Word to the Wise
Sunday, October 18, 2009 - Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time
[Isaiah 53:10-11; Hebrews 4:14-16; Mark 10:35-45]For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.
James and John thought they could lobby Jesus for preferred positions in his "glory." We are not told directly why the other ten were indignant, but from the way Jesus called them all together for a little clarification, one can probably assume that the indignation was due to jealousy and ambitions of their own. Jesus makes it clear that his kingdom is one in which the disciples serve others and not the usual one where rulers are served BY others. This lesson is, for us, reinforced by the scriptures from Isaiah and Hebrews. Isaiah's mysterious figure of the Suffering Servant is one that the early Christian community quickly applied to Jesus. The scriptures during Holy Week feature sections from the four different "songs" of the Suffering Servant. These majestic poems are almost eerily accurate in their description of what would happen to Jesus. The Letter to the Hebrews builds on that experience by pointing out that Jesus is someone who has been "tested in every way, yet without sin. So let us confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and to find grace for timely help." A disciple serves others in their suffering and needs because the disciple serves out of his or her own experience of suffering. Service is not an exercise of power OVER but power FOR someone. This is a lesson that all professional people must learn, whether they be lawyers, doctors, teachers, counselors, etc. and yes, ministers in the Church! The status and responsibility of ministers is profound. Anyone who uses this status as a means of "lording it over" others is committing a profound error! The efforts of James and John might be understandable given the models of rulers in their own times, but we are not that much different in the temptations to power that we experience, and we need the same reminder that Jesus gave them! AMEN
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