All she wanted was the best for her sons. Who doesn’t want the best for their children? James and John’s mother went up to Jesus and asked Him if her sons could be at His side in His Kingdom. What good parent doesn’t want greatness for their children? But she didn’t truly realize what she was asking. She, like the other disciples did not realize where true greatness lies. She like, the other disciples and like most people, didn’t realize that Jesus’ greatness was not in Who He was, but for what He was about to do. He would become great because of the act of service He was about to perform, for all of us. So, Jesus asked them, “Can you drink the chalice that I am going to drink? They said they could, but they did not know what He was about to undergo. They did not understand the chalice He was talking about, and they did not understand the burden He was about to bear.
So often we think that to be great means to have a lot of authority, wealth, power, and influence. Being great means that you are important, and that you are successful. But Jesus flips this around on us. He creates a new paradigm, saying, “whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant.” We must serve other people. We must make our lives about other people if we are to realize true greatness in our own lives.
To be a great leader means that you are a servant, that you truly care about the well-being of the people around you and that you make sacrifices, including your pride and your ego for the betterment of someone else. You role up your sleeves and you do the dirty work, even if it is work that you don’t want to do, that you feel may be beneath you. You humble yourself and let go of your selfishness because you care more about your fellow person. Sure, we should try to be as good as we possibly can at our profession or whatever it is we do. We should strive to provide as much as we can for our family and other people in our life, and it’s okay to climb that latter, but we must be a servant at heart. To be a servant means to serve Christ in His will, and not serve ourselves and our will. And to be a servant, means that there will be some burdens that come along with it. There will be crosses to bear. Are we ready to drink from His chalice?
But before we go into that, lets talk about Jeremiah. Jeremiah laid the groundwork for being a servant of God. He was delivering God’s message, and doing His will. But yet the people wanted to kill him. Jeremiah could not believe that the people wanted to do this, that they did not appreciate the good he was doing, but yet this was a burden he was going to have to bear for his service to God. What burdens are you willing to bear for Christ? What ways are you willing to serve Him through others? Are you willing to be like Jeremiah? Are you willing to be like Christ?
Jesus goes on to tell His disciples that “the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Through His service He saves humanity and reveals His greatness. Our path to greatness, a greatness of eternal life in Heaven flows through the serving of others. What does this mean to serve others? We hear this all the time, but how can we apply this to our every day lives? Sure, we can do good deeds for strangers on the street or general acts of service. That is all very good.
But service goes deeper. An example is in our professional lives, with those we work with. Our clients, and our customers. Sometimes we treat the people we work with, or even our customers, very badly. Or things become all about profits, time schedules, and numbers. Sometimes we get into positions of authority, and we let it consume us and we exert that power on those who work for us. Sometimes we treat our customers or our clients as just another sale, and not the people they are. And sometimes we require unreasonable things from our employees that really push them beyond their limits and place a significant level of stress on them. It really comes down to one thing – people. It comes down to serving people with integrity and excellence, but always with the person first and foremost. This is how we become great people of example on this earth, by following Jesus’ model. And this is how we experience greatness in Heaven, through a people first mentality, a servant’s heart.
It’s tough though. It’s tough to keep from giving in to our selfish pride and thinking about ourselves first. But when we go through these times where we get a little selfish, we can always reset. We can always reboot the machine and start again. That’s the great thing about our Faith and our Church is that we can turn to the Sacraments when things get out of sorts or when our burdens get too hard to handle. Because we know that one Man endured more than we can ever imagine, and He endured it for us!
When things get too tough and we don’t think we can handle it anymore, Jesus is there to help us if we seek Him, if we go to Him. But most times, the way out of our problems is not through helping ourselves and expecting God to do it for us, but our problems are often solved and our prayers answered through our service to others, to putting others ahead of our own needs and desires, and helping those that God puts in our lives. If we have a sincere heart and desire to be people of integrity, to do what’s right and to put others needs before our own, God will provide and we will experience His greatness – now and forever.
