As we continue to explore the people around Jesus and the questions that they asked him, we turn this week directly to the disciples themselves. We started the month with a story of the Pharisees who came to Jesus asking questions in order to test him. Last week, we heard from a potential follower who wanted to know what he needed to do to gain eternal life. This morning we hear a request from the sons of Zebedee and the aftermath of their questions among the entire group of disciples.
Today’s reading follows just a few verses from where last week’s readings ended (see Mark 10:35-45). Last week, you may recall, the reading ended with Peter pointing out that the disciples had left everything behind to follow Jesus. Jesus then tells them how anyone who gives up family and home and work in order to follow him will receive back one hundred fold family and home and work (with suffering!) in this life and the age to come.
This of course makes a certain amount of sense given that Jesus is talking about the kingdom of God that is coming into the world. Let’s think for a moment about Jesus’ description here in light of all that Jesus has tried to get them to understand. In the kingdom, who is our family? Where is our home? What is our work? Is it any wonder that we will gain far more of those in the kingdom than what we may have left behind to follow Jesus? Jesus even makes it clear that the way of the kingdom of God will not be easy. Again, given that it is often in direct opposition to the ways of this world in so many ways, is that really surprising?
However, this request by James and John makes it clear that they have still not fully understood what Jesus is talking about. They are still thinking in terms of gain as the world envisions it. Our gospel writer makes this clear by highlighting again that they are the sons of Zebedee. By pointing this out, Mark is reminding us that James and John, just as Peter pointed out in last week’s reading, turned away from their family, leaving their father behind to follow Jesus.
Having supposedly learned their lesson from the approach of the rich man, James and John begin their request simply with “Teacher.” They want to acknowledge that they are followers of Jesus, but they know that flattery is not going to get them what they want. There is no need to add any qualifier. Of course, this just makes the rest of the sentence ironic. “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you” (Mark 10:35, CEB). Jesus, we know that you are our teacher, but we want you to do what we want.
I imagine that anyone who has interacted much with little children gets a bit of a chuckle out of this approach. How many of us have had a child approach us with similar words -- will you promise to say yes? Will you do something for me? A yes is followed almost immediately with a request for ice cream before supper or something similar. Or maybe with teenagers it is more along the lines of “promise me you won’t get mad,” followed by an explanation of something they know they shouldn’t be asking for or that they should not have done.
We can read or hear these words from James and John and recognize them for the childish request that they are. Which means we likely recognize Jesus’ non-committal response from our own lives as well -- “What is it you want me to do for you?” (Mark 10:36, CEB) I’m not agreeing to anything until I hear the rest of this.
“Allow one of us to sit on your right and the other on your left when you enter your glory” (Mark 10:37, CEB).
This is no “ice cream before dinner” request. This isn’t even a “I banged up the car” admission. James and John want to share in Jesus’ glory. They want prominent positions in the coming kingdom. Give us power and authority and a share in your glory. They completely misunderstood Jesus’ response to Peter just a few verses ago. Their question makes it seem that they got as far as “anyone who has left [life behind] because of me and because of the good news will receive one hundred times as much,” and then they stopped listening, perhaps daydreaming about having so much in the kingdom to come. Hence Jesus’ response: “You don’t know what you’re asking!” (Mark 10:38, CEB) James and John make it clear that they have no idea what is coming.
This is especially true when we consider the 3 verses between last week’s reading and this one. In those verses, Jesus makes a point that they are on the way to Jerusalem where the Son of Man (i.e., Jesus himself) will be handed over to the authorities, mocked, beaten, spit on, degraded, and ultimately killed before rising again in three days. Jesus isn’t speaking in parables this time. He is speaking plainly and clearly; this is what is about to happen. Still, all James and John are thinking about is how they can benefit from what is to come.
All through this, Jesus is trying to make them aware of the difference between human thinking and divine thinking. The kingdom of God is not structured like human kingdoms. It is not about having the privileged and powerful few lording it over the masses. It is not about power and prestige. All along, Jesus has been telling them that it is necessary to leave behind what the world tells them to value in order to see what it is that is truly good. But their request and even their response to his questions afterwards shows that they are still thinking only in terms of glory as the world defines it, not as God defines it.
Of course, where we might read this and kind of chuckle at the audacity and childishness of the request, the other disciples get angry and begin grumbling among themselves. The way Jesus responds to them suggests that they aren’t mad at the brothers’ audacity in making the request. Maybe they are mad that they didn’t ask first. Maybe they are mad because they see the brothers trying to take away the other disciples’ share of the glory. But it doesn’t sound like they are mad at the brothers simply for asking such a silly question.
It seems that all of them are thinking about how they will be able to reap the rewards of being early adopters. We were with Jesus from the beginning; the rewards will surely be great. They want to share in the glory, to be in charge, to be great in the kingdom to come. Surely the kingdom of God will be similar to what we are used to, even though Jesus had been telling them over and over that it won't be.
Before we take it too hard on the disciples, we really need to consider the world in which they have grown up. They have lived in a world dominated by those with power lording it over those without. There are those who are on top and those who are on bottom. The disciples really have no other way of visualizing the world. They have no point of reference for considering the world in a different way. They have only ever known a world in which their people are dominated under the heel of a foreign power, a foreign power that lords it over them, demanding respect and compliance through threat of force and violence. A world in which the only ones of their people who come close to sharing in that glory are those that play along and follow the same rules.
Hearing the prophets speak of the coming Messiah in this context leads those looking for the Messiah to imagine a time where the world is turned upside down, where those on the top are pushed to the bottom while those on the bottom climb to the top. They can only imagine inverting the power dynamic with themselves on top; they can’t actually imagine doing away with the structure altogether. Though the power structure in Star Wars is being built on violence and fear rather than compassion and service, it is similar to the reaction of the Imperial officers in A New Hope. When told that the Senate has been dissolved, one of the men asks, "But how will the Emperor maintain control without the bureaucracy?" He could not imagine a structure different from the one that had existed for most of his lifetime, just as the disciples could not imagine a different structure than the one they had known their whole lives.
As I read this gospel and see the ways in which the disciples failed to understand over and over, I take a bit of comfort in the fact that these are still the people that Jesus chose as his followers. These are the people that Jesus chose as his closest companions. If even the people hand picked by Jesus so clearly misunderstood, then there truly is hope for all of us.
The thing we must remember first and foremost in all of Jesus' answers we have heard so far is this -- only God is God. In some ways, all three of the questions we have looked at so far have been about individual concepts of right and wrong, individual concepts of rights and responsibility, individual concepts of gain. These questions may acknowledge God on top, but they also seek to place ourselves somewhere in the power structure.
But the good news that Jesus is offering is not about power and prestige. It is not about having a place in the ruling structure. It is not about individual concepts at all. The kingdom of God is about how we live and serve one another, everyone. It is about “we,” not “me.” In this kingdom, only God has authority. The rest of us are called to serve each other as members of a family.
Alas, we still have a tendency to ask these questions today. We know that there are those who still preach a gospel that suggests God blesses certain people with privilege or ease or good health because they meet some individual criteria of “good.” By default this suggests that anyone who is poor or sick or otherwise has a difficult life has been condemned in some way by God for their thoughts and actions. This seems to fly in the face of everything that Jesus has said in respect to the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is not about power and glory as the world understands it. The kingdom of God is about everyone loving God through serving one another. It does not look like kingdoms as we understand it, so we should not assign value in God's kingdom in human terms.
As we consider the questions that we still have for Jesus today, I think about the ways that some of my questions are still selfish questions. Jesus, what do I get out of all this? How do I achieve what I want? How do I make sure I am not uncomfortable? It is hard at times for me to turn these questions around and ask, how can I serve your will? How can I serve others? How can I live as an example of the kingdom of God present in the world today?
It is natural for us to want to understand what is required of us. It is natural for us to want, if not to rule, then at least to want, comfort. It is natural for us to not want to suffer. But every time we reach out to question Jesus, he responds in ways that remind us that the kingdom of God is not about the world that exists now. It is about a world that is different from what we can imagine, a world that is completely under God, a world in which we are all connected equally to all others and in which we are servants to all others.
Like the disciples, we struggle to make sense of what that looks like. Like the man who approached Jesus, we worry about what we might be called to give up. Like the Pharisees, we worry at times whether others are correctly following the rules.
Even so, Jesus has chosen us just as surely as he chose his disciples. And God loves us all, inviting all of us to take part in the kingdom. Let us find hope in that.