As Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside privately and told them what was going to happen to him. “Listen,” he said, “we’re going up to Jerusalem, where the Son of Man will be betrayed to the leading priests and the teachers of religious law. They will sentence him to die. Then they will hand him over to the Romans to be mocked, flogged with a whip, and crucified. But on the third day he will be raised from the dead. ”Then the mother of James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to Jesus with her sons. She knelt respectfully to ask a favor. “What is your request?” he asked. She replied, “In your Kingdom, please let my two sons sit in places of honor next to you, one on your right and the other on your left.” But Jesus answered by saying to them, “You don’t know what you are asking! Are you able to drink from the bitter cup of suffering I am about to drink?” “Oh yes,” they replied, “we are able!” Jesus told them, “You will indeed drink from my bitter cup. But I have no right to say who will sit on my right or my left. My Father has prepared those places for the ones he has chosen.” When the ten other disciples heard what James and John had asked, they were indignant. But Jesus called them together and said, “You know that the rulers in this world lord it over their people, and officials flaunt their authority over those under them. But among you it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must become your slave. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Matthew 20:17-28
From our perspective (on this side
of the cross) there is nothing unexpected in what Jesus said; for James,John
and their Mom, it turned everything on its ear.
It wasn’t odd for an ambitious
mother to ask a favor for sons; nor was it unusual for the sons to claim they
were up to the task, and probably deserved what their mother requested. What was odd (at least to the disciples at
that moment) is that Jesus, the one they understood to be the next CEO of the world,
said it wasn’t within his power to select his vice-presidents.
And then the real bomb dropped; he told them if they
wanted to reach the top in his organization the boys had to start in the mail
room. That’s right – go to the bottom,
do the grunt work…then just trust me. It
was not exactly the expected insider treatment, where knowing the right
person at the top gets you special favors.
But the most tragic part of this
scene is the context; Jesus has just announced what was going to take place, arrest,
flogging, crucifixion and death…and the sons of compassion start arguing about
who’s in control. To make matters worse,
Jesus corrected Mama Zebedee and her boys loud enough for the other 10
disciples to hear. They throw a
hissy-fit, and the first church fight is on!
And we’ve been messing up the stew ever since. Power, prestige, and the purse…not much
changes.
Except, somewhere in this messy mix
called the church, there are disciples who get
it. And when they get it they also
roll-up their shirt sleeves, get their hands a little dirty, and get the work
of the kingdom done, proclaiming the Good News, feeding some hungry kids, clothing
the naked ones, visiting the lonely prisoners, and carrying plenty of cold cups
of water in the name of God’s Son.
There are some who manage to figure
out its not about the position you hold, it’s about the people you hold up.
For You Today
You
chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road today!
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