A Servant Above All

𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐂𝐇 𝟒, 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟔: 𝐒𝐄𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐃 𝐖𝐄𝐄𝐊 𝐎𝐅 𝐋𝐄𝐍𝐓

𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝟏: 𝐉𝐞𝐫 𝟏𝟖:𝟏𝟖-𝟐𝟎

𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐏𝐬𝐚𝐥𝐦: 𝐏𝐬𝐚 𝟑𝟏:𝟓-𝟔, 𝟏𝟒-𝟏𝟔 “𝐒𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐦𝐞, 𝐎 𝐋𝐨𝐫𝐝, 𝐢𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬.” 𝐆𝐎𝐒𝐏𝐄𝐋: 𝐌𝐀𝐓𝐓 𝟐𝟎:𝟏𝟕-𝟐𝟖

𝑲𝒆𝒚 𝑽𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒆: “𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒅𝒐𝒏’𝒕 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒂𝒔𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈.” (𝒗.22)

         Many of us, though most won’t admit it, but we all love to be praised. We want to get ahead of others and sit in places of honor. We want to be served first and we love to step into a room with people who are filled with admiration over our good fortune and what we have become.    

        What happened in this Gospel passage is what is happening to most of us today and here we find some parallelism with the attitude of members in many Christian congregations or even in civic and social organizations.

         There are those who would go to great lengths just to sit in places of honor. They would do everything; even pretending to be a person they are not to become heads of their organizations to satisfy their lifelong quest and desire for honor. There are those who would hang on to positions of leadership forgetting that the true value of leadership is when a leader can reproduce other leaders from among those that he serves.

         In this world where everything seems to have become relative which was what Pope Benedict XVI feared, the common question that is asked is: “What’s in it for me? Or what is the least I can do?” On the other hand, there are some who feel they have done so much that they have become owners of the ministry, apostolate and or advocacy they are engaged in.

         This is true especially in the political arena and as the election season in the Philippines heats up there are some groups and movements who have forgotten that politics is addition and in order to win you need to keep and make sure that you have the numbers to stake a claim on what you are fighting for and claim the position you are fighting for.

         To be able to understand this Gospel passage particularly the request made by the mother of James and John that almost divided the unity thus far enjoyed by the disciples of Jesus, let us first establish the predicate or that may have led to this scenario.

         This was the third time that Jesus had predicted his passion, death and resurrection (the other two times are in 𝐌𝐚𝐭𝐭 𝟏𝟔:𝟐𝟏 and 𝐌𝐚𝐭𝐭 𝟏𝟔:𝟐𝟏). But the disciples either could not, did not or just refused to understand what Jesus was saying because to them the idea of a Messiah was one who would come as a conquering king, and they must have argued about this.

         But there was someone who probably understood – the mother of James and John – although she also understood wrongly. And these discourses on his impending death and resurrection must have driven his disciples to anxiety over the thought that the organization that Jesus has established will be left orphaned if his words will become a reality and this may have moved the mother of James and John to talk to Jesus to propose that her sons be made to sit on his right and to his left.

         And we shouldn’t be angry with James and John since they were not the ones who went to Jesus, but it was their mother who Mark the Evangelist identified as Salome, a sister of Mary the mother of Jesus, and this gives us a picture of the concern of mothers for the welfare of their children. And her relations to Jesus also must have emboldened her to ask what she taught was just right that Jesus should pass on the mantle of leadership to James and John who are his close relatives.

         And the response of Jesus sets the tone for the paradigm that his ministry will pursue. This is a paradigm that is set on the daily struggle, heartbreaks, disappointments, frustrations, life-long obedience and faithfulness, sacrificial and humble service that everyone must embrace if we want to follow Christ wherever he may lead us and to be like him in any life situation that we may find ourselves to be in.

         And this passage shows us how we too must address situations in our lives when confronted with incidents and or even people who may be irritating, irrational, and or impertinent. Jesus is telling us not to lose our composure and patience and that we must respond with sincerity and honesty.

         To be great in the eyes of God is to be humble in the eyes of men and this is the kind of revolution that Jesus launched but which the people and the Pharisees at that time found difficult to grasp. This attitude of serving others without counting the cost is what will lead us to the Kingdom of God.

         Matthew ends this passage with a summation of what it is to lead. As with Jesus who provides us with a new perspective of leadership, he showed us by example that a leader must be prepared to give his life away. Instead of using people, we are to serve them.

         This should remind us of the martyrdom of St. James the Apostle who was the first among the Apostles to have been martyred in the service of God and men. Toyohiko Kagawa, a Japanese who served the poor in the Tokyo slums by living with them. In one of his books, he wrote: “God dwells among the lowliest of men.”  

          There was also Saint Maximillian Kolbe, a Polish Franciscan friar, who volunteered to die in place of a stranger. Remember too Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German pastor and theologian, who was fiercely opposed to Hitler and was executed by hanging at the Flossenberg concentration. Moments before he was hanged, Bonhoffer’s last word were: “𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘯𝘥. 𝘍𝘰𝘳 𝘮𝘦, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘧 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦.”         

          Therefore, let him who would want to meet God visit the prison cell before going to the temple. Before he goes to Church let him visit the hospital. Before he reads the Bible let him help a beggar.

         I have said this many times and let me say it again. Many of us who have become members of church organizations, community ministries and apostolates have become slipshod in the practice of our faith. We go to mass, attend prayer meetings, raise our hands and sing “hallelujah” to the Lord.

         Our spiritual lives have plateaued. We are neither here nor there. Sure, we can pray but that is just one aspect of our spiritual life. The greater mission for all of us is to “𝐠𝐨 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐢𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧.”  (𝐌𝐚𝐭𝐭 𝟐𝟖:𝟏𝟗-𝟐𝟎). Most of us don’t know it or refuse to understand because it will take us out of our comfort zones, but many of us are salting the salt. Those who are serving in your church and or in your community are already salted. What is expected of us to go out and be the salt to the marginalized, the doubters and the unbelievers.  

         This is the kind of greatness that God seeks. The world may have its own standard of greatness – intellectual standing, academic prominence, the number of committees and or ministries where one is a member, the number of outreaches, NGOs or advocacy groups that you may have organized in well-appointed communities and or homes. You may possess bank balances and material possessions – but these things are irrelevant because in assessing a person Jesus simply asks: “How many people have you brought to me?”

         What we need to keep in mind is what Jesus said when he summed up his whole life in just one phrase (𝐯.𝟐𝟖) “𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐌𝐚𝐧 𝐜𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐠𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞 𝐚 𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐨𝐦 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐲.” Jesus came not as a conqueror who will occupy a throne, but he came to occupy a cross.

          The Jews looked for a king who will smash their enemies to pieces, but Jesus came as a broken King who hung on the cross. But his death that ransomed us from the slavery of sin is the epitome of the sacrificial love that Jesus also wants us to possess.

         Jesus gave everything to lead sinners like us back to God and this is the kind of life that he wants us to live. We must walk in his steps and be prepared to give up our lives to love and serve our neighbors. Because it is only by loving and dying for our neighbors that we can find the way to God. (𝘌𝘥 𝘔𝘢𝘭𝘢𝘺 - 𝘔𝘢𝘳𝘤𝘩 4, 2026)