"Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you."
Jesus would teach his followers to seek, ask, and knock for things they desired, and to be persistent in prayer. There was a way in which prayers would always be heard (see Matthew 21:22, First John 3:22). But there was a way in which one's intentions and the way he asked could prevent the fulfillment of prayer, at least in the precise way that he imagined and intended it (see James 4:3).
They answered him, "Grant that in your glory
we may sit one at your right and the other at your left."
The request of James and John was good insofar as it indicated a faith in the coming glorification of Jesus and the desire to be with in close proximity to him. But it also seemed to stem from a desire to have an authority that was like that of the rulers of the Gentiles. They wanted recognition and a power they could use to lord it over others. Their fellow disciples seemed to pick up on the competitive nature of this request when they became indignant. James and John wanted to become the greatest of the disciples according to a worldly paradigm of greatness and this inevitably led to strife and division.
Jesus said to them, "You do not know what you are asking.
Can you drink the cup that I drink
or be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?"
They said to him, "We can."
Jesus did not entirely reject the petition of James and John. He instead explained that they didn't understand the true nature of what was good in what they requested. They thought that they desired leadership and greatness according to a worldly model. But the actual good that was drawing them was genuine, but different from what they thought they wanted. Jesus wanted them to discover and desire greatness according to the model of the Kingdom and as imitators of him. He wanted them to learn to desire to be leaders who came not to be served but to serve, just as he had done.
The cost of embracing the paradigm of Jesus and his Kingdom was to share in his chalice and his baptism. The naive confidence James and John demonstrated when he asked them if they could share his chalice and his baptism was not a bad thing. But they would have to endure much before they would be able to truly understand or participate in the salvific suffering of Jesus. And yet Jesus did not discourage them since it was precisely through participation in his own saving death that the ego and pride that were contaminating their request would finally be overcome in them. It was united with Jesus that they could discover the true glory that could be found in giving their own lives for the sake of others.
If he gives his life as an offering for sin,
he shall see his descendants in a long life,
and the will of the LORD shall be accomplished through him.
One reassuring aspect of today's Gospel is how Jesus is willing to work with our imperfect desires, reinforcing what is good, and encouraging us insofar as we're on the correct path. He will also help us to see where we go wrong, just as he did for James and for John. But this means we should not be afraid to approach him with our desires just because we don't have one hundred percent confidence that they are pristine. We can draw near to him because he deeply understands us and wants to give us that which is truly good even more than we ourselves desire it.
So let us confidently approach the throne of grace
to receive mercy and to find grace for timely help.
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