Mark 10: 32-45
The disciples were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them; they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. He took the twelve aside again and began to tell them what was to happen to him, saying, “See, 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; then they will hand him over to the Gentiles; they will mock him, and spit upon him, and flog him, and kill him; and after three days he will rise again.”
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.” And he said to them, “What is it you want me to do for you?” And they said to him, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” 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?” 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; but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.”
When the ten heard this, they began to be angry with James and John. 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. But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.”
New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. USCCB approved.
Asking Not for Honor but for the Opportunity to Love
“You do not know what you are asking.” Jesus answers John and James after their bold request to sit at his side, in contrast to the others who were “amazed” and “afraid.” How often do we ask without knowing the implications?
“Jesus, will you free me from these burdens?” … “Can you make that person choose what I want?” … “Give me that honor!” Whether God desires it or not, we rarely know God’s designs in answering us.
Jesus promises us that our reward may be sacrifice, service and suffering, as he foretells of his own, but it is also an opportunity for love in a community living on the edge between fear and hope.
As we read in 1 Peter 1:18-25 today, our inheritance is not silver and gold or anything perishable; our reward is the invitation to “love one another deeply from the heart” with a “genuine mutual love.”
—Jim Broderick King serves as a Regional Director for the Ignatian Spirituality Project, a Jesuit accompaniment ministry with those in recovery from homelessness and addiction, and works as a spiritual director for the Ignatian Spirituality Program at Regis University.
Prayer
Gracious God, be patient with us. We so often ask you for the most fleeting and false things. Urge us toward asking through the humility Jesus showed us and give us the boldness to seek your seemingly impossible desires. Amen.
—Jim Broderick King