JESUS REJECTED POLITICAL POWER

XXIX SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME: Mk 10:35-45

Jesus rejected political power as a means to achieve his mission. However, to have and to use political power with the idea that it can be put at the service of the Gospel has been, throughout the centuries, a big temptation to the Church. That is not surprising, since it was a big temptation to Jesus Christ, coming from the tradition of the Old Testament, from the expectation of the people and from the inner desires of the heart. In the end, the temptation comes from Satan, and Jesus opposed it in no uncertain terms: only God is God, and only his power can save.

A share in Jesus’ passion

James and John had the courage and the audacity of asking Jesus for a position of power. By the indignant attitude of the other apostles, we know that all of them were after the same power and the same positions. In the end, Jesus told them that, by following him, they only could expect a share in his passion: to drink from the same cup and be baptised in the same baptism of suffering and death.

The suffering of the Servant of the Lord

Is 53:10-11, speaking about the Servant of the Lord, speaks of his suffering as redeeming:

“he offers his life in atonement” for our sufferings.

“By his sufferings shall my servant justify many, taking their faults on himself”. 

Since the first generation of Christians, this passage has been read as offering an interpretation of Jesus’ death. And Jesus himself hinted to that, when he said:

“For the Son of Man himself did not come to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mk 10:45).