In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Glory to Jesus Christ! [Glory to him forever!]

Those of you that are on Facebook, I had shared an article. It says there are now as many Americans who claim no religion as there are Evangelicals and Catholics, a survey finds. And the article goes on to say that that magic number is 25%. So 25% of Americans, when they check off the survey to say, “What religion are you?” they say, “None,” and that’s the largest that number has ever been in American history. Of course, Orthodox Christianity is actually less than one percent of America, which is shocking. Less than one percent! So if there’s, what, 300 million Americans, that’s less than three million. It’s actually much less than that; it’s like a million.

One theory about that, why are more people claiming no religion—my theory is that a good number of those people actually used to be considered adherents of a religion, that is, they used to check “Orthodox” or they used to check “Catholic” or they used to check “Protestant.” But because they really never took it seriously—they never really went or maybe they went once a year—they never really took it to heart, and therefore it was kind of a natural slide to move into the “none” category. I want to talk about the gospel this morning and see how easy it is to slide into the “none” category if we’re not careful.

I’m going to talk about the beginning of the gospel a little bit later, but I want to talk about this scene. This scene actually comes right before Palm Sunday. It comes right before Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, and it is shocking! It’s shocking because Jesus has spent almost three years—three years with his apostles, three years with his disciples—and he had said, repeatedly, what life was supposed to be like, how we are to live, how we are to humble ourselves. And we ourselves heard this again and again in each gospel reading for Great Lent. Throughout preparatory Sundays for Great Lent and then the Sundays of Great Lent, let alone the Wednesdays, the Fridays, the daily services that we’ve had that some of you have come to, we’ve heard again and again the importance of humility, that is, to humble ourselves before God.

We are reminded of the saying of John the Baptist, who said of his Cousin, Jesus, “He must increase, and I must decrease.” And that becomes a theme for us. It becomes a lenten theme, that we are constantly looking to Christ. When we participate in the fasting, in the prayers, in the almsgiving, we are constantly reminded of focusing on Christ and focusing less on ourselves, focusing less on our needs, our desires, our passions, and giving them up for the sake of the kingdom of God.

And that’s why this scene is so shocking. It says James and John, the sons of Zebedee—and remember, James and John are part of the three most important apostles—the three most important apostles, he took them away during the garden of Gethsemane prayer; he took them away where Jesus was transfigured; they were the only three that actually saw these things. Again and again and again: Peter, James, and John; Peter, James, and John. And here come James and John—and by the way, what’s hilarious about this particular scene is that another gospel writer says that along with James and John is their mother, to ask Jesus, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask.” Can you imagine? Being an adult male and taking your mom to your boss and saying, “Please do whatever I ask”? It’s absurd!

And Jesus very calmly says, “What do you want me to do for you?” They said to him, “Grant us that we may sit, one on your right hand and the other on your left, in your glory.” Can you imagine the audacity to ask Christ to sit next to him in that position of honor when Jesus comes in his glory, and to have your mom do it? Jesus’ answer is very calm, and being the master Teacher, he uses every opportunity to bring them back, to remind them, again and again, of what is most important. And he says, “You don’t know what you’re asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?”

Okay. Stop here. What’s Jesus talking about? What has he said repeatedly? What did we hear at the beginning of this gospel reading? What did we hear at the beginning of last week’s gospel reading? As they followed, they were afraid. Then he, Jesus, took the Twelve aside and began to tell them the things that would happen to him. “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes. They will condemn him to death and deliver him to Gentiles. They will mock him, scourge him, spit on him, and kill him.” That’s the cup. That’s the baptism.

And they say, “Can we sit on your right and left hands in your glory?” And he says, “Are you able to do this? Are you able to drink this cup? Are you able to be baptized with this baptism that I am about to be baptized with?”

So let’s consider that. And I’ll be totally honest. What really bothers me more than anything in terms of Church life is people that, number one, come to church pretty regularly, but they know nothing of the lenten services, and they know nothing of the Holy Week services. And there’s a reason why that’s important. It’s because you can’t have Pascha without seeing Jesus hanging on the cross. It doesn’t make sense. There is no resurrection without the cross.

And Jesus tells his disciples exactly that. In order to be glorified, you must first be humiliated. In order to be exalted, you must first be abased. That is the principle of the Christian life. That’s not somebody’s opinion! That’s the Lord of the universe who created all things by the word of his power, saying, “If you want to be saved, you must take up your cross.” And the one message that resonates and that we have to get before it’s too late—before it’s too late this year, because this is the last Sunday of Lent; next Sunday is Palm Sunday, the Sunday after that is Pascha—and before it’s too late in our life—is that we have to understand something about our life. We have to understand that all of the things that are in our life are meant for our salvation.

