In these next two Sunday’s, we are with Jesus [and the disciples] as he enters his last phase on his journey toward Jerusalem. What follows will take place in Jerusalem or the immediate surroundings. Jesus has just finished telling his disciples what’s in store for him at the end of the journey: arrest, insults, violence, condemnation to death —and three days later resurrection. As we shall see several other things happen before this takes place, not least the request of James and John.
The disciples are following but they are terrified. James and John, who have had their minds on other things, because they believe that Jesus is announcing the beginning of an earthly Kingdom that has been a recurrent theme of certain messianic dreams. As a consequence, they approach Jesus and make their request to be closely attached to his glory in the first two places nearest to him. Obviously, they have not understood anything. Jesus then moves to open the eyes of the blind disciples.
The three biblical texts proclaimed today give a remarkable unity to this Sunday’s liturgy. The parallelism is striking — even down to the language, between the mysterious Servant of God described in the first reading and Jesus, who ‘Gave His life as a ransom for many.’ Moreover, the excerpt from the Letter to the Hebrews reminds us that Jesus, the Son of God, is the High Priest who entered the sanctuary of heaven and whose sacrifice insures for us God’s mercy.
‘Through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord:’ This formula recurs so often and so regularly in the liturgy that it risks not holding our attention, except as a cue for us to say ‘Amen.’ However, it is rich in meaning and theology —Jesus, the Son of God is the High Priest thanks to whom we can ‘confidently approach the throne of grace.’ He is our intermediary with the Father. The unknown author of the Letter to the Hebrews expresses this dignity and this function of Christ by directly referring to the understanding of the priesthood as found in the Old Testament. But even though it has received important nuances, the priestly mission is still, in the main, perceived as it was then: it renders those who are invested with it able to approach God, to consult with Him, and transmit His decisions; and to preside over worship. The priest is thus the qualified intermediary between God and humankind; he serves as a bridge — a pontiff — between heaven and earth. Accepted by God as a qualified interlocutor and spokesperson for his brothers and sisters, he still remains an earthly person; he has not crossed the threshold of God’s dwelling.
As for Christ, He, ‘has gone through to the highest heaven;’ He is with the Father, whose glory He shares; He is His Son. In Him, we have the High Priest ‘Par excellence.’
At the same time ‘to sympathize with our weaknesses… [having] similarly been tested in every way, yet without sin.’ This is why His experience of our weaknesses and trials, including that of death, has with Him a unique value. One could say that He knew weakness and trials in an unadulterated way, and although He freely delivered Himself to His Passion, He also felt in His innermost depths the torment of injustice. Like millions before Him, Jesus can say in truth that He knows what it means to suffer and die — His agony at Gethsemane is the proof of it — because He absolutely did not deserve to suffer. Thus, He is the true High Priest through whom we may ‘Confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and to find grace for timely help.’
Saint Fulgentius of Ruspe (468-533) puts it in a beautiful succinct way: ‘To mention Christ’s priesthood, what is it if not to express the mystery of the Incarnation in which the Son of God [who], though He was in the form of God… emptied Himself, taking the form of a slave…. Becoming obedient to death (Phil 2:6-8). He lowered Himself below the angels, He who was united to the Father as an equal. By wanting to become like humans, the Son abased Himself while remaining equal to the Father… Christ, inasmuch as He remains in His divine condition, is therefore the only Son of God, to whom we offer sacrifices as we do the Father; but inasmuch as He takes the condition of a slave, He becomes the priest through whom we may offer to God the living and holy host He approves. Now we could not offer sacrifice if Christ had not become a victim for us, He in whom our human nature is the salvific host.’
And so, as we return to the first reading today we see clearly in the Song of the Suffering Servant a correlation between the Suffering Servant and the Passion of our Blessed Lord. The prophets have a keen insight into the significance of earlier scriptures and of history, and so, are able to sense the deep meaning of what happens in the present. At the same time, they give us a premonition of the future, whose promise this present contains.
‘But the Lord was pleased to crush His servant with suffering.’ The poem begins as the praise of an exemplary and just person who remains faithful to God despite the persecutions he had to suffer — a martyr who made his life a sacrifice of atonement: ‘By His suffering, my servant shall justify many, and their guilt He shall bear.’ Obviously, this is no longer a discourse of praise in honour of a just person. The prophet glimpses the coming of a mysterious servant who although belonging to the lineage of past just persons will nevertheless be unequalled. Indeed, He is not ‘Smitten… and afflicted’
(Is 53:4) because of His own sins. Innocent, He offers Himself voluntarily as a sacrifice to justify others. Through Him, the will — the plan— of the Lord will be fulfilled; He is an artisan of the work of salvation in which ~God has been engaged from the beginning. The Song of the Suffering Servant speaks plainly about the Messiah — Jesus Christ — God Incarnate — our supreme High Priest.
