Matthew 23.1-12
We are fast approaching the end of the liturgical year ……and by next month we will be leaving the Gospel of Matthew behind ….. So, are there some important insights we can gain from todays Gospel reading?
The answer, of course, is Yes. And indeed, as is so often true with Scripture, our reading contains many many messages that can be reflected on. Some of them are fairly obvious, and are messages that we are familiar with. For example, Jesus saying that while you can look to the scribes and pharisees for insights into the Torah and the writings of the Prophets, do not “do as they do, for they do not practice what they teach”. It is a commentary on human nature that so often lacks integrity, that judges others by a standard that doesn’t apply to the one who is judging. And we all know people like that, don’t we! Maybe even see them in the mirror every once in a while.
And we also get the message …… “don’t do as they do” …. That’s a phrase, with a little variation, that is in common use in our world today. “Practice what you preach”. Live our lives with integrity. Walk the talk. Don’t do to others what you would’t do to yourself.
But there is a less obvious, and much more radical and challenging message, one that Matthew has woven into a number of places in his Gospel. And it is right there near the end of today’s Gospel. One small sentence. Eight words. “The greatest among you will be your servant.” Those eight words are among the most powerful in all of the Gospels. Yet, we don’t see them translated into phrases we hear, like we did with the comment on integrity. Because it speaks to a radical and disturbing break from how we see ourselves. Because it is difficult to see ourselves as servants, isn’t it?
We live in a world where we are rewarded when we are motivated to achieve. A world that is Competitive, and where we are to become independent. We so often like to be the one who gives orders, and have personal power. But to be a servant, is to be motivated not to achieve, but to serve. Not to compete, but to collaborate. To be interdependant. And rather than give orders, to listen deeply. And to recognise, not the power of the self, but the power of the community. And how foreign that sounds, doesn’t it. Because under all of that, is a call to be humble. In a world where humility has no value. It is a call to be compassionate, in a world that so often seems void of compassion.
So, how do we do that? How do we see ourselves as servants? Well, I could start listing points that you won’t be able to remember. It will fill out the homily a bit, but I doubt it would be very useful. So instead, let me plant a picture in your mind. A picture that you can recall instantly any time you ask yourself if you are being the servant you were called to be. The picture? Jesus washing the feet of the disciples. Do you have a picture in your mind? Good. It will stay with you now. Jesus stooping down from the height of his divinity and serves his own creature.
So, remember that picture when you are pressured by a world that idolizes achievement, a world that calls you to compete, be independent of others, to give orders and exert power. Remember that image where God stoops down from the heights of God’s divinity, to serve God’s own creature.
And just as God comes to serve us, so we must serve the least of society. We are all called to give something of our time, our energy, our love, to those who count for nothing, to those whose God-given dignity is still veiled, still hidden to the eyes of the world. We are all called to go and serve those in chronic poverty. To those suffering with grief and loss. We are all called to reach out to battered women, to the handicapped, to the refugee, to the dying, those who are nobodies in the eyes of the world.
But even more, we are all called to allow ourselves to be broken and poured out for the world, the way Jesus was broken and poured out. We are all called to give our lives – our body and blood – for the service of others . We are all called to be loving servants of God, and of our brothers and sisters, to be one with the people that we walk among. In humble compassion, you and I are called to be servants.