The author of the gospel of Mark is straightforward enough to put the following words on the lips of Jesus to clue us in: "[W]hoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all" (Mark 10: 43-44; quoted from Crossan, page 162). This is a remarkably straightforward expression of the author's understanding of Jesus as servant of God.
Now, let's back up and consider the entire passage that Crossan quotes from Mark 10: 42-44: "You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. But it is not so among you; whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all."
Now, to this day, the rulers in political governments can be understood to rule over or lord over the governed, regardless of the kind of government that is involved. Thus the author of the Gospel of Mark implies that Jesus was not referring to a political government. It would be an enormous idealization to imagine a political government in which the rulers are somehow the servants of all the governed. I'll be happy to see each elected or appointed member of the ruling class (i.e., the governing class of people) do his or her assigned job to the best of his or her ability.
No, the author does not seem to be imagining an institutional structure of any kind, idealized or not. Instead, the author appears to me to be spelling out through these words placed on the lips of Jesus how his followers should proceed to regard one another with respect to recognizing merit and conferring prestige and honor and admiration within the group.
For example, the New York Times columnists Maureen Dowd and Nicholas Kristof have expressed their admiration at different times for certain Catholic nuns. In effect, each columnist admires the nuns in question for their work as servants of God. The kind of admiration that each columnist has expressed for certain nuns is admiration the nuns earned through their dedicated work in the service of others who are not yet as self-sufficient as certain nuns are. That kind of admiration does not come from the simple fact that they are nuns. That kind of admiration does not come with the territory, as it were. It comes from manifestly serving others who need to be served, not from serving oneself primarily.
This kind of orientation toward serving others opens the way for considering political friendships and for considering networking and for considering how mentors should also become sponsors and benefactors. These relationships are not relationships that are governed by political laws.
However, in addition to these various ways in which we can use our freedom to help enhance the lives of others and in the process enhance out own lives, there will be formal institutions and formal roles within those institutions, which are the kinds of things that are properly governed by political laws. As I say, I'll be happy to see each person perform his or her own elected or assigned role to the best of his or her ability. Nevertheless, I would point out that people who see themselves as would-be servants of God would probably carry out their assigned roles in the spirit of service.
So that's the biblical theory about servants of God. In practice, what does this servant-of-God biblical theory look like? In practice, in person, it's I-thou communication, to use Martin Buber's term.
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