October 18, 2015
The last sentence
in today's gospel is one of the most remarkable sentences in all scripture.
Let's listen to it one more time:
"The Son of Man did not come to be
served; he came to serve and to give his life to redeem many people."
Few sentences sum up the life of Jesus so
perfectly.
One of the great Japanese Christians,
Kagawa, trying to more closely follow Jesus, left his comfortable home and went
to live in the slums of Tokyo.
He is quoted as saying:
"God dwells among the lowliest of
people...
He
is there with beggars.
He
is among the sick.
He
stands with the unemployed.
Therefore
let the person who would meet God visit the prison cell before going to the
temple.
Before
a person goes to church, let them visit the hospital.
Before
they read the Bible, let them help a beggar."
Kagawa’s example has to raise the question
for all of us:: How can I live out the Gospel more seriously in my own life?
How can I imitate more closely Jesus' life
of service to others?
The worst answer we can give is to say,
"I can't move to the slums of Tokyo and
do what he did."
And,
having said that, proceed to do nothing.
Just because we can't do something
courageous and dramatic doesn't mean we can't do anything at all.
All of us can do something be it ever so
small and seemingly insignificant.
And the place to start is in our own
homes.
Let me tell you a story about an example
of how one person started in the home.
A boy was consistently coming home late
from school.
There was no good reason for his tardiness
and no amount of discussion seemed to help.
Finally, in desperation, the boy's father
sat him down and said:
"The next time you come home late
from school you are going to be given bread and water for your supper--and
nothing else.
Is that perfectly clear, son?"
The boy looked straight into his father's
eyes and nodded.
He understood perfectly
A few days later the boy came home even
later than usual.
His mother met him at the door but didn't
say anything.
His father met him in the living room, but
he didn't say anything either.
That night, however, when they sat down
together at table the boy's heart sank down to his feet.
His father's plate was filled with food
and his mother's plate was filled with food.
But his plate contained only a single
slice of bread.
Next to his plate was a lonely glass of
water.
The boy's eyes stared first at the bread, then
at the glass of water.
This was the punishment his parents had
warned him about.
To make matters even worse, tonight he was
absolutely starving.
The father waited for the full impact to
sink in, then, quietly took the boy's plate and placed it in front of himself.
He took his own plate, filled with food,
and put it in front of the boy.
The boy understood what his father was
doing.
His father was taking upon himself the
punishment that he, the boy, had brought upon himself by his own delinquent
behavior.
Years later, that same boy recalled the
incident and said:
"All my life I've known what God is
like by what my father did that night.
That story illustrates perfectly what
Jesus meant when he said in today's Gospel,
"The Son of Man...came..to give his
life to redeem many people."
Jesus came into the world to do for us
what the father did for his son
Today's gospel holds out a challenge to
us.
It challenges us to give our lives in
loving service for others, as Jesus did.
Let me end by quoting from Lamar
Williamson in his commentary on the Gospel of Mark.
It’s an important point to remember about
our own weakness and God’s generosity.
Williamson writes: “although the
disciples are slow learners, ambitious and selfish, they nevertheless continue
to follow Jesus. Their relationship to him is imperfect, but it is also
unbroken.” We too are invited to identify with the Twelve as the stumbling
followers of Jesus, the shaky servants of the Lord.”1
We try to follow Jesus, but our
relationship with him is imperfect,
We get caught up in trying to decide what
job or position will give us the most status or money,
We wish others would admire us for the
good things we do.
We look for places of more and more power.
But , Jesus tells us: “It will not be so among you.”
It must not be so among you.”
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