Among You This Is Not To Happen!

 (Homily 29^th Sunday in Ordinary Time-Yr. B)

     The coming and the involvement of the Son of man (Jesus) in human history, is indeed an event that has in no small way overhauled not only human thinking but also human standards. He came to show us who we really are, to reveal to us that we are full of possibilities, full of potentials and full of God’s glory; endowed with gifts of nature and gifts of grace, yet adopted as God’s children and with a universal vocation to holiness orchestrated in the love of God and neighbour. In the indicative call to love, we are enjoined to care for all, but in the Gospel of today, the two sons of Zebedee wanted to care only for themselves. They had the temptation of desiring according to their egos not according to the will of God. Do you really desire what God wants? However, Jesus the Suffering and True Servant did not ridicule their desire; instead he reaffirmed and re-proposed the road to human greatness and good leadership: LOVING SERVICE. Here, the contrast between the way of the world and the way of Christ emerges, while the world seeks greatness and vain glory, Jesus indicates self-giving and humble service as ways to true greatness and good leadership.

      Today’s first reading (Is. 53:10-11) is an excerpt from the four fascinating songs about a mysterious servant, who would bring salvation through his sufferings. This prophecy of Isaiah talks about the suffering servant that gave his life as an offering for sin, through his suffering the servant justifies many, and he shall bear their guilt. Most probably this passage of Isaiah’s prophecy is chosen this Sunday, for two reasons: One, to match with Jesus’ preannouncement of his passion and death, thereby revealing himself as the suffering servant of Yahweh. Two, because of the word “many”, as in verse 11 “by his knowledge, the upright One, my servant will justify many by taking their guilt on himself”. As a matter of fact, some exegetes have interpreted the “many” to mean “all”. As such, a universal significance was ascribed to the mission of the Suffering Servant. Though, in the rabbinic interpretation “the servant” was Israel (who waits for God to vindicate him from his sufferings), and not the Messiah. On the other hand, in the Christian connection of this prophecy to the Messiah, to Christ, the word “many” is used to express the universality of Christ’s redeeming mission, and thus, it is upon this backdrop that the first reading dovetails into the message of the Gospel (Mk. 10:45). We may well say that the prophecy of Isaiah corresponds with the teaching of Jesus in the Gospel about his impending passion.

     The episode of today’s Gospel (Mk. 10:35-45) comes after Jesus’ third pre-announcement of his Death and Passion. It is really hard to bear that even after the third pre-announcement of his Death and Passion yet the apostles and disciples are still groping in the dark. It is as if whenever Jesus talks about his imminent passion and death there is always a contradiction or misunderstanding from the apostles. After the first pre-announcement Peter contested and said “Master, this will never happen to you”, and Jesus replied “get behind me Satan” (Mt. 16:22). After the second, there was a strong discussion among the disciples, as they questioned and argued among themselves, who is the greatest (Mk. 9:34). Again after the third one, we see the request of the two brothers: James and John, and that is the passage of our reflection today.

     A closer look at each pre-announcement reveals that at the end, there is a moral teaching of Jesus, trying to correct the erroneous opinions, the false expectations and illusions of his apostles and disciples. Frist, at the end of the first pre-announcement Jesus said to the crowd: “Anyone who wants to save his life will lose it; but anyone who loses his life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it” (Mk. 8:35). Second, after the second pre-announcement, Jesus said to his apostles: “If anyone wants to be first, he must make himself last of all and servant of all” (Mk. 9:35). And indeed, the third situates us well into the context of today’s passage, Jesus reaffirms that the yardstick for greatness has to be measured in a humble service rendered to others. This no doubt, launches us proper into the passage of this day.

     At this point the two brothers (James and John) emerged with some dints of arrogance, as they approached Jesus thus: “Master, they said, we want you to do us a favour” (v.35). Evidently, they must have planned and decided on this before approaching Jesus. On his part, Jesus with profound benevolence responded: “What is it you want me to do for you?” (v.36). And without much ado, they advanced their request: “Allow us to sit one at your right hand and the other at your left in your glory” (v.37)). They requested for a prestigious and privileged position, to be first among all. They wanted to introduce “the who knows who syndrome” in Jesus’ ministry and mission. Truly, their request confirms their incomprehension and presumption towards the event of Jesus that He announced not too long ago. Jesus was talking about his imminent passion and death, and they were bent on seeking for a privileged position in his glory. What an irony!

     However, that notwithstanding, Jesus tried to demolish their ambitions and bring them hand to hand to the bitter reality that awaits him in Jerusalem. Jesus now responds to them by way of interrogation thus: “you do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the cup that I shall drink, or be baptized with the baptism with which I shall be baptized?” (Mk. 10:38). Jesus speaks symbolically of his chalice of pain and suffering, his baptism of blood and martyrdom. And still under the influence of their presumption, they responded “yes we can”, as if they can follow the ordeal of Christ by their mere power alone, without the special grace of God. Then, Jesus retorted: “The cup that I shall drink you shall drink, and with the baptism with which I shall be baptized you shall be baptized, but as for seats at my right hand or my left, these are not mine to grant; they belong to those to whom they have been allotted” (vv.39-40). The request they made does not come by, out of human effort and merit, but it is a gift of God’s grace.

