Homily for Ordinary Time – 29th Sunday Year B 2018
Isaiah 53:10-11; Hebrews 4:14-16; Mark 10:35-45
Introduction
Power, privilege and prestige; that is what the two Zebedee brothers, James and John, are asking Jesus when they say: "Grant that in your glory we may sit one at your right and the other at your left." In today’s world we would compare their request to someone asking the President to appoint him Vice-President or Chief of Staff. So you can understand why the other ten disciples were indignant that these two were scheming behind their backs for positions of power.
But is asking for power such a bad thing? Is that not what you and I would also do, perhaps at work? After all, what is power but the ability to bring about change, to do something, to influence others and make ourselves useful?
Scripture and Theology
Well, there is one catch in this situation. It seems that while the two brothers and the other ten disciples wanted power, privilege and prestige, they did not fully understand the implications of having these things. As one wise man put it, that man being Spiderman, “with great power comes great responsibility.” In this equation, they wanted the “power” side, but not the “responsibility” side.
That is why Jesus tells the scheming Zebedee brothers “You do not know what you are asking.” They are focusing only on the prestige that come with positions of authority but are unaware of the very serious responsibilities that come with power. Jesus goes on to ask them: “Can you drink the cup that I drink or be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” The cup and baptism he is referring to are his suffering and death. In other words, they want to have powerful positions in his Kingdom; are they also willing to suffer and die like him?
Of course even the other ten, who were envious of the two brothers for hobnobbing and beating them to these positions of influence, did not also understanding the meaning of power. That is why Jesus summons them all and teaches them something about the Christian understanding of leadership. The Christian way must be different from that of the world, where he says, their rulers lord it over them and their great ones make their authority over them felt. While leadership in the world tends to be all about privilege and prestige, “it shall not be so among you,” Jesus reminds his apostles emphatically. For Christians, “whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all.” In the Kingdom of God power comes with service, pre-eminence with suffering and sacrifice.
Moreover, what Jesus is asking of his disciples is something that he is going to do himself. Jesus “did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many." The Son of Man, despite his greatness, despite being God himself came to serve and not to be served, but to suffer and die for the world. He used his power for service; he even used his suffering and sacrifice for saving the world. For Jesus is the suffering servant prophesied by Isaiah in the first reading. He is the one who “gives his life as an offering for sin.” Jesus is the one of whom Isaiah says, “through his suffering, my servant shall justify many, and their guilt he shall bear.”
And so if I were to plagiarize Spiderman again, I would summarize Jesus saying:
- With great power comes great service
- With great privilege comes great sacrifice
- With great prestige comes great suffering.
Christian Life
Now people get power sometimes by appointment to a position of authority like president, pope, parent! But sometimes one can have power by virtue of one’s gifts, if you like, a kind of charismatic power that influences people. As Christians, how do we exercise our power? Let me offer three examples.
Since we are in election season, let us start with politics, which is the management of society. Politics is a fundamentally a noble profession, but one in which with great power comes great service. Many great men and women bring about change in society, by using their power for service. President Lincoln used his power to bring about an end to slavery and slave trade. Martin Luther King inspired a movement that brought about civil rights for all people regardless of their race. Nelson Mandela brought about the end apartheid as well as racial reconciliation in South Africa. Moreover, all three would, like Jesus, not only accept power, privilege and prestige, but also endure suffering and sacrifice and two of them dying at the hand of an assassin. And for those who are Netflix fans and have seen the series called "The Crown," you must have come away with the understanding that power often involves sacrifice, as Queen Elizabeth shows.
Many times we are cynical of political leaders as being nothing but power-hungry and money-grabbing crooks; and indeed sometimes this reputation is well-deserved. But many civic leaders go into politics because they genuinely care about their town, their state and their country. We might even disagree with the vision they have for our society; but we must certainly appreciate that they put their lives on the line, exposing themselves to ridicule, slander and obtrusive media scrutiny. And when they are elected, they have to make very tough decisions that affect the lives of millions of people. And if they do all this guided by their faith and the knowledge of what is right and wrong, is this not the service, sacrifice and suffering that Jesus is reminding his disciples to undergo? We must pray for these leaders, we must vote for such leaders.
Besides politics, the Church is the obvious place where power has to be used like Jesus teaches. Think of Mother Teresa and the many women religious, who, while not having institutional authority, use their charismatic power to help the needy in society. As for those appointed to positions of authority, both Saints Popes John XXIII and Paul VI used their power to bring about a reform in the Church with Vatican II and its aftermath. And then Saint Pope John Paul II used not only his authority but also his innate charisma to bring hope to the Church and the world and to bring an end to communism in the East. Even the quiet and often under-appreciated Pope Benedict XVI, he used his great mind to shed light on the great fundamental evils of our society such as relativism as well as directing us back to objective truth. And now Pope Francis, our fearless leader, despite being in his 80s spares no effort in focussing the Church on the little ones, that is, the unborn, the poor, the dying, the elderly, the abused, immigrants, refugees. These men of God have certainly used their power for service.
And they do so in suffering and sacrifice as well. As we have seen in the past few months, because of the sins of some priests and bishops, it has been open season on ALL the bishops and especially the Holy Father, who have had to bear suffering for the sins of their brothers. Like Jesus they know that they must give up their lives as a ransom for many. We must pray for them.
Parents you too have power, power to bring children into this world, and my exasperated mom sometimes said, the power to take them out of this world. But mostly you use your power to raise them and take care of them in this world. And often you serve your children in suffering and sacrifice. Besides changing diapers and driving kids to a million activities, some of you work several jobs to give your children a brighter future that you yourselves never had, even sending them to Catholic school or home-schooling them. And some of you even attempt to use your power to perform the often thankless task of teaching Christian values like prayer, abstinence, sacrifice, discipline, hard-work, honesty and others, values that are not readily appreciated in our world today. When you use your power in this way, remember that you are like the suffering servant of Isaiah, whose suffering brings light to others, redemption for all.
Conclusion
But I will leave the last word to Jesus who says: “To whom much has been given, much will be expected.” Each of us has been given some power, privilege and prestige. Some of this power comes from the positions of authority we hold, but some of it comes from our charismatic gifts. Some of us have a little, others have more. The question for us all is: How are we using our power, privilege and prestige, to serve others?
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