Humility and Arrogance

Humility and Arrogance

Mark 10:32-45

            If we’re looking for a pair of words that are true opposites, these two would have to be in the running.  Throughout our lives we’ve run into both types of people—those who were humble and those who were arrogant, and it’s easy to tell the difference.  If you’re like me, you’ve probably had the misfortune to run into more of the arrogant type than the humble type.  It’s unfortunate but true:  arrogance far outstrips humility in the people with whom we come in contact.

            Why should this be so?  Perhaps the story Mark tells in today’s reading gives us a clue.  Jesus has just told his disciples (a third time) of his coming torture and execution.  He is trying to prepare them for what will happen to him—and to them—once they arrive in Jerusalem.  He knows they are afraid, worried about the future, so he tries to reassure them that all will turn out right.  Yes, he is going to die, but he will rise again.

            Immediately after Jesus finishes, James and John come to him asking for a favor.  Jesus knows what we know about requests like this:  never promise to do a favor until you know what it is.  He asks what they want, and they make a very inappropriate request.  They want to sit on his right and left when he comes into his glory.

            What arrogance!  What gall!  Jesus has just told them not only that he will die, but that the entire process will be one of humiliation.  There will be no honor here, no glory—at least not yet.  The whole arrest, mock trial, beating and crucifixion will be devastating, degrading.  To make it worse, Jesus knows that all those now with him, including James and John, will desert, will leave him to his fate without raising a finger to help, without even being with him.  They will think only of their own skins and not of his anguish and pain.

            Jesus could have responded in anger.  He could have given James and John their comeuppance merely by asking them which one wanted to sit on his right—the position of highest honor—and then stepped back and watched them fight it out, acting even more like selfish children than they did with their original request.  But this was not the way Jesus handled situations.  His rebuke was, as usual, gentle and kind, creating a “teachable moment,” a chance for him to help them see the inappropriateness of their request.

            First, he showed them that, while they would indeed suffer as he would, drinking the cup of sorrow and suffering, and going through the same baptism of fire, he did not have the authority to assign those places.  Those seats were reserved for those who had paid the price for them—those who had earned them in the eyes of God the Father.

            Then Jesus turned to the other disciples, who were angry at their companions’ arrogance, and taught them that the only way to be a leader is to be a follower.  The only way to glory is through service.  Isn’t that what a minister does—serve others?

            If we move forward a few days, we see Jesus demonstrating this as he washes his disciples’ feet.  If we move forward again we see who is on Jesus’ right and left at the end—two thieves, at least one of whom will enter into God’s glory that day.

            What we learn is that the path to glory leads through death—death to sin and death to the world’s values of arrogance, vanity, and selfishness.  We cannot hope to earn a place near Jesus until we learn to humble ourselves, first by submitting to the death of our own will, then taking up our cross and following our Lord, and finally serving others the way Jesus served:  in true humility and love.