When we hear the opening line from the first reading from the Book of Isaiah it may sound rather harsh: “The Lord was pleased to crush him in infirmity.” This is the translation used in the Lectionary we use at Mass. Other translations use different words:
“It was the will of the Lord to bruise him; he has put him to grief.”
(Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition)
“But it was the Lord’s will to crush him with pain.”
(New American Bible, Revised Edition)
This passage from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah is from one of what is called the “Suffering Servant Songs,” and is obviously a prefiguration of the Passion of Christ. It makes sense, then, that we will also hear this reading proclaimed on Good Friday.
We shouldn’t take this passage to mean that the Lord takes delight in seeing his servant (Jesus) crushed, or bruised, etc. Rather, what is meant by this is that it is an act of the will by both the Lord and his servant; and as a prefiguration of the Passion, by both the Father and the Son. And the Lord’s will is not directed toward punishment or pain, but in accomplishing salvation for all of humanity. The second verse of this passage makes it clear that it’s also an act of the servant’s will (or Christ’s): “If he gives his life as an offering for sin, he shall see his descendants in a long life, and the will of the Lord shall be accomplished through him.” It is a total gift of self for the salvation of others.
It is through this gift of self in his Passion and Death for all of humanity that Jesus is glorified: Saint Paul writes to the Philippians, “Because of this, God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name” (Phil 2:9). And it is this glory that Jesus wants to share with us for all eternity. This is what the Lord takes delight in. This is what pleases him.
But the apostles James and John misunderstand the glory that Jesus would have as we heard in the Gospel for today. They pictured themselves in glory in a more worldly way with a position of status. They didn’t truly understand what it meant to follow Jesus. And Jesus knows this: he tells them, “You do not know what you are asking.”
In fact, none of the apostles are really hearing what Jesus is telling them. What we don’t hear in this passage is that just before all of this takes place, Jesus tells them that he will be handed over to the authorities, mocked, tortured, beaten, and put to death, and then rise from the dead three days later. Even after these explicit details that Jesus repeats to them, the apostles still don’t understand just what it means to follow him. And so James and John picture themselves in glory with a position of status at the end of their journey.
James and John approached Jesus to ask him for places of honor: to sit one at his right and one at his left in Jesus’ glory. This was immediately after Jesus told them that he would need to suffer and die. It was the third time he told this to them, and they still didn’t get it! The first time Jesus warned them about his having to suffer and die, Peter stepped in and rebuked Jesus, saying that it couldn’t happen. Jesus told Peter that he wasn’t thinking “as God does, but as human beings do.” After the second time Jesus predicted his Passion, the apostles started arguing over which of them was the greatest.
But Jesus doesn’t rebuke them or correct James and John. Instead, he challenges them, and asks James and John, “Can you drink the cup that I drink or be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” We know that Jesus is speaking of his Passion and Death, but why does he connect this with baptism? There are actually some similarities between the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River and his death on the cross. When Jesus came up out of the water after his baptism, the Scriptures literally say the heavens were “torn” open, and the Spirit descended upon him. When he died on the cross, the veil in the temple was “torn” in two from top to bottom. At Jesus’ baptism, God the Father spoke and said, “You are my beloved Son.” At the cross the centurion spoke and said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!” Coincidence? I don’t think so.
In addition to this, there is only one other place in the Gospel of Mark where two people are mentioned to be one at his right, and the one at his left:
at the cross. So what does this tell us about Baptism? We should already know that baptism frees us from Original Sin and incorporates us into the Body of Christ, the Church. But what a lot of us don’t realize is that the meaning and purpose of baptism goes much deeper than this. We are also incorporated into his death. In a mystical way, we “died” at our Baptism. Saint Paul knew this. He said in his letter to the Galatians, “I have been crucified with Christ; yet I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me.” And in his letter to the Romans he writes,
“Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” (6:3-4)
The only way to glory is by self-emptying, serving, giving one’s life. In other words, following Jesus means we must walk where he walked, and to do what Jesus did. We must share his journey every step of the way. Our Baptism isn’t just a one-time event. We are meant to live it out every single day—all the way to the cross.
Jesus suggests to us that we must be willing to embrace the role of servant—that’s the same image described in today’s first reading from Isaiah. The servant we read about in this passage is righteous in the eyes of God; he embraces the suffering and the ridicule of those who believe that he is rejected by God. But God is not cruel or sadistic. He takes no pleasure in crushing the servant with pain as I mentioned earlier. But He does take delight in the Servant’s willingness to suffer on behalf of others for their benefit. This is certainly not what our world today would have us believe.
The teaching of Jesus reverses and turns around much of what mainstream society tells us just as it did in his own day. We are told to be powerful, rich, and in control. But Jesus tells us to embrace humility, poverty, and the role of being a servant. What the apostles and many of us fail to realize is that they and we do indeed have power and authority. But it is not the power to dominate, control and rule. By virtue of our baptism, we have the power to serve.
The closing words of today’s gospel tell us that Jesus came not to be served, but to serve. He sought glory not for himself, but for us. He died so that we might be redeemed. Everything Jesus did, he did for others, and it’s the same thing he is asking us to do. This is what it means to be baptized into his death, and to drink the cup that he drinks. Our Baptism and celebrating the Eucharist are only the beginning of what makes us Christian. That’s why they’re called Sacraments of Initiation. These sacraments should lead us into the world to carry on the mission of Jesus, to serve others and embrace suffering with others. Our authority as Christians must be exercised as an act of service to others, not of power over others.
Jesus says in today’s Gospel, “whoever wishes to be great among will be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all.” How will we embrace slavery? One way might be to step back and think about those things that already enslave us and renounce them: power, greed, lust, fame, self-righteousness. Sometimes we have already given away our freedom without being aware of it.
Jesus challenges us with the same question he asks James and John: “Can you drink the cup that I drink or be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that through Baptism we “become members of Christ, are incorporated into the Church, and become sharers in her mission” (CCC 1213). Our challenge, then, is to listen to the ways we are called to serve others, to follow Jesus, and work to continue his mission, which is the mission of the Church, thinking of others before ourselves. This is what our Baptism calls us to do. When we serve each other, we serve the Church—we serve Jesus.