5th Sunday of Great Lent 2005
Gospel: Mark 10:32-45
Fr. Elchininov once asked rhetorically, “If it were to happen that Satan could somehow be victorious over Christ, would I abandon Christ and serve Satan?”
He answers “no” because He says serving Christ is an act of love: “I don’t follow Christ for what I am going to get from him, I follow Him because I love him and in love choose to serve Him, personal or gain or self-interest has nothing to do with it.”
Today’s Gospel lesson touches upon the issue of self-interest.
The Disciples James and John are intent on asking Jesus a question of self-interest. They all are walking on the road to Jerusalem, and all seem to be aware that something perhaps not good is about to unfold. His disciples are amazed that Jesus is headed to Jerusalem, and some are afraid. And they have reason to be afraid, Jesus’ relationship with the other Jewish rabbis has not been good, but has rather been confrontational. And certainly the disciples recognized a growing hostility among some of the leaders toward Jesus. And Jesus himself is talking more and more about his own death and predicting it will be a horrendous execution.
In the midst of this James and John want Jesus to grant them their request that they be allowed to sit next to Him when He is in His glory. The scene is a bit surreal, Jesus is saying, “In Jerusalem they are going to kill me” and the disciples are waving their hand and saying, “OK, OK, enough about you what about us!”
These disciples are ignoring the lesson that to be with Jesus in His glory is to be with Him on the cross, at His crucifixion. The Greek word for “sin” – hamartia – means “to miss the mark.” The disciples miss it by a long shot this time. It is the perfect example of how reductionist it is to consider sin as simply “breaking the law.” Sin in its depth is failing to be human, failing love God, failing to do God’s will.
And then we get to the heart of this week’s Gospel lesson, a theme I spoke to you about at the beginning of Great Lent and now it appears before us on the last Sunday of Great Lent: we are called to serve others, just as Jesus served us by dying on the cross to save us form our sins and from death. Christian life, Christian spirituality, Christian prayer and Christian fasting are all about loving service of others. They are all about serving others not about serving ourselves. Self service has become a popular way for us to get what we want out of a store without having to wait for others to help us. Christianity is not a self service store. It is about serving others.
Jesus is the Lord of Glory, the Son of God, and he comes to the world not to demonstrate how a Lord can rule over others, not to show us how to be masters and despots and demand others to serve us. Rather Jesus reveals godly lordship as being a life of service to others. Jesus doesn’t treat servants as lower than himself, but rather uplifts the image of servitude. Jesus says, “you are right in calling me Lord and Master” but instead of taking your ideas about Lord and Master from dictators and despots and slave owners, learn the value of being a servant from me. The lifestyle Jesus models for us is that we become servants, and it is Jesus Christ who gives total value to service to others. We become Lords when we become servants, service to others is being a Lord as Jesus is Lord.
James and John came to Jesus with their own self-interest in mind, and Jesus tells them self-interest is how tyrants behave. If you want to be with me, then learn to be servants, because I am a servant, not a tyrant.
And servants need most of all to be attuned to the needs of others. What do the people around me need in order to be saved? What must I do to help those around me attain the Kingdom of God? What must I do to reveal the love of God to my neighbor? How can I help make Christ present to those whom I am with?
Jesus said, “Whoever among us wants to become great, must be a servant.”
So it is service that each of us must seek, not greatness. To seek greatness is to miss the mark of being followers of Jesus.
Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. ForI was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’ (
Fraternized 