and they will condemn him to death,
and hand him over to the Gentiles
to be mocked and scourged and crucified
Suddenly this Kingdom was not meeting the expectations of those who were previously training to be its residents and indeed its rulers. The disciples had been promised that they would sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel (see Matthew 19:28). But now the Son of David who was the rightful heir to the Kingdom was speaking, not of his reign, but of his death. Their interpretation of the Kingdom and its thrones as positions of worldly power and prestige was now no longer easily coherent. In light of this revelation, what was to be done?
He said to her, “What do you wish?”
She answered him,
“Command that these two sons of mine sit,
one at your right and the other at your left, in your kingdom.”
It seemed that the sons of Zebedee would try to salvage what could be salvaged from what seemed to be an approaching shipwreck. There was something not entirely wrong about their approach, for it acknowledged Jesus as the King at whose right and left they desired to sit. But it seemed to stem from a willful desire to avoid confronting the death of Jesus himself, or else was a contingency plan to provide for themselves in case of that eventuality. Whatever their motivation, their misunderstanding stemmed from a belief that the relationship between the Kingdom of Jesus and his death was merely accidental and unfortunate.
Jesus said in reply,
“You do not know what you are asking.
Can you drink the chalice that I am going to drink?”
To reign in the Kingdom required drinking the same chalice Jesus himself accepted from the Father in the Garden of Gethsemane. Those who would live in his Kingdom in newness of life would first have to be baptized into his death.
Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life (see Romans 6:3-5).
The striking thing about today's Gospel passage is the way in which it demonstrated that Jesus works with and elevates our mixed motives for following him. Our naïve zeal, even our desire for achievement and honor, can be redirected to seek the one thing that matters to Jesus, the chalice containing his Father's will.
He replied,
“My chalice you will indeed drink,
but to sit at my right and at my left,
this is not mine to give
but is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.”
Jesus helps us learn to value and even to treasure this chalice, to more and more find in the Father's will itself our primary reward. He does so by helping us to let go of our more imperfect aspirations, surrendering ourselves to wanting what the Father himself wants to give.
The rest of the twelve seemed to fare no better, as can be seen by their jealousy at the requests of the two brothers. None was yet ready to reign in the Kingdom Jesus came to bring. But Jesus himself would demonstrate, with graphic precision, what was entailed in Kingdom leadership.
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.
Even if we don't perceive ourselves to be jockeying for positions of prestige or given to jealousy at blessings bestowed on others it is nevertheless invariably true that we all seek the Kingdom with mixed motives, all still occasionally try to use it as a means to our own ends. The good news for us is that the King of this Kingdom is eminently patient, ready to use what good will we can muster to point us more and more precisely in the right direction, which is that of the Father's own heart.
But my trust is in you, O LORD;
I say, “You are my God.”
In your hands is my destiny; rescue me
from the clutches of my enemies and my persecutors.
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