The Road of True Wisdom
Sermon by Robin on James 3:13 - 4:3, 7-8 and Mark 9:30-37
Our gospel reading for this evening opens with Jesus and the disciples on the road together where Jesus once again predicts his death and resurrection. This is the second of three times that Jesus will reveal this to his disciples, and each time they do not understand. While it may seem crystal clear to us in view of our familiarity with the story of Jesus’ death and resurrection, the disciples had a very different expectation of how the story would turn out. At this point they have correctly identified Jesus as the Messiah, and the Messiah was supposed to lead the people out from under Roman rule and oppression and restore them as the Kingdom of Israel. The suggestion that the Messiah would die was in stark conflict with this narrative, and simply didn’t make sense to the disciples. But when Peter challenged Jesus about this idea the first time he predicted his death, he was sharply rebuked by Jesus with the words “Get behind me Satan!”, and so it’s understandable that despite the disciples’ inability to comprehend this idea, they are afraid to ask Jesus about it.
Have you ever been part of a conversation where someone says something that you don’t understand or you’re unsure of how to respond? It’s uncomfortable and awkward, and the easiest way to alleviate that discomfort might be to change the subject and talk to someone else about something completely different. This appears to be the strategy that the disciples employed, because when they arrive at their destination we learn they have been caught up in a very different topic when Jesus asks the disciples what they were arguing about. The disciples clearly believe that their argument over who was the greatest will not meet with Jesus’ approval, because their response is silence. However Jesus’ seems to know the focus of their disagreement, either because he overheard their jockeying on the road, or he had some divine insight from the Holy Spirit, and he’s not willing to let it slide. So he sits down in the traditional teaching posture, calls over the 12, and gives a new definition of greatness: “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” He then offers a visual illustration of what that means by bring over a child and taking it into his arms and saying, “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.”
In the context of the time and culture, welcoming a child was not the way to pursue greatness. Children were entirely without status, considered to be the property of their father and the responsibility of their parents. There was nothing to be gained socially by welcoming a child. In our own context where we have a different view of children it’s easy to romanticize this image of Jesus embracing a child, but anyone who has welcomed a child knows that this lovely image is only a snapshot of the experience, and it actually becomes quite messy and exhausting and requires a great deal of humility and self-sacrifice. And we’re generally quite happy to take on this cost with children we have some type of relationship with, but what Jesus is asking of the disciples is to welcome those that they don’t need to welcome. To include and care for those who it is unnecessary for them to include and care about. It involves setting aside their desire to get ahead and instead relinquishing their own rights and privileges in order to put others ahead first, with no obvious benefit to themselves. Jesus is trying to show his disciples that he is not the type of Messiah they think he is and that to be his followers they are going to need to walk a different path than the one they expect. In the Kingdom of God, you don’t get ahead by pushing your way to the front, but by moving to the back. You take a position of service, and you don’t value people based on how they can promote you or advance your status, but instead you include and celebrate and care for those who are ignored and marginalized by everyone else, at a cost to yourself.
James also addresses the temptation towards self-advancement in our reading from his epistle. In the section just before our text begins he has offered a caution about becoming teachers, saying “You know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness” and warning about the power and danger of the tongue and the words it produces. Our passage this evening continues to speak to those who are in or are seeking positions of leadership within their communities. James begins with the question: “Who is wise and understanding among you?”, as wisdom and understanding are understood to be necessary qualities for teachers and leaders. Of course, he isn’t really asking here, but using a rhetorical technique to reveal how the wise and understanding can be identified. And in line with his theme of the connection between faith and works, he asserts that wisdom will be evident in the works of those who exemplify it in their lives. But not only does he claim that wisdom will be evident in one’s actions, James distinguishes between two different sources of wisdom – wisdom from above, or God’s wisdom, and earthly wisdom, which will produce very different behavior in one’s life depending on which type of wisdom they are being guided by.
He starts by describing earthly wisdom, which is motivated by bitter envy and selfish ambition and which will produce disorder and wickedness of every kind. In contrast, wisdom from above, James says, is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy, and those embodying this type of wisdom are described as “those who make peace”.
