Humility, Sacrifice Mandatory

𝐉𝐔𝐋𝐘 𝟐𝟓, 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟓: 𝐅𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐓 𝐎𝐅 𝐒𝐓. 𝐉𝐀𝐌𝐄𝐒 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐀𝐏𝐎𝐒𝐓𝐋𝐄

𝟏𝐬𝐭 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠: 𝟐 𝐂𝐎𝐑 𝟒:𝟏𝟕-𝟏𝟓

𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐏𝐬𝐚𝐥𝐦: 𝐏𝐬𝐚 𝟏𝟐𝟔:𝟏-𝟔 “𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐬𝐨𝐰 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐩 𝐫𝐞𝐣𝐨𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐠.”

𝐆𝐎𝐒𝐏𝐄𝐋: 𝐌𝐀𝐓𝐓 𝟐𝟎:𝟐𝟎-𝟐𝟖

𝑲𝒆𝒚 𝑽𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒆: “𝑾𝒉𝒐𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒕𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆 𝒇𝒊𝒓𝒔𝒕 𝒎𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒃𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒔𝒍𝒂𝒗𝒆.” (𝒗.27) 

        The Gospel reading today is viewed as an intriguing event in the life of Jesus and his Apostles as well as an opportunity that gives us an insight into the true character of Our Lord Jesus Christ. But let us first draw the predicate leading to this incident.

         Before this happened, Jesus has already been preaching about the events that are yet to unfold, his own passion, death and resurrection. And even the Apostles who have been with him for quite some time have heard and listened to his discourses on love and up to this time his Apostles still looked at Jesus as the conquering king who will lead them out of their captivity.

         It was probably out of fear that the organization that Jesus has established will be left orphaned if his prophetic words will turn to reality that drove the mother of James and John to talk to Jesus and tried to make him agree to place her sons to his right and to his left.

         And before we draw our swords at James and John, we must remember that it was not they who went to Jesus, but it was their mother whom Mark 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 must have impelled her to have the boldness to ask what she taught was just right that Jesus should pass on the mantle of leadership to since James and John who are his close relatives.

         On the other hand, even if it was the mother who went to Jesus, I am pretty sure that Salome did so after consulting with both James and John who must have also entertained the idea of sitting in a place of honor and so did not stop their mother from raising the matter with Jesus.

         Here we find a 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 pretend to be a person they are not to become chairman, president of their organizations and or as an elder of their congregation and this ambition to become one has been their lifelong quest and desire.

         There are those who hang on to positions of honor forgetting that the true value of leadership is when a leader can reproduce other leaders from among those that he serves. I have had the privilege of knowing some people who are driven to sit in positions of honor in both the temporal and spiritual world. This disease of sitting at the head table has in fact infected even the church/ community and I have seen and is still witnessing how communities and ministries are being torn because of the controlling and manipulating spirit of its leaders.

         To address such problems if ever you have one in your community, let us view the response of Jesus in this Gospel today as he sets the tone for the paradigm that his ministry will pursue. This was 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 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 shows us by example that a leader must be prepared to give his life away. Instead of using people, we are to serve them. Rather than manipulate situations to your favor and advantage, we are to humble ourselves and focus our attention on God than on ourselves.

         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. I am also reminded of 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. 𝘏𝘦 𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘱 𝘢𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘰𝘯 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘷𝘪𝘤𝘵𝘴. 𝘏𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘫𝘶𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘪𝘭𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴; 𝘏𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘨𝘨𝘢𝘳𝘴. 𝘏𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘪𝘤𝘬, 𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘶𝘯𝘦𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘰𝘺𝘦𝘥. 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦, 𝘭𝘦𝘵 𝘩𝘪𝘮 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 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 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘨𝘨𝘢𝘳.”        

        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 that one may have organized in well-appointed communities and or homes, bank balances and material possessions – but these things are irrelevant because in assessing a person Jesus simply asks: “𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐩𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐩𝐞𝐝?”

        Sure we serve in our Community’s Encounter Programs, Life in the Spirit Seminars, Teachings, Shepherding, in the Communities that you may have helped establish but many of these are held in comfortable venues. Have you gathered the courage to really ask yourself if this was what Jesus would do if he were here with us.

         Wouldn’t Jesus want us to be like Toyohiko Kagawa who served the poor by living with them. Or like St. James who faced death in the service of the Church. At the end of the day, what matters is the fruit of the seed that you planted. Is your ministry growing in spiritual terms or is it disintegrating? Are you respected by the people under your pastoral care or do they disdain you? Are you a pillar of unity in your ministry or division?

         In addition to the qualifications of future leaders in Church Ministries/ Community, we should realize that Jesus summed up his whole life in just one phrase (𝒗.28) and this should be written in the hearts of all men especially those in leadership: “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 – 𝘑𝘶𝘭𝘺 25, 2025)