Last Things First

The scriptures referred to are James 3:13-4, 7-8a and Mark 9:30-37.

We are looking at the life of Jesus in our weekly Bible study and so I have been doing research. Since the backdrop of Jesus' life includes the Roman Empire, I have also been listening to podcasts and watching documentaries about the era and the people of the time. I saw this documentary on Julius Caesar, the man who destroyed the Roman Republic when he became its first dictator. He came from a wealthy family which fell on hard times. He joined the army and worked his way up, always with an eye on getting political power. For instance he wanted to merit a parade through Rome, which could only happen if he had a military triumph which killed at least 5000 of the enemy. So Caesar made sure he killed that many people. However his obvious ambition and ruthlessness created opposition to him. As he reentered Roman territory from Gaul without disbanding his troops, he triggered a civil war. He went up against Pompey, Rome's previous greatest general and Caesar's former supporter. Pompey, defeated, eventually fled to Egypt. Caesar pursued him there, only to be presented with Pompey's head compliments of the Queen of Egypt, Cleopatra.

Cleopatra was also very ambitious, wanting to rule the empire that Alexander the Great had ruled. She couldn't do that without conquering the Romans but she did the next best thing. She killed her brother, who was also her husband, seduced Caesar and had a child by him. However, her plans to have her son inherit his father's empire died when Julius Caesar was assassinated in the Roman Forum. So she began an affair with Caesar's second-in-command, Marc Antony, getting pregnant by him. But when Antony had a falling out with Caesar's great nephew and adopted son, Octavius, those plans fell apart. Cleopatra tried to bribe Octavius but he didn't bite. As his troops besieged Alexandria and Antony and Cleopatra's armies failed to stop Octavius, the doomed lovers made a suicide pact. Cleopatra researched the best poison to use by testing them on prisoners and noting the results. As Antony reviewed his defeated troops, he received a message that Cleopatra was dead. He fell on his sword. But the Queen of Egypt was very much alive. Despite the fact that historians think Antony really was the love of her life, Cleopatra was still trying to become an empress. When Octavian captured her she tried to seduce him but he turned and walked out of her presence. Then 11 days after Antony had died, Cleopatra, fearing she would be paraded through the streets of Rome as Octavian's captive, took poison. Octavian murdered her children by Caesar and Antony and became the first official emperor of Rome, Augustus. It was during his reign that Jesus was born.

In today's lectionary both James and Jesus warn us of selfish ambition. And yet we admire the ambitious people of our time and revere ambitious men and women of the past. And I think it is because we don't distinguish between selfish ambition and other reasons to pursue excellence. In his management book Good to Great, Jim C. Collins presented his research on the factors that helps a good company go to a great one. A key factor is having a leader who is a “paradoxical mix of personal humility and professional will,” driven not by the desire for personal aggrandizement but the desire to do what's best for the company. These folks are rarely the superstar CEOs who get all the attention in the press but men and women passionately focused on what the company is best in the world at doing and which also happens to make money. After his book came out, Collins was surprised to see it adopted by churches and non-profit organizations. One thing that interested them was what he called the “Level 5 Leader.” It is very similar to the concept of the “Servant Leader,” whom Robert K. Greenleaf wrote about. And in today's passage from Mark, Jesus says, “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.”

Let's face it, most leaders put themselves first. They are concerned about their power and their prestige and having not just their needs but their desires met. The Twelve were not above this. In the very next chapter of Mark, we find the disciples once again getting into a conflict on the matter of who was greatest and Jesus says, “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) And to make the point as vividly as possible, just before the last supper, John's gospel tells us how Jesus stripped off his outer garment, tied a towel around his waist and washed his disciples' feet, a task usually given to the lowest of slaves. Afterward he says, “Do you understand what I have done for you?...You call me 'Teacher' and 'Lord,' and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things you will be blessed if you do them.” (John 13:12-17)

As Jesus pointed out, most hierarchies put the leader before everyone and often everything else. Jesus says that, instead, the leader should put his people before himself. And Jesus didn't just talk the talk, he walked the walk. Besides washing the disciple's feet, he stepped forward at his arrest and said, “If you are looking for me, then let these men go.” (John 18:8) And of course, he goes to the cross to save humanity. Compare him to people like Hitler and Cleopatra, who were willing to throw anyone else under the bus to get what they wanted. Each sacrificed a viable future for their nation on the altar of a grandiose dream of an empire under themselves.

It feels odd to come out against ambition, though, at least here in America. Don't we want kids to dream big and reach their potential and accomplish great things? Yes but there is another motivator that has nothing to do with simply wanting to be top dog: love. Remember what Collins found out about the leaders who took good companies to being great ones; their passion was focused, not on themselves, but on doing what they do best. Most renowned scientists, movie makers, medical researchers, artists, reformers, teachers, and innovators achieve their greatest accomplishments because they are love what they do. I am reasonably sure that Jane Goodall did not think that studying chimpanzees was the road to fame. She was intensely interested in learning all she could about our closest relatives. That passion drove her to do what she did as well as she could. Van Gogh only sold one painting during his life; he was motivated by his passion to capture the beauty of what he saw. Dr. Jonas Salk did not patent his vaccine for polio which would have made him rich; instead he let everyone have it because he was passionate about wiping out this scourge that was crippling and killing people. They weren't chasing fame and money. They were pursuing their passions. By focusing on those things rather than themselves and by honing their skills and constantly improving how they did what they did they have made lasting contributions to the world.

