Who doesn’t want the American Dream? We all want to build a bigger nest-egg, buy a better house, drive a nicer car, get a greater title at work, have a fitter body.

And that’s nothing new. When James and John came to Jesus, they were looking for the same thing:

They said to him, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” (Mark 10:37)

In other words, “Hey, Jesus, we know you’re going to be a big shot. You’re still minor league now, but we see potential in you! We don’t know where you’re going to end up … the House, the Senate, the White House? … but whatever it is, when you get there, make sure you carve out a couple spaces for us too, OK?

Jesus said to them, “You … don’t even know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” (Mark 10:38)

“The cup of God’s wrath? The one I’m going to beg him to take away? The baptism of death? Going down into the ground? Because that’s the road to the kind of influence you guys want. It’s the road of suffering.” James and John have no idea what Jesus is talking about, so…

They said to him, “We are able.” (Mark 10:39)

“That sounds like a plan! Wherever you’re going that’s where we’re going, Jesus!” And then they slapped him on the back and went to text their mom, “Jesus says, we’re in!” And just a few years later God held them to their promises when James was beheaded in Jerusalem.

If you want to go where Jesus goes, be prepared to go down. Because upward mobility in God’s kingdom takes downward mobility here on earth. But for some reason, we just don’t expect that in life. The author of Hebrews describes the kind of victorious Christian life we expect:

Time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets—who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Women received back their dead by resurrection. (Hebrews 11:32-35)

And we say, yes! … That’s the kind of God I follow! My God stops the mouths of lions! My God puts armies to flight! My God brings back the dead! But … that’s not the end of the verse. It says:

Women received back their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were … sawn in two … they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated—of whom the world was not worthy— wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. (Hebrews 11:35-38)

And we say, “I liked the first better better! Can we go back to the first part?” And then we look for ways to get God to stop the mouths of lions in our lives. And we find preachers who tell us how to stop the mouths of lions. “Just buy my book and you’ll learn how to unleash the power of positive thinking. You’ll learn how to make fire fall and make Holy Ghost Power come down. And you can stop the mouths of lions!”

But … what if that’s not God’s plan for you? What if you’re not one of the people who stops the mouths of lions? What if you’re one of the people who gets sawn in two?

What if God’s calling you to suffer in an office that’s hostile to Christianity? A jobsite where Christians get mocked all day long? What if God’s calling you to keep loving your family even though they keep telling you you’re wasting your time with this Jesus stuff? What if God’s calling you to be open and honest about your faith in the papers you write for your class, even though you know the professor’s going to rip you to shreds? What if God’s calling you to take a stand and refuse to do something you know is wrong, even though your friends are going to say you’re being a prude?

Yes, we’re going to suffer. But we serve a king who suffered more than anyone else in history when he took our sin and rebellion on his own back. God used the downward mobility of his son to change the world. And he’ll do the same through us.