Whoever desires to be great among you shall be your servant

Now they were on the road going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was going before them; and they were amazed. And as they followed they were afraid. Then He took the twelve aside again and began to tell them the things that would happen to Him: "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death and deliver Him to the Gentiles; and they will mock Him, and scourge Him, and spit on Him, and kill Him. And the third day He will rise again."

Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to Him, saying, "Teacher, we want You to do for us whatever we ask." And He said to them, "What do you want Me to do for you?" They said to Him, "Grant us that we may sit, one on Your right hand and the other on Your left, in Your glory." But Jesus said to them, "You do not know what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?" They said to Him, "We are able." So Jesus said to them, "You will indeed drink the cup that I drink, and with the baptism I am baptized with you will be baptized; but to sit on My right hand and on My left is not Mine to give, but it is for those for whom it is prepared."

And when the ten heard it, they began to be greatly displeased with James and John. But Jesus called them to Himself and said to them, "You know that those who are considered rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant. And whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many."

- Mark 10:32-45

Yesterday, we read about the approach of a young man, who asked Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus first asked him about the commandments of Moses. These, the young man said, he had followed all of his life. But he lacked one thing, according to Jesus. If he wished eternal life, he must sell all he had and give it to the poor. Then he would have riches in heaven. "And come, take up the cross, and follow Me," Jesus said. The young man was very wealthy and went away sorrowful. Jesus said, "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."

Now they were on the road going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was going before them; and they were amazed. And as they followed they were afraid. I think these verses set the tone for what is coming, for the next portion of Jesus' life in the world and what His disciples are going to encounter. They have followed Him thus far, growing in understanding of Him and His teachings, growing in the power He has shared with them to heal, to cast out demons, to teach and preach. But the gradual preparation for a life of hardship - and especially for what is to come to Jesus - is meeting its fulfillment.

Then He took the twelve aside again and began to tell them the things that would happen to Him: "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death and deliver Him to the Gentiles; and they will mock Him, and scourge Him, and spit on Him, and kill Him. And the third day He will rise again." My study bible says, "Here Jesus gives a more detailed disclosure about the events of His Passion and Resurrection, including being handed over to the Gentiles, the Romans. His predictions are fulfilled in chapters 14-16." This vivid preview of what is to come is a further preparation for them. This news must be almost impossible to accept and to understand. What the disciples do take with them is the understanding that He will rise again - and a misunderstanding about the manifestation of the kingdom.

Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to Him, saying, "Teacher, we want You to do for us whatever we ask." And He said to them, "What do you want Me to do for you?" This question, "What do you want me to do for you?" is always an important part of Jesus' response to requests. We will hear it later on, when Jesus encounters a blind beggar on the road to Jericho. But I think it's important we note this response to what is essentially prayer. It asks for specifics, and He offers Himself.

They said to Him, "Grant us that we may sit, one on Your right hand and the other on Your left, in Your glory." The request is specific. The two brothers, being perhaps Jesus' closest friends, are concerned with their places in this kingdom that Jesus has taught them about - but which they misunderstand. Of course, this is isn't the first time the apostles - having been confronted with what is to come for Jesus - think first about their greatness in this kingdom. They have already argued about it in an earlier reading. And Jesus has already given them His strongest warnings about seeking to be great, and the necessary humility to be His servant, and the servant to the "little ones" in His Church. It seems the lesson hasn't quite been grasped! (What a blessing it is to know that even the apostles share our own weaknesses, over and over again!) And in some sense, it is a warning to us too, about ourselves and our understanding of this kingdom and our places in it.

