First Last And Last First Transcript

All right, I'm going to ask a shocking question and I need a show of hands who watched the Super Bowl last week.

There we go. Who watched the Puppy Bowl? Anybody? Yeah. We watched a few of those. And the Kitty halftime show the game seemed to transform after the half the first part of the game was hard to watch, especially that first couple of plays.

You didn't think much would be happening in a game, not a whole lot of scoring, people were messing up left and right. But something happened during the halftime that transformed both teams. That it transformed how both teams were playing on the field and the end of the game was spectacular.

Now I don't think it was Usher. I think it was what happened. In the locker rooms. Maybe the coach gave a pep talk. Maybe he threatened them within an inch of their life to stop messing up. But something happened. Last week we talked about that transfiguration moment where Jesus, Peter, James, and John went up onto the mountain and Moses and Elijah came down and were talking with Jesus and we hear the voice from heaven.

We hear God's voice and the disciples hear his voice that says, this is my son, listen to him. In the gospel of Mark. This is that locker room moment. This is the moment where Jesus knows for sure, and he's preparing his disciples, for what is going to be happening next.

Because from here on out, from now until Easter, we have a direct and steady march to Jesus death on the cross. We have a steady march until that time when Jesus knows he will not be with his disciples in person. they have got to get it together. They have to be ready for not only what's coming, but for what's coming after.

They have to be ready. And we do too. These moments where we finally recognize in the Gospels who Jesus is when the disciples have definitive understanding from the voice of God that this is his son. It is time to get it together.

Sometimes they still make mistakes afterwards. We saw that on Sunday. Not everything went perfectly for both teams.

But something has to happen. Now, the disciples are on this path with Jesus. They have agreed to follow

him.

He had called them by name, he had gone to where they were working, he had gone to their homes, he had gone to all of these places, and he called them to him and said, come and follow me.

Fishers left their nets behind in their boats on the shoreline as they followed him. They left their homes, their livelihoods. And they were following him, and they were starting to get it, and they were still making mistakes, and they still make them now. Because they are shaped by the world they grew up in, as we all are.

How we see the world, and how we interact with one another. They grew up, and we live in a time where who was first and who was last matters. Who has more and who has less matters. In this world as it is today, sometimes you think of the people that have wealth, who have things going well for them, who, who seem blessed.

you think that they're the ones doing the right thing. it's a sign of God's favor. prestige of good living, having wealth and stature in society. The same thing is true today. if you follow along on the daily readings that are on our website.

One of the readings was how the disciples were talking amongst themselves saying, who is greater in the kingdom to come when God's kingdom is established who of us. Who of these disciples who are gathered here and who are these two talking are going to be most important and who's going to be lesser than?

Jesus had just for the second time predicted his own death on the cross and how he would be suffering for three days and rise again. And their response is, who do you think of us for most important? they still don't get it because Jesus has not quite transformed their view of the world fully.

the people's view of the world and what Jesus was here to do is not going to be fully clear until after the resurrection. So it makes sense that they don't understand it, which always gives me hope because it gives me somebody to look up to when I'm a little slow.

And so Jesus overhears them talking. he goes to them and says, what are you guys talking about? They try to play it off and they try to make it wor sound less bad than it actually is. I mean, we're just gonna talk after you die, after you you're resurrected. We were just trying to figure out who is most important.

I mean, it's not that bad, and Jesus gives that lesson that is reiterated again today that the one who is greatest is the one who will lower themselves as a servant to all. That the one who will be lifted up is not the one who places themselves above other people, but through how they treat one another and how they treat each other and they're willing to, to go where God calls them to go, they are the ones to be lifted up.

it isn't about wealth. It isn't about prestige. In fact, if you try to place yourself in the place of honor, you are most likely to have somebody come around and knock you down a peg or two. You

and he's trying to shape them. He's trying to get them to understand. Jesus is trying to get them to see the world and see other people and see their place in it.

Not through the eyes of the empire, not through the ways they've been trained but through how God sees the world. And so we get to chapter 10, a man comes up to him, we get no sense that he's trying to trick Jesus,

I think he's earnest. I think he really wants to know what must I do. To inherit eternal life. It's a question that we all ask. Any of us that are that are faced with our own mortality, which was the point of our Ash Wednesday service. it's a reminder that you are from dust and to dust you shall return.

our days are limited and what we do with them and how we follow God through them matters. Any of us who have been faced with that reality, or wrestled with it, has the same question. What must we do to inherit eternal life? And so this man comes to Jesus.

And Jesus says, what do you think? What are the commandments? And he says, to honor your mother and your father, and to not steal, and to not defraud people. Don't lie, don't steal, don't cheat, honor your mother and your father.

Jesus adds one, don't defraud other people. the man says, I've done all of these things since birth. And Jesus says to him, you lack one thing.

Take all that you have, sell it and give it to the poor, and then come and follow me. And the man is destroyed by what Jesus has just said. He's depressed, he's dejected, he goes away in sadness. Now Jesus didn't tell him this to condemn him the scripture says Jesus looked at him and he loved him and the man goes away for he had many things and the implication is he wasn't willing to give it up.

Now, the disciples are confused by this because he's, already said he followed the whole law. he was a good upstanding guy in the community. He had signs of wealth, which are often interpreters of signs of doing something right, of being blessed by God.

