Breaking the Word

Then Abraham said, 'If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone should rise from the dead.'"

An interesting parable. The morality of the individuals are not discussed here or used as criterion for reward. Just the external life style is used as a yard stick for granting rewards.

·        "There was a rich man who dressed in purple garments and fine linen and dined sumptuously each day.  And lying at his door was a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who would gladly have eaten his fill of the scraps that fell from the rich man's table. Dogs even used to come and lick his sores.  When the poor man died, he was carried away by angels to the bosom of Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried, and from the netherworld, where he was in torment, he raised his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side.

 But this is not the aim of the parable. The parable is about sending someone from above to teach lessons about the future of life.

Granting reward is the work of the Father and does is as he plans it. We cannot know the future and the future will not be revealed to us. Future is to be lived and experienced. And the future is to be with the Father.

Future is in no way a lesson (no lesson will be given from a person of the future) for the present life. But the present life will lead us to the future. In stead the lessons for the present life are with us and within us. Moses and prophets are in the world.

Jesus is asking us to look into today’s world for lessons. 

Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee approached him with her sons and did him homage, wishing to ask him for something.  He said to her, "What do you wish?" She answered him, "Command that these two sons of mine sit, one at your right and the other at your left, in your kingdom."  Jesus said in reply, "You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the cup that I am going to drink?" They said to him, "We can."  He replied, "My cup you will indeed drink, but to sit at my right and at my left (, this) is not mine to give but is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father." (Mt 20,20-23)

We all look for rewards. The disciples of Jesus were not different. In Mark’s gospel the disciples themselves ask for this reward but here in Matthew’s gospel their mother is introduced to ask for the same.

 So the gospels present a human situation. That is, humanly speaking, anyone who does something, even following a leader or being a disciple, does not do it for nothing. He always expects some reward, some position, and some upward mobility in society.

But what Jesus proposes is a downward mobility. A strange proposal it is. Following a leader or being a disciple or doing something extraordinary (even shedding blood) is not for an upward mobility but for a downward mobility (to be a slave).

·         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."

Jesus does not just propose it for others but says that he has with that aim to do his ministry. He has not come with any expectation of rewards and honours. He has just come for the mission but complete his life for the mission. His mission is his reward. 

But the reward (which a man longs for) is the work of the Father. Father plans it and gives the reward as it pleases him.