Servant and Friend; 29th Sunday of ordinary time.

In the first reading, Isaiah describes God’s servant, as suffering and an offering. The Son of Man will pour out his life for the life of the world. He will bear the guilt of others and so justifies others.

In this unmatched compassion and solidarity, this servant saves and lifts up our wounded humanity to God’s all-encompassing love, which the Psalmist declares - trustworthy.

And this trustworthy love is the source of our own striving towards the good and it is the very foundation of our hope.   

In the letter to the Hebrews, St Paul reminds us that it is Jesus, the sign and image of God’s love, who is our concrete reason for hope.  It is Jesus, risen and ascended into heaven, who remains ever faithful; especially to the lowly and the poor. He knows us well and sympathize with our human dilemma. He lifts up those who have been crushed, either by the powers that overwhelm us or by our own frailty and weakness. He loves us most deeply in our darkest hour, for he himself knew darkness when he was betrayed and handed over.

 St Paul’s assures us to be confident of the Lord’s infinite compassion and fidelity when we call out to him. The Lord will look upon us, and love us, as he did the rich young man from last week’s Gospel.  But, in that love, he will challenge us to also love.

 On the road to Jerusalem. A road of assent and revelation, Mark gives us a series of Passion predictions, misunderstandings, and teachings on the Kingdom of God and the cost of discipleship.

 On the road that day, the twelve remembered what Jesus had said about wealth. Indeed, James and John had given up a lucrative fishing enterprise to follow Jesus and so they felt good about themselves. And they ask Jesus for a favor - set us apart, make us special. Let us sit at your right and left, they ask. (Of course, it will be criminals that hang to the right and left of Jesus).

The brother’s miss-placed love is spiritual pride talk. It is about their own status and honor.

Jesus asks them, can you drink the cup that I drink? Now, this is not a cup that warms and delights. It is a cup of wrath. It is coming and it must be drunk, drained to the last drop. It will be no easy thing.

Can you be baptized with the baptism with which I am to be baptized? This is not a symbolic drowning into waters of the Jordan. This baptism is a very real drowning into the darkness of betrayal, abandonment and death.

This cup and baptism Jesus speaks of is the Cross, but without the resurrection, which was still hidden from the world. Jesus points to his passion.

 Now, I am sure James and John answered with sincerity, for they did loved Jesus, but they were foolish, puffed up and a little blind.  The romantic notion of sacrifice, suffering and death is not same as the reality of sacrifice, suffering and death.

The hard truth, that they all would come to know, would have to wait until the garden, when they would rather sleep rather than keep watch with Jesus, or when they stood by watching as he was handed over and lead away.  That night they could not drink from his cup.

Yet, Jesus tells them all - your time will come. You each will have your cup and your baptism. The world will hold you accountable for following me. You will be confronted, accused and tried. You will suffer at their hands and you will die. I can promise you this, but who will sit next to me in the Kingdom, that is for God alone to decide.

 The truth is - the kind of glory and honor James and John desired will never be theirs for the Kingdom of God, is not the kingdom of the Philistines or Jerusalem or Rome.

History has shown us that in this world those with power lord it over those without. Those with hard hearts, obscene wealth, and lying tongues deceive the kind hearted, marginalize the poor and crush the lowly.

But, the Kingdom of God is not this. The Son of Man (Jesus, the revealer of the kingdom) comes to serve and not be served.

“Here is my servant”, God tells us through the prophet Isaiah, “whom I uphold, my chosen one with whom I am well pleased. Not crying out, not shouting. A bruised reed he shall not break and a smoldering wick he shall not quench”.

 Look around you. The world seems a smoldering wick and many of its people, bruised reeds. The world and most of those that dwell within have been laid low. But, they are not abandoned. They are cherished, always held close and they will be raised up.

“I promise this and I will do it” says the Lord, God.

Jesus tells them, if you follow me you will never become princes. You will be servants and slaves.  And more than this. A slave serves one master. But, to follow me, you will be a slave of all!  Friend and stranger, the established and the lowly, the center and the marginal, the blind and the leper.

 Jesus, the Son of God - worthy of all praise and Glory, came to proclaim, not himself, but the Good News to the poor. He came to heal the sick and mend the broken hearted and he came to set captives free. And this loving kindness got him killed by those who did not know him.

 But, we know Jesus’ absolute surrender became victory, as death became life. The scandal of the Cross became the vindication of the Resurrection.

And in fellowship with Jesus and solidarity with those Jesus loves, our own cross, our lowliness and suffering (whatever shape it is) becomes a victory, as well.

“If you remain in my word”, says the Lord, “you will truly be my disciples, and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free”.

In this freedom we live within the world, in solidarity with and at the service of all of creation and all peoples, as we are set free from the tyranny of self-centered-ness and self-interest.

And at the same time, this freedom is victory over the world itself and the sure guarantee of the life to come.