Serve

“Whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.”

 From James: We had been on this road to Jerusalem many times. We knew the landscape. We knew every little town along the road. Yet this time, as we walked with Jesus, things were different. Some of us had begun to grumble, to grow impatient with each other. All of us wondered if somebody had changed the rules of the game without telling us.

James and John believe they are more special to Jesus than are the other disciples. That's because Jesus has often included James and John in his inner circle. Of the twelve, Jesus took only James, John and Peter with him when he healed Jairus’ daughter. Jesus took only James, John and Peter with him up the Mount of Transfiguration. For three years, Jesus’ disciples have journeyed with him. The crowds have grown larger. The exchanges between Jesus and the Pharisees have sharpened. Now, as Jesus and his disciples journey towards Jerusalem, tension grows thicker with every step. James and John are uneasy.

Jesus had said some really strange things lately. Just the other day, he told a rich man that it is easier to get through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God. When we asked Jesus about that, all he said was, “With God, all things are possible.” Then Jesus began talking about his death. He kept insisting that when we arrived in Jerusalem, someone would deliver him to the chief priests and scribes. Officials would condemn him to death. Mock him. Spit on him. Beat him. Kill him. And three days later, he would rise again. He just could not let this go.

 So the question that none of us dared to ask is this: If he knew they were going to kill him when he got there, why were we all going back to Jerusalem? John and I looked at each other. Did Jesus need to be reminded about this wonderful Kingdom of God he kept saying was close at hand? Did we need to remind him about his glory we saw on the mountain that day? For three years, John and I had been close to Jesus. In fact, we hoped that when Jesus finally set up this new kingdom, we would get important positions. Now all he could talk about was death. We needed to remind Jesus what was important.

James and John think they know Jesus. Yet the closer they all get to Jerusalem, the more they wonder. Increasingly, Jesus seems to see things the disciples do not see. He seems to hear things they do not hear. His conversations are more enigmatic, his responses more cryptic. Every day, Jesus’ face looks more weary. More pensive. More lined and drawn. Yet there is an unmistakable set to his jaw.

John and I approached Jesus. “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” But Jesus did not react the way we had hoped. Instead, he said, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?” Of course we were. We loved this man. We had left our homes, our jobs, our families, to follow him. If there was a cup to be passed around, we wanted to be right there. If there was a baptism, we didn’t want to miss it.  So we replied, “We are able.”

Yet somehow we knew we had done the wrong thing. Jesus looked towards Jerusalem with that look he gets when he sees something we don’t. When he hears something we don’t hear. When he knows something we don’t know. Then he said, “The cup that I drink you will drink; and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized; but to sit at my right hand or my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.”

We seemed to be talking past one another. Jesus didn’t understand us. We did not understand Jesus. Then the whole thing blew up. The other disciples found out that we had asked for places of honor. They were angry and wouldn’t speak to us. Then Jesus gave all of us a lecture about how if we want to be great, we must be willing to be servants. He said whoever wants to be first has to be slave of all.  Did we give up everything we had just to be servants? I didn’t think so. I didn’t get it. After that, Jesus walked alone, ahead of all of us. Wrapped in that beautiful seamless cloak his mother gave him, he strode along, his face turned towards Jerusalem as if the rest of us weren’t even there.

James and John did not understand Jesus. Neither did I. As human beings, we love honor and recognition. We like being powerful people—or being close to powerful people. We want to sit at the head table. We want lives full of comfort and privilege. Yet we forget that Jesus does not call us to an easy life. Jesus calls us to pick up a cross and follow him. Along the way, he challenges us to put God and others first instead of our own wants and desires. He challenges us to live the way he did: as a servant. Jesus continues to reorder power structures, to question the Church’s rules and regulations that can kill God’s love. Jesus’ unconditional love and servant ministry still stand in stark opposition to those in Church, society or politics who want to sit at the right and left sides of power, position and prestige. Jesus continues to stand at the margins of the church and society—in the first century and in the twenty first century. Jesus reminds Christians that “some of history’s most dastardly deeds have been done by those who claimed to be sitting on God’s right or left hand.”

James and John do not understand. Neither do the other disciples. When two people take their places on the right and left of Jesus, it will not be because of choice. That's because the ones who end up on Jesus’ right and left are two criminals on crosses at Calvary. Later, these disciples would understand. They would, indeed, drink the same cup as Jesus. In fact, James was the first of the twelve to drink that same cup of suffering. According to the book of Acts, Herod Agrippa put James to death by the sword in about the year 44 CE.  John lived the longest of the disciples. According to tradition, John was exiled to the island of Patmos and lived to extreme old age. John drank a different cup: the suffering of a very old man who has watched his brother, his family, his friends die, one by one—many of them violently.  James and John finally understood the kind of servant ministry to which Jesus had called them. As their faith matured, they, too, drank the cup of suffering and the baptism of death with loving and courageous hearts.

Just like those first disciples, I hear Jesus’ call to servant ministry. This call is not to places of power, position and prestige. This call is to follow Jesus down a narrow road—even if it does lead to servanthood and suffering. What will our servant ministry look like today? That depends on the person and the situation. However, it always means that we give of ourselves—not in the sense of being a doormat—but with prayerful intention. It means that we always ask two questions. The first is this: “What can I do to bring the Kingdom of God, the Dream of God, into real places, in real time, today?  The second: “What must I give up in order to make this Kingdom of God real today, in my world?”

To become a servant in Jesus’ name means that my actions are more about God, more about my brothers and sisters, than about my own wants and desires. So this week, I remember James and John, who—like me—did not understand. I remember Jesus, walking courageously towards death in Jerusalem. Then ask myself what kind of servant ministry I can do this week to make the Kingdom of God come alive in to my church, my neighbor, this community, this nation and the world. I ask myself what I can give up to make this happen. Then with courage, do it.  It’s the least I can do for the One who loved us enough to go to Jerusalem one last time.