We\u2019re already in our third week in this Chapter 10 of Mark, a chapter where we have noticed that everybody \u201casks the wrong question\u201d. And from what it looks like, one week after another, we add a layer of wrongness on top of the other. No only the requests are getting more extravagant, but they also come from people who are closer to Jesus and therefore should know better than that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you remember, the first week, we had Pharisees asking if it was okay to divorce their wives who had become displeasing to them. Kind of tough, but it didn\u2019t really come as a surprise either. Pharisees are often presented in the Gospels as legalistically minded, most of them are focused on the law, rather than they do wonder about what is the loving thing to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then last week, we had this man who wanted to know how he could inherit eternal life. Unlike the Pharisees who weren\u2019t very impressed with Jesus, this man seemed eager to follow, yet not at the cost at leaving everything behind. He still thought about eternal life as something to add to his many possessions rather than an experience to be lived out in answering the call of the Gospel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But now this week, it\u2019s Jesus\u2019 very own disciples who don\u2019t get it, and they really, badly, don\u2019t get it. And this comes as a surprise because they\u2019ve been following Jesus all along and indeed they should know better. And their demand is actually doubly wrong:
– First they ask for glory when we know that Jesus taught the way of humility
– And then they ask for glory when Jesus has actually just mentioned his own death. We are at the gates of Jerusalem, Jesus announces his passion for the third time. The lectionary skips this passage, but it\u2019s right there in the preceding verses (v32-34).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Speaks about insensitivity! If we can shake our heads at the request of the Pharisees or at the rich man\u2019s question, this demand from James and John is probably much more shocking \u2013 and the story says that actually the ten (others disciples) were quite angered with James and John, cuing the reader in the right way to react. And we are not the only one to be shocked! If you have in mind Matthew\u2019s Gospel, it\u2019s James and John\u2019s mother doing the asking. Well, most scholars assume that it\u2019s the way Matthew put the story because it was too shocking for him to see the disciples being so wrong about something (Remember, at the time Matthew wrote, James and John were probably church leaders!) <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now we can be offended at James and John \u2013 but look at what Jesus does: He takes this opportunity to teach all of the disciples. I wonder if Jesus is offended \u2013 maybe he\u2019s well aware of James and John’s naivete and maybe he knows the ten are not far from this thought process as well. They think: Yes, we follow Jesus but in the end…what\u2019s in it for us? Remember from last week when Peter reminded Jesus that they had left everything for him (unlike the rich man) – surely, they would get rewarded too?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And so maybe we are offended, like the ten, but maybe we too have something to learn because I am pretty sure most of us have wondered at some point what it is that we would gain by following Jesus. We have wondered about that, first of all, because it seems like a reasonable question to ask before you do anything \u2013 whatever it is, it\u2019s better to do something knowing why you do it! – and we also wonder about that because at times we don\u2019t see the benefits of following Jesus, we\u2019re discouraged or just impatient.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To this, as he did to James and John, as he did to the ten, Jesus responds again today: Don\u2019t look for yourself, don\u2019t look for your own advantages, as I came not to be served but to serve. Jesus says: \u201cIf you want to become great, be a servant, if you want to be first, be a slave to all\u201d. I mentioned last week that Jesus had difficult words to those who ask wrong questions and indeed this could use a little bit of unpacking, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Well, there are three things I would like to draw your attention on and leave it to your own reflection for this Sunday:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
– First of all, notice that Jesus is addressing all the disciples, the whole community. Those words of \u201cservants\u201d and even \u201cslaves\u201d can ring very wrong in our modern ears (and probably at the time too!) but Jesus is not asking his disciples to be servants or even slaves of their Gentiles masters. On the other way around, he says that the disciples shouldn\u2019t do what the Gentiles do! Jesus says to the disciples that they should be servant and slave in their community, and more important towards one another, for one another. It\u2019s not about serving someone who lords it over you, it\u2019s about serving someone who is also your servant! Don\u2019t let anyone abuse you by telling you that because you\u2019re a Christian you should do whathever they need you to do!…If they want you to serve them, they have to serve you as well. That’s what being a Christian is about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This model of servanthood actually reminds me of how a functioning couple works: It\u2019s not one partner serving the other, it\u2019s partners mutually serving each other. Jesus models a servanthood that brings reciprocity to the relationships. In this sense slavery could have a must different understanding. When Jesus tells the ten they need to be \u201csalve to all\u201d, it does not mean the disciples should let themselves be abused by their (rich and powerful) Masters, it means that they belong to one another in a life given for one another. And this I how our Christian communities should work as well! Everybody serving everybody: Not the priest being served by everybody and not the priest doing all the ministry, not the vestry serving everyone, but not the vestry being a position of privilege either, and not just a few volunteers for all the community but everyone serving everyone according to their own skills and abilities (You will find that that frequently in Paul\u2019s letters!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
– Now we know what servanthood is about, we can wonder why Jesus mentions servanthood as a response to our own aspirations to glory (in the case of James and John) and to our aspirations to reward (like Peter)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s funny because I read a lot of commentaries about this passage and nobody asks this question. I guess we just assume that Jesus wants quite literally to bring everybody back to earth and give them a lesson in humility. Well, there could be some of that, but beyond that, if we put this passage back in the context of Chapter 10, I think Jesus, again, is redirecting everybody towards relationships, like he did with the Pharisees towards their wives, like he did with the rich man towards the poor. What is Jesus\u2019s glory in the end? Jesus\u2019s glory is his friends and the love he has for his friends (Remember the Farewell Discourse in John?). That\u2019s where true joy and true life is to be found, in loving one another. That\u2019s the reward for all of us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
– Last thing I wanted to add is that maybe the wrongness of James and John\u2019s request is not so much that it is arrogant or insensitive or inappropriate. Maybe the wrongness is just plainly that it does not make any sense. If we\u2019re genuinely looking for God and understand who God is, how could we wish for anything else? There is nothing to be found beyond God. Our relationship with God is in itself its own reward. Maybe what James and John asked for was in a very clumsy way a request to be close to Jesus for all eternity – that would make sense. Yet Jesus reminds them that for now they have to be \u201cdrinking his cup and sharing his baptism\u201d and it does not sound like a good news first, but it could in fact be good news because it means that we don\u2019t have to wait for Eternal glory to know him, we can know him right there, where we are, even if it\u2019s through our suffering. And so Jesus shows us that Glory is not an escape from this world but rather a life lived deeply in love with another and with God.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We\u2019re already in our third week in this Chapter 10 of Mark, a chapter where we have noticed that everybody \u201casks the wrong question\u201d. And from what it looks like, one week after another, we add a layer of wrongness on top of the other. No only the requests are getting more extravagant, but they … <\/p>\n