INTRODUCTION TO THEME
Today is the 22nd Sunday in the “Season after Pentecost”—which started with Trinity Sunday on May 26 and goes all the way to November 24 with the Feast of Christ the King, before we get to Advent and then Christmas. We’re mostly following the Gospel of Mark, from Chapter 2 to 13, tracking Jesus’ ministry through Galilee, Judea, Perea, eventually arriving in Jerusalem.
Last week we had Mark 10: 17-31, with the story of the young man who asks Jesus: “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”, but then goes away dismayed when Jesus tells him to sell everything he owns, give it to the poor, and “come, follow me.”
“It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God”, Jesus then famously tells the disciples “….. But for God all things are possible!”.
Today’s Gospel reading follows almost directly on from last week—Mark 10, verses 35-45—and tells the story of James and John asking Jesus if they can sit at his right and left hand respectively when he becomes king—a request that now seems just plain nuts. It causes a big barny among the disciples, of course, but Jesus’ response that follows, as we’ll see, is really quite wonderful.
We are often asking Jesus for things too, in prayer, so the interesting question we’ll consider in the Reflection today is: what can we learn from James and John’s big mistake, about how to pray to Jesus, about what we can most fruitfully ask him for?
GOSPEL READING PART 1: Mark 10:35-45
Warnings to ambitious disciples
10:35 James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came forward to him and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.”
10:36 And he said to them, “What is it you want me to do for you?”
10:37 And they said to him, “Appoint us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.”
10:38 But Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?”
10:39 They replied, “We are able.” Then Jesus said to them, “The cup that I drink you will drink and with the baptism with which I am baptized you will be baptized,
10:40 but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to appoint, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.”
10:41 When the ten heard this, they began to be angry with James and John.
Now, that’s the first part of today’s reading, we’ll have the second part a bit later. Let me pray….
REFLECTION PART 1:
“Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.”
“OK”, says Jesus, “what do you want me to do?”
And they said to him, “Appoint us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.”
What are they thinking?! It’s a complete brain fade! What they’re asking for seems, now, quite absurd, ridiculous! This is James and John, the sons of Zebedee. Jesus’ nickname for them was in fact the “Sons of Thunder”. There’s no explanation for this nickname in the Gospels—is it a joke, because they’re always going off half-cocked, like they do here? John, of course, is, later, the writer of the Gospel, the Gospel of John, the disciple whom, on a personal level, Jesus apparently most loved, whom he famously entrusted care of his mother to when he was dying on the Cross. John, along with brother James, gets it right later, presumably, but here they seem to get it completely wrong.
“You do not know what you are asking,” Jesus replies, seemingly exasperated. “Are you able to drink the cup that I drink or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?”
In what way, exactly, did James and John get it wrong? Well, this is a consistent reality right throughout the Gospels: the disciples, Jesus’ other followers, virtually everybody, seems to continually misunderstand Jesus, to have the wrong idea of who he is and what he came to bring into the world. They were all hoping that Jesus was the Messiah, but he turned out to be not the sort of Messiah they were expecting.
The Messiah they were expecting, hoping, yearning for, was, of course, a great worldly king, an heroic leader to save them from the Romans and restore Israel to its former glory, like the great King David back in the day. But that’s just not the sort of Messiah Jesus was, not the sort of Kingdom he came to bring into the world—as is, presumably, obvious to us now.
When you read the Gospels with this amazing misunderstanding in mind, what you notice is Jesus being constantly frustrated, exasperated, by the people’s failure to get the message; yet he continues, over and over again, to patiently explain, and what he says is, always, wonderful, but … perplexing. It confounds our normal way of thinking about the world and life—we need, and Jesus is always trying to jolt us into it, a new mindset, a new way of thinking.
Can you see that James and John were actually being incredibly self-centred, selfish in their request?—that’s the real core of the problem, in fact—they wanted the glory, that they thought would come with being followers of Jesus, this great King who would save them from the Romans, for themselves. No wonder it caused a barny among the disciples—who presumably wanted the same thing! They were all being self-centred, selfish, really!
Selfishness, in fact, is the central problem of human life. The Jewish people of that time wanted someone—a Messiah, a Son of God—to save them from… their enemies … from other people who had more power and wealth than them, who were, yes, probably, oppressing them and keeping them down …. they coveted the power and wealth that they thought had been taken from them—“why can’t WE have it, instead of them?”—they wanted God to send them a hero who would win it back for them….for us; for me, me, me. Can you see that this whole desire for a Messiah, to save them from their enemies, was a self-centred, selfish one?! They didn’t want to change anything they were doing themselves, they just wanted God to send a Messiah who would do it all for them!
Are we, now, any different?—that’s the quite scary question we’re about to get to. The thing the people really needed God to send a Messiah to save them from was ….?? Not the Romans, but …. themselves! Their own selfish, self-centred selves. Same today. This is the fundamental insight—the fundamental Aha! moment—of the Gospel. Jesus bursts into our consciousness, and suddenly we realize we are our own worst enemy! He empowers us to break free from our natural-born self-centredness, so we can live a life free of the futility and destructiveness of selfish desires, instead living for and serving others. A far more wonderful and meaningful reward than any amount of worldly power or wealth.
