What does it mean
to sacrifice for another?
Well into Mark’s
Gospel, Jesus’ disciples still really don’t understand the mystery associated
with Jesus (who he is, why he came, what he intends to do), or Jesus’ notion of
the kingdom of God. James and John
demonstrate their limited understanding when they ask Jesus to grant that in his glory, they may sit one at his
right and the other at his left.
Their idea of the kingdom is earthbound – concrete and limited to human
parameters. Jesus responds, Can you drink the cup that I drink? Can you share in my experience, in other
words, and come to understand what it means to sacrifice for another, to lose
your life for another? This is the true
kingdom, a kingdom grounded in sacrifice and service.
As he makes
perfectly clear, Jesus came not to be
served but to serve, to die for them, for all. He is the incarnation of the suffering
servant in Isaiah, who accepts the sacrifice requested of him, giving his life as an offering for sin. And the
Lord is pleased to crush him in infirmity, Isaiah tells us, because that
infirmity, or suffering, is necessary to the Lord’s plan of salvation: if the servant is crushed, the plan has begun to unfold, and the Lord is pleased
because he wants salvation for his people, so that they might be justified.
Jesus, as the Book of Hebrews notes, has been tested in every way and can therefore sympathize with our human weakness. If we believe that Jesus Christ is mercy, that he died and rose so that mercy, and therefore grace, might be ours, then we are
demonstrating the trust described in
Psalm 33. Only if we trust, and open ourselves to that grace, allowing it to fill us, can we
ever come to understand what it means to drink
the cup that he drinks, and to
see how the will of the Lord was accomplished through Jesus; only then can we
know his mercy.
Imagine: what if the will of the Lord were
accomplished through us, through the cup
we accept? How might we learn to sacrifice
ourselves and be servant of all, following in the footsteps of Christ?
This class was
based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.
Image source: www.wordle.net
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