The request that the sons of Zebedee make of Jesus in today's Gospel passage is shaped by the long history of ancient Israel and their understanding of the role of the Messiah. The Israelite monarchy was established by Saul in the 11th century B.C. His successor, David, expanded the territory of the kingdom, making Jerusalem the capital. The glory days of the monarchy came during the reign of his son Solomon, who transformed the kingdom into a small empire, with even more expanded borders. But right after Solomon, the land was split in two, the Kingdom of Israel in the north and the Kingdom of Judah in the south. In time, both areas were overrun by conquerors, and the Israelites came to live under the oppression of a series of foreign occupies - the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks, and the Romans, the last of whom held sway at the time of Jesus.
In the midst of their oppression, the Israelites received prophecies that God would send a Messiah who would liberate them. Their understanding of the coming of the Messiah was that he would be a military conqueror who would overthrown the occupiers and would rebuild the great kingdom of the past, making it even more glorious. That is how the disciples also saw Jesus, as the king who would usher in the new golden age. Hence the request of the sons of Zebedee. Their hope was that once Jesus became the king of the new monarchy, they could be the top officials in his court, enjoying all the power, wealth, and glory that would come with such positions.
But Jesus redirects their thinking. Throughout the Gospels, Jesus shows the disciples the true role of the Messiah. He did not come to be a mighty conqueror who would defeat the Romans and establish a new empire in their place for the Israelites. Instead, he came for the spiritual liberation of all people from the bondage of sin. Jesus, the Messiah, is God Himself, who became incarnate, to be one of us, and then offer himself up as a sacrifice for all of us. Through the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross, all who accept his love can be healed and regenerated. What is more, the coming of Christ among us also ushers in God's gradual remaking of the world, which will culminate in the New Heaven and New Earth that Christ will establish at the end of time.
Jesus tells James and John that we should not be striving for glory in this life. If we want to follow Christ, we should be focused on the self-sacrificial service of others, as he himself had done in the way he lived and in the way he died. If we want to be the greatest, we need to become the least and the servant of all. We will receive glory in time, but that glory will come in the next life. Just as Jesus reclaimed his divine glory after the Resurrection, we too will be exalted by Christ in Heaven, in the measure that we followed his example of humble service in this life.
The message of Jesus would have been shocking for his contemporaries. Ancient Israelite society, as the other cultures of the ancient world, placed great emphasis on a person's social standing. At the heart of the social structure of Mediterranean cultures in particular was the patron-client system. At the top of the social order were wealthy and powerful men, whose standing was upheld by the submission of large groups of people, the clients. The clients would collectively ensure the continued dominance of the powerful, who would then act as patrons toward them, providing for them various favors that they would not otherwise have been able to reach.
A family's social interactions were calculated to help them rise higher in the estimation of their patron and society as a whole. Every interaction, every association would potentially advance or diminish their standing. Defending the honor of the family was always a key consideration; hence the drive to take fierce revenge for even small slights.
But Jesus showed another way. He did the opposite of seeking to enhance his social standing. Instead of currying favor with the wealthy and the powerful, he went to the poor and the outcasts to offer them the good news of salvation. He spent time with the worst sinners of his time, calling them to repentance, offering them a new life. He associated with people who would decidedly not enhance his position in society.
Our society today is not nearly as focused on social standing as the culture of Jesus was. After all, Western democracies are based on the notion that all people are created equal and should have equal rights and consideration. In fact, our culture values humility and forgiving wrongs rather than taking revenge. But the temptation of social climbing or currying favor with the rich and famous is still very much with us. While the fundamental assumptions of our society might be quite different from that of the patron-client system, we are still tempted to fall into the same kinds of behaviors. We must never lose our focus on the humble, self-sacrificial life that Jesus embodied and modeled for us.
At the same time, we must also be careful not to turn humility into a hidden form of vanity. Precisely because our culture values humility more than the ancient culture of Jesus did, we can score social points, so to speak, by being publicly humble, as some politicians, public figures, and celebrities are inclined to do. We must avoid ostentatious humility, performed when others are watching and the cameras are rolling. When we serve others we should, as Jesus instructed us to do, not let our left hand know what our right hand is doing.
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The readings for the Twenty-Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B are:
Is 53:10-11
Ps 33:4-5, 18-19, 20, 22
Heb 5:1-6
Mk 10:17-30 or 10:17-27
The full text can be found at the USCCB website.
Photo Credit: King David on Mt. Zion in Jerusalem (c) 2016 by Zoltan Abraham.