     As it could happen in the dynamics of every group, so it did in the group dynamics of the apostles, for the request of the two brothers infuriated them, “when the other ten heard this they began to feel indignant with James and John” (v.41). Certainly, the indignation of the apostles must have been as a result of jealousy and envy, which were hidden beneath, a similar ambition to those of James and John. Here, we could see how difficult it was for the apostles to enter into the logic of Jesus and into the design of the Father. They were still steered by human logic, manifested in terms of personal interest, quest for success and vain glory. Jesus turned the lack of understanding of the apostles to a favourable occasion to teach them about the essence of his discipleship. Interestingly, whenever Jesus gives a message about his coming passion he accompanies it with an important teaching to correct the wrong impression, false hopes and illusions of the apostles. In response to the demands of John and his brother James and the reaction (indignation) of the other apostles, Jesus delineated what we could call the Christian difference: “Among you this is not to happen. No; anyone who wants to become great among you must be your servant, and anyone who wants to be first among you must be slave to all” (vv.43-44). Indeed, service should be the password to greatness and not power and command.

          Even today, after so many years of the proclamation of the Good News, we are not immune to the attitude of the two brothers and that of the rest of the apostles. The comportment of many of us Christians today reveals that we have not truly embraced the message of Christ, especially the moments we have preached and sold out the message of a glorious Christianity at the expense of the intrinsic aspect: the Cross. Many preachers and prophets of our day, who preach about a priceless and costless Christianity, are pitching tent with James and John. Thus, the words of Jesus afterwards, are very much valid for us today: “Anyone who wants to become great among you must be your servant, and anyone who wants to be first among you must be slave to all” (vv.43-44). On this, Jesus presents himself as a veritable model: “For the Son of man himself came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (v.45). Jesus concludes this passage by announcing once again the purpose and the mission of the Son of man: to serve and to give (to die) his life for the salvation of many, here “many” stands to indicate for all, though on this, among exegetes opinions are divided.

     In that bid, Jesus made an awareness about the Christian-evangelical conception of power, that is power conceived as a disinterested service to others, it has to do with giving and spending oneself for the good of others, and when necessary giving one’s life for others, this indeed is what Jesus did for us. St. Paul captured it vividly well, when he affirmed that “He emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, becoming as human beings are; and being in every way like a human being, he was humbler yet, even to accepting death, death on a cross” (Phil. 2:8). This introduces us to our High Priest who assumed our human nature to serve and to save us.

     The second reading (Heb.4:14-16) presents Him as the high priest who has passed through the heavens. It proposes the theme of Christ’s share of our common humanity and affirms that Christ is indeed our High Priest. His share of our humanity made it possible for Him to sympathize with our weaknesses, for he has been tempted in every way that we are, yet without sin. The writer called him a Priest because he sacrificed himself for the salvation of many or all. He is the object and subject of sacrifice. For this, we have to hold fast to our profession of faith in Him. The sacred writer makes a clarion call  thus, “let us, then, have no fear in approaching the throne of grace, to receive mercy and to find grace when we are in need of help” (v.16). He sympathizes with our weaknesses because he came to serve, and he did assume the condition not just of a servant, but a slave (cf. Phil. 2:8). A God indeed, at the service of His creatures! (cf. Jn. 13:1-17), a Servant God!

     At the second moment, unfortunately, the leadership principle proposed by our Lord Jesus Christ in today’s Gospel, is yet to be internalized in our hearts individually and in the society at large. This is seen in the type of leaders we have today; leaders who are driven by greed and do not care about the welfare of the people. Greatness for them is in corruption and self-centeredness. But today Jesus is giving another approach to power and greatness. Greatness in the parlance of Jesus is love, humility and selfless service. The admonition of Jesus about service could well be re-echoed and situated into the context of the Nigerian politics. To those leaders that have turned themselves to gods, Jesus is saying to you, that real leaders are servants of the people; real leaders are at the service of the poor masses, and not at the service of their pockets, relatives, personal and party interests. The greatness of a leader is not measured by the amount of wealth he has accumulated, but by the capacity to serve, to be a servant-leader. Jesus’ view of a servant-leader has to be re-echoed in the Nigerian political arena today more than ever. If the politicians in our society follow this evangelical criterion of leadership delineated by Jesus, the world would have been better and greater. Drawing the issue further, if we all are to put this into practice wherever we find ourselves (in our families, in our places of work and in the ecclesial communities), the world would have been a better place than it is today.

      Conclusively, the first reading and the gospel present an overwhelming picture of Christ, the suffering servant as an example and model for an authentic Christian living and leadership. This served for Mark as a reproach to the “misconceptions” that were afflicting his Church at that moment. St. Mark confronts the twin misconceptions in his Church at that time: ●The proclamation of Jesus as a Son of man who is to be crucified in opposition to Christ the miracle worker. ●The presentation of the exigencies of the Christian life and the invitation to take up the cross and follow the Master as opposed to the apostles’ view of the mission of the Messiah. Indeed, the experience of Mark in his Church may not be completely different from ours today, for the misconceptions about the real identity of Christ and the authentic Christian existence still abound. The gospel of triumphalism and success ideology manifested in the presentation of a cross-less and costless Christianity, backed up with an obsessive tendency towards glory at the expense of the cross triumph. Jesus is equally telling us: "This should not happen among you"? Above all, Christ as the Suffering Servant trod the road of humble service and self-giving to humanity, and as our High Priest he chose to share our common humanity, serving and saving us through His unique sacrifice, in which he is both the offering and the Offerer. Lord Jesus you humbled yourself to assume our human condition without fear of denting your divinity, help us to learn from you to lower and humble ourselves to serve others! Amen!!

(Fr. Vitus M.C. Unegbu, SC)