Mark 10:35-45
James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came forward to Jesus and said to Him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.”
Pretty cheeky demand from these two, yes? What could they have been thinking to be so bold and address Jesus in this way? Who exactly were these two disciples? What do we know about James and John, sons of Zebedee, or as Jesus referred to them, “Sons of Thunder”?
This isn’t the first time we’ve encountered them. We were there when Jesus first called them to leave their livelihood, their very lives in the world, and follow Him. How old were they then? Jesus was thirty when He began His ministry, and a rabbi’s disciples were normally younger than their teacher. James may well have been in his twenties, but John, old enough when called to be working in the fishing boat, one had to be at least in their teens to go to work, but young enough that his ministry lasted decades after Jesus’ resurrection, may have been a young teenager when he and James left their father in the fishing boat and went off to follow Jesus. Paintings and illustrations of Jesus and His disciples rarely give us a sense of the youth of at least some the men who were our Lord’s closest friends.
In this morning’s Gospel, these two young men draw Jesus aside to speak with Him privately. That undoubtedly caught the attention of some of the other ten. They must have wondered what those brothers were up to. And as they eavesdropped as best they could, Jesus would have listened patiently to James and John. He could have become annoyed at their presumptiveness, but instead He asks, with great sorrow, Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?
“Can you drink from my cup?” This was an expression that they would clearly understand. The psalms and Isaiah refer to the “cup of salvation,” “the cup of wrath,” either blessing or judgement. The baptism was the total acceptance of God’s way. Today we would ask: Can you take it? Are you sure you are ready to die? Are you sure you can take the pain? These men are young, full of strength and self-confidence, so, of course, they say, “we are able”. But Jesus tells them, You don’t know what you are asking.
How many times have we asked God for something and the answer came: “You don’t know what you are asking.”? Poor James, poor John. They thought they were ready, but there was much to come. The horror of the cross, the joy of the resurrection, the coming of the Holy Spirit, and the suffering of the early days of the Church, made them ready. And it was a good thing. Because, if the tradition of the Church is accurate, they both died violent deaths of persecution.
Today’s Gospel is all about the truth of being a disciple. James and John, still thinking Jesus will become a great worldly king, not yet fully grasping the reality of His ministry, cannot stop themselves from asking, “what’s in this for me?”.
And Jesus tells them, “You don’t know what you are asking, because you indeed will drink my cup and be baptized with my baptism, but the rest is up to God.” Jesus will not deal with favours; only with faith. He tells them that what they ask for isn’t up to Him, it is up to God the Father, but He does answer their question - with the painful truth.
Though we don’t know for certain, Biblical scholars tell us that this passage was probably added by the Church after the two disciples had already met their death, James by beheading, and John in exile. What is made clear is that as Jesus knew about Himself, He also knew what awaited those who chose God’s way.
The other disciples had apparently heard the whole discussion. And they became angry. Well, of course they did. How dare the Sons of Thunder ask for favours? Were they better than the rest? Jesus patiently takes all of them aside, and once again tries to give them a clear understanding of what they chose when they chose to follow Him.
The disciples are still hoping that Jesus will overthrow the Romans and become an earthly king. So, Jesus speaks to them about the earthly rulers, the Gentiles, they have heard about. “Look at the great ones among them,” He says. “Not only are they bossy, the greatest among them are tyrants.”
He is showing them the meaning of human greatness as it applies to the rulers. The rulers are merciless and cruel to the people. They are oppressors. That is what “tyrants” means. Jesus and the disciples knew about the Romans and the way they treated the occupied lands. “Look at them,” He tells them, “but it is not so among you.”
“But it is not so among you.” These are words that turn their world upside-down.
You want to be great?
Become a servant.
You want to be first?
Become last.
Become a slave of all.
These are revolutionary values! No wonder the leaders of which Jesus spoke, political and religious, crucified him. They did not want the slaves becoming first. They did not want the great to be the servants.
And thus it is today. Only today, we don’t crucify Jesus; we ignore Him. We say, He didn’t really mean it. It was exaggeration He was using, a figure of speech. But no one dies, no one goes to their crucifixion, for a figure of speech.
Jesus meant it. “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.” The day came when the disciples, when the Sons of Thunder, fully understood these words.
Do we also understand them? Well, we say, those disciples didn’t have the problems, concerns, responsibilities we have. We have families, and houses, and apartments, and cars. We have jobs and – well – they didn’t have to worry about any of that.
Really? Have we forgotten that Peter, the Rock on which Jesus built the Church, was married? We know this, because Jesus healed his mother-in-law. James and John may have been young and unattached when they left their father, who must have depended on them for their assistance, sitting in the family’ fishing boat, and hurried off after Jesus, but there were ten more men who also left their worldly lives to follow Him. We don’t know all their personal stories. We don’t know what they left, or what worldly responsibility may still have rested on them.
Believe it or not, we too are called to leave our worldly lives, by abandoning our worldly standards and taking on those that Jesus tells us we must accept to be His followers. How do we address the situations in our lives? How many times do we meet an important person and ask: Is he, is she, a servant of the people or a tyrant? Do we enter into a job or a position in order to serve or to be served? Do we ask in each situation we face, “how am I called to be the servant here”, or do we weigh each opportunity by asking “what’s in it for me”?
These are questions that each of us must answer our heart. How do we fulfill our calling, and follow in the footsteps of our Lord?
Whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many
Let us pray:
Lord Jesus, help us to be obedient to Your Word. Give Your servants patience, provision, strength and encouragement to persevere. May the Gospel be clear through us, and because of Your finished work on the cross, let us serve willingly, knowing that You first served us gladly. All this we ask, for Your Love and mercy’s sake. Amen.
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