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+In the Name…
Jesus said, “If any one would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all” (St. Mark 9:35).
Shortly after questioning His disciples, “Who do men say that I am,” and after hearing what the word on the street was about Him, you will remember that Jesus asked His disciples, “But who do you say that I am?” It was Peter, the leader of the Apostles, who said, “You are the Christ.” This is known as the Confession of St. Peter which the Church celebrates as a Holy Day on January 18th.
After Peter’s Confession, Jesus foretold his death and resurrection, and then came the Transfiguration.
This morning we are further along in the ministry of our Lord, and He once again foretells His death and resurrection. St. Mark tells us that upon hearing this from Jesus, “…they [the disciples] did not understand the saying, and they were afraid to ask him.”
We can understand why they didn’t understand what He stated would happen to Him. They were witnessing an increasing number of men and women becoming His disciples, many miracles, and everything going rather well. They didn’t understand what He meant, and they were afraid to ask Him.
Oftentimes, when things are going well, our human nature doesn’t want to deal with things that suggest an undesirable change of affairs, a change from things positive and fulfilling to things negative and costly. So we try to stall ignore, or even deny knowing what we need to know.
Jesus told His disciples of His impending suffering, death, and resurrection because He wanted them not to be surprised, but more so that they would understand that such things needed to and would occur for the accomplishment of His mission – the mission that He had called them to share and the mission that they would be entrusted to continue for Him.
He wanted them to ask Him to explain what He meant, as they had done at times when He told a parable they didn’t understand. So when He and they came to Capernaum, and they were in the house, He asked them, “What you were discussing on the way?”
As I have said, He wanted them to ask Him for clarification, and hoped that they would do so, or at least discuss among themselves what they thought He meant, but they didn’t and hadn’t. Through His divine nature, He knew what they had been discussing on the road to Capernaum, and now wanted them to own up to it.
We’re told after His question to the disciples of what they were discussing on their journey that, “… they were silent; for on the way they had discussed with one another who was the greatest.” They said nothing about what their discussion had been about because they were ashamed, but He knew what it had been about.
Jesus doesn’t chastise them. Rather He calls them to gather around Him. He said, “If any one would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.” He then takes a child in His arms and says, “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me; and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me.”
Jesus was determined to have the disciples get this right; for if they didn’t, their work after His Ascension and the Coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost would falter. Even with the presence and power of the Holy Spirit, ministry and mission absent a spirit of humility and servant hood will falter and fail. No good or lasting fruit would be borne.
St. Peter, who certainly learned what humility was all about in his repentance following his three-fold denial of Jesus, teaches us in his First Epistle General that God not only is ill-served with the absence of humility and the presence of pride, but that “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble,” which St. James stated as well in this morning’s epistle. Obviously, both Apostles had eventually come to know that without a spirit of humility and servant hood, God would oppose them (which to me is both a sobering and frightening thought).
Thomas Merton in his book, The Saying of the Desert Fathers, quotes one of them who said: “Spread abroad the Name of Jesus in humility and with a meek heart; show him your feebleness, and he will become your strength.” Merton wrote in his book, Seeds of Contemplation: “To the truly humble man the ordinary ways and customs and habits of men are not a matter of conflict.”
The statement of Thomas Merton echoes the thinking of Dietrich Bonhoeffer when he states in his book Life Together how we, as servants of Christ and each other in bearing each other’s burdens, are to be let the image of God in us and each other bring freedom to be ourselves. He writes: “The freedom of the other person includes all that we mean by a person’s nature, individuality, endowment. It also includes his weaknesses and oddities, which are such a trial to our patience, everything that produces frictions, conflicts, and collisions among us. To bear the burden of the other person means involvement with the created reality of the other, to accept and affirm it, and, in bearing with it, to break through to the point where we take joy in it” (p. 101).
Now, obviously, this can only be done by grace- a huge dose of grace.
Jesus took into his arms a child to make his point to the disciples about humility and servant hood because a child does not have worldly status; a child is vulnerable and dependent,; a child is to be embraced in being a precious creature of God; and their and our attention as 21st century disciples is to be on the preciousness and fragility of all people whom God puts into our lives and midst. As we open ourselves up to others and consciously exercise a spirit of humility; as we place ourselves before Christ as servants of others, we (as He states in the Gospel this morning) “receive” Him. As we receive Christ in the person we serve, we receive the Father. A precious relationship is had with the Father and the Son as we allow the Holy Spirit to receive others with a spirit of humility and servant hood.
Doesn’t this remind you of what our Lord states near the end of St. Matthew’s Gospel? You will remember that he says that in feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, welcoming the stranger, clothing the naked, visiting the sick, going to those in prison, we did it for Him. He said, “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me” (St. Matthew 25:40). And in our life times, we saw this truth so evident and effective in the life of Mother Theresa and her Daughters of Charity.
Yes, as we heard in the epistle, “Where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice.” Jesus sought to free His disciples and seeks to free us from such things, and to prevent the consequences of them.
We hear Jesus say in St. Matthew’s Gospel: “...whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave; even as the Son of man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (20:26-28).
God grant us the abundance of divine grace and strength to have our lives and shaped and conformed to the image of His Son, characterized by a spirit of humility and servant hood as a witness to who governs us and to whom we pray others come to see, know, and love as their Lord and Savior.
+In the Name… |
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