The cost of servanthood

Below, I quote a portion of a sermon by Tim Maton (Everyday Church Wimbledon). His/their approach is extremely helpful for those who represent Jesus Christ in the world.

The teaching in the gospel of Mark

In today’s passage, Mark 9:33-50, Jesus teaches his twelve disciples about the costs and benefits of discipleship.
Read Mark 9:33-41.

And they came to Capernaum. And when he was in the house he asked them, “What were you discussing on the way?”
34[†]But they kept silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. 35[†]And he sat down and called the twelve. And he said to them, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.” 36[†]And he took a child and put him in the midst of them, and taking him in his 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.”
38 John said to him, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, [6] and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.” 39But 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. 40[†] For the one who is not against us is for us. 41[†]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.

We have the benefit of learning from the disciples’ mistakes.
They misunderstood Jesus’ parables and when he talked plainly. The three who saw Jesus transfigured, now seem a bit full of themselves, while the other nine failed to deliver a young lad from a demon, causing them to squabble among themselves, and prohibit ‘unofficial’ disciples from healing in Jesus’ name.
Having humbled them into silence, Jesus took the opportunity to sit them down for another important teaching session.
As we know from elsewhere, entering God’s Kingdom or entering Life, as it’s expressed in this passage, is completely free – we’re not saved by our merits or achievements but by God’s amazing, undeserved love. But, it also costs everything.

The Cost of Servanthood

To be a disciple of Jesus is to be a servant.
Jesus starts by saying, “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.” (verse 35)
Every Christian is called to serve – not only serving God, but also serving other people, and by so doing, indirectly serving God!
Servanthood is a common theme of Jesus’ teaching, which he repeats when washing his disciples’ feet (in John 13), telling them to pick up their cross and follow him (in Luke 9), and explaining he’ll separate the sheep from the goats based on how they treat the hungry and naked, strangers and prisoners (in Matthew 25).
In this passage, Jesus gives four examples of the cost of servanthood.

1) Serve The Least

Jesus picks up a child and cradles them in his arms as a visual aid, and says:

“Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me.” (verse 37)

Jesus equates any simple gesture of reaching down to acknowledge, address, or value a child as one that simultaneously reaches up in worship of our Father in heaven.
To engage children, you have to get down to their level, give them your attention, spend time doing what they like doing, slow down to their pace, and speak their language. It’s an act of humility.
The dominant worldview at the time, shaped by Greek and Roman culture, regarded children as some of the lowest and least in society. While today’s Western society, shaped by hundreds of years of Christianity, no longer regards children as second class, they remain an example of vulnerability and dependence.
They’re the kind of people Jesus expects us to be serving – the least and lost, lowest and lonely, including the oldest as well as the youngest, the homeless and powerless, those forgotten and at the bottom.
This does not excuse us from deifying children, which is a contemporary hazard, but connects our serving of the lowest as service to the Highest.

2) Serve As A Team

In their pride, thinking they were extra special, suspicious of others’ motivations, and wanting to control the Jesus movement, the twelve tried to stop someone else from performing a deliverance in the name of Jesus. Ironically, just after their failure to do the same.
Jesus rebuked their narrow and exclusive thinking and opened their eyes to who else was on the team.

“Do not stop him,” Jesus said. “For no one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, for whoever is not against us is for us. (verse 39-40)

Jesus assumed this was a genuine believer. After all, he’d taught in this area before and accepted their reported miracle as evidence of true discipleship.
Brothers and sisters, we’re all called to be Kingdom Bringers. We don’t need to wait to be asked or given a title. Jesus commissions and the Spirit empowers each of us to be Kingdom Bringers among our friends and family, colleagues and neighbours. You’re already on the team!
Last week, I joined a webinar organised by The Bible Society. It included leaders... (from various denominations)... in the UK, as well as churches like ours, each sharing encouraging statistics and stories of how God is drawing young people to read the Bible, come to church, and respond to the gospel like we’ve not seen in the UK for decades.
Praise God!
Let’s make sure we’re promoting unity rather than harbouring rivalry when playing our small part in what God is doing in our day, alongside the many others, however surprising.

3) Serve In The Menial

As well as honouring the least of people, Jesus honours the least of tasks.