It doesn’t seem, however, that this is the type of wisdom guiding the communities James is addressing. He asks, again rhetorically, what is driving their conflicts and disputes. I don’t think the issue for James is that there is disagreement within the communities, but the way the conflict is happening and what is driving it. We don’t know what these conflicts are about, but they seem to have a similar quality to the disciples’ argument over who was the greatest. It’s clear to James that they are rooted in a desire to fulfill some type of self-serving interest. He describes behavior that is motivated by envy and selfishness and produces the disordered and wicked realities that are characteristic of earthly wisdom. This reality probably feels very familiar to our own polarized context, in our politics, on social media, perhaps even at gatherings with family or friends. When we find ourselves confronted with this type of dispute it’s worthwhile for us to consider if we are relying on earthly wisdom that’s determined to prove that we are right or somehow better than the other person, or are we relying on wisdom from above that is characterized by gentleness, peace, and a willingness to yield. For James, true wisdom isn’t proven by who wins the conflict, but how the conflict is engaged.
The lectionary for this week skips over the next three verses where James presents a stark choice. He calls them adulterers and says “Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.” In the Kingdom of God, you cannot pursue your own self-serving interests at the expense of others. Earthly wisdom says that self-promotion and selfish ambition are necessary in order to get ahead, but in the Kingdom of God, “whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” There is a clear choice that friendship with God and participation in God’s Kingdom is dependent on a rejection of that earthly wisdom.
I love how the verses which close our text are translated in the First Nations Version, which is a recent English translation of the New Testament which uses Indigenous storytelling style and idioms to capture the meaning of the text. It says, “So humbly follow all of Creator’s ways. Make your stand against the evil trickster, and he will turn and run from you. Draw near to the Great Spirit, and he will draw near to you. Wash your hands clean of your broken ways and purify your hearts and minds from trying to walk two different roads.” This idea that you cannot walk two different roads is what Jesus wanted his disciples to understand – that the road he was walking led to the cross, and that to follow him they would need to leave behind the road of the world’s greatness and instead join him on the path of humility and dying to self. James sees teachers and leaders of the church who have not been following Jesus on this road and calls them to repent of their reliance on earthly wisdom and to instead submit to God’s wisdom. He wants them to resist the devil, as Jesus did in the wilderness when he was offered earthly power and glory in exchange for rejecting reliance on God. James urges them instead to draw near to God, knowing that by doing so they will learn to walk the path of true wisdom.
After two texts like this it’s hard to ignore the fact that tomorrow is the culmination of an election season where political candidates have been arguing with one another over who will be the greatest at leading our country and making a case for why they should be chosen over the others. As Jamie discussed on a recent podcast episode, as Christians our faith can and should inform how we vote. Both Jesus and James are clear that how we act reveals the truth about our faith, and so as we cast our ballot it’s worth considering if the platforms we are supporting welcome and care for the marginalized in our society, and if the individuals we wish to put into positions of leadership exemplify Jesus’ call to service, or James’ description of true wisdom. However, we should not expect that our political leaders will do this perfectly or be surprised when they appear more concerned with their own status or self-promotion. Even for those candidates who are motivated by service of others and care for the marginalized, and I hope there are many, like all of us, they can fall to the temptation to try to walk two roads, depending on earthly wisdom and seeking to get ahead themselves even while serving others. That’s not to say that it’s not possible to see the values of God’s Kingdom advanced through politics. But the nation of Canada is not the Kingdom of God, and we need to be cautious not to make the same mistake as the disciples and expect a political savior. It is not until the Kingdom of God comes in its fullness that we will be ruled by a leader who is truly willing to be last of all and servant of all, who walked the one road of suffering and death. That is why, as Paul says in his letter to the Philippians,
“God also highly exalted him
and gave him the name
that is above every name,
so that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bend,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue should confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.”
May we also learn to walk the road of true wisdom with Jesus.