And then we have the opposite: people who are famous just for being famous. Can you tell me one thing of excellence that the Kardashians have accomplished outside of merely living their life in the limelight? I don't even seek out news about them and yet I know more intimate stuff about them than some people I am interested in, because you simply cannot avoid hearing about them. Social media has made stars out of otherwise obscure people, again, not because they have made the world a better place but simply because they have made themselves heard. You don't even have to be literally loud. There is a woman on You Tube who narrates really boring mundane tasks and yet has 20 million subscribers because she speaks very softly and there are folks who get pleasure out listening to her voice. As an obsession, it is a relatively benign one but 20 million subscribers? Charlton Heston reading the Bible on You Tube only gets 8000 views. The Jesus movie, a Hollywood quality dramatization of the gospel of Luke, which you can watch in its entirety for free on You Tube, gets 4 ½ million views. A woman whispering for 4 hours got 15.8 million.

Small wonder people promote themselves, even if they haven't really done anything truly wonderful or life-changing. The world pays attention to the the flashy and the novel and the outrageous. We reward such behavior, even if it is not conduct we would tolerate in our friends or in our family. I saw this firsthand at a radio station I worked at in Brownsville, Texas. The station hired two shock jocks for the morning drive time. The outrageous, highly sexualized talk of these guys did raise the station profile. It brought the rock station from number 12 to number 6 in the ratings. But the problem is that to keep from getting stale shock jocks have to keep crossing the line of what is acceptable. And eventually they go too far even for the people who hired them. And then they get fired. There was one shock jock in my hometown of St. Louis who made the rounds of most of the rock stations that way. He'd create controversy and raise ratings, say something totally beyond the pale, get dumped by that radio station and get picked up by another, coveting the attention he would draw. Until he pushed the envelope too hard and the cycle would repeat. I once heard a DJ joke about the nudity of concentration camp prisoners in a Holocaust film. Too bad not all such vulgarians can simply be fired.

Jesus says that in the kingdom of God, those who come in first in this life will be relegated to the end of the line. Those who did not promote themselves will be elevated. It's quite possible that the most honored mere human in the new creation will be someone most of us never heard of or thought much about. Like one of those janitors or librarians who live frugally and then upon their death are discovered to have left a million dollars to some charity. They could have lived large but instead they showed themselves to have large hearts.

The key is putting others and their welfare ahead of yourself. This is what Jesus means by disowning oneself and taking up your cross. Jesus' didn't carry his cross for himself; he did it for us. Our cross is not our daily problems but the ones we take on in order to help others. As Paul said, “Bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.” (Galatians 6:2) Or as the 3 musketeers put it, “All for one and one for all.”

Following Jesus is about loving God and loving other people. In Paul's famous passage about love, he writes, “Love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way.” (1 Corinthians 13:4-5) Love is not about oneself but about others. Self-centered people don't really love others. They see them as a trophy or as an extension of themselves. The older rich man has a much younger, impossibly beautiful woman on his arm to advertise how successful he is. If he could he would emblazon his name on her as he does his films or products or companies. “This is mine,” he is saying.

We are to say to Jesus, “I am yours.” We are to look for Jesus in everyone we meet, even those whom we do not know. And we are to treat them as we would Jesus, especially those who need help. And just as you would not brag in front of or try to steal the spotlight from Jesus, you should not do so when you encounter other people. Instead focus on them and treat them as you would relatives of Jesus (Matthew 25:40), even if you think they are the black sheep of his family, so to speak. Jesus loves them and those loved by your beloved, you try to love as well.

One of the side effects of this is that, as the 12 step programs say, helping helps the helper. It takes you out of yourself. It shifts your focus from your problems to those of others. It can also help you realize that you are not alone in your problems. There are others that have the same struggles that you do. And if their problems are worse than yours, it can make you realize that perhaps you are being too whiny about the difficulties you let upend your life and maybe you should be more grateful for the troubles you don't have to wrestle with.

And using your knowledge, experience, and skills to help others can help you feel needed and useful. You learn that you can make a difference in the lives of others. It can lead you to discover your gifts and possibly even your purpose in life. Your purpose is usually found at the intersection of what you are passionate about, what you are good at and what the world needs.

When we call Jesus the Christ or Messiah, we are essentially calling him our King. And yet our King came not to be served but to serve. He did not use his power to make his life more comfortable or easier or more opulent. He spent his time healing and feeding and teaching and forgiving others. His ministry was fueled not by ambition or selfishness but by love.

We may read about or dramatize the lives of Julius Caesar, Marc Antony or Cleopatra but nobody in their right mind wants to be like them. They titillate us but they don't inspire us. With the exception of the Julian calendar, the achievements they were most proud of have been buried in the dust of history. Yet Jesus, who never built a monument, or conquered a nation, or even wrote a book himself, is still energizing people and motivating them to make their lives and the lives of others and this world better, more just, more peaceful, more forgiving, more loving. They do it not by seeking to make a name for themselves. As a Jesuit named Fr. Strickland wrote more than 150 years ago, “A man may do an immense deal of good, if he does not care who gets the credit for it.” Let us do all the good we can and let the credit go to the one who personifies God's grace.

As Paul wrote, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”