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October 21, 2018
Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Is 53:10-11
The LORD was pleased
to crush him in infirmity.
If he gives his life as an offering for sin,
he shall see his descendants in a long life,
and the will of the LORD shall be accomplished through him.
Because of his affliction
he shall see the light in fullness of days;
through his suffering, my servant shall justify many,
and their guilt he shall bear.
Heb 4:14-16
Brothers and sisters:
Since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens,
Jesus, the Son of God,
let us hold fast to our confession.
For we do not have a high priest
who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses,
but one who has similarly 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.
Mk 10:35-45
James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to Jesus and said to him,
"Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you."
He replied, "What do you wish me to do for you?"
They answered him, "Grant that in your glory
we may sit one at your right and the other at your left."
Jesus said to them, "You do not know what you are asking.
Can you drink the cup that I drink
or be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?"
They said to him, "We can."
Jesus said to them, "The cup that I drink, you will drink,
and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized;
but to sit at my right or at my left is not mine to give
but is for those for whom it has been prepared."
When the ten heard this, they became indignant at James and John.
Jesus summoned them and said to them,
"You know that those who are recognized as rulers over the Gentiles
lord it over them,
and their great ones make their authority over them felt.
But it shall not be so among you.
Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant;
whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all.
For the Son of Man did not come to be served
but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many."
"Not to be served but to serve" - some random thoughts.
This episode represents one of the great transitions from the old way of thinking to the new. The request of James and John to sit in places of highest honour in the kingdom is in line with the idea that high standing is proof of God's blessing. Jeshua had to turn that notion on its head. They were to be not like rulers but like servants.
"Whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant [diakonos];
The first among you will think of himself as everybody's slave [doulos]. "
The meaning of diakonos will depend on the context: here it is in parallel with doulos, slave, so it could mean to be of service in the community without claiming rights or privileges. It can be difficult to achieve this when people who need to have someone over them to feel secure like to have their leader on a pedestal. But everyone who takes honours to himself is an upstart. He is not God's messenger.
In reporting Jeshua's closing remark about his own role, the writer uses that special diakon- word twice. Hence it could mean that 'he came not to be as one receiving honours, but as one carrying a message from the Lord.' This is quite different from being a servant-slave. As a diakonos he has something of the dignity of the one who sent him. Jeshua was the ambassador of God.
Paul would think a lot about this. More than once he explained his position as God's messenger, insisting that he was not in it for himself, "but in everything we show ourselves to be God's Ministers" - ὡς Θεοῦ διάκονοι (2 Cor 6:4). He goes on to speak of persevering faithfully through set-backs that were enough to discourage anyone less well motivated, by remembering that always it is God's word he is announcing, not anything of his own. 'Paul plants a seed,' he wrote in another place. 'Apollo does the watering, and God gives the increase.' It's not as easy as this little axiom makes it sound. Normally we want to claim the credit, at least in our secret thoughts.
We find the same attitude in the ancient prophets.
In John's gospel too. How many times is Jesus presented as insisting that he speaks not of himself but only to repeat the message he has been given. It runs as a theme throughout the gospel and that alone shows it has significance. I wonder did Jeshua have to discover his own identity gradually over the years (as is common for humans), and whether he had trouble meanwhile in keeping to the role that was his. In Mark's account above, is he trying to convince himself? When two of his best friends exposed their raw ambition, prepared to climb over their mates to get to the top, he may have felt he'd like to bang their heads together.
To be faithful to his own position he could only say that being a man, this 'Son-of-Man' as he called himself was not in it to receive honours that are reserved to his Lord.
We are often confronted with the question: What is the essence of being Catholic? In the present context we might identify something essential that is required in any disciple with ambition to become an apostle: You must remember that you are only his messenger. Your role as God's ambassador is to deliver God's message.
More generally, the characteristic of a christian is not summed up in 'serving the poor': to respond compassionately to another in their need is an obligation recognised by everyone. Nor is it in following some special code of ethics: to live a good and moral life is a natural aspiration. Not being anointed and set apart as better than the rest either, for that is sheer hubris. Nor is the essence of christianity found in offering sacrifice from the rising of the sun to the going down thereof, singing God's praises morning, noon and night with pomp and ceremony as if God needs our worship for he has said long long ago that he is sick of the smoke of incense and the smell of burnt sacrifices. 'To live justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly' is what God expects of us, but does this explain what it means to be a christian? Again, No!
What, then? It is to be as Jeshua was, a messenger of hope to a despairing world, a witness to the truth that God is good, and God's love is more powerful than all the evil there is. It is to be as one sent from on high to proclaim freedom in the face of tyranny, to uphold the dignity of those used and crushed in the mills of industry and commerce. It is to be a champion of justice for those injured, abused, imprisoned, tortured, or simply victimised and despised, but doing this not as the social worker does it but as the ambassador who lays down the challenge in God's word of truth - and puts his life on the line for it too.
It was as God's ambassador that Jeshua was killed. Early followers imagined him returning to the Father with his wounds still open, not blaming those who did it but pleading for them. One small step and we can see him as the high priest entering the sanctuary but knowing what it's like to be a man and "able to sympathize with our weaknesses" because he'd been through the mill himself. We can never again think that God doesn't know what it's like!
That's how the letter to the Hebrews sees him (today's reading), while John's gospel keeps to the idea of ambassador. I often wonder why someone felt it necessary so early on to write the fourth gospel as a completely different account of the Jesus story. Was it because people were already falling for the social worker trap: He went around doing good. No less than 8 times does John's gospel have Jesus reiterating: 'I don't speak on my own. I say only what the Father who sent me has told me to say. (12:49). Is this equivalent to Jesus saying, 'I am not a social worker!!! Teaching, healing the sick, curing the blind and deaf are signs - only signs. I am a messenger!' Christians serve the Christos and the World by voicing that message in season and out of season,
This evolving world can never reach a perfect state, but people can grow to full stature and achieve greatness if they put themselves into it totally, if they speak and live the truth, if they gradually eliminate those compromising lies that cover and protect our selfishness. But for this we need encouragement, hope! As I see it, God's word is effective in saving us from the hopeless depression that can lead to self-destruction. The christian is a witness to the truth that God is good, and all the evil there is cannot overpower God's love.