko Kagawa was born in Kobe, Japan in 1888.  His parents died while he was young, and he was sent away to school, where he was in the care of American missionaries.  He became a Christian and even attended seminary, but believed that Christianity in action was more important than focusing on theology.  He became a pacifist and labor activist.  He had a concern for the poor, and in 1909 he moved into the slums of Kobe to be a missionary and social reformer.  He lived there in a 6x6 foot hut.  On the first night, a man asked to share his bed who had a contagious skin condition.  Kagawa agreed to let him come in.  Then a beggar asked him for his shirt, and he gave it to him; the next day the man was back asking for his coat and pants, which he also gave to the man.  The people in the slums laughed at him, left with only a ragged kimono to wear.  But they came to respect him. He would preach in all kinds of weather, with the message, “God is love.  Where there is love, there is God.”  When he would fall down exhausted because of poor health, men would carry him back to his hut.

Kagawa went on to become a reformer, author, and activist, advocating for peace in the years before and during World War II, and promoting the right of women to vote.  He was arrested on numerous occasions for speaking out against the government.  Kagawa wrote, “God dwells among the lowliest of men.  He sits on the dust heap among the prison convicts.  He stands with the juvenile delinquents.  He is there with the beggars.  He is among the sick, he stands with the unemployed.  Therefore let him who would meet God visit the prison cell before going to the temple.  Before he goes to church let him visit the hospital.  Before he reads his Bible let him help the beggar.”

Jesus redefined what it means to be a leader.  A leader is not someone who is interested in practicing politics.  A leader is someone who is interested in serving others.  A leader is someone who puts the needs of others ahead of their own needs.   A leader is someone who is even willing to lay down their own life for the sake of others.  As we consider the candidates for office in this year’s election, we would do well to ask ourselves, “Is this person a politician?  Or is this person a servant?”  And then vote with that answer in mind.