Bound in Love

The readings today remind us what Jesus did for us, and they suggest that he should be the model for our lives. We first get from the prophet Isaiah a description of the suffering servant, which is what Jesus will be many centuries later. It says:

If he gives his life as an offering for sin the will of the Lord shall be accomplished through him.

Pointing directly to Jesus, the prophet says, “their guilt he shall bear.”

In the letter to the Hebrews, the author explains that our high priest is Jesus, who is son of God and has already passed through the heavens. He reminds us that this high priest, Jesus, “has been tested in every way, yet was without sin.”

The passion and death of our Lord Jesus Christ is what opens the door to heaven for us. He made an offering of himself on the Cross, and he is looking to us to see how we respond to his self gift. In the letter to the Hebrews, the author implores the reader – and us today – to, “confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy.” Our first response to the self gift of Jesus on the Cross has to be to accept that gift. We approach the throne of grace — which is Jesus Christ on his throne in heaven — to receive mercy. That mercy came through his self gift on the Cross. We celebrate that self gift at every Mass.

The gospel story starts with the sons of Zebedee, the brothers James and John, who are presuming to ask for seats of privilege and prominence beside Jesus on his heavenly throne. Our Lord’s response is to ask a question. He asks them if they can drink the cup that he will drink or be baptized with the baptism in which he will be baptized. Let’s take a moment to explore that word: baptism.

We think of baptism as the rite of entrance into the Christian faith. And we are correct about that. But we use the word baptism because it is a Greek word that means immersion. The one being baptized is immersed in water.

We know that Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan river. But the baptism Jesus speaks of here is more than immersion into water. It is immersion into death. Jesus will die and rise again from death just as a baptized baby is put down into the water and then pulled back up. This is the baptism Jesus is speaking of to his disciples. This baptism is how the Cross becomes the way to salvation and is no longer a device of torture and execution.

Jesus asks James and John if they can be baptized as he will be baptized. With all the boldness of boys nicknamed “the sons of thunder,” the brothers say they can be baptized in such a way. But suddenly this private conversation becomes known to the other ten apostles, and an argument breaks out. It is at this point that Jesus explains how his apostles and his disciples are supposed to live.

He says, “whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant.” Servant leadership is a bit of a buzzword in certain Christian circles, and they get it from this scene in the gospel. So what is servant leadership? Well, as we can tell from the gospel story, it is most certainly not a power-play. Jesus describes the leadership exercised by Gentile rulers, and we can imagine a bunch of peacocks strutting about with their fine feathers and their loud voices. Instead of that, Jesus seems to be saying, just quietly go about the work that needs to be done.

Leadership, whether in our own families, or in some larger community or organization, is less about mission statement development than it is about doing the work of the family or the larger organization. Gentile leaders, Jesus seems to be saying, like to pontificate on theoretical subjects, while servant leaders put their shoulder to the wheel and get moving.

We certainly have seen this in the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ. He does from time to time send out his disciples, but most of the time he is doing the work of an apostle. He is preaching and teaching the people, he is feeding the hungry, he is giving mercy to those caught in sin, he is healing the sick.

The invitation that Jesus makes to his disciples – and to us – is to try to organize our lives along the example that he gave us with his life. That means a radical transformation of how we approach most things. As many of you know, I am a recovering alcoholic. To become really sober, I could not focus on drinking less or not drinking. Instead, I had to reorder my life so that alcohol wasn’t a part of it even though alcohol is a very big part of the social life of our culture. I had to be willing to look very different from everyone around me if I really wanted to stay sober.

The Christian is in that situation today. If we reorient our lives so that they are in conformity with God’s plan, then we don’t fit very well in the general social culture. When we are in positions of leadership, we need to be what Jesus described: a servant rather than a ruler. And we cannot do this if we won’t refashion ourselves. It takes all of our mind and our will. We are being baptized, not all the way to death, but in some ways a bit like what Jesus went through in his passion.

We are only willing to make this great effort if we fully understand the gift we have received from our Lord. Here at Mass, Jesus comes down from his throne of grace in heaven to be really present in the consecrated bread and to offer to mix his divine self with our mortal selves in his mercy. Let us receive that gift as his servants, and let that gift change our lives.