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

Do you ever feel like you’re having trouble keeping up with Jesus? Maybe you feel like you’re just starting to get things figured out. You’ve got a handle on what it means to be a Christian, what it means to live as a Christian in the world. And then, all of a sudden, you read a passage of Scripture, or hear a word of Jesus, and it shakes up everything you thought you knew. Or something happens and you have that moment of fear and doubt that you don’t really know what you’ve been doing, though you’ve been doing it for a long time. Now, you’re not sure you ever really understood anything. You start scrambling, to pick up the pieces to make it into something coherent. And you feel like you’re just having trouble keeping up with Jesus, like a little child running to catch up with his mother.

The disciples were having trouble keeping up with Jesus. They had been with Him for a while now, seen a lot of healing, a lot of miracles, a lot of demons cast out. But now He pretty much stops doing all that to teach His disciples. And here He teaches them for the second time what He is going to do: be handed over, die, and after He’s died, He will be raised. And as long as they’ve been with Him, they don’t know what to do with this. They don’t understand it and, what’s more, they are afraid to ask Him about it. So they just go on.

This is the road they’re taking. Everywhere in this part of Mark’s Gospel, Jesus is moving, traveling, journeying, walking. And the disciples are along for the ride, but they don’t understand what this road is about. They are on this road literally, but they are also walking spiritually. And when they come to a house, Jesus asks them what they were talking about while they were on the road. And they don’t say anything, which is smart, because Mark tells us that they were arguing about which of them was the greatest. They knew, as soon as Jesus asked them, that they had taken a detour from Jesus’ way. And Mark puts them side by side so that we can see it. Jesus is on the road to suffering, death, and resurrection, and they’re talking about the road that simply leads to death.

They don’t understand, and they’re thrown off of what they were doing, where they though they were going. And they’re afraid to ask Him what this really means, for Him, and probably for them as well. They’re having trouble keeping up with Jesus on this road. So Jesus exposes the difference between the road they want to be on, and the road He’s on. The one who wants to be first, most prominent, most successful, the greatest, will be last of all, and the servant of all. And who wants to be that? We would much rather be served, than serve. We would much rather be first than last. And this is true of all of us at some point, to some degree or another. The way of the world finds its way into our eyes, and hearts, and minds, and we want it. It’s what everyone tells us we should aim at: get a great job, make enough money, get a nice car, a nice house. Be successful, accomplish your dreams. The less materialistic realize that such a life, spent acquiring things, might not be as fulfilling as we think it will be, so they say things, well, as long as you’re happy. As long as you’re fulfilled, material things don’t matter. But what does it mean to be happy and fulfilled? And does that road have anything to do with the way of Jesus?

Jesus turns it completely upside down: be last of all, and servant of all. That’s what this life is for. And He implies that even if you are first of all, you will be last of all, whether you want to be or not. That has nothing to do with anything the world calls greatness, happiness, success, fulfillment. And it’s not just in the world. It sneaks into the church, too. Pastors get together, and there is often talk about how many people are attending, and building projects, and the number of people who have joined. We would never say it, but there is often a bit of competition there, a pressure to talk about all the good things that are happening. Who’s the greatest? Does that road have anything to do with the way Jesus is walking?

This road is entirely different from the way the world is walking, and it’s so different form our natural assumptions, that it’s easy to get distracted, lost, wandering; we have trouble keeping up with Jesus as we follow Him. But Jesus doesn’t just teach, in the sense that we understand it; He doesn’t just give us words, which we take and incorporate into our lives, and try to be better disciples, better followers on His way. In fact, that’s the whole reason He is walking this way: because all of His people, who should be His disciples, keep going down different roads. So He comes along, and plucks us from the wide and easy way that leads to destruction, and puts us safely on His narrow and difficult way. And He walks it, pulling us along to the cross, in spite of our confusion and difficulty and fear. He who should be served becomes servant of all. He who is literally first becomes last and dead. His resurrection is not just something to which we are walking, trying to get there, it is the new road. This is why baptism comes first for us. We are joined to Jesus’ death and resurrection first, and then we walk the road with Him. We get the end over in the beginning.

And this is why we can have the confidence to be servant of all: because we know that the end of the road has already been assured. He has opened this road that was closed to us before. He didn’t just come from heaven to earth to show us the way, but to be the way to the Father. And to those who are baptized into the beginning of the road, put with Jesus where He has walked, He makes this promise: that He will keep you until the day when you have finished the race. He does it by continuing to sustain your faith with His word and absolution. And here, today, while you are in the middle of your road, traveling on, He has prepared a rest stop, a way-station. Here He feeds you so that you will know yourself as His. He gives you not just a little energy, but His own divine and eternal life. And by these things, as He serves you, He will keep you all the days, until the end of your journey, your pilgrimage.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7, ESV). Amen.

– Pr. Timothy Winterstein, 9/20/24