29th Sunday in Ordinary Time, October 17, 2021

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What it means to travel the road with Jesus

Mark 10:35–45

Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him. “Teacher,” they said, “we want you to do for us whatever we ask.”

“What do you want me to do for you?” he asked.

They replied, “Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory.”

“You don’t know what you are asking,” Jesus said. “Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?”

“We can,” they answered.

Jesus said to them, “You will drink the cup I drink and be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with, but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared.”

When the ten heard about this, they became indignant with James and John.

Jesus called them together and said, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them.

Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all.

For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Music Meditations

Opening Prayer

Dear Lord, sometimes I am much more willing to be served than to serve. Sometimes I strive to be “better than” those around me. Help me to remember what you came here to do, and to remember that this task—to serve others—is now mine to do. Rid me of selfishness and false pride; give me strength and courage to follow you, even in the hard places.

Companions for the Journey

Really! Couldn’t Mark have edited today’s gospel and softened its blatant tones? Can you imagine depicting two of Jesus’ closest disciples, James and John, as brazen and opportunistic? Matthew, who wrote after Mark, also tells today’s gospel story, but dilutes James and John’s raw ambition by having their mother make the same request; thus deflecting possible scorn away from the sons to their mother. (What a shame, to risk making a stereotype out of a Jewish mother—but that’s for another discussion!) Mark does nothing to put the disciples in a better light. He has both James and John asking in unison for a favor and Jesus seems prepared to cede to their request, “What do you wish me to do for you?” Then comes the ambitious request from the two disciples, who must have felt they were on the inside track for rewards, power and fame. “Grant that in your glory we may sit one at your right and the other at your left.” Were these first followers of Jesus supposed to be our models of faith? Not as Mark portrays them!

Let’s face it, if this were the business world or a conquering army ready to take control of a country or territory and you felt you had an “in” with the chief executive or conquering hero, wouldn’t you be tempted to pull him or her aside and put your request for status and power in early? If you’re going to get ahead in the business or political world such a move, a grab for power, would make perfect sense. You would even be lauded for your initiative and foresight. But that’s not the way of the reign, the new community, Jesus came to establish. That’s not what he had been teaching his disciples, as they traveled to Jerusalem, about service and giving one’s life for others. The disciples miss the point entirely and Mark doesn’t shrink from exposing how far off they were from the message Jesus was preaching. The other ten heard what the two had asked and they “became indignant at James and John.” Judging from the way Mark has also been describing all the disciples, as dense and spiritually blind, the others were probably “indignant” because James and John beat them to the punch. “First come, first served”—and they weren’t first! You can’t blame the disciples for not understanding what Jesus was saying. After all, what leader of a movement for total change can expect followers to stay with him or her by promising suffering, a life of service and obedience—and asking them to choose the last place—as Jesus has been instructing his disciples? No wonder he had so few and no wonder they were practically all gone when he met his death in Jerusalem.

Misunderstanding about what discipleship asks was not limited to just those initial travelers with Jesus. Jesus asks us the same question he asked James and John, “Can you drink the cup that I will drink…?” They respond, “We can…” —but they couldn’t. Nor can we, not on our own. Jesus is asking us to be servants and slaves; to be willing to put up with inconvenience and even pain for the sake of his message. Our lives already ask too much of us; why would we want to take on more? Why would we want to participate in Jesus’ own suffering? Notice that Jesus is not asking us to accept just any kind of pain and suffering; nor that pain and suffering are good in themselves. Quite the contrary. It’s clear from his healing ministry that he wanted to relieve people of their pain and free them from oppressive forces. Instead, he is inviting his disciples to accept his cross; to drink the cup he drank and be immersed in his baptism. Not the one at the Jordan, but the same baptism of fire he was about to undergo.

Jesus isn’t handing out rewards and end-of-the-year bonuses for jobs well done. His disciples aren’t on the board of a multi-national corporation. Instead they are being called to follow Jesus in the servant’s way. If they are to be leaders, it will be as servant-leaders, giving their lives for others as Jesus did. Then it will be up to God to determine who gets the rewards and what kind.

Indeed, don’t we know people who claim to have begun to receive their rewards already! A man, with the consent of his family and children, takes his father, who is suffering from Alzheimer’s, into their home and they care for him till he dies. This loving gesture calls for sacrifice on the family’s part. The pattern of the daily home life shifts enormously. After grandpa dies they all agree that, despite the costs to their individual and family lives, they wouldn’t have had it any other way. They feel blessed by the privilege of accompanying their beloved grandfather on his final journey. There are many other familial stories which require freely-assumed sacrifices.

