Sunday Meditation: The Servant of All

On the ongoing journey to Jerusalem, Jesus teaches the apostles many lessons.  In today’s Gospel passage, He teaches them the lesson of true leadership. 

 

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."

~Mk 10:35-45

It is interesting that the Gospel reading skips over the few lines before the passage.  There Jesus tells the apostles for the third time that He will be handed over to be abused, scourged, and crucified.  And James and John, oblivious to what He truly is referring to, jump up and want to be exalted.  The apostles in the Gospel of Mark are regularly portrayed as dimwitted. 

This is just a perfect homily for this passage, from Fr. Peter Hahn from Saint Leo the Great Roman Catholic Church in Lancaster, PA.

 

Now, if you want an even deeper insight into this passage, Fr. Cajetan Cuddy, O.P. provides one through the Encyclopedia of Catholic Theology, “an online, open access resource providing readers with a contemporary presentation of the teaching of the Catholic Church.”  

Fr. Cajetan, I believe, is also with the Dominican House of Studies.  Jesus is not just telling the disciples, don’t be like the typical rulers.  He is saying they have to go beyond even that.  You have to be a suffering servant ruler, because a suffering servant ruler reaches people from the inside, from their conscience.  That is pretty profound.  How many of today’s presidential candidates would be a suffering servant ruler?  None. 

 

Sunday Meditation: “For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many."

 

This week, let’s listen to John Michael Talbot’s “See My Servant.”

 

 

Just so beautiful.