Wednesday in the Second Week of Lent, March 8, 2023

Matthew 20, 17-28

As Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the Twelve disciples aside by themselves, and said to them on the way, “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 to be mocked and scourged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day.”   Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee approached Jesus with her sons and did him homage, wishing to ask him for something. He said to her, “What do you wish?” She answered him, “Command that these two sons of mine sit, one at your right and the other at your left, in your kingdom.” Jesus said in reply, “You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the chalice that I am going to drink?” They said to him, “We can.” He replied, “My chalice you will indeed drink, but to sit at my right and at my left, this is not mine to give but is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.” When the ten heard this, they became indignant at the two brothers. But Jesus summoned them and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and the great ones make their authority over them felt. But it shall not be so among you. Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave. Just so, the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

“Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes.”  The Lord announces to the Apostles their destination and what will happen when they get there.  The Apostles had every reason to expect him to say to them that he was leading them up to Jerusalem where the chief priests would welcome him, and in their presence he would declare that the Kingdom of Israel was restored.  All the miracles and the massive crowds of supporters led them to expect this.  The opposition of the Pharisees, they supposed, came about because they saw that their time was over and they had no place in the days of the Messiah.  But the Lord tells them that they are marching directly into a catastrophe.  St. Matthew does not report any reactions to this news.  He had spoken of this before, though not in such detail: “They will condemn him to death, and hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and scourged and crucified.”  Perhaps they remembered how the Lord had spoken sharply to Peter when Peter had remonstrated with him the first time the Lord had spoken of his coming Death.  Also, they must have wondered why, if he foresaw this end, he was walking towards it.  They must have considered his words as a sort of parable, especially since he kept adding that he would “rise again”, whatever that meant.  

“Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee approached Jesus with her sons.”  The Greek word translated here as “then” does not specify how much later another incident takes place, and so we can think that the mother of the sons of Zebedee does not come up to the Lord directly after he has spoken of his coming suffering and Death, but later on during the day, likely during a break in the journey.  That Matthew recalls these two incidents together helps us to know the mindset of the Apostles and of all his supporters at this time.  It also helps us to see how the destiny of the Apostles and of all those who follow him is bound up in his: “to be mocked and scourged and crucified, and . . . raised on the third day”.  This is the cup the Lord drinks and it is the cup that James and John will drink, and also the cup all of us who wish to reign with Christ must drink.  This does not mean we who drink it will all suffer martyrdom, for while it did for James, John died in peace after much persecution and suffering.  But it means that we will fight for Christ in subduing our passions, in working for conversions, and in enduring the hatred of the world.

The mother of the sons of Zebedee, Salome, may seem to us an almost comical figure for her pushing of her sons and for her naïveté, but she worked hard and gave up much to follow the Lord.  She was one of the women who provided for him and the Apostles out of their own resources.  She evidently followed him from the time the Lord left Capharnaum after he had moved there from Nazareth.  Her speaking up for her sons does not make her ridiculous but does show her to be ambitious for her young sons, and she had every reason to think that her request would be heard since they showed themselves so zealous in the Lord’s service that he nicknamed them “the sons of thunder”, and he took them and Peter as a separate group to various places such as Mount Tabor, where they saw him transfigured.  According to St. Mark’s Gospel, Salome accompanied Mary Magdalene to the Lord’s tomb after his Death in order to anoint his Body — a sign of her great faith.  The Roman Martyrology lists her feast day as on April 24, testifying to the Church’s honor for her.

“The Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.”  We share in the Lord’s chalice when we adopt his understanding of himself for ourselves, and when we give our lives for others through our unstinting prayers, our good works, and our patient answering of the questions of those who do not yet believe.