We would say, “Well, that’s what families are supposed to do!” But, in Jesus, our “family” has expanded infinitely beyond the blood boundaries. Now we see all humans as our sisters and brothers and their need calls us to sacrifice; to drink the cup Jesus is offering us. So, why choose to accept Jesus’ invitation to follow him? Are we masochists who just love the thought of suffering, being neglected and treated as unimportant, naive believers? Isn’t it because we hear God calling us to a richer, more meaningful life? Are we drawn to discover a new life right now, one that might fail other criteria the world uses to measure success—but which gives us a share in God’s life already? In responding to Jesus’ call we have come to discover that what the world calls “success,” yields little of lasting value. Jesus tells us the path to the life he promises us is paved with many opportunities to serve—or not; to offer our lives or hoard them; to let go of the notion that we are the center of the universe and cast our eyes to those on the borders of life and make them our focus and concern. In other words, to give our lives to whatever form of death our particular discipleship calls us to, so that in dying we might rise to new life. We hear in today’s gospel once again the invitation to drink the cup Christ has drunk and be baptized with the fire he was—and then to receive the gift of life God is always offering us.

Mark doesn’t soften the flaws of the disciples. Nor does he show Jesus casting them off and trying again to find more suitable candidates to follow him. They will go on to fail and misunderstand him even when he needs them the most. But when he rises from the dead he will forgive them and anoint them with his Spirit, sending them out to call others, as he called them, to be fishers of humans. The tale of the disciples gives us hope. Who among us has not failed to fully drink the cup Jesus has offered? Who cannot confess to attitudes of competition; the misuse of power; a lack of humility and dependence on God; lukewarm self-denial for the sake of the Gospel; misdirected focus on possessions in place of people and a hardness of heart to Jesus’ words? Whatever our positions in family, Church and community we all, at one time or another, have been as deaf to Jesus’ teachings about discipleship as the first disciples Mark tells us about today. But the same forgiveness offered me them is also given to us. The same spirit of renewed vigor that came upon them is also our gift again today. We hear Jesus’ teachings, we admit our failure to live up to them, we are forgiven and, to our surprise, sent out again to be his servants to the world, where we learn again that real prominence in Jesus’ kingdom is through service and self-offering.

Weekly Memorization

Taken from the gospel for today’s session…

Whoever would be first among you must be a slave to all

Living the Good News

What action can you take in the next week as a response to today’s reading and discussion?

Keep a private journal of your prayer/actions responses this week. Feel free to use the personal reflection questions or the meditations which follow:

Reflection Questions

  • Jesus, in this story, is “on the road” to Jerusalem, with all that events that that road portends. Those who wish to be Jesus’ disciples have to walk our own road as well. What does my road look like?
    Does the phrase “no pain, no gain” apply here? How?
    What makes taking up our cross and following Jesus an attractive proposition?
  • Have I ever asked God for something without realizing what, exactly, I was really asking for and what the consequences might be?
  • “Unless you make daily choices that make a difference, you are not worthy of me”—What would some of those daily choices be?
  • What got in the way of James’ and John’s longing for wholeness and holiness?
    What can get in our way?
  • Notice that the self-centeredness of the Sons of Thunder (James and John) stimulates the self-centeredness of the other disciples. Can this apply in our own lives?
    How about our spiritual lives?
  • Mark’s community was suffering intermittent persecutions large and small. It was sometimes hard for them to remember what Jesus taught about service and suffering in his name. What does it mean to be a “slave to all”?
    How does that square with our culture’s philosophy of success?
    How hard is it to avoid being seduced by the trappings of success we see everywhere in our culture?
  • Has our church’s hierarchical system and the way we treat those in the religious seats of power modeled Jesus’ call to servant-leadership?
    How do James and John reflect the attitudes of some leaders in the Church today?
  • How hard is it to attach ourselves to a courageous individual or a worthy cause knowing that we might be criticized, or worse?
    Does the phrase “no pain, no gain” apply here? How?
  • Is pain and suffering a goal in itself? Is Jesus saying we should seek failure, loss, and rejection in order to be good followers?
  • Who has modeled for me what it means to be a servant of the gospel?
  • The disciples often misunderstood what it means to be a servant-disciple, and sometimes acted in ways that Jesus would not have approved of. What does Jesus’ treatment of his ambitious and foolish followers tell us about how He will treat us if we fail to measure up?
  • The work “cross” is related to the word “crisis” and the making of hard decisions. What crises have I weathered in my life?
    Have they ever been related to my Christian life?
    What were my criteria for making some difficult decisions in the past?
  • Notice here that James and John are invoking an ago old custom of using personal acquaintance or relationship to “grease the wheels” for them in some way or another. Has is this played out in our world?
    Have I ever attached myself to someone with great power, success or charisma hoping some other glory might make its way to me?
  • How would I react if Jesus told me my life of service to him was going to cost me my friends, my family, my livelihood, my life?
  • In what ways do I resist my Christian calling to be a servant disciple?

