Follow The Leader (Mark 10:32-45)
Written by Pastor Kuder   
 “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” … And whoever would be first among you must be slave of all.
Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from our Lord and our Savior, Jesus the Christ.
Recently, I was reminiscing about the various games that I used to play when I was younger.  There was kick-ball, tag, hide and go seek, kick the can, dodge-ball, and follow the leader.  And the list went on and on.
Now, many of those games my friends and I continued to play for some time.  Some of them we continued to play all the way through college.  One of those games always seemed to bring the goofiness out in each of us.  That game being … follow the leader.
Now for those of you who don’t quite know how the game is played or maybe you need a refresher on how the game is played, it works like this.  You have everyone stand in a circle, facing inwards. One person to leaves the room for a minute. This person will be the guesser for the round. While this person is gone, the group decides who will be the “leader.” The leader will be the one who sets the movements for that round.  When the leader is chosen, the guesser is invited back. The guesser then stands in the very center of the circle.
When the round begins, everyone starts swinging their arms up and down. The leader eventually begins to do other movements, and everyone else in the circle mimics the leader’s actions, without being, well, too obvious to reveal who the leader is. The leader can do just about anything he or she wants, such as clapping, making a kicking motion with their leg, jumping up and down, and such and so forth.
The guesser, then has three chances to guess who the leader is.  If all three guesses are wrong a new leader is chosen and the guesser has to begin again.  But if the guesser is able to figure out who the leader is, then the current leader becomes the guesser for the next round.
Hopefully, this brings back some memories for some of you and hopefully they’re good.

Now, in a way … follow the leader, can be a bit of a, well, a bit of a metaphor for our lives.  You see, as we grow … much of the time we are trying to figure out who we should follow.  Who we should emulate.  Who we should copy.  Who we should try and be like.
When we are still fairly young, for many of us, that would be our parents.  Maybe our teachers.  Any maybe, for some of us, there might even be a pastor or two that might get thrown into that mix.  And the hope always is that these people we be good role models for us to follow.  That these people would be the right people for us to be trying to emulate.  
However, sometimes as we get older, who we choose to follow can change a bit.  And sometimes, trying to decide who might be a good person to follow or emulate becomes a little harder to figure out.  And then … sometimes our reasons for choosing that particular person to follow are not always as good as they used to be or for that matter, as good as they should be either.  And then there are times when we decide that we should be the leader.  That we will follow … ourselves.

It’s interesting, when I read today’s Gospel reading, immediately the part that stuck out to me was the fact that James and John actually had the audacity to come up to Jesus and ask Him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.”  Now some might argue that in Matthew it was their mother who was pushing this issue.  But when these verses are examined more you realize that she was just doing what they wanted her to do.  She was acting on their behalf.
So what’s going on?  Had James and John just gotten big heads since they along with Peter were the only ones that Jesus had taken up the mountain to experience His transfiguration?  We don’t know.  But what is certain, is that they were trying to seek out their own glory.  They too, wanted have people looking up to them as well.  They weren’t happy with just sitting at the end of the table.  They wanted to sit all the way up at the head of it.  And in essence they were following their own desires and wants.
So let me ask you … how often have we or others been hurt because someone choose to live the way they wanted, to follow the way they wanted to go and not the way God intended?  But now think of how many people we have hurt because we did things our own way.  
How many times have we hurt ourselves by choosing to follow our own ways?  The way that we thought would be best.  
In that moment of decision, when we want to do one thing and God’s Word tells us to do something else.  Who do we listen to?  Who do we decide is right?  Us or God?  It’s hard to always agree with the Bible.  Sometimes it seems too strict.  Sometimes we don’t feel like it.  Sometimes we think we know better.
Christ knows we might not agree.  But he expects us to obey.  If we don’t follow God’s Word, are we really following God?

A few chapters later in Mark as we discover, as Jesus sits in His glory with one on His right and one on His left it will be on the cross.  And that is what true kingly glory truly looks like.
A Savior who would follow His Father’s will for Him all the way to the cross to pay our sin debt. And defeat deaths grip on us once and for all.

Many years ago there was a man by the name of Eli Black.  Now Mr. Black was a brilliant businessman best known for two events in his life: He masterminded the multimillion dollar takeover of the United Fruit conglomerate, and he jumped to his death from the 42nd floor of the Pan Am building in New York City.
In the book An American Company, an executive described a business lunch he had with Eli Black. When the waitress brought a plate of cheese and crackers as an appetizer, Black reached out and took them, placed them on the table, blocked them with his arms, and continued talking. The executive hadn't eaten for hours and hinted that he would like a cracker. But Black acted as though he hadn't heard him and went on with the business meeting. After a while, Black placed a cracker and cheese on the tips of his fingers and continued to talk. Several moments later, Black placed the cracker on the executive's plate and then blocked the rest as before. It was clear that Black was in charge, manipulating others as he pleased.
When we play "follow the leader," we need to check to see who is at the head of the line. Eli Black, for all his power, ended up in suicide. Jesus Christ, in all His humility, ended up the Savior of the world.  And he is the one we should be following … our Leader, our King of kings, and our Lord of lords
And it is in His most precious name that we pray.
-Amen
 

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