Getting ahead ain’t what it used to be.
The disciples spent a good bit of time scratching their heads.
They thought Jesus would help them get ahead in the world but apparently it’s not like that.
What they get instead is falling off the grid, attending to those who don’t amount to much, doing things that don’t go anywhere or get noticed.
Jesus will drive you crazy like that.
“The Godless rulers of the world and their grasping crushing authority, the so called Great Ones.” Turns out they are not so great. They really aren’t worth noticing, there is nothing there to see.
Greatness is something else. Greatness is hard to see, the greater are the lesser. The greatest is the servant of all, and servants are hard to see, almost invisible. What’s the point in being great if no one notices?
It’ll drive you crazy. Who are the greatest? How would I even see them?
James and John wanted to get ahead in the good old fashioned way, being near where all the power and influence gets pedaled.
And they will be. It just isn’t what they thought.
They will be murdered like Jesus.
The will drink that cup. They will be baptized into those waters.
Getting ahead ain’t what it used to be.
Servants end up being scapegoats. It is what the powerful do to the vulnerable.
Jesus calls that his glory, the cross of the scapegoat, the vulnerable, that is what Jesus calls entering into glory, being betrayed, targeted, scorned and mocked by those who look for easy targets.
Turns out that to be at Jesus right and left like James and John wanted was reserved for two low class bandits, crucified on either side of Jesus, who scorned Jesus as well as they all died together.
The glory of God, it turns out, that’s what its like.
Getting ahead. It ain’t what it used to be.
We are captives to captivity.
We don’t know up from down or greater from lesser. We don’t know getting ahead from falling behind. We don’t know the glory of God from the abuses of the powerful.
Jesus will drive you crazy like that.
Much scratching of the head.
The ancient faith, being a disciple of Jesus, is to walk in a way that is contrary to the way of things, and walking in that way of Jesus is to walk the way of liberation.
Liberation. Setting hostages free. Paying the price to release the captives.
The ransom.
Jesus is the ransom.
He sets us free.
And to be free is to serve.
Freedom that comes about through serving.
That is the glory of God.
It empties the tomb.
It tears open the veil.
It defeats captivity, throwing the gates wide open.
It puts Hell in an uproar, because it has been done away with.
The world is being stolen back by God, the hidden servant of all, and we can’t stop what we can’t see.
That means life is not about crushing one another. The Godless rulers of the world may think that is how things work. They are simply pitiful and pathetic.
Life is about lifting one another up.
Rising from the graveness of things.
It is the way of God. Setting the captives free in a world that worships captivity.
So, getting ahead ain’t what it used to be.
Jesus drives us crazy like that.
Be that kind of crazy, we are told. It is the only way to get ahead.