Service over Power

This sermon was preached by Pastor Ted Carnahan for the third installment of the Midweek Lenten sermon series, Saints Behaving Badly on Wednesday, March 11, 2026.

Grace, mercy, and peace be with all of you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

As I was mentioning earlier in our last couple of weeks, we've been talking about our own reticence or inability to really keep up with personal discipleship, distracted and nodding off.

Now, tonight, we come to our own personal ambition.

The Ambition of James and John

It is worth noting that James and John, sometimes get called the "Sons of Thunder." That was a nickname that Jesus gave them because these guys never did anything halfway.

When they saw people who were not doing what they were supposed to do, their solution was to call down fire from heaven and nuke them. They were not the kind of people that said, maybe we'll give them a little time, give them a second chance. No, they wanted to do away with those evildoers and wipe their hands of those whom they felt were opposed to the word of God.

Here, their ambition knows no bounds: Their personal ambition guides them to approach Jesus with what sounds to me like the kind of thing that a toddler would do.

"I'm going to ask you a question, but promise me that your answer will be yes." Seriously, guys? Grown men go to Jesus and say, "We want you to give us what we're asking for."

Make the next answer to the next question I ask you be yes.

And Jesus wisely says, "Well, what is it that you want?"

And they say, "Grant us to sit one at your right and one at your left."

Now, he's not talking about seating charts. He's talking about power. To sit at the right hand of a king is to be the right hand man. Your right hand man is your wingman. He is your supporter and he is your closest advisor. He has authority because he sits at your right hand. He is the prince to the king. He is the vizier to the shah. He is the court official to the pharaoh.

They want to be seated right next to Jesus.

Admiring and Critiquing the Hustle

On one hand, you've got to admire the hustle. You got to admire the ambition. These guys really want to get out there and do it. They want to be in charge. They want to put their best effort forward.

But you also start to get the impression pretty quickly, especially in light of the other personality traits that they've shown, that they want to set the direction and the mood and they want to be in charge. What they're really looking for is power.

There's a famous quote. Lord Acton is supposed to have said, "Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely."

But I much prefer former Secretary of the Navy Jim Lehman, who once said, "Power corrupts, but absolute power is kind of neat."

Which is a great thing to say and kind of funny until you remember that a man in his position would have been responsible for the care and potential use of nuclear weapons.

You look at somebody like that and say, "absolute power is kind of neat." Well, yeah, I mean, on one hand, it kind of is. But with that power comes responsibility. Power is fantastic if it's used well, but if power is not used well, then it's a danger to everybody.

The Request and Its Motivations

The sons of Zebedee come to Jesus and they say, "Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left hand."

What they're asking for, on one hand, is motivated by a sense of personal ambition that desires to use their best gifts and efforts to dedicate their lives to continuing to serve right beside Jesus. You've got to give them credit for that.

But on the other hand, we know that power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

From time to time, politicians on the public stage, and some are on the left and some are on the right, make appeals to the Church. The way that they do so is by trying to say, "Well, you know, if you give me the office, I'll give the church real power. I'll give the church real authority in the world."

Every time I hear that, I think of James and John and I think of this passage. What they want is power, but they don't understand its corrupting influence. What they want is to have their ambitions be realized in the work of Jesus. But what they don't realize is that with that power comes responsibility.

Uncle Ben from Spider-Man said it well: "With great power comes great responsibility."

The power to call down vengeance on your enemies becomes very quickly the power to call down vengeance on those who merely disagree with you.

The problem is not their willingness to serve. The problem is that their ambition puts the wrong part of them in the driver's seat. The driver's seat here is to be Christ-like, to follow Jesus.

A Lesson for All Disciples

Lest we miss it, Jesus uses this as an opportunity to teach all of the disciples a lesson. (Not in vengeful way, although the other 10 apostles probably were feeling a little vengeful at the time.) "Oh, you go behind our backs and ask to be in charge of everybody, do you?"

Reminds me a little bit of the story of Joseph and his amazing coat and getting sold into slavery by his brothers.

These two, though, are not trying to lord it over others. It's just that Jesus knows that with that ambition comes temptation. With that desire for power to control.

So instead, Jesus gives us a different way, another way to live in the world, a world which by its own reckoning uses power to get what it wants. Jesus instead has us choose the way of service.

This is not a worldly way of thinking about things. In fact, if you reduce people to their lowest common denominator and set them loose on each other, you get a situation that looks more like the novel Lord of the Flies. It doesn't look like the apostles following Jesus.

We are people who will do anything we can to get up over another unless we are taught to forgive and to serve and to think of others more highly than ourselves.

Here Jesus takes these two and says: this is the way that the nations live. This is the way that unbelievers live. This idea of give me the power and authority. You take the throne. Let me be the successor to the movement, Jesus.

It's not unique to them. Peter did the same thing. As soon as Jesus started speaking of the cross, Peter starts saying, "Now Jesus, I think you've got this a little bit backwards. Far be it from you, Lord, to die on a cross."

Jesus' response is, "Get behind me, Satan. You have your mind on the things of man and not of God."

No, our ambition must be chained to the teaching of Christ.

Jesus' Example of Service

Jesus doesn't just teach us with his words, but he demonstrates it with his actions. He looks at the world that God so loves and he gives of himself.

He says that if you would like to follow Jesus, you must do so not in the ambition and will to power, but in service. You must empty yourself and be servant of all.

If you want to follow the kingdom of God, then your own personal ambitions for power and authority and recognition are not those things which will call you to the purposes of God. The things that will make you a godly man or woman, a woman or a man after God's own heart, is the desire to serve others and think little of yourself.

To get down on your knees and wash other people's feet like Jesus did. Being willing to go to the cross and die. This is what it is to follow in Jesus' footsteps. To take up the mantle that he laid down as he went to the cross.

Conclusion and Benediction

This is what it means for us who would follow this risen Lord of glory who lives and reigns today for us. We must not be people motivated primarily by personal ambition, but we must be servants, emptying ourselves for others.

For God so loved us that he gave us as a gift to others, so that those who see your good works may glorify your Father.

May you set aside all the foolish personal ambition and motivation that drives you to exalt yourself above others, and may you instead pick up the cross of humility and dedicate yourself to following our Lord Jesus Christ in his example of humble servant leadership. In Jesus' name. Amen.