St. James the Elder
July 25, 2021
Mark 10:35-45
Ambition is a vice cloaked in virtue. At the core of ambition is pride. Our first father sought to be as God; we in turn seek to be regarded as gods among men. Politics, sports, music, movies, the market, the military – all elevate the ambitious, who cravenly connive for advancement.
Such is the case in the church as well. Connections are exploited, elections are partisan, the ambitious prosper. You can see this evil spirit right in today’s Gospel reading: “Teacher,” they say to Jesus, “we want You to do for us whatever we ask.” “What do you want?” He replies. ”Grant us that we may sit, one on Your right hand and the other on Your left, in Your glory.” Anticipating a political change, with Jesus enthroned as King, James and John request chief places in His administration.
Could they be more presumptuous? The other disciples are much displeased, perhaps regretting that they didn’t think to ask Jesus first!
But this is not how the Christian lives, even if life in the church is still largely governed by ambition and connections and money. In his comments on St. James’ Day, Luther likens the ambition of James and John to human filth; they are as toddlers who have filled their diaper. They have no self control, and it stinks. Yet while Jesus rebukes them, and uses the opportunity of dissension among the apostles to teach them, He does not send them away. He forgives, restores, and instructs.
So He does also with us. Christ treats us like the little children we are. Although we have soiled ourselves and are covered with our own revolting excrement, He does what parents do: washing, cleaning, anointing.
An honest self-assessment leads us to confess our own filthiness. Seeing our own spiritual and moral ruin, we are filled with regret. A Christian might regret certain choices that would have made life better, easier, more successful, more prosperous. Then you realize the sin in your selfish desires, and you regret your regret. It becomes a mountain of failure heaped upon your shoulders, grinding you down to bitterness and murmuring.
Or: you see a path we should take as a family or a country or a church, and you know you’re right, but nobody listens to you. If only that person would change, then we could make some progress. So you grumble and complain – then discover all your righteousness is self-righteousness – filthy rags. You’re no better than James and John, angling for the top spots. You confess your sins, but the confession is tainted by the realization that the core of your being is corrupt. And you wonder, “Is my Christianity just self-loathing?”
Dr. Luther teaches us how to confess. He says, “In the believer’s self-regret, faith looks to God’s mercy.” The more I look inward, the darker it gets. I must turn to the light: God’s mercy. My own conscience damns me. But faith in God's mercy gives us what the Scriptures call a "good conscience."
The joy of this kind of faith is it doesn’t depend at all on us to produce. “This faith does not require our searching for it nor does it depend upon our own wisdom or worldly security. It is freely and gladly given us by way of God's inscrutable, unsought and unfathomable favor” [Luther].
St. James wanted to be great in our Lord’s kingdom. And so he was. He got from Jesus something better than a political appointment. His ambition led him to something better: union with Christ in a death like His. Herod the king, himself ambitious, saw that his opinion polls went up when he persecuted the followers of Jesus. So James was a victim of political expediency, and among the first Christians to be martyred.
I wonder if, as the sword bit into his flesh, James remembered that moment when He asked Jesus for glory. He would have also remembered how gently Jesus responded to his crass ambition. But now there could be no more self-regret. James, in faith, looked to God’s mercy. By the resurrection of Jesus, James knew no earthly king could harm him, nor could any earthly king offer him anything worth having.
Here in his death James got at last what he had requested: a place with Jesus in His kingdom. Likely none of us will be counted worthy to be martyrs, but we can be as Jesus, and later James the Elder: we can be patient to those whose ambition harms us, peaceful in the face of opposition, even parents to those who have soiled themselves. They, like we, are washed and cleaned up by forgiveness. +INJ+