Chan Gailey, football coach for the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, told how he learned a lesson in humility.
Gailey was then head coach of Alabama's Troy State, and they were playing for a National Championship. The week before the big game, he was headed to the practice field when a secretary called him back to take a phone call.
Somewhat irritated, Gailey told her to take a message because he was on his way to practice.
She responded, "But it's Sports Illustrated."
"I'll be right there," he said.
As he made his way to the building, he began to think about the upcoming article. It would be great publicity for a small school like Troy State to be in Sports Illustrated. As he got closer, he realized that a three-page article would not be sufficient to tell the whole story. Coming even closer to his office, he started thinking that he might be on the cover. "Should I pose or go with an action shot," he wondered. His head was spinning with all of the possibilities.
When he picked up the phone and said hello, the person asked, "Is this Chan Gailey?"
"Yes, it is," he replied confidently.
"This is Sports Illustrated, and we're calling to let you know that your subscription is running out. Are you interested in renewing?"
Coach Gailey concluded the story by saying, "You are either humble or you will be humbled."
I don’t know if Gailey was just saying this from experience, but I think that it is just as true as a Biblical principle of the way that God works. This is a principle that we need to understand as we go through our days.
We always face the temptation of pride, to be first, to be the highest. This was the temptation faced by the disciples in our text today. Jesus has been trying to teach them what it means to follow him.
32 They were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them; they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. He took the twelve aside again and began to tell them what was to happen to him, 33 saying, "See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death; then they will hand him over to the Gentiles; 34 they will mock him, and spit upon him, and flog him, and kill him; and after three days he will rise again." 35 James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came forward to him and said to him, "Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you." 36 And he said to them, "What is it you want me to do for you?" 37 And they said to him, "Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory." 38 But Jesus said to them, "You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?" 39 They replied, "We are able." Then Jesus said to them, "The cup that I drink you will drink; and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized; 40 but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared." 41 When the ten heard this, they began to be angry with James and John. 42 So Jesus called them and said to them, "You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. 43 But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, 44 and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. 45 For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many."
This is a classic instance of the disciples just not getting what Jesus is talking about. Back a couple of chapters the disciples declared that Jesus was the Messiah. Since then Jesus has been trying to tell them what that means. He is telling them that he is not the kind of Messiah that they think that he will be.
The story begins by telling us that they were on the road, going toward Jerusalem. This is not just the capital city, but it is the end of the road for Jesus. And he has been trying to convey this to his disciples. They don’t seem to be getting it. So he takes them aside for a private chat.
He says, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death; then they will hand him over to the Gentiles; they will mock him and spit upon him, and flog him, and kill him; and after three days he will rise again.”
Jesus is laying out as clear as he can, step by step. First, he will be handed over, and then sentenced to death, then mocked, spit upon, flogged and finally killed. You have to wonder what the disciples were thinking. They had followed Jesus for at least a couple of years and had left everything. Do you think that they were disillusioned or even devastated? Not even close, at least not James and John.
The first thing they do is ask if Jesus will do something for them. He asks what is it, and they reply, “We want to sit at your right hand and your left hand when you sit in glory.”
Ever since Peter declared it a few chapters back that Jesus was the Messiah their minds must have been racing. The mention of the title, “Messiah,” conjured in their minds images of glory and fame and power. For the Messiah was the one whom God was going to send to save Israel and to overcome both her own sin as well as her enemies. They just knew that Jesus was going to Jerusalem to take his rightful place on the throne, no matter what Jesus was saying. They wanted a piece of the action.
This is really unbelievable isn’t it! And yet, I fear that we are often guilty of the same thing. We want to follow a Messiah that is victorious and triumphant over all of life’s enemies. And we want to share in his glory and power and victory. We want him to conquer all the enemies in our lives—obnoxious bosses, financial difficulties, health problems, troubled marriages and so on. When Jesus tries to tell us that following him isn’t always a bed of roses, we don’t want to hear him. When he tries to tell us that he is not a Messiah that goes from glory to glory, but one that goes from glory to the cross, we want to turn a deaf ear. When he tells us that following him, who suffered on the cross, means that we too will have to suffer, we don’t want to listen. Before we shake our finger in disgust, we need to look at ourselves.
Jesus tells James and John that they have no idea what they are asking—in sitting on his right and left in glory. For we know that as he is raised up, not on a throne but one the cross, there will be one on his right and another on his left. And he asks them if they are able to drink the cup that he drinks, and they so confidently say that they can. How foolish can you be?
Well, maybe this was just James and John? Maybe the other disciples got the picture. No such luck. It says that when the other 10 disciples heard what James and John have asked, they are angry! Not because of what James and John have asked, but with the fact that they asked FIRST! How dare they cut in front of the line! Why should the two of them get the glory?
This is the state of the disciples just before Jesus was crucified, which gives me some hope. If his own disciples were so helplessly blind and they were with him all the time, then I guess it’s OK if I miss out on what Jesus is all about sometimes.
After all of this Jesus says some powerful words. He says,
You know how it is in the Pagan nations,” he said. ‘Think how their so-called rulers act. They lord it over their subjects. The high and the mighty ones boss the rest around. But that’s not how it’s going to be among you. Anyone who wants to be great among you must be your servant. Anyone who wants to be first must be everyone’s slave. Don’t you see? The Son of Man didn’t come to be waited on. He came to be the servant and to give his life for the ransom of many. (N.T. Wright’s translation)
The way of Jesus is not like the way of the world. In the world, the way to the top is to be first in line, and if you’re not first, to claw your way up to the front. The way of Jesus is to get in the back of the line and to help others get to the front. This is what Jesus did on the cross.
This morning we have installed four new leaders as part of our Steering Committee. We often think of leaders or elders in the church as having prestige and power. But, if I am reading this text correctly, it looks like we have just given them a demotion. They have been called to be leaders in this congregation, but not just any leaders, leaders like Jesus. They are called to be servant-leaders. They definitely do lead. Every group needs leaders. And as we change and grow we need the best leaders we can get. But they are those they lead in the way of Jesus, who suffered and gave his life out of love.
Steve Sample is the president of the University of Southern California. In his book, The Contrarian's Guide to Leadership (121), Sample shares a leadership lesson he learned early in his career.
One of my earliest introductions to real leadership occurred in 1971, when I was named (at the tender age of thirty) to be deputy director for academic affairs of the Illinois Board of Higher Education. There I learned a great deal from the board's chairman, George Clements, who had made a name for himself as the man who built the Chicago-based Jewel Tea Company into a major national grocery chain.
When I first arrived at my post, Mr. Clements said, "Steve, let me give you some basic advice about leadership. You should spend a small amount of your time hiring your direct reports, evaluating them, exhorting them, setting their compensation, praising them, kicking their butts and, when necessary, firing them. When you add all that up, it should come out to about 10 percent of your time. For the remaining 90 percent of your time you should be doing everything you can to help your direct reports succeed. You should be the first assistant to the people who work for you."
He has discovered the wisdom of the gospel. It is the lie and falsehood of the world that says that you get to the top, that you get the glory by pushing your way to the front and using your power and authority to get other people to serve you. Mr. Clements learned the truth that you get the glory by being a servant. It was Jesus himself who washed the disciples’ feet in the upper room.
There is a passage in Philippians that clearly states what Jesus is all about. In it the Apostle Paul encourages all believers to be more like Christ by following his example:
Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death— even death on a cross. Therefore 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.(NRSV)
We are to have the same attitude that Jesus did. He was EQUAL with God, and yet he didn’t see his position as something which he could bend to his own ends. Instead, he emptied himself. He set aside his power and his glory and became as lowly like a slave when he became human. But he didn’t stop there. He went further and humbled himself and was obedient to the Father even though it meant his very life. This epitomized the kind of Messiah that he was.
Because he humbled himself to the utmost, then God exalted him. God raised him up and gave him the name and reputation that is above every other name. So that every kneed should bend and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord.
Imagine that picture of every one in heaven and on earth and under the earth bending down on their knees before Jesus. That is where we should be before him. And I get the feeling that we either do it voluntarily acknowledging that he is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, or we are forced to kneel in acknowledgement of his power and authority. Or to put it another way, we either humble ourselves or we will get humbled. And I for one, would rather humble myself. If we humble ourselves, then God will raise us up.