There is an important question in the
gospel we have just heard: Jesus asks the brothers, James and John, “what do
you want me to do for you.” Then when
they ask their favour he tells them that they don’t know what they are asking
for; they have asked the wrong question!
So what is going on? The two
brothers have worked out their own view of what following Jesus means. Just by the way they ask the question Jesus
knows that they have it all wrong – they don’t know much at all about what
following him is about. They want
glory. They want recognition. They want the prize. Jesus tells them that they don’t know what
the prize is.
This becomes an occasion for him to
teach them about what being a disciple entails.
He speaks about drinking the cup that he must drink and being baptised
with the baptism with which he must be baptised. They quickly say that, yes, they are willing
to accept these things. But do they even
know what these things mean? Jesus is
pointing to his passion and death on the cross.
Of course, as he speaks with these two brothers none of this has
happened, so they can’t really understand what he is talking about. It is probably just as well, because if they
knew what was in store for him they would probably be terrified rather than want
to follow him. In time they would find
out what drinking this cup means in practice.
The second part of the story is just as
challenging. We are told that the other
disciples are indignant that these two brothers should even be thinking of
seats at the right and left hands of Jesus.
These others show themselves to be not much different from the two
brothers. They too are thinking about glory
and recognition and power. They don’t
want others to get it and themselves to miss out. Here is another opportunity for Jesus to
continue his teaching about true discipleship.
He doesn’t speak specifically about drinking the cup that he must drink,
but compares the sort of leadership he offers with that practised by other
leaders. For the world, leadership is
about having power and authority, so that you can tell people what to do. We recall that occasion in the gospel when
Jesus met a centurion. He told Jesus
that he had power over those under him: he could say to one man, “go”, and he
would go, and to another man, “come here”, and he would come. Jesus turns all this on its head. He says that true leadership is more like
being a servant than a lordly ruler.
Then he presents himself as the true leader. The Son of Man, he says, did not come to be
served, but to serve and to give his life. Here is the reference to the cup
that he must drink!
This teaching springs from Jesus’
original question: “what do you want me to do for you.” I think it is a question that we have to let
him ask us. In fact, our life as
believers began with a similar question.
At the beginning of the baptism ceremony the priest puts the question,
“What do you ask of God’s church?” In
other words, what do you want, what can the church do for you, what do you want
of God? The response was: we want
baptism, or we want faith. We were then
baptised into his death so that we might share in his resurrection. So, our response to that question was that we
want to know him, we want to see his face, and we want to be counted among his
followers. But did we fully appreciate
what this would mean for us and where it might lead us? Were we any different to James and John?
Like them, we probably never fully
understood what this Christian life is about, but at our baptism we committed
ourselves to grow more and more into his image.
That is the really important thing.
It is a lifetime task. Just as we
grow physically, emotionally, and intellectually, so we grow spiritually. We never stop growing in faith. Growing in faith is not just about learning
more facts about Jesus and his teaching.
More importantly, it is about growing in our relationship with him. It is also about growing from a focus on
myself to being more outwardly focused.
This was the growth trajectory that Jesus laid out for those two
brothers, James and John. They began by
asking for special places – they were totally focused on their own wants and
desires – but Jesus called them to change so that they were prepared to walk
with him in his suffering. To grow
spiritually is to grow in our capacity to be self-giving.
As we grow more and more into the image
of Jesus we become more effective as his witnesses. In this sense we can say that we become
evangelisers. The best way for people to
come to know Jesus and his message is to meet us who are his friends. It is not really about us becoming great preachers
of the gospel. Rather it is about our
way of life being attractive to others.
How wonderful it is when people can look at us and say, I see by the way
you live that God is with you; let me walk beside you so that I can get to know
God.