It will never be easy. And we see Jesus as the greatest example of that. We certainly look at the cross as the pinnacle of that example, but let’s go before that. Let’s start at the garden of Gethsemane, where it says that Jesus, when he contemplated what was about to happen, taking the sin of the world on himself, that is, the Man who knows no sin, who not only never committed a sin, but he was the New Adam—he hated sin with a perfect hatred—and he had to take the sin of every person who ever lived on himself. And it says he begged God for this cup to pass from him. It says he sweat great drops of blood. He had been stressed so much that his capillaries exploded inside of him, and blood came out. It’s a physical condition; Google it.

This is the struggle with temptation that we’re called to. Whatever the cup is, whatever your cup is, whatever your baptism is, you’re called to embrace it for the sake of the kingdom of God. And if it means something so innocuous as getting out of bed on a Sunday morning, or rearranging your precious schedule so that you can attend and watch the Lord of the universe be crucified and spit on and mocked and beaten by his creation on Holy Thursday and Holy Friday, and watch him rise from the dead on Saturday—is that too much of a price to pay to thank your Creator for what he has done for you? It is absurd to think that, if we just come to church without experiencing the Lord’s Passion, that somehow we can grasp the price that was paid. We are to be pitied among all people.

And Jesus says to his disciples, “Are you able to do this?” And they answer, as plain as day, “We are able.” They may not have understood what that really meant, just like we don’t sometimes understand what that really meant. We hear it, but we don’t really take it into ourselves. And Jesus reminds them, “You will indeed drink the cup that I drink, and with the baptism that I baptize with, you will be baptized.” Why did he say that to James and John? Because James, for the sake of the Gospel, had his head cut off, and John was exiled. James was the first apostle to die; John was the last apostle to die in humiliation and in exile, by himself on the island of Patmos.

And he says, “But to sit on my right hand and on my left is not mine to give, but it is for those for whom it is prepared.” You don’t do something because of the reward that you think you’re going to get. Is the reward great enough? How much greater can it be than to receive the kingdom of God, to be with Christ, to be with his people? It’s not close enough to Jesus, is that the problem, James and John? So, yes, we have to count the cost for being a Christian, but we can’t dismiss it out of hand, to think that somehow it’s not worth it.

And so every Sunday of Lent we’ve been reminded, again and again, whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant, and whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of all. I love this part, because he uses two different words here. He says, “Whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant (diakonos).” Diakonos, deacon, the word literally means like a waiter. You see poor Deacon Luke has to— Every time he wants to do something, even wants to walk out the door, he goes like this and asks for a blessing. He wants to start a litany? He goes like this, asks for a blessing. He wants to touch something on the altar? He goes like this and asks for a blessing. He is helper, but he’s not just a liturgical helper, just like the rest of us. We are called to help to build up the Church; we’re called to help to serve people.

And Jesus says not only diakonos: “Whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of all.” Not just waiter, but doulos. When you come forward for Communion and you cross your hands and you say your name, and the priest says, “The servant of God—” In Russian, “Rab Bozhiy— Raba Bozhya—” In Greek, “Doulos tou Theou—” Not just “servant”; it’s “slave.” It’s every thought, every action, taken captive to Christ. That in everything, that we don’t even see a choice any more. It’s not slavery as bondage in an unwilling manner; it’s freely, becoming captive to all things in Christ.

And that’s why, when I contemplate something like somebody coming to Pascha and not experiencing Lent and not experiencing fasting and not seeing and hearing the twelve Passion gospel readings, Christ being buried on Holy Friday, Christ raising from the dead on Saturday—it doesn’t really make sense. We have to become enslaved to the things of God.

Jesus finishes the gospel reading: “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and give his life as a ransom for many.” Jesus is our great example. Dear brothers and sisters of the West, we have to break out of the societal mentality that we are deserving of comfort, that we’re deserving of every good thing. Every good thing that comes to us is from God! These are blessings! These are undeserved things that happen to us, and let us rejoice in them, but let us also know that, in order to receive the ultimate blessing, the kingdom of God, we don’t just ask for it, we don’t just show up, we don’t approach Christ like James and John and say, “Do this.” We go through the cross. We drink the cup that God hands to us. To put it another way, we say we deal with the cards we’ve been dealt. And in order to experience the Lord’s Pascha, we walk with him through his Passion.

To whom is our life with the Father and the Spirit, be glory, honor, and majesty, always, now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen. Glory to Jesus Christ!