Martin Luther King Jr. and Matthew 25
Excerpts from Martin's prophetic "Drum Major Instinct Sermon" given shortly before he was assinated. Martin preaches on how we can all live Matthew 25 and on how he wants to be remembered:
"......our text for the morning is taken from a very familiar passage in the tenth chapter as recorded by Saint Mark; "And James and John the sons of Zebedee came unto him saying, 'Master, we would that thou shouldest do for us whatsoever we shall desire.' And he said unto them, 'What would ye that I should do for you?' And they said unto him, 'Grant unto us that we may sit on thy right hand, and the other on thy left hand in thy glory.' But Jesus said unto them, 'Ye know not what ye ask.'........to sit on my right hand and on my left hand is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared.' "
......Jesus goes on.......to say, "but whosoever will be great among you, shall be your servant; and whosoever of you will be the chiefest shall be servant of all."
.....One would have thought that Jesus would have said, "You are out of your place. You are selfish. Why would you raise such a question?"
But that isn't what Jesus did.....
.....Jesus gave us a new norm of greatness. If you want to be important--wonderful. If you want to be great--wonderful. But recognize that he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. That's your new definition of greatness. And this morning, the thing that I like about it... by giving that definition of greatness, it means that everybody can be great. Because everybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. You don't have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve. You don't have to know Einstein's theory of relativity to serve. You don't have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love. And you can be that servant.
.....you can be on his right hand and his left hand if you serve. It's the only way in.
Every now and then I guess we all think realistically about that day when we will be victimized with what is life's final common denominator--that something we call death. W e all think about it. And every now and then I think about my own death, and I don't think of it in a morbid sense. Every now and then I ask myself, "What is it that I would wan't said?" And I leave the word to you this morning.
If any of you are around when I have to meet my day, I don't want a long funeral. And if you get somebody to deliver the eulogy, tell them not to talk too long. Every now and then I wonder what I want them to say. Tell them not to mention that I have a Nobel Peace Prize, that isn't important. Tell them not to mention that I have three or four hundred other awards, that's not important. Tell him not to mention where I went to school.
I'd like somebody to mention that day, that Martin Luther King, Jr., tried to give his life serving others. I'd like for somebody to say that day, that Martin Luther King, Jr., tried to love somebody. .....I want you to be able to say that day, that I did try to feed the hungry. And I want you to be able to say that day, that I did try, in my life, to clothe those who were naked. I want you to say, on that day, that I did try, in my life, to visit those who were in prison. I want you to say that I tried to love and serve humanity.
.....all of the other shallow things will not matter. I won't have any money to leave behind. I won't have the fine and luxurious things of life to leave behind. But I just want to leave a committed life behind.
And that's all I want to say...if I can help somebody as I pass along.....then my living will not be in vain. .....if I can spread the message as the master taught, then my living will not be in vain. Yes, Jesus, I want to be on your right side or your left side, not for any selfish reason. I want to be on your right or your best side, not in terms of some political kingdom or ambition, but I just want to be there in love and in justice and in truth and in commitment to others, so that we can make of this old world a new world."
