Servant discipleship

WORD OF FAITH: A breakdown of each week's upcoming Sunday readings to better understand the Word of God at Mass.

Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. — Hebrews 4:16

Sunday’s Gospel reading is one of the most daunting of Jesus’ teachings. Along with the Beatitudes and parables, this Gospel turns the world upside down. The Kingdom is a place that completely changes both perspective and reality!

James and John approach Jesus with the customary view of life and how things should be. They do sound arrogant, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” Hubris personified! Jesus politely asks what that could be. Perhaps he is completely taken aback by their request to have the seats of honor when he comes into his glory. Jesus tries to shake them into his reality. Honor is not doled out in the Kingdom; one has to learn what true honor is by drinking the cup of service and being baptized by the fire of loving in the face of hatred and rejection. But the brothers haven’t discerned the full meaning of discipleship even though Jesus has explained that he must suffer and die.  

Now Jesus gets very blunt: “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. (Emphasis added) Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you will be slave of all. For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as ransom for many.” 

But it shall not be so among you. Did you catch that? Here is the heart of the Gospel: we are called to a totally different way of seeing, of thinking and of acting. Authority is not power over — it is service, total loving service that does not seek its own gain. We are asked to “put on the mind of Christ who did not cling to equality with God … but emptied himself taking the form of a slave …” as St. Paul says in Phil 2:5. We are asked to put aside all semblances of power and prestige and ego.

Jesus has no illusions about how difficult this is. He knelt to wash the feet of his disciples, taking on the role of a slave. The reading from Isaiah, the description of the Suffering Servant, would have been very familiar to Jesus. The servant is poured out and afflicted; he bears the guilt of his people. Jesus lived this out in his mission, especially in his final days. He showed the authority of loving mercy to the end. 

This hard but vital saying of Jesus — it shall not be so among you — needs to be the path of our discipleship. We need to pray for a Gospel perspective, a Jesus perspective. It is very difficult because we are bombarded with social messages and examples that stress the importance of exclusion, supremacy and status. We are told to see migrants, the homeless, the indigent and struggling poor as drains on society. We are encouraged to turn away from those struggling with addiction or mental illness. We are goaded with intimidations of being a dupe if we stand up for our suffering brothers and sisters. We are praised for “taking care of No. 1,” no matter what it does to our Earth or to the common good.

Jesus says to us — it shall not be so among you — and we need to discern if we are attentive to his voice or the voices of our society. Then we need to see where we can get down on our knees to wash the feet of those considered inferior. This is where we find honor and the fullness of life, as Jesus promised!