What a Waiter Does
In our culture, someone who serves at the table is sometimes called “a waiter” or “waitress.” The title captures a fundamental attribute of service: waiting. A waiter does not exercise force. He waits for you to make a decision. You are the one calling the shots, not him. You have the freedom to make your own choices.
In a restaurant, being a waiter or waitress is a paid role. People are paid to be patient, to wait, to serve. But we have all seen this role also assumed freely out of love. A parent waits patiently on a messy toddler. Or a grown daughter or son waits patiently on their aging parent.
In Greco-Roman antiquity, patience (and waiting) was not a virtue—at least, not among the rich and powerful. If you had money and power, there was no reason to be patient. You could get what you wanted right away. Frankly, I’m not sure our world has evolved much since then. In any case, in ancient Rome, patience was an attribute that defined the weak and the poor. They had to wait, to work, to put others first.
Is the Cross a Means to an End?
The temptation for us Christians in Holy Week is to look at the crucifixion as a divine trick or trap, as though Christ submits to Satan with a card up his sleeve, with a power play that the devil never saw coming. (There are plenty of theologians who have depicted events in precisely this way.)
But on the night before his death, the rabbi Jesus teaches his students a lesson that suggests the cross is no trick, no trap, no divine ruse. The cross is not a means to an end, the means being a temporary defeat and the end being eternal victory. No, the cross is just the means. It is just the way. What matters most to Jesus is not the results, but the way.
Tomorrow, the disciples will see a world that flexes its muscles. They will see a power that gets results. They will witness the power of the Jewish council, who can condemn a man to death with a word. They will witness the power of Rome, who puts its enemies to death with torturous brutality. They will see raw, unfiltered power. And they will see it completely directed against their teacher.
Jesus’ Last Lesson
But in the last lesson that Jesus gives his students, he turns upside down the world’s fantasy of power. The rulers of this world, he says, throw their weight around. They stand over and dominate their subjects. They get results. They get what they want when they want it.
“Not so with you!” he insists. Greatness in God’s kingdom is not about getting results. It is not standing over but standing under. It is not overpowering but empowering. It is not exercising force but exercising patience. It is serving others. It is waiting on them.
The cross is a terrible result. But, if Jesus is to be believed, it is also an example of a better way.
It is a horrible end. But, if Jesus is to be believed, it is also a demonstration of God’s means, of how God lives in the world.
I don’t know about you, but a god who is all about results, a god who is in control and who finely calculates events to get exactly what he wants…does not seem any different than a human dictator or authoritarian. That kind of god looks like humanity writ large, humanity supersized. I’ve seen how all that plays out, and it’s not pretty. So many lives are sacrificed on the altar of power.
I want a God that gives me hope for something different. I want a God whose divine way is not our way. And that…is what I see in Jesus. Jesus is not about the bottom line. He’s not about results. He’s about living in a good way, regardless of the results.
Whatever happens later as a result, is a matter for later.
What matters to Jesus is the way. Now.
Which is loving and forgiving others. Serving others. Waiting on others.
Waiting on the world. A world that clings to power.
“But not so with you!”
Prayer
Dear Christ,
Your example sometimes looks like weakness, like losing,
Like humiliation,
Yet you are unashamed.
…
Ground us in the same divine care
In which you are grounded,
That we might love and serve others,
That we might bless and build up,
No matter the results.
Amen.
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