Power Under
A sermon about one of Jesus's most overlooked teachings because it's imbedded in one of his most familiar teachings about the meaning of his death.
In the late 1800's, George Malcolm Stratton, a psychologist, devised an experiment in which he wore a set of goggles that made everything appear upside down. As you might expect, it was initially discombobulating, but after wearing these special goggles for three days straight, Stratton discovered that his brain adjusted, allowing him carry out his daily activities. His experiment has been repeated many times over the years with the same result.
People can get used to the see the world upside down.
Jesus comes into a such world where people had lived with their upside-down goggles on so long and had gotten so used to their distorted view of the world, they had forgotten what right-side up looked like. Which made a lot of what Jesus taught his disciples and the crowds following him unlike anything they had ever seen or heard before.
The teaching we're about to read in Mark 10 is a prime example.
““We are going up to Jerusalem,” he said, “and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles, who will mock him and spit on him, flog him and kill him. Three days later he will rise.”” (Mark 10:33–34, NIV)
Immediately after this prediction, Jesus's disciples demonstrate, yet again, their failure to understand his mission.
“Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him. “Teacher,” they said, “we want you to do for us whatever we ask.” “What do you want me to do for you?” he asked. They replied, “Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory.” “You don’t know what you are asking,” Jesus said. “Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?” “We can,” they answered. Jesus said to them, “You will drink the cup I drink and be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with, but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared.”” (Mark 10:35–40, NIV)
This time it's James and John who make an outrageous request. They want to be Jesus's right and left hand men helping him run his new kingdom when he comes into power.
Jesus is preparing for a brutal death in Jerusalem and they are asking for a promotion.
Jesus tells them they don't really understand what they're asking for. The cup he's going to drink isn't a cup of celebration. Its a cup of suffering, a baptism into death. And besides that, he says its not up to him who sits on his right or his left. Those spots have already been reserved.
When the other disciples hear about their request, they are outraged. Not only because James and John thought they were worthy of such lofty positions, but also I'm sure because they were hoping to secure those positions for themselves.
Jesus calls his disciples to huddle up around him so he can give them one of his most radical teachings.
“Jesus called them together and said, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”” (Mark 10:42–45, NIV)
The Gentiles, the Roman officials, exercise power over their subjects. It's power by domination. Power by coercion. This is the kind of power the disciples assume they're going to have over others. It's the only model of power they have ever known.
I can hardly blame them for thinking this way.
When I was a kid, my parents made me do chores around the house. I had to load and empty the dishwasher, take out the trash, fold the laundry. They didn't give me a choice. They exercised power over me. I remember thinking: I can't wait to grow up and have some kids of my own who I can force to do all the household chores I don't want to do.
When you have been ruled over by someone else, it natural to want to rule over others when you finally have some power of your own. The disciples think they're about to come into some power and they are, but it's going to be a kind of power unlike anything the world has ever seen.
Jesus says, “Power over may be how the Romans do it, but that’s not the way we're going to do it. In my kingdom, if you want to be great, you have to be a servant. If you want to be first, you must become last, taking the status of a slave who has no status. Instead of exercising power over, we're going to exercise power under.”
“And it starts with me,” he continues. “I'm leading the way on this. I didn't come as a high and mighty king to be served by others, I came as a servant, a suffering servant who will die to set others free.”
This may be one of Jesus''s most overlooked teachings. We focus on the last phrase, because it helps explain the purpose of his death. He died to give his life as a ransom. He died to set us free from slavery to sin and death.
By focusing solely on how Jesus's death saves us, we miss another key part of the teaching. While Jesus's death is saving us, it also showing us how to live, how to lead, and how to use power in a Christ-like way.
The implications of this teaching are far-reaching.
One well-known leadership guru has defined leadership as influence, nothing more, nothing less. Jesus is giving his disciples his philosophy of leadership and laying out for us a way to gain, maintain, and exercise influence in our society.
It's not by exercising power over those who are weaker than us. Not power over those who disagree with us. Not power over those who are against us. Not power over those who once had power over us.
This is how Jesus became the most influential person who has ever lived. It's what makes Jesus's kingdom unlike all the other kingdoms of the world. Its power under. Jesus describes and embodies a kind of greatness, a kind of authority, a kind of influence that comes from serving and making sacrifices for the benefit of others.
If I may use, for just a few moments, a volatile word, Jesus casts for his followers a vision of an alternative way of doing politics.
Before you curl up into a ball and roll out of here, let me define what I mean by politics. My all-time favorite definition of politics comes from Jay Leno who said when he looked up politics in the dictionary he saw that it was a combination of two words: poli, which means many, and tics, which means bloodsuckers.
What I mean by politics is the way groups, and individuals within groups, exercise power to influence and make decisions. Politics are the power dynamics involved in group decision-making.
Any time we're engaged in the act of exercising power to influence a decision within a group, regardless of the size of that group, we're doing politics.
When newlyweds are negotiating what roles they will fill in their new home: who will cook, who will wash the clothes, the who will mow the lawn, (at least until they have kids and can force them to do these things) they're making a foray into gender politics.
At work, when you're trying to persuade your boss to go with your idea instead of a co-worker's idea and you're marshaling support and making alliances, you're engaged in office politics.
When James and John ask Jesus for seats on each side of his throne so he they share in his power and be his advisors, it was an early instance of church politics.
What makes most forms of politics feel so icky and so unChrist-like is that they so easily and exclusively become an exercise in self-interest. We become so determined and desperate to get what we want and have our way that we'll say or do whatever it takes to gain power over others.
Right now you may thinking, Yea but, what else are we supposed to do? How else are we supposed to get what we want or gain the power to do what we think is best? That just the nature of politics. It's the way the world works. All is fair in love and war and politics.
Have you ever noticed how those excuses never seem to work with Jesus? He says, "Huddle up and listen closely. That may be how everyone else does it, but it's not that way we're going to do it. Ours is not a power over, it's a power under revolution. Instead of using power over others to get our way, we're going to look for opportunities to give ourselves away for the benefit of others.”
What would it look like to put this teaching into practice the next time you walk into a meeting? Or the next time you and your spouse square off for a "discussion"? Or the next time you don't get your way in a group to which you belong?
Years ago I was having lunch with an elder in the little church I served Bellingham, Washington. He was wrestling some of the changes we were making to better connect with younger generations. I was twenty-five at the time so I loved the changes we were making.
He told me when he was a young adult in the church, the elders always made sure things were done the way they wanted. They welcomed no new ideas and embraced zero change.
He said, "I thought back then that I might someday become an elder and when I did, we would finally do things my way. Now you're telling me the best thing thing for this church is not to do things my way? Now that I'm an elder, I still don't get my way?"
With the hubris that can only from being twenty-four, I said "Yes, that's right."
And he said..."Okay."
Rather than exercising power over the church, he exercised power under the church, for the sake of others. Years later, when I think I have to get my way, when something has to be done the way I think it should be done, especially in church, because I'm lead minister or preacher, I remember the way he made this teaching from Jesus come alive for me.1
Power under for the sake of others is one of the core values of the Christian faith.
I must also warn you, it's a risky way to live. Believing in resurrection makes it a bit easer, but in my experience, only a little bit.
Jesus's philosophy of leadership and alternative way of doing politics didn't get him elected. It got him crucified, in between two rebels, one on his right and one on his left.
It didn't look like it at the time, but as he hung on the cross, Jesus was changing the world. Not by exercising power over, but by demonstrating power under, giving himself away for the sake of the world.
His self-giving sacrificial way of life and death still has the power to turn our upside-down world right-side up again, but only if more of us who are huddled up around him will follow his example.
Shout out to Jim Laird, one of the finest elder/shepherds I’ve ever worked with.
Wade, this is a very solid installment! Considering the last eight years in American politics, I think of it often. Neither party appears to want to understand what the other might be attempting to say. It seems more like a conversation between two hardened criminals arguing which one is worse in a conversation that should be about self-deception instead.
Jesus's notion of power pulls the curtain back on situations where I deceptively tell myself (before I try to bamboozle someone else), "What they need is for me to step in and fix this situation."
THEY DON'T.
In many cases, they will tell me to butt out (or ignore my suggestions) and ask me to continue working on myself so God can continue working on them (and me still).