Reading I: Isaiah 53:10-11
We commented on the fourth servant song before, especially in
the readings of Holy Week. This extract was chosen because
it contains the key word “many”: “by his knowledge shall the righteous
one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous.”
In later Judaism,
rabbinic comment interpreted “many” here to mean, not some, but all—that
is, the nations of the world—thus ascribing universal significance to the
servant’s work (in rabbinic interpretation, the servant was not the Messiah but
Israel).
In the Christian application of this prophecy to Christ, the universality
of his redeeming work is expressed by the use of “many” from the servant
song, as in the Gospel reading for today (Mark 10:45).
Gospel
Two units of material comprise
this passage—the Zebedees’ question and the saying about true greatness.
The shorter form contains only the second of these units.
Before Mark, the Zebedees’
question was probably an independent piece of tradition whose preservation in
the Church was due to a biographical interest in the fate of John.
Church tradition
is ambiguous, part of it ascribing to John likewise an early martyrdom, the main
stream identifying him with the author of the Johannine writings, who allegedly
lived to a very old age.
Mark uses this traditional saying as an introduction to the saying on true greatness.
It is part of Mark’s use of the disciples throughout his Gospel as symbols of
the dangers to which the Church in his own day was exposed.
These dangers were
twofold: a fascination with the “divine-man” Christology and dismay
at the prospect of persecution. These two concerns provide the background for
Mark’s use of the two elements of material at this point.
This story forms the
climax of Mark’s central section (Mark 8:22-10:45), in which he counters the
twin heresies afflicting his Church with the proclamation of Jesus as the Son
of man who is to be crucified (as opposed to Christ as the divine man or miracle-worker),
and the Christian life as a challenge to take up one’s cross and follow him.
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