“The Trouble with Ambition” by the Rev. Dr. Don Wahlig, October 20, 2024, Year B / Pentecost 22 (Proper 24) -  Isaiah 53:4-12 and Psalm 91:9-16 - Hebrews 5:1-10 - Mark 10:35-45

THEME:  Spiritual maturity looks like Childlike faith and serving all as Jesus did.

As I have transitioned from middle age to – what shall we call it, my golden years? – I have been receiving some signals from my body.  It is telling me that, along with the greater wisdom that age bestows, come some less desirable physical effects.  A torn rotator cuff. A pulled hamstring. An infected filling. Dental implants. This appears to be part of a disturbing trend. And, indeed, some of you, who are a little further along in life, have assured me that this trend is usually not reversable. One of you even told me, “Getting old is not for sissies.”  What if we actually got younger as we got older? Wasn’t there a movie about that not long ago? It was called The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, starring Brad Pitt. Benjamin Button begins life as an old man, and then gradually becomes younger over time. 

It occurred to me this week that the same can be true of our faith. The reality is that, as we age, we become more childlike. The saying is true that in old age the parents become the children, and vice versa.  Maybe we should also expect to become more childlike spiritually – in our faith. As we know from these last few weeks that we have spent in the gospel of Mark, Jesus is telling his disciples that this is exactly what they should aim for. According to him, spiritual maturity is child-like faith.  Jesus says that if we want to enter his father’s Kingdom, we have to regain the simple faith we had as children. We have to trust that God is our loving, dependable parent. We have to trust that he loves us, because we know Jesus loves us. We know Jesus loves us because the Bible tells us so.

But, in order to regain our child-like faith, we will have to relinquish some of the habits and aspirations we have learned from the culture around us. We need to let go of our illusions of independence and control. We need to let go of our ambition to be big fish swimming in bigger and bigger ponds. That is the lesson Jesus teaches his disciples in our scripture today.  He tells them that, when it comes to the Kingdom of God, aspiring to be the greatest means striving to be the servant of all.  The disciples seem to be having trouble with that.

We have all heard the saying “You are known by the company you keep.” The same was true in Jesus’ day. To be seen publicly with important and impressive people was to bask in their reflected glory. On the other hand, to be seen with those of low status did nothing to elevate your social importance.  It might even call it into question.  Clearly, social status is important to Jesus’ disciples.  They have been arguing among themselves all along about which of them is the greatest.  This time the Zebedee brothers, James and John, sidle up to their teacher and ask him to do anything they request.  They are trying to manipulate Jesus, but he does not fall for their ploy.  So, they ask him outright, “Grant us to sit, one at your right and one at your left, in your glory.”   

Can you just see Jesus rolling his eyes? Clearly, James and John have failed to grasp what he has told them about his mission and his destiny. Three times he has told them that the Son of Man will be betrayed, crucified and then raised from the dead. The disciples dismiss this as one of the many strange things Jesus says that they do not comprehend. Their notion is that he will lead Israel to overthrow Roman rule. Then, they will be seated in the places of honor beside him as he rules his earthly kingdom. They do not realize how mistaken they are. The ones who will be at Jesus’ left and right on his way to glory will be the two bandits crucified with him on calvary. Further, although they do not realize it yet, they, too, will eventually suffer a similar fate. So, Jesus pokes a hole in the balloon of their misguided ambition. He tells them that true greatness consists in serving all, just as he has been showing them. And nowhere is that more evident than in his treatment of children. 

When people brought little children to Jesus so he could bless them, his disciples tried to shoo them away. Jesus scolded the disciples. He picked up a child and said, ‘Let the little children come to me, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.”

When it came to healing, Jesus also welcomed children. First, he healed the daughter of Jairus, the synagogue president. Then came the Syro-Phoenician woman’s daughter. Jesus even healed her from afar. Then he healed a little boy with epilepsy, thought to have been caused by an evil spirit. Let’s not miss what was so remarkable, so revolutionary about this. In that culture, children were of zero social importance. They were vulnerable to illness, subject to death, and utterly dependent on their parents for survival.  Their role was like that of a slave – to serve everyone else. For most families who struggled to feed themselves, children were as much of a liability as a blessing. As a result, they were marginal people in the eyes of society, and often in the eyes of their own family.

But, for Jesus, children were to be treasured. They were the example of those whose simple faith enables them to enter the Kingdom of God. They may have been the least, in terms of social status and power, but Jesus went out of his way to hug them, bless them, and make them whole. That is the job of a disciple.  In order to be great, disciples must be the servant of all, including - and especially - the least. In other words, they have to be like children.  And their faith has to be child-like, too. That is Jesus’ message for his disciples. And it is his message for you and me, too.

What is it about children that we should emulate, and how do we do that? The answer is by cultivating three things that set children apart: humility, dependence, and trust.  First and foremost, children are humble, especially young children. They have great imaginations, but no delusions of grandeur. Child psychologists tell us that healthy children are neither arrogant nor self-deprecating. They learn early on to focus on others and see them as having the same inherent worth as they do.

Second, children are not only humble, they are dependent. They do not have power and they know it. Their parents have power. Children accept this and although they may test it from time to time, they are comfortable with it. It is not a cause for questioning or concern. It is simply a fact of their existence. 

Finally, in addition to being humble and dependent, children are trusting, especially when it comes to their parents. In healthy families, parents provide love, sustenance, and nurture – everything a child needs to thrive. So, children learn to trust that their parents will do what is best for them. They obey their parents as a result. As we move into adulthood, however, we learn that these are not qualities that the world values highly. When was the last time you were in a job interview and someone asked you “Give me an example of a time when you were comfortable being dependent on someone else?”

Or, “I see here that you have listed your major as economics.  I am impressed that you left off your GPA.  I am sure that is because it was so high, and you are so humble.” No, I dare say none of us has ever had that experience. As we get older, we realize that the world rewards braggadocio and self-promotion over humility. It values independence and autonomy over dependence and mutuality. And it values skepticism and empiricism over trust and faith. 

But Jesus does not. Nor do children.  Jesus wants us to be more like them, and less like his bickering, status-obsessed disciples. The question is how? The answer is to practice it. Try it on like a new outfit, and then pay attention to how it feels. What happens when we imitate childlike humility? When we consciously build up others and give them credit, and refuse to brag about ourselves? What happens when we not only acknowledge our dependence on others, but we celebrate it? When we hold up the team, whether we are at home or at work, and we praise each other.

What happens when we trust that God – our parent – provides love, sustenance, and nurture – everything we need to thrive?  Can we learn to trust him to do what is best for us?  Can we learn to obey him like a child would? Can we learn to serve him, by serving all as Christ did?

If so, then we are on the road to spiritual maturity. We are on the road to the Kingdom of God.



May it be so.