Mark 10:43-45 (NABRE): True Greatness
Rather, 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.
Greatness is something for which many of us strive. We work hard at our jobs and have gone to professional, trade, college, or graduate school. Our hope is to be the best we can and to achieve the American Dream -- independence, livelihood, and a status of achievement among our peers. Being great in our society is being respected, elevated, and admired. But Jesus, as he so often does in the gospels, turns the tables on our perspective of greatness.
Greatness is service. According to Jesus, being truly great is giving to and providing for others first. It is easy to “look out for number one,” as James and John illustrate in today’s gospel. Jesus, however, corrects them by presenting the inverse. The self aggrandizement of the disciples is antithetical to Christ’s definition of greatness. And Jesus provides the perfect example of service: He willingly dies the death of a criminal in order to bear our sins and make us right with God.
Greatness is taking on the role of a slave. The last thing many of us would choose is to live a life of slavery. Now this in not slavery in the historical sense -- the inhuman, immoral ownership and treatment of human beings as property. Slavery in the Christian sense points again to the service of others before ourselves. Jesus best illustrates this when on the day before Passover and his impending suffering and death, he washes the feet of the disciples. In first century Palestine, washing the feet of guests who enter a house was a job reserved for the lowest-ranking servant. In John 13-1-17, Jesus disrobes himself, gets down on his knees, and cleans the feet of the disciples, modeling the duty of a slave to drive home his point: Following Jesus is to do as he does, to love as he loves, to give as he gives. And that means living life as a slave of love and self giving to others.
Greatness is giving up our lives for the love of the other. Jesus clearly states that he came not to be served but to serve and give his life up in order to free us from the sins that imprison us (Mark 10:45). Look at any crucifix and you will see a suffering Jesus, who in agony dies the most painful death possible during his time. And he dies between two criminals, a scandalous social statement. The crucifix is not, as some fundamentalists argue, a symbol of failure. Rather it is a reminder of how far God goes to express his love for us. It is a reminder that Jesus, God himself, willingly died a painful, human death for each one of us. Why? Through his human suffering, God expresses his deep, limitless love for each of us; on the cross, he illustrates his desire to be with us for eternity. True greatness is to give up our lives for the love of another.
We are not expected to mount a cross on Calvary anytime soon. But we are faced with many choices to love throughout our day. How many of us have family, loved ones, and friends to whom we gladly give our time? That is true greatness. Greatness is lived out through the many times we put our lives on hold to serve and love someone in need. Greatness, moreover, is lived out in the many small sacrifices we choose in the living moments of our lives.
Loving God, we pray to choose the love of others over the love of self. Your word tells us it is something the disciples often did not understand. Jesus, however, found the best teaching method, his life’s example. Please give us the grace to follow Christ’s example and live lives of true greatness. Amen.
Have a blessed week!
Stan
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