Who wants another Lord and Master? Don’t we want to become free instead? Don’t we want to be the masters of our own universe?

How free do you think you can be?

In the days that they walked with Jesus, the apostles called him ‘Mar’ – Lord or Master, as one would address a leading rabbi, a king (or Messiah) or even God himself. Jesus did not care about their words though, he wanted them to practice what he teaches them. And what he asked them is nothing short of revolutionary: “Love your enemies. Don’t judge. Forgive.” For that is the only way to build a new life in which we will be not be judged, but will be forgiven and loved even if we did the worst things ourselves. A life in which we will be able to accept, forgive and love ourselves. A life in which we become truly free, the master of our own house. But then we have to dig deeper into ourselves, until we rebuild our lives on our inner core, not on our fleeting outward being.

And this is where truth and grace found: for we all serve an inner voice that tells us when we do well and when we fall short. It can be the voice of our parents, our friends, our partner, or our own ambition, lust or greed. But there is always a voice. “No one can really serve two masters,” said Jesus in Matthew 6, because of the conflicts it creates. But we try to serve many. Some of us are eyeing to be a good lover, wife, mother, career woman, and a ‘bad ass’ girl, all at the same time. That in itself is not all wrong, but if we allow ourselves to be judged negatively for all the roles we fall short in, we can get to a point that we feel flooded by the voices of disapproval, as currents eating away the foundations of our self-esteem.

If you give alms, pray or fast to be seen by the people, Jesus says in that sermon, you are wasting your efforts for short-term gains. But if you do it to be seen by the Father who sees the secrets of your heart, you are storing up treasures for eternity, where no one can steal them from you. Better: no one can hurt your heart, for ‘where your treasure is, there is also you heart.’ But then your eye (your orientation) should be focused on the one light inside, not on all the different glitters in the dark outside. Let’s be clear: it does not help me to pray to God for great wealth or high status, for then my true master is still on the outside. Rather we are called, to use whatever talents and fortune we receive in service of our inner conviction and love, guided by the Father who is within us.

Don't exalt yourself over your brothers and sisters

It is crucial to see that Jesus is not asking us to serve an external religious authority. In a related passage, in Matthew 23:8-12 he explicitly warns against claiming titles such as we use in Jewish and Christian congregations, like rabbi/teacher, father/pater, or any title referring to leadership:

“But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have one Teacher, and you are all brothers. And do not call anyone on earth ‘father,’ for you have one Father, and he is in heaven. Nor are you to be called leaders, for you have one Leader, the Messiah. The greatest among you will be your servant. For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

Such teaching, of course, goes against the wish of people to gain status and recognition, not least in religious communities. But the only way Jesus wants us to lead is in serving each other. Jesus wants his friends to see each other, rather than set themselves apart to be admired by others. In order for them to experience that transformation from external to internal lordship, Jesus knows they have to let go of their expectations of him. Their hopes of him as their Messiah, their leader against the Romans, the High Priests and the Herodian princes, stand in the way. In the last months of his life, Jesus repeatedly tells them that he will die and that they will have to continue in his spirit.

Leading by example

As they are walking on their final journey with him to Jerusalem, the apostles are struggling with the idea that Jesus may die. It is a period of confusion and conflicting emotions. As they enter the city with a crowd of joyous pilgrims, hailing Jesus as the ‘son of David,’ their Messianic hopes are revived again: would God not grant them victory and install his son as his envoy, governor and Lord over his people? Will they not share in his rule?

And then they there is the meal. A proper meal for the festival, served in a proper guestroom. As they walk into the room, some hasten to get a place as close as possible to the seat of honor, the couch on which Jesus will lie down for dinner. Jesus looks around, seeing each of the young men he loves so much. There is a feeling of sadness around him. Not because he is not convinced of the way ahead, but because of the pain it will cause them. Because they still have so much to learn. And because he knows that they will only be able to learn it once he is gone. Then he quietly proceeds to strip himself of his clothes until he stands there naked as a slave. He wraps a towel around him as a loincloth. He bends down to a bowl of water and kneels down before each of them.

Can you see yourself among them? Everybody is silent, all eyes are on Jesus and on you. What are you supposed to do? Nothing, it seems. He firmly but gently washes your feet with his strong hands. It feels good after a day of walking. With the towel that is around his waist, he dries your feet and moves to the person next to you, leaving you to think about what he just did and about what it means to share with Jesus. Is it just the meal he is talking about, or is it more?

No human Lord, but the one and only Son of the Father

Something happened in these days. Something between the desperation when Jesus was crucified and the days that his friends went out in the world to proclaim him as Lord. They said he was ‘resurrected,’ and we will think about that a lot more later. But for now it is crucial to see that it convinced them God had indeed made this crucified Jesus ‘both Lord and Messiah’ (Acts 2:36). The crucified Jesus became the risen Lord. That is why they proclaimed in Aramaic: “Maran atha!” - Our Lord has come (I Cor 16:22). Or, as they were praying for his return from heaven: “Marana tha!” - O Lord, come! – (Rev 22:20).
Through his death and resurrection, Jesus was transformed for them from a man, upon whom they had hoped for riches and glory, into the eternal Son of God, the bearer of the identity and authority of the Father. The Lord who would and had and will come to his people. We can see this change in action in the executions of Jesus and Stephen:

Luke 23: 46 Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.”
Achts 7:59 While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”

Luke 23:34 Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”
Acts 7:60 Then he fell on his knees and cried out, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.”

As you can see, the risen Lord has become the representative of the Father to his people. The followers of Jesus can now pray to God and worship him through addressing Jesus as their Lord. That is why Paul writes in I Corinthians 8:5-6:

For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”), yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live.

It is remarkable that Paul can speak of the God and Lord of Israel as both Father and Son. Speaking about Jesus, Paul comes very close to the language of John 1:17-18 that we read in the previous chapter: the risen Lord Jesus is like the word that was within God, that was God and through which all things were made.

For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who lies at the bosom of the Father, has made him known.

Bad religion

Religion can be a force for grace and truth or a force of oppression and hypocrisy. For his friends, Jesus showed the way to a healthy and healing faith. Everybody can have her or his own fantasies of God, for no one can ever see God. But Jesus was a man they could hear, see and touch (I John 1:1). And he showed them Gods truth and grace, as he taught them the Law of Moses from the perspective of God’s love. So by confessing the risen Jesus as their Lord, the apostles said nothing less than that their understanding of who God is to them, as a loving Father, was the result of the life, teaching and sacrifice of Jesus. Their brother, teacher and crucified Messiah had risen again as the voice and the face of the Father. His teaching had become the inner rock on which they would build their lives and his self-giving love the cornerstone that would hold everything together. He had become their Lord: their rabbi, king and God.

*      *

Suggestions for dialogue

A moderator can explain the dialogue steps and invite people to contribute:

• Check in with yourself. Share with each other how you are in this moment. Then take a moment again to seek stillness, humility and openness. 
• First round: Share something from the text or image(s) that stood out to you and that you would like to explore with the group, briefly indicating the thoughts and feelings that it evoked within you. Listen to the others do the same: what resonates with you? Responses in this round should be limited to questions for clarification.
• Second round: Name one or two things that resonated with you from the things that others just shared. 
• Third round: Having heard the group, the moderator names the main topics for exploration. The moderator may also propose a common thread that emerged in several topics. The exploration normally starts with asking the person(s) who brought up the topic to expand on it.
• Leave room for silence and contemplation. 
• Check out by sharing what you take home from this dialogue.

These suggestions are an adaptation of the Estuary protocol. Look for more at https://www.estuaryhub.com