And as Jesus was going up to
Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside, and on the way he said to them,
"Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man will be
delivered to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death, and
deliver him to the Gentiles to be mocked and scourged and crucified, and he
will be raised on the third day."
Then the mother of the sons of
Zeb'edee came up to him, with her sons, and kneeling before him she asked him
for something. And he said to her, "What do you want?" She said to
him, "Command that these two sons of mine may sit, one at your right hand
and one at your left, in your kingdom." But Jesus answered, "You do
not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am to
drink?" They said to him, "We are able." He
said to them, "You will drink my cup, but to sit at my right hand and at
my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared
by my Father." And when the ten heard it, they were indignant at the two
brothers. But
Jesus called them to him and said, "You know that the rulers of the
Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. It
shall not be so among you; but whoever would be great among you must be your
servant, and
whoever would be first among you must be your slave; even
as the Son of man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a
ransom for many." – Matthew 20:17-28 RSV
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For the above quotation I have chosen to use the Revised
Standard Version (RSV) translated in the 1950s rather than the Authorized Version
of 1611, strictly because I wanted the word “servant” rather than the word “minister.”
Granted, in 1611 it was understood that “minister,” as a noun, and “servant”
were synonyms, and that “minister” as a verb, and “serve,” were also synonyms. The
word translated “servant” in this passage is διακονέω (diakoneo) from which
we get the English word “deacon.” It may seem doubly ironic that I chose a word
other than “minister,” that is, for any who either never knew or have forgotten
that when we call a man a deacon it is the same as calling him a servant. In a sermon I once wrote for Palm Sunday,
expounding on the great Christological passage in Philippians chapter two, I related
this story: “In
a rather unhappy conversation with a man who aspired to be a priest, I asked
the question, ‘What is it that you want?’ He answered me, ‘I want to be a
priest; in fact, I want to be a bishop.’ He even said, ‘Isn’t it right to want
to get to the top of your field?’ I told him that he should forget the whole
idea of Holy Orders for himself. I said I would not help him with it at all. I
went on to explain to him that this is not about ambition. Every priest,
including the Archbishop, is forever a deacon, that is, a servant. He said that
he had never heard that before. Had he not read what Saint
Paul
What we see in the Gospel passage, in
the way that St. Matthew placed these two events together in succession, is a
very clever use of irony by the former tax collector turned Apostle. In the
much the same way St. Luke writes about the other passage in which Jesus said much
the same thing to the Apostles as in what we read above. That is because, after
telling them that He was about to be handed over to the Gentiles, and that one
of them would betray Him to the terrible suffering and death that was now upon
Him, we read, “And there was also a strife among them,
which of them should be accounted the greatest (Luke 22:24).”
Lifestyles of the rich and famous – and powerful
In
the 1980s, or perhaps 1990s, a weekly television series caught the attention of
people who, as I overheard from time to time, discussed it in their places of
employment. The name of the program was Lifestyles
of the Rich and Famous. I never saw it, but I recall people being
enraptured about what they had seen. The world, after all, has a value system
in which riches, fame and, if I may add one more category, power, are in themselves
the zenith of success. Or, to mention the same things, in terms of their
spiritual substance, with the words of St.
John
“Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the
Father is not in him. For all
that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the
eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that
doeth the will of God abideth for ever (I John 2:15-17).”
It did not escape Patristic notice how
those three things line up with the very first temptation mentioned in
scripture. “And when the woman saw that the tree was good
for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to
be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof,
and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat
(Genesis 3:6).”
Those
things must be overcome in our hearts if we are to be Christ’s disciples. As
much as modern Americans see the Church in terms of shopping and selecting only
desired items, and as much as the clergy are tempted here to become competing
salesmen in this awkward sort of emotional-religious retail, in reality the Church,
wherever she is true to her Lord, has but two things: Discipleship and
sainthood.
“And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch
“Unto the church of God which is at
Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints,
with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both
theirs and ours (I Corinthians 1:2).”
The Christian life is a
call to sainthood, which means simply holiness.
Holiness means two things: Both that we avoid willful sin, and that we cultivate
the virtues that grow in us by the grace of God, given to us by the Holy Spirit
(Galatians 5:16-26). The only method is discipleship, and we cannot be
disciples without taking up, each of us, our own cross and following the Son of
Man. “And he said to them all,
If anyone will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross
daily, and follow me (Luke 9:23).”
Blessed Subversion
It is not possible
to be Christ’s disciples if we have the same value system as the World; that is
as St. John uses the word “world,” both in the Epistle passage we have read,
and in the opening of his Gospel: “He [the Word or Logos] was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the
world knew him not (John 1:10).” In our own time I see a troubling
confusion among many American Christians. I have written quite a bit about the
problem of churches that are given over to overt heresy, immorality and
apostasy. But many American Christians who remain either orthodox, or
traditional or Evangelical, demonstrate by their public statements an inability
to distinguish between the spirit of the world and the Spirit of Christ. In a
world that prizes riches, fame and power, taking up the cross of Christ is
entirely contrary. We follow Christus
Contra Mundum, that is, in terms of the world’s upside down values, Christ
against the world.
Beginning a few decades
ago American Evangelicals began pushing the idea of “Leadership.” In daily mail
to the church, among colorful glossy advertisements that I throw away every
week are items about conferences with high sounding names like “Raising the Next
Generation of Leaders.” How very contrary to the Lord who said, “It shall not
be so among you.” Where are the conferences for Raising the Next Generation of
Servants? Churches advertise (in a manner most insulting to traditional
liturgical churches) their “Passion,” their “Power,” and their “Lively”
services – which appear to be mostly entertainment. But disciples have no power
in and of themselves, put no confidence in the flesh (Philippians 3:3), and
must take up the cross daily to overcome themselves.
The irony about which
Matthew and Luke wrote, which Jesus corrected with His words that the greatest
among us is a servant, is in striking consistency with the times in which we
live. The twentieth century was a time of severe persecution for the Church,
and it has grown more so since the turn of the millennium. Every day Christians
face persecution, and in many cases poverty. Many are imprisoned, beaten,
tortured or killed for their faith. In Touchstone,
a Journal of Mere Christianity, every issue presents news about “The
Persecuted Church.” How ironic, then, that in modern times many American Christians
believe they will be “Raptured” before some seven year period of a “Great
Tribulation” comes on the earth. Not only is that idea based upon a very poor
interpretation of Scripture, but it is also a clear symptom of moral failure. If
the Spirit of Christ is in them, how then can they fail to empathize with their
persecuted brothers and sisters who live and suffer in other parts of the
world?*
It is essential that we
become utterly subverted, from the world’s upside down point of view, by the
cross of Christ. It is impossible to prevail in the spiritual battle unless we
accept His call to take up our cross, and follow Him as disciples. We cannot
overcome the power of evil by the arm of the flesh, or by the methods of the
world. We must despise the value system of the world, and become servants. We
must take the lowest place. We cannot overcome the world unless we become
incurably subverted by that which is eternal, the Kingdom of God
___
* About that error I have written before. See “Why I want to be Left
Behind,” available in our own archives, and also on Virtue Online.
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