“The Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many”. So says Jesus in our gospel today, speaking to his disciples, and therefore, to us. It is a sharp rebuke to his apostles for squabbling over who is to have places of favor on either side of Jesus, in his “glory”, a term which they think applies to Jesus becoming king of Israel, when he comes to Jerusalem and overthrows their Roman overlords. However, the joke is on them, because, for Jesus, his “glory” actually refers to his crucifixion and death. We know who will be crucified on his right and his left then, and they will be two common thieves, and not James and John. Jesus’ subtle references to his “cup” and to his “baptism” are biblical expressions for suffering, which, again, the apostles fail to understand, otherwise they would never have so quickly have responded “Yes we can drink your cup and receive your baptism”.
It never occurs to James and John that Jesus is spelling out his own mission, which is one not of glory, as they understand it, but of suffering and death, before resurrection, all in the service of the human race. Jesus also hints to them about their own mission to come, which will also be one of service and witness to others, through suffering and martyrdom, though they don’t get it at the time. Later, after Jesus’ Resurrection and the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost, they will finally understand. James will become the first apostle to be martyred, beheaded by King Herod (Acts 12:2), and John will find himself exiled to the island of Patmos at the end of his life (Revelation 1: 9), where he will die, cut off from family and friends. All the other apostles will also be martyred for their witness to Jesus, but all will die, honored to have shared in Jesus’ cup and baptism of suffering.
When we talk about “Mission” on this “World Mission Sunday”, we must fix securely in our minds that it will involve us, in some way or other, in a life of service, which will include its own measure of suffering. Rather than shying away from that, we should take it as an honor to have our own part in the sufferings of Christ, for the service of our fellow man and woman, especially of those who do not know Jesus. This does not necessarily mean physical martyrdom, though for some it may, but it always means spiritual “martyrdom”. The word “martyr” literally means “witness”, and we are all, as Christians, disciples of Christ, called to give witness to our faith in Jesus, and that will expose us, in a world that has pretty much turned away from belief in Christianity, to ridicule, anger, rejection, isolation, even from family members. Those reactions to our witness will become our badge of honor, a sign that we are true disciples of Jesus, because he himself experienced ridicule, anger, rejection, isolation, and, yes, even from his own family. Indeed, in the Acts of the Apostles, the apostles, we are told, after being ordered to be flogged for their witness to Jesus, “rejoiced that they were considered worthy to suffer dishonor for the sake of the name” of Jesus (Acts 5:41).
We hear, in our first reading today, that “it was the will of the Lord to crush him with pain” and we think “how could a good God consent to see his Son go through so much suffering?” But in fact, what we are being told is that sin “crushes” people, subjecting them to shame and guilt and condemnation, and so many of us suffer from that . But God willed that his own Son, Jesus Christ, would become a member of the human race, and experience in himself that burden of shame and guilt, as he took upon himself all our guilt and shame and condemnation, so that he could allow himself to experience what it means to be “crushed” by it. We are also told, in Psalm 34 that God “saves those who are crushed in spirit” (Psalm 34: 18). By allowing himself, willingly, to experience what it means to be “crushed in spirit” because of our sins, Jesus endures in his body and spirit the full weight of the burden of sin in himself. We are told, in our Eucharistic Prayer at Mass, that Jesus “willingly entered into our Passion”. Jesus offered himself willingly, as a sacrifice for our sin, allowing himself to feel the full weight of condemnation caused by our sin, the sin of all the world, past, present and future. And, in his resurrection, we are told that God accepted his sacrifice for sin, on behalf of all people, and exalted his Son to the highest place in heaven, because of his willing obedience to death on our behalf.
When Jesus says, in our gospel today, that he gave his life “as a ransom for many”, we are reminded of what “ransom” or “redemption” meant in the life of Israel. Redemption, or ransom, meant that a member of a family, could, legally, pay the debt of another family member, and free them from slavery, caused by their debt. Jesus became a member of the human family, when he took upon himself human nature, and became one of us. Therefore, he could legally pay the price of our debt of sin, which enslaved us to the devil. By his death on the cross, Jesus paid the price of our sin, and freed us from bondage to Satan, sin, death and hell.
So, Jesus is saying, to James and John in our gospel today: “Are you so free of sin that you can offer your life as a pure sacrifice of atonement for others?” I don’t think any of us could possibly say “Yes” to that question. Only Jesus could, because only he was free from the debt of sin, because he never sinned. Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians, says that Jesus, though sinless himself, for our sake became “sin, in all of its horror and degradation, so that we could become righteous and holy” (2 Corinthians 5: 21). I don’t know anyone, in my entire life, who could offer themselves, on my behalf, to pay the debt of my sin. But Jesus did. And because of that, I can look towards salvation and eternal life, instead of towards condemnation and eternal death in hell. Jesus freely chose to endure the “crushing” of guilt and shame and condemnation that was upon me, and upon you, and upon the entire human race, because of our sin, so that we could be saved from all of that.
In our first reading today, from the prophet Isaiah, we are told of a “servant” of God, who willingly allows himself to be sacrificed as a guilt offering on behalf of all human beings, so that he might lead the guilty to forsake sin, inspiring heartfelt repentance by recognizing the grave consequences of their sins either as they affect themselves, or their effect on the lives of others. Christian teaching is unanimous in applying this Scripture to Jesus, and no-one else in Jewish, or any other, history can be advanced as someone who could possibly fulfil these verses of the Bible. If you were convicted, brothers and sisters, of a crime that you were definitely guilty of, how would you feel if someone else took your place, accepted your guilt, even though he was totally innocent of the crime, and allowed himself to be executed on your behalf? And yet, that is precisely, what Jesus Christ has done for you and me. And, because of that, you and I, brothers and sisters, despite our sins, can, in the words of our second reading today, “confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and to find grace to help in time of need.”