So why is it that this man has no hope? Why did he go away sad? Jesus gives the disciples that metaphor of it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than it is for a wealthy person to enter into the kingdom of heaven. the disciples are like, well, then who couldn't possibly meet that standard?

who could possibly fit through? Into the kingdom of heaven, like a camel going through the eye of a needle.

And Jesus lays it out. For people it is impossible. But for God, it is possible. For in God, all is possible. We encounter this story, sometimes trying to defend ourselves. Say, well I don't have a lot of wealth. but if you go into my house and see my 300 board games you know I have possessions.

We don't know what to make of this. Why should I be punished more so? Why should it be harder for me to enter the kingdom of heaven? Just because I have wealth, just because I have stuff.

There's a lot to make with this passage. The fact that Jesus inserts the idea of don't defraud. How you got your wealth, how you accumulated it, and how you're holding on to it. Maybe Jesus was seeing something in this man or knew something about this man that he specifically inserted don't defraud other people,

Possibly, it's one way of reading of this list of why Jesus would add to the Ten Commandments otherwise listed.

But I think another way of looking at it is what are we willing to not give up as we follow Christ? What is it that we like? We absolutely need to hold onto because it gives us comfort, security, stature. It makes us feel better. What is it that we are clinging to that we refuse to give up.

I remember pastoring one church and this church had a difficult problem where it was a fairly short church front to back and there was many, many rows of pews. And the pews were so close together that you couldn't sit straight on. My knees in front would bump. I know a few people that had to sit sideways and a few people that had to pick their pew properly because they couldn't actually fit in the opening.

Now, I remember this because I said, well, what if we took out some of the pews? What if we made space? We don't need them. There's plenty of room for people to sit. And most people were okay with it. There was a few people that joke, well, I don't know where I'm going to sit.

And there were a few that said, no, this is my pew. This is, I come to church and I sit in this spot and they adamantly fought against this idea that would bring comfort and kind of space things out a little better, get people a little closer together, adamant against it because that was their spot

and they weren't willing to give it up. this is what I'm clinging to. And it kind of hints at what we're talking about here. When Jesus asked the disciples to leave everything behind, to follow him, being willing to give up everything, including their own life, when he tells the disciples to take up their cross and follow him.

That's what he's saying, the cross in this time period, it wasn't that symbol of redemption and hope that we see now through Christ's death, At this time period, it was an instrument of death.

It was an instrument of Roman execution. especially the time that Mark was being written in roughly 60 AD, the revolt against Rome had just happened and Rome had won considerably and 300 people were crucified with the crosses lining the streets going into the city of Jerusalem.

When Jesus tells the disciples to take up their cross and follow him, he's literally saying be prepared to be put to death.

But more than that, he's starting to get at the slightly lesser things. Clinging to our life, being willing to give that up. when it comes to possessions, when it comes to preferences. When it comes to this understanding of stature and, and who's first and who's last and, and this idea that we shouldn't have to lower ourselves, that gets a lot closer to home, does it not?

These are the things that we struggle with every day. in our society there's not a lot of reasons that we would be put to death for our faith. In other parts of the world, for sure. But here, not so much. But you will encounter those times where God is calling you, to give something up, to put somebody else's needs first, to put something bigger ahead of your own desires.

And you're going to have to make that decision. Jesus ends with this passage, saying, for many who are first will be last. And the last will be first. Jesus is reminding the disciples and us that the way we see the world and the priorities that we place on various things and the argument that the disciples had just had of who was going to be most important in the kingdom none of that matters.

None of that is of importance. None of that is what truly shapes the kingdom And it's better to get ready for it now. So what is it that you cling to? What if you say, if this happens, then I'm just done? What is it that God might be calling you to leave behind, to let go of?

And what is your reaction? Do you go away in sadness, saying, Well, I can't give that up. Like the young man in the story.

giving up all of that, living as God wants us to live, following Him and being willing to leave everything behind is impossible for us. We have things that compete for our attention, time, energy, focus, against that kingdom understanding.

It is impossible for us, just as it is an impossibility for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, and that is the first and prime reason that we rely on Christ. That through his life death and resurrection, a way is made. Something that was once considered impossible is now possible.

There is hope when there was no hope. There is a path forward in which we are transformed, in which our lives find meaning and power in the here and now, as we are prepared for what the kingdom will be like in the age to come. And so when we face the difficulties, when we face the impossibilities of it all, as we as a church try to figure out what are our preferences that we're clinging on to that are keeping us from living in God's call in our community, in our world,

What is it that we're unwilling to give up?

These are difficult questions, one, ones of which we are wrestling with as leadership team, but we have to wrestle with as a greater church. there is a future for us here in this church, in our community. But it is going to be a transformation. It has to be different because the world around us is different.

what feels impossible now, what seems impossible when we look through it and trying to figure out how do we get what we are now and what we think we need to be and what gives us a sense of purpose and, and, and perhaps makes us feel better, just isn't going to fit through the opening that we need to squeeze through to get to the other side.

It's okay to be sad. It's okay. to get things wrong,

as we focus on Christ, as we put him first and his call on us first and his desire to see the least and the last in our community be saved and be welcomed into his community, are we going to follow him or are we going to be sad and walk away? For we have many possessions and we're just not ready to let go.

If we're not quite sure what to let go or whether we're able, that's when the conversations happen. The meetings, the next steps meetings after church on the first Sunday, it's also a time for prayer and to say, what is it that God is calling us to and how can I be part of it?

All have gifts to give and what seems impossible now will be made possible in Christ. Amen.