“Truly I tell you, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to the Messiah will certainly not lose their reward.” (verse 41)

Perhaps there’s no more basic a need or more simple a kindness as a ‘cup of water’. A few weeks ago, we visited my mother-in-law in hospital the day before she died. The only thing she whispered between her laboured breaths, was “water”. She didn’t have the strength to lift a cup to her lips. Of course, I helped her. But I know, my heart didn’t leap to the task. I was tired, it was an effort.
Lord, please keep working on me!
Serving as Jesus’ disciples will sometimes include the most menial and mundane of tasks, things way below our pay grade, things we’re vastly overqualified for, things well beneath us.
Not only are we empowered for the supernatural – leading people to Christ, praying for miracles, imparting the Spirit, speaking in tongues and sharing prophecy – but we’re also empowered to do the ‘super-normal’ in Jesus’ name – the everyday, ordinary, monotonous things that desperately need doing in our families, churches and communities.
Wonderfully, this makes ‘greatness in the Kingdom’ accessible to all, including unpaid carers, those in boring jobs, and when visiting the sick, feeding the hungry, and befriending the lonely.

4) Serve The Next Generation

Jesus provides a fourth vivid serving example, alongside a stark warning.

“If anyone causes one of these little ones – those who believe in me – to stumble, it would be better for them if a large millstone were hung around their neck and they were thrown into the sea.” (verse 42)

By referring to ‘these little ones’ as ‘those who believe in me’, it’s hard to conclude whether Jesus is still talking about the child in his arms or the unknown, naïve but effective disciple.
Assuming the ambiguity is on purpose, I think this is about serving the next generation, both biologically (i.e. children and youth) and spiritually (i.e. new and young believers).
Either way, Jesus is highlighting our duty of care to the next generation of people and/or disciples.
At Everyday Church Wimbledon, we’re keen for everyone to find a way of serving 0–18-year-olds, whether by being an excellent, active and godly relative, godparent or friend of the family, or by becoming a school governor, scout leader or football coach etc, or by serving our Creche, Kids or Youth ministries.
Similarly, as people come to faith or join the church, we need people to lead new Life Groups, take people through foundational material, and run discipleship courses to help them grow.
Jesus regards serving in this way as our responsibility.
While I’ve highlighted the positive impact we can have on others’ faith journey, in this instance, Jesus warns us of the consequences we face for having a negative impact on others’ discipleship.
Beware causing a young disciple – in age or stage – to stumble!
This includes causing them to sin, as some English versions translate it. But it is much broader, including anything that encourages them to drift away, get put off, or give up on their commitment to following Jesus.

Conclusion

It cost Jesus more

Whatever the felt cost of following Jesus, it cost Jesus far more.
As he’d just predicted, in verse 31, The Son of Man was delivered into the hands of men, and they did kill him. Yet after three days, he did rise again!
As an act of true and proper worship, Paul urges us disciples, in Rom 12:1, “to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice”, but he does so “in view of God’s mercy”. We can take the hit of being his living sacrifices because Jesus took the fall of being our ultimate sacrifice.

Salted with fire

Inspired perhaps by his reference to the fire of hell and his imminent death, Jesus ends with the somewhat enigmatic sentence: “Everyone will be salted with fire” (verse 49), before a couple of other salt related sayings.
It’s a slightly confusing end that’s got theologians scrabbling for a confident interpretation.
Perhaps it is a reference to this theme of sacrifice, both his and ours, as according to verses in Leviticus, Numbers, Ezra, and Ezekiel, salt was sometimes sprinkled on burnt offerings. (Leviticus 2:13, Numbers 18:19, Ezra 6:9, and Ezekiel 43:24).
The one thing salt and fire have in common is that they both hurt. That’s discipleship for you. There’s a cost to following Jesus, but it’s worth it because salt preserves and fire purifies. If we’re to be living sacrifices and wholehearted disciples of Jesus, we need him to do this in us.

Achieving Greatness

If you want to achieve greatness in the world of sport,(...) it’s going to cost you to train hard.
Similarly, if you want to achieve greatness in the Kingdom of God, while it’s completely free – simply put your trust in Jesus – it’s going to cost you everything: to serve the least, to serve as a team, to serve in the menial, to serve the next generation, and be ruthlessly intentional about following Jesus.
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