But Jesus said to them, "You do not know what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?" They said to Him, "We are able." So Jesus said to them, "You will indeed drink the cup that I drink, and with the baptism I am baptized with you will be baptized; but to sit on My right hand and on My left is not Mine to give, but it is for those for whom it is prepared." To drink the cup that Jesus will drink, and to be baptized as He will be baptized is to suffer. Baptism, a symbolic death by immersion, is the death that Jesus will die on the cross. Jesus does indeed prepare the way for His apostles and many who would follow Him. My study bible says, "Jesus says you do not know what you ask because He does not promise a visible kingdom on earth or an immediate, victorious and glorious consummation, but rather toils, struggles and conflicts. Cup and baptism are references to suffering and death. The disciples do not grasp this now. But they will meet both these realities in future persecutions and in the sacramental realities of the cup of the Eucharist (1 Cor. 11:26) and the death and resurrection of baptism (Col. 2:12)." First, His preparation for them is of what is to come, both for Himself and for the apostles and so many other followers, and the Church as a whole. Next, His teaching is about obedience to God the Father - what they ask is not His alone to give. Jesus Himself will not "Lord it over others" in His kingdom just as He asks His disciples to learn service as well. Once again, this is a teaching - in many dimensions - on humility and service, and the fulfillment of who we are in that kingdom. Regarding their place in the kingdom, my study bible notes: "A place of honor in the eternal Kingdom will be given by the Father to those for whom it is prepared, that is (according to the Church Fathers) not by God's arbitrary choice but according to a believer's sacrifice and suffering for Christ and the Kingdom." This would be in keeping with Jesus' teaching to the wealthy young man in yesterday's reading. This point of view also teaches us about the synergistic quality of this kingdom: God shares power with us, through our faith, and through grace we participate with God in God's work.

And when the ten heard it, they began to be greatly displeased with James and John. But Jesus called them to Himself and said to them, "You know that those who are considered rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them." Their desire to be the "greatest in the kingdom" of Jesus upsets the rest of the apostles. But Jesus, as Teacher, tells them all where they are mistaken, and what they must now learn. His power is not that of worldly power. The great "lords" of the Gentiles (particularly, we assume, the Romans who hold power over Israel and hold a great empire of the world) "lord it over" the rest of the people and the "great ones" exercise authority over all the rest - absolute authority, with the power of life and death and the persecution for any disobedience.

"Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant. And whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many." In Jesus' kingdom, the rules are changed and power does not work the way that it works in a "worldly" sense. Power is something that is, first of all, shared - as we have seen from the work of ministry in which the apostles and disciples have been engaged, casting out demons and their healing work - even the feeding of thousands in the wilderness. This kingdom works on a different kind of currency of power, and it is a power that is conveyed with love and humility. Moreover, Jesus Himself sets the different standard. He did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many. My study bible says, "Service is characteristic of true greatness. The model is Christ's incarnate life and death: the perfect man is the perfect servant. Ransom is the price paid for the release of someone held captive. In this case, humanity is released from the bondage of sin and death by Christ's redemptive sacrifice on the Cross."

What I take away from this encounter is once again Jesus' important emphasis on service and on humility. The disciples themselves still haven't grasped what this kingdom is all about - and our gospel reading teaches us that the things that we all have trouble with in our lives are common even to the chosen ones of His ministry, the Twelve. Note that not a word is spoken about Judas, who will betray Jesus, until the time of that betrayal. In these stories of struggle with notions of service, of humility, and especially in grappling with what exactly is this power of love that is at work in this kingdom - and the service required for its fulfillment - the struggles are those of Jesus' closest apostles. John and James Zebedee are perhaps His closest friends among them, in a band of people who would come from close contacts and perhaps family ties. Earlier, it was Peter - who would so often speak for all of the apostles, and just after His confession of faith that Jesus is Christ - to whom Jesus said, "Get behind me, Satan!" This was because of Peter's reaction to the news of what is to come to Jesus. Jesus told him, "You are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men." So, in these stories, we are not taught first about suffering and sacrifice and courage, but rather about the human weaknesses and points of view that belong to all of us -- and first and foremost Jesus' closest (and those will be greatest) apostles. All of them, of course, will go on to follow in Jesus' footsteps, each in their own way. Peter will request to be crucified upside down, in order to show His humility before Christ, even in death. But before that, they all struggle with this message, with this depth of conflict over the powers that be in this world, and the power that reigns in a heavenly kingdom. Where does your struggle start with these concepts? How does humility strike you as a hard-to-grasp idea, and service to the kingdom manifest in its call to you? What does it mean to be servant to all? Is it to be a doormat, or to serve the values of a kingdom that call on you in a different way - with its own teachings of value, service to God, and humility in Christ's love? Where do you go in this journey?