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Now Jesus, going up to Jerusalem, took the twelve disciples aside on the road and said to them, "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 to mock and to scourge and to crucify. And the third day He will rise again."
Then the mother of Zebedee's sons came to Him with her sons, kneeling down and asking something from Him. And He said to her, "What do you wish?" She said to Him, "Grant that these two sons of mine may sit, one on your right hand and the other on the left, in Your kingdom." But Jesus answered and said, "You do not know what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?" They said to Him, "We are able." so He said to them, "You will indeed drink My cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with; 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 by My Father." And when the ten heard it, they were greatly displeased with the two brothers. But Jesus called them to Himself and said, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave -- just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many."
- Matthew 20:17-28
In yesterday's reading, Jesus gave a parable to His disciples, teaching about the kingdom of heaven: "For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. Now when he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And he went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and said to them, 'You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.' Again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did likewise. And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing idle, and said to them, 'Why have you been standing here idle all day?' They said to him, 'Because no one hired us.' He said to them, 'You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right you will receive.' So when evening had come, the owner of the vineyard said to his steward, 'Call the laborers and give them their wages, beginning with the last to the first.' And when those came who were hired about the eleventh hour, they each received a denarius. But when the first came, they supposed that they would receive more; and they received each a denarius. And when they had received it, they complained against the landowner, saying, 'These last men have worked only one hour, and you made them equal to use who have borne the burden and the heat of the day.' But he answered one of them and said, 'Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what is yours and go your way. I wish to give to this last man the same as you. Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things? Or is your eye evil because I am good?' So the last will be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few chosen."
Now Jesus, going up to Jerusalem, took the twelve disciples aside on the road and said to them, "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 to mock and to scourge and to crucify. And the third day He will rise again." This is the third prediction Jesus makes to the apostles of His coming Passion, death, and Resurrection. Each prediction gives them more vivid details. My study bible says that Jesus' repeated prediction of His Passion was meant to encourage and strengthen them for the terrifying events they are going to face. Theophylact comments that it's as if He were saying to them, "Think on all these [words and miracles], so that whenyou see me hanging on the Cross, you will not imagine that I am suffering because I am powerless to do otherwise."
Then the mother of Zebedee's sons came to Him with her sons, kneeling down and asking something from Him. And He said to her, "What do you wish?" She said to Him, "Grant that these two sons of mine may sit, one on your right hand and the other on the left, in Your kingdom." But Jesus answered and said, "You do not know what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?" They said to Him, "We are able." so He said to them, "You will indeed drink My cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with; 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 by My Father." Jesus has just made a prediction of His Passion, but the disciples remain focused on concepts of the Kingdom in a worldly sense. It seems quite clear that they believe His Resurrection will mean an immediate manifestation of a Kingdom on earth. My study bible says that this quest for temporal power and glory is unfitting in a disciple. Matthew tells us that it is the mother of Zebedee's sons (James and John) who requests the honor. But as the Greek makes clear, Jesus is addressing James and John in the plural you when He replies, "You do not know what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?" He calls His Crucifixion a cup and His death a baptism. My study bible says that the cross is a cup because He drank it willingly (Hebrews 12:2), and His death is baptism, because He was completely immersed in it, and at the same time it cleansed the world (Romans 6:3-6). These disciples will participate in this same cup and baptism in lives of persecution and martyrdom after Pentecost. James will be the first martyr among the Twelve, John will be put into exile and live a long life through the depth of persecutions of the early Church, giving us three Epistles, one Gospel, and one Book of Prophecy (Revelation). Jesus displays His own humility before the Father when He says the the places of honor in the Kingdom are not His to give. Christ does not lack authority, but these places are not His to give arbitrarily. They will be given to those for whom God has prepared them. St. John Chrysostom, says my study bible, tells us that no one could sit as an equal on the right and left hand of Christ in His Kingdom. As to the highest places of honor for human beings, the Church historically and traditionally gives such place to the Virgin Mary (most blessed among women) and John the baptist (greatest born of women).
And when the ten heard it, they were greatly displeased with the two brothers. But Jesus called them to Himself and said, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave -- just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many." Over and over again, as Jesus has prepared the disciples for the journey to Jerusalem, He teaches them the message of humility as leadership, as image of the kind of power He wishes to rule in His Church. Here is the clearest and most explicit teaching on the difference between worldly power and the kind of power at work through Him, in the Kingdom He wishes to bring into the world. It is the kind of power He wishes to be at work in them and among them. The Church is not supposed to be a competition, nor a bloodthirsty battle among aristocrats for power and position (such as was exemplified for example in their contemporaries Herod the Great, and his son in Galilee, Herod Antipas).
The political conditions of worldly power of Jesus' time and place were particularly bloodthirsty. Herod the Great and his family were extreme, even by Roman standards, in terms of ruthless rule, murder and intrigue -- even among themselves. If we read the Old Testament books written in the century or two prior to Jesus' birth, we get a picture of the Mediterranean world of the Near and Middle East to be one of constant battles for kingdoms and power among the Romans and the various dynasties who were successors to Alexander the Great. There hardly seems to be any time of peace at all, nor any steady alliances but rather a dizzying array of constant warfare and changing allegiances depending on the circumstances. Certainly the Jews suffered through this period (and the temple suffered abuse), and awaited a deliverer, a Messiah. This is why that particular time and place of Christ's birth is so important, essential to this story and to the popular hopes and expectations of the people. It's into this world of competition and slaughter that Jesus is born, the Deliverer, the Messiah. One can understand the impulse of James and John here, given the reality of the world they lived in. Today, too, we can only see the competition and slaughter of the Middle East if we understand on worldly terms the naked nature of ambition, greed, and pure materialism. It's St. Paul who taught that "the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil" (1 Timothy 6:10), and he gives it as a warning to those who would stray from the faith via greediness, resulting in a life of great sorrows. As followers of Christ -- and this is particularly so for Christians from the early apostolic churches of the Middle East -- we may find ourselves wondering where our Deliverer is, and where we are headed. But we turn to Him. There are those today who theorize that martyrdom and persecution in the period of the early Church has been exaggerated, but there is little doubt of persecution happening today, particularly in the places of the earliest Christian churches. Most Westerners have little idea about the survival and coexistence of Christians in the Middle East throughout the centuries. But now is a time in which, in many countries, their survival as a community is threatened by world events, great powers playing politics, and alliances that defy all reasonable understanding save one: power and greed. Mercenary armies cruelly repress all who disagree with their particular point of view of faith, including those of nominally the same faith. For Christians and others, conditions threaten their very survival in ancestral homelands. We can look around ourselves and see a time of tremendous divisiveness and dissension. Into this our Church must follow Him and His teachings, His commandments, His prayer for God's will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. We carry this Kingdom in our hearts, and we have those who have come before us, learning the same hard lessons in a harsh time. It may be the best time for prayer -- but that moment is always now.
