There once was a wise man who possessed a very valuable ring with a precious stone. Everyone admired the ring. Some even thought that the ring gave the man supernatural power. One day a stranger entered the city. He visited the wise man. He too admired the extraordinary ring. Abruptly the stranger asked the wise man if he could have the ring. The wise man took one look at the ring and then slipped it off of his finger and gave it to the stranger. The stranger took the ring. He left the city immediately. The people of the city did not understand how it was that the wise man could give up such a valuable ring.

Not long, however, the stranger appeared back in the city. He searched for the wise man until he found him. Confronting the wise man, the stranger put the ring back into the hands of the wise man. The wise man responded. "What is the matter? Don't you love the ring?"

The stranger answered, "I no longer want the ring."

The wise man asked, "What then do you want?"

The stranger answered, "Give me what it is that you have. Give me that which allows you to give away such a precious ring."

Today we have arrived at that point in Mark’s Story of Jesus where Jesus has done all he can to embody the vision of the kingdom of God as it is manifest in the life and ministry of Jesus. Mark characterizes Jesus journey to Jerusalem as simply “on the way.” The disciples are on the way with Jesus. They are walking on the same road as Jesus, but their perception of where that road leads is a contrast to Jesus’ perception.

Jesus has more to offer than a valuable ring. He presents the kingdom of God in its features which both fascinate the disciples but also leave them trapped in their own understanding of power. The Gospel has informed us that three times Jesus has taught the disciples that he must be arrested, suffer at the hands of the political rulers, and die.

The disciples have flocked around Jesus hoping that he would give them what they think he has—power. They view Jesus as the Messiah, the new king, the one who will liberate Israel from being dominated and give to Israel the right to dominate their enemies.

There is a lot at stake here. Jesus has predicted three times that he must be handed over, suffer, and die. The disciples have no place for such talk in their world view. Each time they hear Jesus they indulge the Lord’s strange talk but feel confident that their fantasies will be fulfilled. Peter rejects the teaching and rebukes Jesus for such nonsense. Jesus rebukes Peter.

After the second prediction of suffering and death, the disciples are caught discussing who will be the most important in the new kingdom. Jesus teaches them about responsibility in the new kingdom. The new kingdom will not be about domination. It will be about becoming children who are dependent on adults for nurture and protection. It will be about faithfulness in marriage and business affairs. It will be about caring for the poor.

Still the disciples do not understand what Jesus is doing because they are blinded by their own ambition. James and John approach Jesus and like children ask Jesus to give them whatever they ask. Jesus, like good parents, asks what it is they want. They reply, "Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory." Jesus sees their effort at self-aggrandizement for what it is.

The reader in Mark will know that the disciples are asking for something that they surely do not want. Jesus tells them that he has no authority to grant their request. He asks them if they are able to drink the cup that he will drink and to be baptized with the baptism in which he will be baptized. Both images—the cup and baptism—are references to suffering. The disciples eagerly reply, “We are able.” The disciples think that they are ready to rule. The reader knows that Jesus will die on a cross with two insurrectionists beside him, one on the left and one on the right.

Jesus will become king, but his enthronement will be on a cross. The scandal that his death will provoke will be enough to douse the false and vain fantasies. His death will put an end to the human effort to self-actualize by running over others instead of standing with others while they are being run over.

It is not until after Jesus has died that the disciples can learn to ask for that wisdom that Jesus had that would empower him to give up his life for many rather than to try to keep his life for himself.

Dear congregation, what would you have done if the wise man gave you his precious and valuable ring? Would you have taken it? Would you have even noticed the deeper significance of the wise man’s giving the ring away? Would you have recognized the greater gift, that is, the gift of wisdom that recognizes that human greatness consists not in our ability to take but rather in our ability to give, not in our right to be served but in our responsibility to serve.

We have completed a most significant event in the Melanchthon Institute in a symposium on the theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer. This remarkable figure was truly a human being for our time. As a proud and accomplished citizen of the Germany and a member of a family of outstanding achievement, Bonhoeffer began to witness the unbridled lust for domination in his society, primarily exhibited in the demonstrations of the Nazis and ultimately in their taking power. The Nazis’ use of power was clearly that of totalitarian force which was used to intimidate and strike fear in the hearts of the citizens so that they would comply with the demands of the powerful. The dehumanizing of the people was accomplished by turning the powerful into oppressors or by turning the powerless into the oppressed, especially the brutalization and later the extermination of the Jews.

In this world in which Bonhoeffer lived he could no longer work with a view of sin that was understood as guilt. This understanding of sin was too easily exploited by the powerful to increase their domination of those willing to go the way of the thoughtless masses. No, sin had to be seen in these circumstances as the domination by one group over another group or other groups. Domination seemed to be the way to go in order to self-actualize and become the masters of the universe.

Bonhoeffer saw the persecution of the Jews, homosexuals, Gypsies and the mentally challenged as the dehumanizing effect of unchecked “will to power” by those who try to secure their lives at the expense of other peoples’ lives. For this reason Bonhoeffer could bring to expression the scandalous gospel of Jesus Christ who represents on the cross, not God’s wrath, but God’s love demonstrated as God present on earth taking sides with the outcast, the brutalized, and the dying.

For Bonhoeffer the Gospel was the call to follow Christ and give up the life which this world offers which leads only to destruction. It was a call to recognize the millions of arrested, jailed and executed in the name of the state as having a proper representative before the judge of this world, who is none other the God and Father of Jesus Christ who points the way to becoming truly human—not by taking life but by giving life away. That is the wisdom of God which we can learn today from Christ who teaches

"You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many." Mark 10:42-45

And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.