But, yes, let’s now ask the question: are we, now, any different—to James and John, to the people in general back then, hankering for a Messiah to restore their worldly fortunes? Do we not still have more or less the same wrong idea of what sort of Messiah Jesus is, what sort of Kingdom he is bringing into the world—a basically selfish, self-centred idea?
Here’s a shocking example: the Christian cult in Queensland, believing God would heal their child of diabetes, now all up on murder/manslaughter charges—I think the matter is still before the courts.
| Toowoomba sect members on trial for death of Elizabeth Struhs had ‘common purpose’, judge rules Elizabeth Struhs died of diabetic ketoacidosis in January 2022 due to the withdrawal of her insulin medication, the Queensland supreme court has previously heard. A judge has ruled that all 14 members of a Toowoomba religious sect on trial for the death of eight-year-old diabetic Elizabeth Struhs acted with a common purpose. The Guardian, 3/9/24 |
Obviously, the prayers the people prayed for the child’s healing didn’t work—just like Jesus didn’t grant James and John’s request. Why? Because, like James and John, they had the wrong idea about God, a selfish, self-centred idea…… They wanted a God who would do special favours for them and their loved ones, personal, miraculous, exclusive favours—who would reward their own self-righteous faith, in withdrawing the diabetes medicine, by doing them the very special favour of healing their child. What foolishness—what selfishness—and the little child died because of it.
Yet do we not do more or less the same thing when we pray for ourselves, or our loved ones, to be healed?—it’s something we do all the time—I certainly do! We’re asking for God to intervene in the world, at our request, on our behalf, to perform a special miracle for us, or for someone we have a particular connection to. Is it not basically a self-centred request, like James’ and John’s, to a God we conceive of as doing special favours, provided, perhaps, we approach them in the right way?!
This is a hard, confronting thing to contemplate—Jesus really confronts us on this one, like he did with James and John in today’s reading. When we pray to Jesus for an end to war and conflict—for a ceasefire in the Middle East, or Ukraine, for example, as we might all be praying right now—are we not praying for Jesus to intervene in a worldly way, as if he was a worldly King or Messiah? Is this not, for that reason, also self-centred, selfish? Even if we’re praying on behalf of all humanity, is it not still a self-centred, a human-centred thing to do?
When we pray for our daily bread, our personal needs, or for God to provide food for the poor and starving of the world, is this not still, again, a worldly Messiah we’re looking for, a God who will intervene in the world at our request, on our behalf; not still a self-centred motivation on our behalf?
Yes, this is hard, confronting! What I’ve said covers just about everything we normally pray for—everything I normally pray for, at any rate! So, what sort of thing, if anything, can we effectually pray to Jesus for?
Well, let’s now hear the second part of today’s reading; hopefully Jesus will give us the answer to this amazing dilemma.
GOSPEL READING PART 2: Mark 10:42-45
10:41 When the ten heard this, they began to be angry with James and John.
10:42 So Jesus called them and said to them, “You know that among the gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them.
10:43 But it is not so among you; instead, whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant,
10:44 and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all.
10:45 For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many.”
REFLECTION PART 2:
“The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life …. for many.” “I am the counter-Messiah”, Jesus tells his disciples, “the very opposite of what you and everyone is expecting—I’m not a new worldly tyrant to lord it over you, defeat your gentile oppressors and bestow special favours on you, I come to be the lowest of the low, to serve you, to give my life for you.”
And we, the disciples, the followers of Jesus now? “Whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all.”
Ah, here, now, is the very thing we can always fruitfully pray for: pray for ourselves, for Jesus to give us the courage—the faith, trust, belief—to let go of our own, very natural, self-centred desires, and place ourselves in service of others. In our family life, our work, our friendships, our life in the community, in all aspects of our life. And that includes taking good care of ourselves, by the way, learning to discern between our selfish desires and our real needs.
It’s a risky, unnatural thing to do—to let go of ourselves and live for others—we need a constant infusion of faith from Jesus to be able to do it. Pray for others too, to have the courage, faith, trust, belief, to let go of their self-centred desires. For selfishness is the root cause of all the human problems we typically pray for: war, conflict; unequal access to food, basic needs, health care, political power; pollution, environmental degradation, even climate change.
Ah, so it is legitimate to pray for healing, for an end to war and conflict, for the poor and needy to be fed and lifted out of poverty—but pray first, always, for ourselves, for me, for the faith to let go of myself and follow Jesus. For others too: for you, Jesus, to burst into their lives and break the stranglehold of selfishness, which is so destructive. For all humanity, eventually, for that is the Kingdom coming, the growing, spreading state of human relationships in the world based on selfless service and cooperation with each other, through faith in Jesus Christ.
So, yes, that’s what we can very profitably learn from James’ and John’s brain fade back in the day, in Mark Chapter 10: how to most effectively pray to Jesus, what we can most fruitfully ask him for.
Effective, fruitful prayer isn’t me trying to get God to do what I want God to do, trying to manipulate God into doing my bidding, into acting on my behalf in favour of myself or another person or persons – that’s a false idea of Jesus as a worldly Messiah who intervenes directly in human affairs – effective, fruitful prayer is, rather, me offering myself to God to do their bidding, whatever the cost to myself, seeking God’s guidance for my life and what I am to do for others, including myself!
Amen.
