October 17, 2021

Twenty-Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)

With last week’s Gospel and the story of the rich young man we learned how difficult it can be to follow the ways of the Lord. For even though he had kept all of the commandments the young man did not truly know what it meant to give up his earthly cares and love Jesus, and this made him very sad. This Sunday we see a continuation of this theme with an intriguing passage about the disciples James and John.

As this Gospel passage opens (Mk 10:35-45) Jesus and his disciples are traveling to Jerusalem, and he has just made his third passion prediction. But James and John seem oblivious to what Jesus has just predicted. Instead, they approach him, and ask him a selfish question, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” (Mk. 10:35).

Kind and loving as always, Jesus replies amicably to James and John asking them want they want him to do. So, they tell him that they want to sit at his right and left hand when he comes into his glory, when he enters the kingdom of God. Jesus tells them that he cannot give them this privilege because it is reserved for others. But he also asks them if they would be willing to make the appropriate sacrifice, the same sacrifice he is about to make, to obtain this position if it were available to them. He says, “Can you drink the cup that I drink or be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” (Mk. 10:38).

James and John answer, “We can” (Mk. 10:39). But they have yet to understand the extent of sacrifice that Jesus is about to make on the cross, “the cup he is about to drink.” The other ten disciples seem to have a better idea because they become angry at James and John for their request.

Here Jesus offers a lesson for all of them. He tells them that they should not be like the leaders of the Gentiles who are haughty and make their authority known throughout the Empire. Rather, he tells them that true greatness comes from being humble and serving others, just as he does. He says, “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. 10:43-45).

This language that Jesus uses, “giving his life,” is reminiscent of the Suffering Servant passage of Isaiah found in the First Reading (Is 53:10-11). It is an image often used for Jesus in the New Testament about a servant of God who gives his life for the people of Israel. Much of what the servant endures mimics what happens to Jesus during his passion and crucifixion. These are things like the beatings, the verbal abuse, the intolerable pain, the disgrace, and the abandonment. According to the reading this happens as the servant bears the guilt and sin of others to bring about redemption.

With his death on the cross, Jesus fulfills this passage of the suffering servant. He gives his life as a ransom; he pays the price for our sins. But what does this mean to say that Jesus paid a ransom for our sins? We might consider that a ransom is something which is paid for a person who is held captive to something or someone so that they might be delivered or rescued. And as sinners there are many things to which we are held captive, things like lust, anger, greed, pride, hatred, or violence.

Furthermore, we may understand or realize that we are stuck in these sinful ways, and we may try everything we know to extricate ourselves from them. But their power over us is just too strong. We are imprisoned to them, and we need help to escape. This is where the cross of Christ becomes his servitude. As God become man, he comes all the way down to take on our limitations, our imperfections, our humanity to help us overcome things against which we have no power.

However, there is something which is key for this release from sin to occur for us. We must come to learn and give into the fact that we are indeed powerless. That we cannot serve ourselves in this way. It is only Jesus who can serve us. In other words, he is saying that the demand that we be servants and that we drink the cup of suffering in service—that demand is where he wants to serve us.

We do not become his servants. He becomes our servant. Jesus does not need our help; he commands our obedience and offers his help. Like James and John, we must let go of ourselves and our pride to let this happen and accept utterly and whole heartedly that “the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve.”