“And whoever would be first among you must be slave of all.”

Today’s gospel occurs after the meeting between Jesus Christ and the rich young man who was told by Christ to sell what he had and give to the poor and come “follow me”. Today’s gospel gives us an understanding of what Christ meant by the words “follow me”.

We are told that James and John asked the master to grant to them that they sit on either side of him in his glory. They sought preferred status and Christ, in response, says something that needs reflection. He said that to sit on his right or left hand side is not his to give but it is for those whom it has been prepared. Coming from the co-eternal son who existed with the Father and the Holy Spirit before the beginning, one would have thought that, as God, he could do anything. Yet, the places were not his to give. On reflection that must be so. The kingdom of heaven is open to all who strive to seize it. It cannot be given away by anyone to another. It must, with God’s grace, be earned. It is a struggle and a daily struggle to follow Christ. It requires perseverance. It requires sacrifice. If today we follow him and tomorrow we fall away because it becomes too hard then how can the kingdom of heaven be pre-ordained for any person?

We are all put on earth to imitate Christ. As Paul says in first Corinthians “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ”. Christ gives to us a very clear message in this gospel reading: “the son of man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many”. In other words each one of us are created to serve God, and through God, our fellow creatures.

Let us now consider the idea of service. The Epistle of James reminds us that “if a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘depart in peace, be warmed and filled,’ but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit?”. To emphasise the point he states further “show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works”. Thus service has two key elements: firstly, it emphasises the need for celebrating faith through good works and secondly it emphasises the need to care for those less fortunate. Therefore when you serve others you serve God and to serve God properly you must serve others.

Let us not forget, as Paul reminds us in his epistle to Timothy, that we were saved by God “who called us with a holy calling according to God’s holy purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began”. Jesus Christ saved us by offering himself on the cross as the supreme service to humanity so we could be redeemed through his blood for his purpose. How we celebrate that redemption is by offering service to each other in the love of Jesus Christ. Each of us has a role to fulfil. We fulfil it according to our capacity. The talents given by God to each of us are not the same. Nor is it important to consider whether some talents are more important than others. What is important is that we utilise the talents that we have been given by God profitably for ourselves by helping others. If you do not use your gifts in this way then you are cheating yourself and your fellow. After all, an unopened gift is useless. Let us also not forget, even though we are saved in the church, each one of us must save themselves. Let us not be like the five foolish virgins, who, when the bridegroom came at midnight had no oil in their lamps to greet him. Let us then welcome an opportunity to serve others so we in turn help our souls.

Let us accept that each one of us serves in their own way and that each one of us serves differently yet all service is of the same spirit because, although there are diversities of activities, it is the same God who works all in all. As Paul says, if the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling? In other words you are all members contributing in different ways and each of these ways is important to honour the one body, namely the church of Christ.

Being a true Christian means being called by God to service. God calls on all of us to love him freely. If we love freely we become a source of outpouring, in gratitude, of that love that fills our hearts. We celebrate our love for God by saying to our fellow creatures, through our actions, we love you and we offer our services in Christian love following the golden rule given to us by Christ that “just as you want men to do to you, you also do to them likewise”. Thus we are called upon to love our enemies, do good hoping for nothing in return in this life in the certain promise that we will then be the children of the Most High, following the example of our Father who is kind to the unjust and to the evil. By so doing we will be showing mercy, just as we pray that our Father in Heaven will be merciful to us.

Christ commands us to service in this world so that we are assured, through his mercy, a place in the next. That is our ultimate reward. That is the reason why we participate in this world. Unless we serve just as did Christ then we cannot call ourselves Christians. Christians must act in response to the love of God. There is a time for learning about Christ and his love for us. That is the beginning. The fruit of that learning is in service. We mature spiritually in order to see that it is only through helping others that we can truly live the life of Christians. After all, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. It is by the quality of those fruit that Christ will recognise each one of us. As Christ promised, the wise man is the one who builds his house on the rock of faith as their house will stand. So, let us all build on that rock. Let us all imitate Christ. Let us serve the Lord and each other. After all, to serve as a slave to all is to follow in the footsteps of the Lord. Amen.