Service and Stature

Love is based not so much on what we do but why we do it.

By Mark McDermott

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James and John seem to know that it’s election season. They’ve followed Jesus on his “campaign trail” to share the Gospel and are looking for a reward in the “cabinet positions” of Jesus’s triumphal reign. Perhaps they thought, “The worst that can happen is he says no – and then we’re in no worse a spot.” Immediately preceding this passage is the Third Prediction of the Passion, so clearly the disciples are still having trouble distinguishing spiritual from worldly aims.

Their tone seems so patronizing in the prose of Mark’s Gospel: “ ‘Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you’ ” (Mark 10:35). But is this not a frequent pitfall of life: to ask God only for help, without any intention or even effort to change our own lives?

This is where it is important to remember the nature of the relationship God wants to have with us: one of love. If love is a shared devotion between two souls, it denotes a mutual contribution and trust between individuals. By simply accepting our existence at face value, focusing on our own survival, prosperity, or popularity, that love is, of course, lost.

In this way, what we do specifically does not matter so much as why we do it. As Jesus says, it is not only that he came “to serve” or “to give his life” (Mark 10:45). Rather, he does so “as a ransom for many,” in true and pure love. The mere act of service is not enough if it is done to “check a box” to obtain some specific reward. This is what Jesus is so patiently striving to impart to the Twelve. Yes, they left their livelihoods and families to follow Jesus, which is an admirable start. But if they do it only with the intention of gaining later power, then they are no different from the “rulers over the Gentiles” – that is, the Roman state.

Service must be an act of devotion and love, rather than an “investment” for a selfish, sinful intent. This is not an easy distinction to make amidst the demands of the physical world: outside of perfect union with God, Genesis informs us that “By the sweat of your brow you shall eat bread” (Genesis 3:19). That toil, however, is necessary to be able to freely choose God in love. And in true love – that mutual contribution – the letter to the Hebrews recognizes that Jesus, too, has known the temptations and trials of the physical world. The Incarnation in the Person of Jesus Christ was not some “patch” measure God pulled out of the toolbox to fix an unexpected problem. “Through him all things were made,” such that the order of the universe was established eternally, regardless of James and John’s petition for office.

Though a cynic can always project this selfishness onto politicians who describe themselves as “public servants,” the story of James and John shows that this can be a shortcoming even of our own service. We each have unique gifts and circumstances in which to use them, so there is, of course, no one path to salvation. Some serve through their jobs, but others work in order to serve in other ways. There is no checklist because there is no office for us to gain in Jesus’s kingdom. To be fulfilled, our life, our driving force, our motivation, must instead embrace and return the love of God with which we were created and can hope to belong to forever.