Christ as a Model of Humility and Love in the Gospel of Mark

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Christ as a Model of Humility and Love in the Gospel of Mark

Chapter 10 verse 45 of the Gospel of Mark portrays Jesus Christ as a servant, "For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve." Reading the rest of the verse, the idea that not only did Christ come to be a servant, but he came to be a suffering servant comes to light, "and to give his life a ransom for many."

The call of the Christian, in accordance with its basic conviction to be Christ-like, translates here into a call to be a servant. Christ charges his disciples with this call in Mark 10:43, "But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant." In the same way Christians are called to offer their lives as well, as stated in Mark 8:35 "For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it." This idea of servitude and losing one's life is one basic theme in the Gospel of Mark.

The vocation of a servant was Christ's most elemental aspect of being. Much of his ministry centered on the healing and teaching of people who needed him. Christ served as a servant not only to those who could be a positive force in his political and social existence, but more importantly to those people who needed him but were not considered worthy. Even within the first chapter of the Gospel of Mark, Christ was already teaching and healing everyone who needed him, including lepers, people who were deemed unclean and unworthy in the eyes of many.

Christ's suffering can be most plainly seen through his passion and death. It was not some foreign power that arrested Jesus and put him to death, but his own people. It was even one of his own that handed him over to the authorities "Immediately, while he was still speaking, Judas, one of the twelve, arrived; and with him there was a crowd with swords and clubs, from the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders" (Mark 14:43). The people Jesus had grown to love and serve, his own apostles, deserted him when he was arrested (Mark 14:50). The physical pain Christ suffered could not have been nearly as difficult as the emotional pain of his best friends turning him in, deserting him and later even denying they knew him.

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