James and John ask Jesus an infantile question about seating
arrangements in the kingdom of heaven. Yet
again Jesus reminds them, it is not about precedence or greatness or mutual
importance. That is the way the gentiles
think, he says. It shall not be so among you.[1]
There are subtleties of Greek translation here. Jesus is not, as it were, ordering them,
commanding them, about their behaviour.
He is not telling them to be humble.
James and John may have been trying to stake out for themselves high
places in the order of precedence in the kingdom – we can assume that others of
them had their own hopes about that – but I don’t think Jesus is responding
here by requiring them not to think that way.
He is saying what we often say in contemplative life and
prayer, that time in Jesus’s company does in fact change us. In time to come they won’t be thinking that
way, he is saying. And indeed, in a
discipline of loving discipleship, prayerful silence and attention, however
intermittent and erratic it may be at times, we do begin to discover values
shifting, fears and anxieties lessening, steadiness increasing, love and
compassion emerging where it was not so prominent before… It seems to me that Jesus is simply observing
to his disciples, who prognosticated about who would be greater, that they
would change. They would lose that need
for recognition, power or control. The
greatest among them would be servant of all.
That is the way it would turn out among them, I think he is saying.
In the 21st century there are all sorts of ways
in which in fact we need power or authority – being powerless is not
good in modern society. It is not power
that is wrong, but the misuse of power – whether it is in high politics and
policies, or whether it is any form of bullying, or some employer sordidly
demanding favours from an employee wanting promotion. When people of wisdom and goodwill find
themselves in positions of power, and where they are able to use that power for
good, it is a wonderful thing – and it is a form of servanthood in Jesus’s
terms.
Servant never means servile.
Jesus’s statement, it shall not be
so among you, expresses his faith that his followers will use whatever powers they acquire, humbly and
well, and to enhance God’s creation. If
you think about it, much power resides within the family unit – power to
encourage or to cause despair, power to embrace or to alienate… the family can
make or ruin people’s lives, children’s lives.
Horribly, I would think, too often in Christian history, “the Christian
family”, elevated as an ideal, has in fact masked oppression or
restriction. This is reflected in much
of our literature and biography.
It shall not be so
among you… Our discipleship is to be
prayerful and thoughtful in our basic relationships – husband, wife, parent,
sibling, friend, employer, citizen, church member… and as Jesus pointed out,
our relationship includes our kindness towards ourselves.
No comments:
Post a Comment