Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen
And they were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them. And they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. And taking the twelve again, he began to tell them what was to happen to him, 33 saying, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles. 34 And they will mock him and spit on him, and flog him and kill him. And after three days he will rise.”
35 And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to him and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” 36 And he said to them, “What do you want me to do for you?” 37 And they said to him, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” 38 Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptised with the baptism with which I am baptised?” 39 And they said to him, “We are able.” And Jesus said to them, “The cup that I drink you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptised, you will be baptised, 40 but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.” 41 And when the ten heard it, they began to be indignant at James and John. 42 And Jesus called them to him and said to them, “You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. 43 But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant 44 and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. 45 For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Today’s Gospel provides us with another narrative of confusion on the part of the disciples. For once, it is not Peter who puts his foot in it. Instead, it is Peter’s two fishing partners, James and John, the Sons of Zebedee. These two brothers ask Jesus for the two seats of honour when Jesus comes into His glory. “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” In the culture of that day, sitting didn’t just mean a physical posture, but it could also be used as a term of ruling. So sitting near someone didn’t just mean that they were to be physically close to Jesus, but that they were to have a large share of the honour and authority that Jesus had. We have brought a little bit of that culture into our own language when we refer to someone as a “right hand man.” Basically, James and John were asking to be the two top men in Jesus’ kingdom.
I personally am astonished at the presumptuous nature of this request by James and John. It takes attitude to begin a conversation: “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” Jesus is the teacher – the master – the Lord – He is the Christ. James and John should be ready to receive the service Jesus wants to give. How can they ask Him to serve them according to their desires? Shouldn’t they, in all humility, be thankful for the gifts that He knows are best for them?
I should not be surprised, our sinful human nature is very much at home in the politics of power. The boss rules. The leader commands. As Jesus said in today’s Gospel, “You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them.” Jesus totally understands how pagans rule. There is no right and wrong. There is only the accumulation and exercise of power. This is our natural attitude when we come into this world.
Jesus had a totally different worldview. He said, “Even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” The Son of God did not take on the flesh of man in order to become the big boss. The Son of God took on human flesh in order to serve us humans. That is the reason we call what we do here in this room Divine Service. We call it the Divine Service because it is the time and the place where God gives His divine service to us. It is the place where we meet Him and He gives His gifts to us – the gifts earned by the service of His Son, Jesus Christ.
Here’s the thing. God’s knowledge has no end. It is infinite. His wisdom is perfect in every way. He knows what is best for us better than we do. His way of serving us is holy and perfect. There is much in His service to us that is beyond our understanding.
However, in spite of the fact that God loves us more than we love ourselves – in spite of the fact that God knows what is best for us better than we do – in spite of God’s perfect wisdom, we join James and John. How often, when the pressure is on, or the going gets tough, do we have the incredible arrogance to approach God and tell Him, “God, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” God already loves us and wants to serve us in the best possible way. Who are we to tell God to do things our way instead of His way?
When Jesus heard the disciples’ request, He said to them, “You do not know what you are asking.” The fact is that most people don’t know what these brothers were requesting.
The problem is with the word glory. When we use the word glory in its earthly context, we generally mean the power and authority that Jesus meant when He spoke of the gentiles - “Those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them.” James and John were probably thinking of this kind of glory. They were operating on the principle that the Christ would rule over a renewed Israeli empire. They wanted to be the top men in His government.
There is much more to Jesus’ glory than power and authority. When John’s faith and understanding matured under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, He would write, [John 12:16] “His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about him and had been done to him.” What does the word glorified mean in that verse? What does the word glorified mean when [John 12:23] Jesus answered them; “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”? Jesus had a conversation with Peter after the resurrection in which He told Peter about his own forthcoming death and John explained it in this way: [John 21:19] “This he said to show by what kind of death [Peter] was to glorify God”. What does the word glorify mean there?
Jesus’ glory does not just refer to His power and authority. It also refers to His victory on the cross. When we look at the shame of the cross, we see the glory of our Saviour as He wins salvation for us. As Jesus was walking the road to Jerusalem with His disciples, “He began to tell them what was to happen to him”. He was telling them how He would bring glory to God by earning salvation for us with His suffering, death, and resurrection.
Jesus had just been explaining the glory of the cross when James and John came to Him. They said to Jesus, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” Since Jesus had just been talking about the glory of the cross, James and John were unwittingly asking to be crucified, one on Jesus’ right and the other on Jesus’ left. No wonder Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking.” They demonstrated that they did not understand.
We are like James and John. We think glory is all about power, authority, and control. We want that kind of glory. We want to be important. We want honour. We want to be number one. We want to be the centre of attention. We are greedy and self-centred. Jesus tells us that the truly great are those who serve, but serving is not always our top priority. Jesus tells us that the leader should take up the vocation of slave, but our human nature does not aspire to being a slave. Paul tells us in Romans 7: 13 – 24, that no matter how hard we try, we just can’t do things Jesus’ way. We want our way. We want what we want when we want it. We want and we demand. Jesus must tell us what He told James and John, “You do not know what you are asking.”
The disciples became indignant with James and John. Their ambition, their attempts to be more important way led to fighting among the disciples. One of the saddest causes of division in a congregation is when the faith of a few becomes a presumptuous belief that they can get things done by making bold demands of God. Like James and John; “God, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.”
As the Holy Spirit inspired James to write, [James 4:1–3] “What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? 2 You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions”. We expect God to supply our felt needs instead of the real needs that He knows we have by virtue of His infinite knowledge andHis perfect wisdom.
Fortunately for James and John, and you and me, Jesus does not have a problem with His role as servant and slave. Even as Jesus set the standard for us, He also kept that standard. He continued to teach His disciples in spite of their stubbornness, and He said, “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Even though we don’t serve as we should – even though we don’t adopt the role of slave as Jesus commands, Jesus still became the perfect servant for us. [Philippians 2:8] “He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross”.
In Jesus Christ we see the glory of victory in the agony of the cross. [Hebrews 2:9] “We see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honour because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone”.
Jesus Christ confirmed that victory when He rose from the dead just as He had said. In His resurrection, He certified His perfect service – His role as perfect slave in order to offer us perfect salvation. He now offers us forgiveness when we do not offer ourselves as servants and slaves. He offers us forgiveness for seeking our own glory, power, and pride. He offers us the salvation that He earned with His glorious victory on the cross.
We, like James and John, want glory for ourselves. We want popularity, fame, power, security, and all the other things that serve our own self-interest. This is one more symptom of the sin that is around us and in us while we live in this world.
Jesus came for a different kind of glory. He came to rescue us from this world of sin by submitting to death on a cross. He has a special honour and glory because of the suffering of that death and He revealed that honour and glory with His resurrection from that death. Now He offers salvation to us through the Holy Spirit’s gift of faith for He has given His life as a ransom for many. Amen
The love and peace of our Great Triune God that is beyond all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen
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