Meditations

A Meditation in the Dominican Style (Asking Questions):

Read the following:

Is not this the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of injustice,
to undo the thongs of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to break every yoke?
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover them,
and not to hide yourself from your own kin?

—Isaiah 58:6–7

and this from today’s (29th Sunday in Ordinary Time) first reading:

the Lord was pleased to crush him in infirmity
If he gives his life as an offering for sin.
He shall see his descendants in a long life,
And the will of the Lord shall be accomplished through him
Because of his affliction he shall see the light in fullness of days;
Through his suffering, my servant shall justify many and their guilt he shall bear.

—Isaiah 53:10–11

The “Suffering Servant Jesus” of Mark’s gospel had its roots in the teachings if the prophet Isaiah. For many of the ancient Jews, this reference is to the whole of Israel and the Jewish people. Can you see some passages in this section that apply to the Jewish people? This passage and the gospel passage each illustrate that Jesus was to be a Messiah that was inconsistent with normal notions of power and kingship. It also means that we who want to follow Jesus seek not power and privilege, but service to others. Some of this service will inconvenience us; some of this service could cost us not less than everything. Of these verses, which is the easiest for you to fulfill? Which is the most challenging?

Litany of Humility

Pray this once a day every day this week:

“A Private Litany of Humility”

From the desire of being praised, deliver me Jesus
From the desire of being honored, deliver me Jesus
From the desire of being preferred, deliver me Jesus
From the desire of being consulted, deliver me Jesus
From the desire of being approved, deliver me Jesus
From the desire of comfort and ease, deliver me Jesus
From the fear of being criticized, deliver me Jesus
From the fear of being passed over, deliver me Jesus
From the fear of being forgotten, deliver me Jesus
From the fear of being lonely, deliver me Jesus
From the fear of being hurt, deliver me Jesus
From the fear of suffering, deliver me Jesus
Jesus, meek and humble of heart,
Make my strength like unto Thine. Amen

—St. Ignatius: Orientations, Volume 1

A Meditation in the Augustinian Style (Relationship/Dialogue with God):

Read Psalm 22. Remember, this was written hundreds of years before Jesus’ death on the cross. This is an old Jewish lament of feeling like nothing has gone right, even though the author has tried to be a good person. Imagine what it would be like to pour your heart into an enterprise and feel like both the enterprise and you have failed. Then write your own psalm, taking from psalm 22 lines that are appropriate to your life and devise new ones that specifically refer to you. Be honest with God about your frustration, anger and sorrow, as the psalmist is. THEN, follow that up with what you imagine God’s line-by-line response might be to your lamentations and your sorrow. Can you write a different ending to your own psalm as a result of this meditation?

Poetic Reflection:

Do I see any relationship between the thoughts expressed in Psalm 22 and in this poem by Rev. Ed Ingebretzen? For example, what does each say about the things we wish and pray for?

“One Major Asking”

all that I once considered important
all that was gainful, right
proper to my state
(lord jesus
have mercy
have always
mercy)

all I ever put my hand to—
(the kind
we always hope
but never expect)

the dust of my desires
that both reveal and conceal you
have turned within me
(have mercy
hear our prayer
that wrinkles our hands.)

Our life is a petition
ceaseless repetition—
one major asking
for breath, bread
for surcease.
(Lord Jesus
hear our prayer
both knowing made
and unknown, prayed--
the praying for
God knows what—
The essential need
yet strange to us.)

from To Keep From Singing

Closing Prayer

Lord, help me to be open to serve those who most need it right now. Help me to be generous with my time, knowing I often have so little of it. Help me to make time, as you did, to pray, to rest, and refresh my soul. It is in this way I can best live out your message. Give strength, courage, and encouragement to all those serving others: doctors, nurses, counselors, teachers, social workers, ministers of your word and ministers to their own families. [Pause here to recall the names of those who are, at this moment, “slaves of all”, and pray for those whose names are known to nobody.] We ask you this in the name of the love you bear for all of us.