Wednesday in the Eighth Week of Ordinary Time, May 29, 2024

Mark 10, 32-45

The disciples were on the way, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus went ahead of them. They were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. Taking the Twelve aside again, he began to tell them what was 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.” Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to Jesus and said to him, ‘Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” He replied, ‘What do you wish me to do for you?” They answered him, “Grant that in your glory we may sit one at your right and the other at your left.” Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the chalice that I drink or be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” They said to him, ‘We can.” Jesus said to them, “The chalice 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 or at my left is not mine to give but is for those for whom it has been prepared.” When the ten heard this, they became indignant at James and John. Jesus summoned them and said to them, “You know that those who are recognized as rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones make their authority over them felt. But it shall not be so among you. Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all. For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

“The disciples were on the way, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus went ahead of them. They were amazed, and those who followed were afraid.”  The Apostles were “amazed” that the Lord would return to Jerusalem after he had nearly been stoned a few months before when he had last preached there.  The crowds who accompanied him on the annual pilgrimage preceding the Passover “were afraid” for his safety, and perhaps that his arrival in the city might spark a riot.  But the Lord Jesus “steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem” (Luke 9, 51).

The Lord did not hide from his Apostles that he would suffer there: “Taking the Twelve aside again, he began to tell them what was going to happen to him.”  He gave them a detailed description of his Passion and Death, leaving out nothing.  Yet this did not fit in with their expectations of Jesus restoring Israel and so they set aside what he told them, perhaps thinking that he was testing their courage.  That they did so is clear from the request which James and John, the “sons of thunder”, made of him: “Grant that in your glory we may sit one at your right and the other at your left.”  Because Jesus would receive his glory only in heaven in his Resurrection and Ascension, he replied to them: “You do not know what you are asking.”  He gave them time to think and to ask what he meant, but they continued to stand before him, eager and expectant.  We should note that according to Matthew 20, 20-21, it was Salome, the mother of James and John, who asked Jesus for this favor for her sons.  As St. Peter recalled the incident for St. Mark, years later, James and John made the request themselves.  St. Matthew is probably more accurate, but we lose nothing in the meaning in Mark through his omission.  

“Can you drink the chalice that I drink or be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?”  James and John do not hesitate to answer.  They have absolute confidence in the Lord Jesus to come out victorious and they will stick with him through thick and thin: “We can.”  To this, the Lord answered, “The chalice that I drink, you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized.”  Jesus is speaking of the grace he will give them to do this and of their future perseverance in it.

“But to sit at my right or at my left is not mine to give but is for those for whom it has been prepared.”  That is, he will not reveal to them their place in the world to come.  Only to the Good Thief does he say this, as they are both dying: “And Jesus said to him: Amen I say to thee: This day you shall be with me in paradise” (Luke 23, 43).

“But it shall not be so among you.”  James and John were asking for positions of authority in the restored Kingdom of Israel and the other Apostles saw them as attempting to get in the way of the authority they expected to receive.  And until the time of Jesus, possessing authority meant living well while having others do their work: “Their great ones make their authority over them felt.”  Jesus shows the true purpose of authority: to be in a position in which a person can most effectively serve others, directing others to assist if need be.  And all authority ultimately come from God: “There is no authority but from God” (Romans 13, 1).  So all authority is meant for service: “Whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all.”

The Lord does not give some abstract teaching but provides an example with which they were very familiar: “The Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.”  If even the Son of Man came to serve, how much more should those who wish to be counted as his servants should serve each other?  The Lord also teaches the purpose of his ultimate service to the human race: to die for the forgiveness of our sins.