Wednesday of the Second Week of Lent
Be a servant. That’s a pretty clear call of our Lord in the Gospel, isn’t it? Our fallen nature wants to be served, to be esteemed, to think of ourselves as better or more deserving than others. But at the foot of the Cross, if we’re willing to stand there and behold our crucified Lord, the perspective changes, doesn’t it? This Lent, as we behold the Lamb of God, the Suffering Servant, let us seek to serve others more and so to become the kind of servants who love like Jesus does.
As Jesus was going up to Jerusalem,
he took the Twelve disciples aside by themselves,
and said to them on the way,
"Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem,
and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests
and the scribes,
and they will condemn him to death,
and hand him over to the Gentiles
to be mocked and scourged and crucified,
and he will be raised on the third day."
In your imagination, take your place among the disciples who accompanied Jesus on the road to Jerusalem, on his journey toward the Cross. What do you feel as you hear your beloved Rabbi, your friend, the One who loves you speak those words? This is not such an imaginary journey. In fact, during Lent, this is the road we walk, the Via Dolorosa, the path of humility and sorrow. What is your response to Him today? What might your prayer be?
On the journey, James’ and John’s mother approached Jesus. “He said to her, ‘What do you wish?’" Continuing to imagine yourself in Jesus’ company that day, what would you want to ask of Him? What would be most pressing on your heart and mind? Here was her response, "Command that these two sons of mine sit, one at your right and the other at your left, in your kingdom." She sought power and authority for her sons. I can only imagine that this request might have been borne in fear, as well as ignorance. As you walk with Jesus toward Jerusalem, what motivates the requests you may be making of him? I ask myself the same. Are we motivated by fear or by love?
Jesus summoned the Twelve (as He summons us) and said,
"You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them,
and the great ones make their authority over them felt.
But it shall not be so among you.
Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant;
whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave.
Just so, the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve
and to give his life as a ransom for many."
“ . . . the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve . . .” I imagine most of us can quote that verse. But have you ever really stopped to let it sink in? Return to the passage quoted at the beginning of this reflection, where Jesus announces His pending Passion. I invite us to behold the Cross today and to ponder what it means that Christ came to serve. One of our Lenten disciplines is Almsgiving, and part of this discipline of giving is service to others – charity in all its many forms (not only financial). As we seek to follow our Savior who loves us so abundantly and sacrificially, let us seek out specific ways each and every day to love and serve those around us in that same abundance and generous self-sacrifice. Every day is a day for Almsgiving. Let us love and serve in joyful self-abandonment.
-Elizabeth Wells