Texts of the Readings
October 22,
2006
Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)
Dr. Terrance Callan
Isa 53:10-11
X Heb 4:14-16
X
Mk 10:35-45
In ordinary human
language and thought, leadership and greatness have a definite meaning.
When we think of Jesus as a leader, or of leadership among his followers, we
naturally understand it in the same way. This can make it difficult to
understand Jesus very different way of leading and being great.
As Jesus and his disciples were on their way to Jerusalem, James
and John asked Jesus to let them sit, one at his right and the other at his
left, when he came into his glory. They wanted the most prominent positions
among the followers of Jesus. In reply Jesus told them that they had
misunderstood what it meant to be great among his followers. Among the
Gentiles those who exercise authority lord it over others and make their
importance felt. But among the followers of Jesus those who wish to be
great must serve the rest.
One reason for James and Johns misunderstanding may be that
they misunderstood the mission of Jesus. They may have been expecting that
Jesus would save people by an exercise of power in which he would conquer
evildoers and establish a just society. And they may have thought that the
followers of Jesus would share his power in the new order. But Jesus was
going to accomplish his mission by undergoing crucifixion, offering himself
as a sacrifice to save people from their sins. As Jesus says, The Son of
Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom
for many. The followers of Jesus will share not his power, but his
service, sacrificing themselves as Jesus did. James and John will drink the
same cup and receive the same baptism as Jesus did.
James and Johns misunderstanding of Jesus mission and the way
Jesus followers should act moves us to reflect on our own understanding of
these matters. If our understanding surpasses theirs, it is because God has
revealed this to us, something we easily forget.
The words of Jesus about giving his life as a ransom for many
may refer to the reading from the book of the prophet Isaiah. This is part
of the fourth of the suffering servant songs in the book of Isaiah. This
passage speaks of the servant as giving his life as an offering for sin.
And it says, Through his suffering, my servant shall justify many, and
their guilt he shall bear. We are invited to see the death of Jesus as the
fulfillment of this passage. Jesus death was a sacrifice for our sins,
making us righteous by taking our sins away.
The reading from the letter to the Hebrews speaks of Jesus as a
great high priest who has passed through the heavens, i.e., in his death
and resurrection. Elsewhere (see Heb 9:10-14) the letter to the Hebrews
presents Jesus as both sacrificial victim and priest. In his death and
resurrection Jesus functioned both as the priest who sacrificed the victim
and as the victim who was sacrificed.
The idea that Jesus death was a sacrifice is somewhat foreign
to us and can raise questions about why God would require a sacrifice. This
was not true for first-century Christians. In the ancient world sacrificing
animals was an important part of Judaism and of virtually every other
religion. In the first century it was taken for granted that sacrifice was
part of a proper relationship between human beings and God. This meant that
when the early Christians tried to understand how Jesus death could
accomplish salvation, understanding it as a sacrifice was helpful. This
remains a helpful idea, but only if we recover the first-century view of
sacrifice.
Terrance Callan |