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." – Matthew 20.20-21
One of things that I enjoy is seeing the humanity of the people Jesus used. We read their names and we think that these were Jesus’ disciples. Surely we can’t even hope to be as good and godly and spiritual as they were.
But here we find out that these guys and their families were a lot like us. Even though they had been following Jesus for quite a while now it appears that they still have not heard a whole lot about what He was really taking about.
While Jesus was teaching on the coming kingdom James and John’s mom came to see Him. They must have figured that Messiah was there to set up His earthly kingdom and she wanted to be sure that they had a good part in that kingdom.
It must have been hard to understand that Messiah was not coming in the way that they thought He would come. They were under the thumb of Roman rule; they had suffered under a succession of foreign powers. They were looking for Messiah to come, set up His kingdom, and give them freedom and their own nation.
This mother was watching out for her boys. Is someone was going to help rule in this new kingdom it might as well be her sons, right?
But she, like everyone else, had it wrong. ‘You don’t know what you are asking’ Jesus said. He went on to tell this mother and her boys that they had to be willing to ‘drink the cup and me baptised with this baptism’ that He was going to drink and be baptised with.
They rashly responded ‘Yes, we are willing.’ You can almost sense the fervour and excitement.
Then Jesus said ‘You will indeed do that, but only God knows who is going to serve in His kingdom.’
I will say more later about the qualities of a true leader. The problem here though is this attitude of trying to be on top. James and John were right there with their mother when this encounter happened. They knew what was going on. Even after all Jesus teaching they still were more concerned with their own ambitions then they were with Jesus’ teachings.
We need to learn from their example. We need to simply follow Jesus and be willing to accept His role for us in His kingdom.
2 comments:
So far as the theology in this matter, do you find a dichotomy which I might express as "pre-Pentecost" v "post-Pentecost" in the behavior of these disciples?...or even "pre-resurrection" v "post-resurrection"?
And, if that's the case, can we ever make a direct application between the behavior of these disciples seeking prominence to today's saints who are indwelt by the Holy Spirit? I'm not convinced that it's an "apples to apples" comparison.
I am not too sure about all the theological implications, but do believe that the gospels and Acts are transitional books on which we need to be careful to build practical theology theology for today.
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