It has been said that Jesus came proclaiming an upside-down kingdom. It’s a catchy way of saying that so much of what Jesus said and taught turns our way of thinking on its’ head. He said things like, if you want to live, you must die; and if you want to save your life, you must lose it. Our natural way of thinking is to hate our enemies and to look for opportunities for revenge, but Jesus said Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. The ways of Jesus are counter-intuitive and counter-cultural.
As we come to our Gospel appointed for this week, we find Jesus expressing yet another paradoxical way of thinking. Jesus says that the way to greatness is the way of service. And if we want to be great, we need to be the greatest servants of all. And of course this isn’t simply something Jesus says, this is the way He lived. The life and the death of Jesus are the ultimate demonstrations of the greatness of humility.
While we see the foolishness in the disciples’ conversation about greatness, the debate is a natural outworking of their worldview. They believed Jesus was on His way to establishing His kingdom on earth and they had every reason to believe they were going to be leaders in that Kingdom. It was about them and power! Their expectations and desires for greatness leave them blind to anything Jesus says about humility or suffering. In a similar way we can be guilty of hearing what Jesus says and yet still thinking and living based on what we’ve previously believed to be true.
Once again, we see Jesus turning our way of thinking on its’ head as He redefines the path to greatness. The way to greatness is the way of service. To be great we must be the greatest servants we can be.
When in Seminary, our very first day came with an introduction about word derivations. Our professor in our first class reminded us that to be a minister meant that we had to be smaller than those around us. If we failed to be that, then we failed at true ministry. In other words, we needed to be smaller than those we serve.
May we all be willing to be smaller to serve the One whose name we declare as our Lord.
Monsignor +Jim