The 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time, October 17, 2021

Mark 10:35–45

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 cup 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 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 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.” 

“Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.”  This sounds to us like children talking, trying to get their parent to agree to something before they tell them what it is.  The expression they use, as it is translated by Luke into Greek, is a Hebraism, an idiom.  The sense is, We want you to promise us something.  When the Lord asks them what they wanted him to promise, they give a remarkable answer: “Grant that in your glory we may sit one at your right and the other at your left.”  The two Apostles are thinking of the Lord’s glory in Jerusalem after he has reestablished the Kingdom of Israel.  They want to rule with him.  Coming out of the blue, as it seems to, their expectation is shocking.  They had done nothing (that the Gospel writers tell us about) to make themselves notable among the other Apostles, and had demonstrated no especial leadership qualities.  All they had was their zeal.  While we learn from the Gospel of St. John that Jesus showed favor to John, they could not have read anything from that to allow them to think that their proposal to the Lord would be viewed favorably.  Their attempt to gain power in the kingdom they believed Jesus had come to restore comes across as reckless and reminds us of how they wished to call down destruction upon a Samaritan city that did not wish to receive them (cf. Luke 9, 54).  The Lord does not scold them for their presumptuous ambition.  Instead, he speaks to them calmly: “You do not know what you are asking.”  That is, his kingdom is not of this world.  But he does not send them away empty handed: “Can you drink the cup that I drink or be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?”  The Greek word translated here as “baptism” probably did not then have the meaning by which we understand it today.  The Greek word translates the ordinary Aramaic word for “washing”.  The Lord is here speaking in an idiom with them: Can you follow in my footsteps?  Can you undergo what I will?  They answer that they can.  The Lord then reveals to them something of the nature of what they are actually asking for, without realizing it: ranks in the kingdom in heaven which will be awarded by the Father.

The understandable indignation that set in among the Apostles when they became aware of what James and John were doing gives the Lord the opportunity to gather them together to teach them about what authority — which James and John had sought — meant in the true kingdom: “Whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all.”  Authority in his kingdom meant service — not power, as it did in the kingdoms of the world.  If they wondered about this, he could point to himself, their Lord: “For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.”  Note that Jesus uses a title that refers to his glory: “The Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven” (Daniel 7, 13).  If he, the Son of Man, has come to serve, then how much more those who wish to rule with him must serve.  This service rendered by the Son of Man would culminate in his giving his life “as a ransom for many”, the ultimate service. 

The Lord speaks about the power desired by the two Apostles as not worth having.  It lasts but a short time and, to go by history, often results in one’s own imprisonment or murder.  Instead, true glory is service according to the model of the Lord, the Son of Man.