AT YOUR SERVICE

Scripture: Matthew 20:17-28

INTRODUCTION

Like all the others included in our Presbyterian Women Bible Study this year, entitled “Remembering Un-named Women in Scripture,” the mother of the sons of Zebedee remains anonymous in the gospel of Matthew, chapter 20. She is mentioned once more in Mark 15, together with those who stood by Jesus during His final hours on the cross (Mark 15:40-41). And that is almost all of what we know about this Biblical person long ago who was the wife and mother of fishermen, living in the town of Capernaum on the shores of the Galilean Sea.

Except…except for a question she asked Jesus as He and His disciples were traveling toward Jerusalem. He had already told them that:

The Son of Man would be delivered to the chief priests and scribes and they would condemn Him, hand Him over to the Gentiles (the Romans) to be mocked and scourged and crucified, and that He would be raised on the third day (Matthew 20:17-19).

Mark reports that it was “then,” immediately following this fearful and yet hopeful prediction:

That the mother of James and John, the sons of Zebedee, knelt down before Jesus and asked Him (to) command that these two sons of mine may sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom (Matthew 20:20-21).

Well, that was her question, and the rest of this sermon is focused on the answer Jesus gave and what His words – the conversation He shared with that mother, her sons and the other disciples – still mean for all of us today.

In your imagination, I want you to picture what that entourage looked like as they headed toward Jerusalem. What those disciples and the others walking and talking with them had expected was a triumphal entry into the city and a victory celebration. In fact, all four of the gospels tell us that the disciples argued with each other about which of them would be “the greatest” when the kingdom was established.

So when the mother of James and John asked Jesus if her sons could have special places in that kingdom, Matthew says that the rest of the disciples were upset and indignant. And that is when the Master looked all of them in the eye and replied:

You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you; but whoever would be great among you must be your servant…even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many.

My friends, that is a powerful image and it has profound implications for us in the church. Because if we decided, really decided, to serve others in humility; if we agreed, actually agreed, that reaching out to those in need is what we have all been called to do; and if we believed, truly believed, that all of God’s children are equal in His sight – then this ongoing, age-old argument about who is the greatest and who is the least would finally cease forever, and we would be bound together as the servant people whom God has commissioned us to be.

Back in the spring of 1990, soon after our family moved to Vinings in Cobb County, I pulled into a BP station on my way home from church. It was late at night, and an older man emerged from the office to fill up the tank, check the oil, wash the windows and wipe them dry with a cloth he carried. We talked briefly, and I discovered that his name was John, and that he had a large family with several children in college, which was why he had taken on this extra job in addition to his daytime work as a mechanic.

I told him I was a Presbyterian pastor and that I too, together with my wife – we were paying the way for a daughter in college. He smiled and said he was a Baptist and promised not to try and convert me if I’d come back again. So I did, often, and we got to know each other during our evening visits at the BP station.

Then I found out that he was going to retire and I went by to tell him something I had wanted to say for a long time. I said, “John, from the first night I drove in here, you came out of the office with that cloth in your hand and said three words that I have heard you say over and over again. Those words have meant a great deal to me, more than you will ever know, especially when I was tired at the end of a long day and sometimes feeling a little down or discouraged and needed to be reminded about my own sense of vocation.”

He looked at me with a question mark in his eyes and asked, “What did I say”? I looked back at him with gratitude in my heart and repeated the words I had heard John speak to me almost every week for a number of years: “At Your Service.”

Well, he was surprised, because I think he had said those words so many times to so many people that he wasn’t even aware of it. He just said it and then did it! And as I drove away that night, I remembered another man who took a cloth, a towel into His hands and washed His disciples’ feet. I am among you as one who serves, He said, and He sent them out as servant leaders to change the world. So it was then, so it is now, and so it always shall be for each of us and all of us in the church who seek to follow Jesus Christ and serve others in His Holy Name.

II.

Now although we don’t know the name of the mother of the sons of Zebedee, we do know that she asked Jesus if her grown-up boys could sit beside Him in His kingdom. We can criticize her for that request, or we can admire and acknowledge that her heartfelt hope and desire was what would be best for them. And that puts a different perspective on her question.