The prophet’s oracle helps us to recognise that Jesus saved the world by dying on the Cross; and far from abandoning Him, God has exalted Him above all things because of His obedience unto death. Jesus on the Cross appears at once as the supreme manifestation of God’s love for the multitude and as the ultimate reason for our hope — God dying for man, so that man may share in God’s life.
It is this exaltation of Christ by the Father that the brothers James and John wished to have a part: ‘Master, we want you to do us a favour….What is it you want me to do for you?…. Allow us to sit one at your right hand and the other at your left in your glory.’ The Kingdom of God — its announcement, its expectation; proximity; arrival and access, open to all believers — occupies a notable place in the Old Testament. The Gospels place it even higher, at the centre of Jesus’ preaching.
In English, ‘Kingdom’ is the name given to a land — a territory governed by a King; the regal dignity and power are called ‘Kingship’ their exercise is designated by the word ‘Reign’ It is important to keep these nuances of vocabulary in mind when we read the scriptural texts that speak of the ‘Kingdom of God.’ This is the case in particular for todays Gospel passage. After the rich young man who did not have the heart to sell all his possessions departed; Jesus said to His disciples,’ How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the Kingdom of God!’ Then He said that no-one would renounce ones possessions without receiving eternal life: ‘In the age to come’ and ‘a hundred times more in this present age.’ But He had added: ‘But many that are first will be last, and [the last] will be first.’ After this, in Mark’s Gospel comes the third prediction of the Passion to the ‘Twelve’, whom Jesus had taken to one side (10:32-34). This revelation of what was to happen in Jerusalem was not calculated to restore equanimity in anyone following Jesus: The ‘Twelve’ were amazed and those who followed ‘were afraid to question Him.’ The behaviour of Jame’s and John — the two most intimate friends of Jesus, along with Peter — appears even stronger within this context. Do they really understand nothing of Jesus’ words; or else, because of what He had previously said, do they think Jesus will extricate Himself from this tight corner in order to enter His glory? Whatever, they leave the group behind, trying it seems, not to be noticed by the others as they ask Jesus their question. Their ploy, however, did not go unnoticed and caused indignation. Even before having done battle, the sons of Zebedee wanted the guarantee of a reward… They demand fair reward and substantial benefits in return for joining Jesus’ company early on…. But Jesus answers them: ‘You do not know what you are asking.’ Christ’s glory has nothing in common with what we can gain here on earth, by claiming our rights or resorting to undue favours, by competing with others to get the better of them or even push them away: This ambition will surely lead to jealousy and indignance which Jesus had already spoken about to them in the Gospel of the Twenty-sixth Sunday (Mark 9:38-45). Jesus will now tell them that ‘Anyone who wants to be great among them must be a servant, and anyone who wants to be first among them must become a slave to all.’ For Jesus Himself ‘came to serve not to be served…. They must not Lord it over their brethren’ And so Jesus asks the brothers ‘Can you drink the cup that I must drink or be baptised with the baptism which I must be baptised?’ Biblical symbolism of these two images suggests the forthcoming suffering and death of Jesus in obedience to His Father and in fulfilment of His redemptive mission: ‘There is a baptism with which I must be baptised and how great is my anguish until it is accomplished’ (Lk 12:50)
‘Abba, Father, all things are possible to you. Take this cup away from me, But not what I will but what you will be done.’ (Mk 14:36) To follow Christ on this way is the disciple’s concern. ‘We can’, John and Jame’s unhesitatingly answer. Must we see in their assurance a sort of presumption or simply the spontaneous response of their generosity and attachment to the Lord, for whom they have left everything? The evangelist is not interested in subjective motivations. What he wants is for us to remember Jesus’ words.‘The cup that I shall drink, you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptised, you will be baptised.’ We Cannot be Christ’s disciples and have access to salvation without sharing His death, that we might have a part in His resurrection: ‘If we have died with Him …. We shall also live with Him.’
(2 Tim 2:11) ‘But as for the seats at my right hand or my left, these are not mine to grant; they belong to those to whom they have been allotted.’ No-one has the right to encroach on the Father’s prerogatives, not even the Son. It is into the Father’s hands, through the Son, that we must with a Childs confidence, entrust the future. So:
‘Let us be confident then, in approaching the throne of grace, that we shall have mercy from Him and find grace when we are in need of help.’
