Devotion 10/14/2021 – Michael Fuchs

^“But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. Mark 10:43-44

In the Gospel reading this week (Mark 10: 35-45), Jesus once again turns the hierarchy of the world upside down.  The disciples are jockeying for places of authority and recognition within the Kingdom of God, and within this exchange two important ideas from Jesus emerge.  First, when James and John ask to sit at Jesus’ left and right hand in glory, Jesus replies, “You do not know what you are asking.”  Secondly, Jesus later states that “whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant.” The path to greatness and glory is one of servanthood and discipleship.  It is the taking up of one’s cross and following Christ.  This model of servanthood is neither easy nor painless.  It is the deliberate letting go of our own selves in order to serve each other, especially those who are marginalized in our society.  In our own culture where the glorification and well-being of the self through the accumulation of wealth and status is valued, this idea of servanthood is one of the most countercultural ideas of our faith.

Discipleship through servanthood is also a command and calling that is accessible to all.  In one of his many sermons, possibly with this same scripture passage from Mark in mind, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. told his congregation the following:

“And so Jesus gave us a new norm of greatness. If you want to be important—wonderful. If you want to be recognized—wonderful. If you want to be great—wonderful. But recognize that he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. That’s a new definition of greatness.

And this morning, the thing that I like about it: by giving that definition of greatness, it means that everybody can be great, because everybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. You don’t have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve. You don’t have to know Einstein’s theory of relativity to serve. You don’t have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love. And you can be that servant.”