My own mother, who died far too young at the age of 51, was a tireless advocate for me. She would often say, as I was growing up and then going off to boarding school and college, that I could become all that the Lord had called me to be. And it was from her, more than anyone else, that I learned the value and vocation of serving others instead of expecting them to serve me.

Many, if not most of you, have been blessed with mothers who were or are your advocates too. Just think of the lessons they have taught us about life and love and everything under the sun.

At our staff meeting this past Tuesday morning, Laurie Campbell, who directs the weekday pre-school in this church, told us about something that happened last month, just before Palm Sunday. She didn’t have a real palm branch, so Laurie brought one of her potted plants to school and asked the children, in anticipation of the processional coming up that weekend, “Does anybody know what this is”? One little girl raised her hand and replied, “Yes ma’am, I know exactly what that is. It’s a pyracantha leaf”! Only a mother could have taught her daughter such a thing!

And for those mothers who live a long time, the support can grow stronger as the years go by. A New Yorker cartoon pictured a business executive sitting in his office and reading a letter which said:

“Dear Sonny,

Thank you for the copy of your annual report. Your father and I are proud of the good job you’re doing as president of such a big outfit. However, we thought you looked tired in the photograph opposite the President’s Report. Have you been getting enough rest and exercise? Are you taking your vitamins, and is that daughter-in-law of ours fixing you good, nourishing meals?

Love always,

Mom”

Now, if we give her the benefit of the doubt, I think that what the mother of James and John wanted for both of her sons was the opportunity to become all that Jesus had called them to be and to move closer to Him, just as He had promised to draw near to them. And when all is said and done, that is the greatest legacy which any mother and father can give to their children.

Dr. Rufus Jones, the Quaker author, professor and mentor to so many a generation ago, put it this way as he wrote about his own parents:

“I am most of all thankful for my birthplace and early nurture in the warm atmosphere of a spiritually-minded home; thankful indeed that from the cradle I was saturated with the Bible and immersed in an environment of religious experience and reality. It was a peculiar grace that I was born into that … spiritual wisdom and faith, accumulated through generations of devotion and sacrificial love. I can never be grateful enough for what was done for me…They produced the spiritual atmosphere of my youth. I became heir of a vast invisible inheritance. There is nothing I would exchange for that.”

So it still can be in our homes and in this church today, if we as mothers and fathers, Sunday School teachers and leaders and members of the congregation, will continue to pay attention to the souls and spiritual lives of our children, bringing them up in the faith and teaching them to reach out and serve others in the name and for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ. I am among you as one who serves, He said, and He is still calling all of us into action.

CONCLUSION

Now before we close and head for home, there’s one last thing that needs to be said, and it is a reality check for those of us who have struggled with our mothers…or fathers, some of whom has died and the rest of them who are still alive. One of the most profound sermon conclusions I have ever read was this one, sent from Chicago a year ago, as Joanna Adams, who will preach from this pulpit next Sunday, wrapped up her Lenten sermon on the commandment Honor your father and your mother. Please listen to what Dr. Adams said:

“…This commandment was not addressed to little children…It was addressed to adult children, reminding them of their responsibility to their parents for care if such care was needed. It is the only commandment in which the positive effects of obedience are mentioned. If you do this, ‘Your days will be long in the land the Lord is giving you.’ In other words, this commandment of generative love and concern lasts much longer than one’s own lifetime. Are there parents who are not worthy of honor? Of course. The point of honoring one’s parents is not that they deserve it, but that God has commanded it.

No parent is perfect. I think of the thirty-five years now I have been a mother and all the things I regret and would change if I could. No one is perfect. (So) if your mother or father let you down when you were growing up, perhaps this…is the time to finally forgive them and to give them permission to be imperfect…Remember that, at the very least, they gave you life, and be grateful for it…” (From a sermon entitled “Habits That Keep Us Human”: by Dr. Joanna Adams, preached at Fourth Presbyterian Church, Chicago, March 9, 2003).

So with gratitude in our hearts today, especially for our mothers, let us give thanks for all that has been good and for everything we have received, even as we pray for healing and hope in each of our families. And together with the mother of James and John and their father Zebedee, may we learn how to advocate for and affirm one another, and then to reach and serve all of God’s children – in Jesus’ name. “At Your Service” is what my friend John said, and Jesus still calls all of us to do the same.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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