Jesus of Nazareth certainly wasn’t rich or powerful. But he was famous, probably the most famous person that most ordinary people had ever seen or heard before. Imagine what it must have been like to be one of his disciples, even more of one his twelve apostles, among the inner circle of his friends and confidantes. The apostles had come to know Jesus when he was still relatively unknown, and had left everything to follow him. Before their very eyes, Jesus’s fame and authority grew, and as his inner circle of friends and confidantes, so did theirs as well. Naturally, they began to imagine about what would happen when Jesus came into the fullness of his authority, and how they would be affected. They began, in short, to fantasize about their own prospects of power.
In the Gospel today, these daydreams take concrete form: two of Jesus’s inner circle of apostles openly ask to share in his power and authority. With the possible exception of Peter, the brothers James and John might be described as the boldest of the apostles. Earlier in Mark’s Gospel, Jesus has nicknamed them “Boanerges”, or “Sons of Thunder,” probably a description of how they were especially bold and passionate in demeanor. If that’s the case, it’s little wonder then that these sons of Zebedee are the ones to openly ask for what all of the others had been dreaming of.
Rather than immediately dismiss them for arrogance or criticize them for being power hungry, Jesus instead asks if they are really committed to doing what it takes to achieve the glory they desire. Jesus uses two phrases to describe the tests of their resolve – they will be baptized with the “baptism with which I am baptized” and drink the “cup that I will drink”. Those words give us a clue that Jesus is perhaps not thinking of glory in the same way that James and John are envisioning it, but they don’t seem to be dissuaded in the least. They see Jesus not just as a friend or teacher, but as their ticket to an earthly influence that they could never before have dreamed of. They are ready to hitch their wagon to Jesus’s star, to borrow an old phrase, so that he can bring them what they truly desire.
I imagine that we tend to look at James and John with mild pity at their naïveté, or disgust at their ambition, or some mixture of the two. But the truth is that James and John are not far off from the right path. Following Jesus – and being baptized in his baptism, drinking the cup that he drinks – will indeed bring them great glory, though not the fame and influence that they desire. Rather, the glory they will have is a share in the Passion of Christ, which is the only path to sharing in the victory of the Resurrection. Jesus shows the depth of his own greatness when he pours out his very life on the Cross, and so fulfills the mission that his heavenly Father had entrusted to him. To be the disciple of such a master means, as he says, to learn the lesson of suffering, to see service and self-denial as the precious ambitions that lead to true glory.
The Apostles James and John, Sons of Zebedee (c. 1533) by the Master of Ventosilla
While we may think ourselves much wiser or much nobler than James and John, the uncomfortable truth is that we’re probably not. Like James and John, we too want the good things that we believe following Jesus can offer us, but we look to receive them in the here and now. Even if we don’t desire riches or fame for being Christians, we expect to receive other things which are no less worldly: acceptance and admiration, for example, solace and comfort, a general avoidance of suffering, sorrow, and self-denial – despite the fact that Jesus has precisely said that those things cannot be avoided if we wish to follow him.
This Gospel affords us the chance to look at how well we are living up to the standard that Jesus has given us: “to serve rather than be served.” If we are frank with ourselves, it’s likely that often we are not much better than the rest of the world in the very things we should be, if we truly sought to make the Lord’s mindset our own – things like: bearing gracefully insults and slights that come our way; guarding against judgmentalism of mind and heart; seeing in the poor, downtrodden, or detestable the face of Christ himself; desiring not fame, influence, or riches, but a conformity to Christ that will show others and ourselves we are serious about following the Master.
The good news is that no matter how often we may fall short, we can begin anew. Jesus has left us an abiding testimony of his love for us the sacrifice of the Cross; but it also is an example for the kind of love and service that he calls us to. The Cross is not just an unavoidable stop on our path to glory; it’s the very road to get there. What a worthy practice it is to carry a crucifix with us each day to remind us of this, or to make sure we always pray with one, to remember the kind of love that Christ calls us to. Being a Christian is not a self-improvement project – it’s about learning how to love in a true way, in a way that must die to self in order to serve the other.
Friends, following Jesus won’t bring us earthly fame or success, but it should transform our lives nonetheless. Even more, it can secure for us our heavenly reward. James and John, those “Sons of Thunder,” received at long last – and continue to enjoy – the glory they so greatly desired, but it came as the fruit of the love and service, rather than of ambition or self-interest. It is the glory promised to every person who accepts the vocation to Christian service that Jesus calls us to and for which he has given us the Cross as the path to follow. So, let us be bold and passionate and ambitious – not for ourselves, but for Jesus, and for others, by practicing humility, love, and service. Christ has called us, and has shown us how to follow after – let us begin!
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