To Be Somebody, Be A Nobody

The most important person always sits at the most conspicuous spot visible to everyone in the room. In a wedding celebration, the groom and the bride would be the most important people and they would be seated right in the center of the presidential table (or long table). All eyes are on them throughout the occasion. Of course seated next to the couple would be the next most important people and they are the parents, then the best man and the bridesmaid and then the sponsors and so on and so forth.

Occasions like this, it would seem to me that there is hierarchy of importance but the one at the bottom of the list would be the least noticeable or hardly at all because they are simply the last on the list. Therefore, there is the very important person to whom we pay a lot of attention all throughout the party—the bride and the groom; then the next important people to whom we would take notice also—the parents, the best man and the bridesmaid, sponsors; then the important people but not too important and they are the guests and the least important people whom we wouldn’t mind at all—the servers. The first two get to be recognized but not the guests and certainly not the servers.

So in a wedding reception, the couple get to be recognized specially. How can you attend a wedding party without knowing the couple? Everybody has to know the couple. You can live without knowing the parents and the rest of the wedding entourage but the couple’s name, you got to know them.

Now the servers could be the least important people at a wedding reception, but, who will bring out the food if there would be no servers? Certainly we cannot ask the guests to do that? Most certainly not the newlyweds? nor the parents? nor the sponsors? So in terms of position, the servers would be the last on the list. But in terms of function, they are important after all. Because no party is going to be successful without the servers.

There are also those who work behind the scene whom we would not know and see at all and yet without whom the occasion would not be possible. Simply saying, without them, there would be no celebration. So in a wedding party, these people are the kitchen coordinator, the cooks and those who assist the cooks.

- men’s retreat / during meals: most important is the server

- adding to the bulletin a section: On today’s menu

When I was in high school I didn’t know any better. I thought being odd would make a person important. Our school prescribed to wear this uniform: white shirt short sleeve, black pants and black leather shoes. But I was the one who always cross the other side of the fence. Instead of wearing short sleeve, I wore long sleeve. In placed of black pants, I wore Levis jeans. Instead of wearing black leather shoes, I wore Indian boots. I was a little odd. But I got the attention. It felt good. It felt like I was important because my classmates talked about me.

Probably at one time or another you felt the same way. You must’ve thought it would make all the difference in the world if only you were a celebrity. Perhaps you thought when people’s eyes are on you, you’d get some kind of satisfaction, or it would up your energy and somehow boost your morale. If only you can invent a machine that produce gold, or a machine that would spit out a month’s worth of grocery items maybe that’ll make you the most important person in the world. It sure will. That would certainly make you feel good. It won’t make you feel like you’re a nobody but rather somebody who invented a machine that was extraordinary. But then again you’re not sure of what to do either. Man’s way of

God’s perspective on the issue is somewhat different. Not strange or odd but different and true. If you want to be important you must first become a servant of all; one who is a nobody; one who does not look too highly of himself; one who thinks of others before self; one who is humble and does not care about position or accomplishment for as long as the work is done as a slave does; one who is willing to get down on his knees for the sake of others. In short, Jesus’ resolution was not to put somebody in the highest position on earth or in heaven. If that was God’s answer for a child of God to be great in the eyes of men, then Jesus would’ve made all 12 apostles as leaders of Israel. But that wasn’t God’s resolution. Simply putting it, Jesus said: