In the verses
just before this morning’s Gospel, Jesus has tried to explain to the
apostles what is going to happen to him.“Behold, we
are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief
priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and hand him over
to the Gentiles who will mock him, spit upon him, scourge him, and put
him to death, but after three days he will rise.” It is sobering and painful to
hear; and they are amazed and afraid. But it’s clear that they really
don’t understand yet, they don’t realize who it is they’re following. And so
this morning James and John ask to sit beside Jesus one on his right and the
other at his left when he is throned in glory. Tragically the only
enthronement Jesus is going to receive will be on a cross of agony and
humiliation with a thief on his left and his right.
That’s why it’s
always so embarrassing to hear those two naive, very ambitious apostles say a
bit too enthusiastically that they are ready to drink the same cup as Jesus,
undergo the same baptism. Their “confident but foolish” response: “Yes we can.”
Certainly Jesus wants the disciples, all of us, to get caught up with
enthusiasm in the dream of the kingdom, what it is, what it means. But the key
is to become more and more fascinated with him and his way of doing things; and
to want to go and do likewise. It is not about entitlement. Jesus has come to
serve, not to be served. And these two apostles don’t seem to get that part
yet. Like James and John we too are on the way, still growing in
relationship with Jesus. There’s so much more he wants to explain to all of us.
Photographs by Brother Brian of the Abbey woodlands.
