Slave of All
On the Sunday bidding Farewell to Deacon David Lawson-Beck
Mark 10.35-52
35James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came forward to him and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” 36And he said to them, “What is it you want me to do for you?” 37And they said to him, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” 38But Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” 39They replied, “We are able.” Then Jesus said to them, “The cup that I drink you will drink; and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized; 40but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.” 41When the ten heard this, they began to be angry with James and John. 42So Jesus called them and said to them, “You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. 43But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, 44and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. 45For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.”
Some of us fans of the Sopranos were delighted with The Many Saints of Newark, the prequel to the story of Tony Soprano and his family. In this new movie, we see the seeds of conflict sown in the heart of a young Tony by his gangster father, his highly dysfunctional mother and the crime syndicate which framed his life in Newark. You will remember that in the Sopranos, Tony, his capos and soldiers exercise ruthless power in securing their authority and domination in the various enterprises of his crime network.
Many of us recognize the set locations in Newark, Kearny, the Caldwells and perhaps some of us may even have closer experience of this network which works in Northern New Jersey. Even though you know that I have a Sicilian last name, I want to assure you that my family had no connections with those criminals.
We all smile at the Tony and Carmella and the ways they navigate the challenges of Tony’s “Business.” Tony’s extended family illustrate a phrase we heard in today’s Gospel: “You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them.” (Mk 10: 42) The people for whom this gospel was written were all too familiar with these patterns of power and authority.
This Gospel was written just years after 70 AD when the Roman army ruthlessly put an end to the Jewish rebellion, a suppression which included not only the destruction of the Second Temple but also the wholesale execution of hundreds of thousands living in Judah. Roman civilization was established with clear systems of authority which placed Roman male citizens at the summit of the system of power and at the very bottom of the ladder stood the slaves.
If you found yourself at the top, you counted yourself among those who lorded it over everybody under you. James and John, the disciples who introduce today’s Gospel, knew this system of power and control and they are looking to become Jesus’ capos in the new power system they imagine Jesus will set up. Like all the disciples with names, these two knuckleheads show how dense they are when listening to Jesus’ teaching.
In the lines before the start of today’s reading, Jesus teaches his disciples for the third time: See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death; then they will hand him over to the Gentiles; they will mock him, and spit upon him, and flog him, and kill him; and after three days he will rise again.” (Mk. 10: 33-34) Jesus summarizes the brutal torture and death he will endure at the hands of the Roman and Jerusalem power elites. These great men of power feel challenged by Jesus’ alternative vision and will do everything to eliminate him. They will subject Jesus to the death of a slave, the death which eliminates Jesus as a person and makes him a thing. Jesus asserts that in spite of the supposed power of this elite, that God will overturn their power with God’s response to their violence when God raises Jesus from the dead and vindicates Jesus’ vision of God’s reign.
To counter the power sought by James and John, Jesus asserts: “whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all.” (Mk. 10: 43-44) Let’s not imagine that Jesus was unaware of the power dynamics of his day. Jesus clearly understood the evils of slavery, the powerlessness of slaves, the ways they were brutalized and victimized by their overlords. Jesus is not inviting us to some form of glorified humility and self sacrifice. Jesus does not ask us to become door mats for others. Jesus is speaking to us as a Christian community, inviting us to examine the patterns of our relationships with one another, and shift the pattern of our authority among ourselves from domination over others to service of others.
Jesus overturns the system of authority which is power over others. Jesus’ authority consists in power for others, power with others. When all are slaves, then the power option shifts away from the power over others to power of service for others and authority shared with others.
Today we are saying farewell to our Deacon David, a person who, by his ordination, God has called to a special ministry of servanthood. We have experienced Deacon David’s devotion to the liturgy and his pastoral concern for the members of our church both here in Linden and previously in Rahway. Under Deacon David’s devoted service lies a deep spiritual practice centered on the spirituality of St. Francis. Francis gathered together a community of brothers who considered themselves Lesser Brethren, a Christian community who abandoned the patterns of worldly authority for the pattern of Christian service as slaves of one another. Like Francis, Deacon David shows us that same community of equals, devoted to one another and to serving each other as equals.
We gather as that community of equals, that community where we serve one another not out of a false humility but because we are followers of Jesus who gave himself in service to others. Our sharing in the Sacrament of Jesus’ Body and Blood binds us together with Christ and with one another. Bound together as servants of Jesus the servant, may God continue to overturn the oppressive systems of power and establish that equal community, a reflection of the very life of God, three persons living in equal love.