(Audio)
“Command that these two sons of mine sit,
one at your right and the other at your left, in your Kingdom.”
There is a good aspect to the desire this request expresses. To be near to Jesus is something we should all want. There is even a sense of desiring glory that is licit and good.
Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing (see Second Timothy 4:8).
The Kingdom has crowns which we can rightly desire, for which we can legitimately strive. Indeed, Jesus had already promised the twelve that they would sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel (see Matthew 19:28)
But the glory of the crown, the glory of the thrones, is not the same as the glory of human reputation or renown. It is not something which can be bestowed arbitrarily, simply because one asked. It is glory for which we must be prepared.
For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison (see Second Corinthians 4:17).
These places of honor are not for Jesus to give, but for those for whom they have been prepared by his Father. They are prepared by the Father when he draws us to follow Jesus through his own path of obedience and suffering.
“You do not know what you are asking.
Can you drink the chalice that I am going to drink?”
They said to him, “We can.”
Jesus himself works with the Father to prepare these heavenly mansions (see John 14:3), these eternal dwellings for us. This is a reward we ought to desire. But the true and correct form of this desire is also very different from the one expressed by the mother of the sons of Zebedee. For the true form of this crown, this power, this righteousness, is the form of a servant. To truly desire it is to count worldly honor as nothing.
Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant;
whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave.
Paul understood that there was honor to be sought, but not in the way he had understood it before meeting Jesus. He counted everything as loss so as to attain Christ (see Philippians 3:8). He recognized that our treasure is presently contained in earthen vessels. There is a treasure, but we tend to want to esteem the container. Paul on the other hand understood the need to drink the chalice, "always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our body." He understood that there was indeed a treasure to be sought, but it was not a treasure of domination or superiority, according to the paradigms of the world. It was one of service, of suffering out of love for others.
So death is at work in us, but life in you.
This understanding that Paul expresses is in fact the same as that to which the response Jesus gave to James and John called them. He showed the core of their desire and helped them see beyond the earthen vessels that had their attention so transfixed.
Just so, the Son of Man did not come to be served
but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.
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