A Sermon delivered by Rev. Dr. Patrick H. Wrisley on Sunday, October 20, 2024.

The people who put together the lectionary has our reading start with verse 35 which really waters down the scene and makes it ho-hum. We will add in the paragraph they cut which sharpens the text immensely. We will begin with verse 32 instead of verse 35. Last week, we heard the story of the pious rich man who Jesus told to sell his property and give it to the poor. The rich man just could not do it. Last week’s story ends with Jesus’ words, “But many who are last will be first and the first will be last.” Then comes our text for today. Hear the Word of the Lord!

Mark 10:32-45

 ³²They 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, ³³saying, “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;³⁴they will mock him, and spit upon him, and flog him, and kill him; and after three days he will rise again.”

³⁵James 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.” ³⁶And he said to them, “What is it you want me to do for you?” ³⁷And they said to him, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” ³⁸But 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?” ³⁹They 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; ⁴⁰but 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.”

⁴¹When the ten heard this, they began to be angry with James and John.⁴²So 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. ⁴³But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, ⁴⁴and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. ⁴⁵For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.”^[1]

Let this scene sink in and marinate you for a moment. For the third time, and in much greater detail than the last two predictions, Jesus has announced his upcoming future. He reminds the disciples one of them will betray him by handing him over to the religious establishment who will condemn him to death. They, in turn, hand him over to the Gentiles – insert, “The Unclean Ones” – to do their dirty work so they can remain ritually pure. In a waterfall of cascading brutality, people will mock, spit, torture, and kill him. Jesus concludes his comments with a seven-word declaration of the Gospel which like everything else, flies over the disciples’ heads: After three days he will rise again.

Ponder a moment: Does it strike you a bit odd not one of the twelve ask Jesus, “Jesus, I’m just not getting it. Can you explain what you are talking about?” Instead, we have the Zebedee brothers brashly ask if they can be in charge when he comes into his own. Instead of asking for clarification, they are jockeying for power. Furthermore, they have the audacity to ask him in earshot of the other ten. That conversation went over pretty well, didn’t it? We get the feeling that this small group of future church leaders had splinter groups appearing from within. James’ and John’s request for power gives the impression they have by now disregarded Peter’s importance. To quote the title of Leonard Bernstein’s 1950 opera, “There’s Trouble in Tahiti!”

In reading the gospels, James and John have always seemed to come across as level-headed but then there is this. They just heard Jesus declare the first will be last and the last will be first and they not so much ask but demand, “Jesus, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.”

Really? Could you ever ask Jesus such a thing?

By this stage in the Story, Jesus has seen it all with the Twelve. The Twelve have been privately tutored by Jesus but they continue to show how obtuse they are. I imagine the scene went something like this –

“Hey Jesus, we want YOU to do whatever WE ask of you!”

Jesus furrows his brow and cocks one eye and replies, “And, pray tell, what is YOU want me to do for You?”

“WE want YOU to make us to be next in line to be in charge of the others!”

At this point, I can see Jesus stopping dead in his tracks and giving them a dogie head tilt – you know, that look a dog gives you when it’s really confused? Twisting his head looking at them and thinking to himself, “Did they really say what I THINK they said?” In essence, we need to hear Jesus’ next words as the dynamic equivalent of, “You are nuts! You have no idea what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup I am about to drink and are you able to be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?!”

Blissfully clueless as to what he was saying they reply, “Sure, we’re down for that!”

The cup Jesus was about to drink was the cup of suffering and pain he was about to endure at the hands of the religious and political empire. The baptism he was about to be baptized with was death by those empires. James and John nicknamed “The Sons of Thunder” have become nothing but blustery wind. Bless their heart and God love ‘em. New Testament scholar and professor of New Testament at Vanderbilt University, Amy-Jill Levine, writes, “Some things are incomprehensible: what remains vague in pronouncement can only be understood in personal experience.”^[2]

She is right. There are certain things in life you can learn about, but you only fully understand them once you experience them yourself. It is like your first kiss. You have seen how magical it looks on Disney’s Cinderella but until you finally have your first kiss, you have no idea what it is like. It is like going to seminary thinking you know what a pastor does. You learn the mechanics of doing a funeral but it is not until you stand at the graveside with parents who have lost a child do you really know what grief is like and how best to minister to them. It is like a young couple who find out the wife is pregnant. They are filled with excitement about the upcoming birth but it is not until she is in active labor that she really knows what pain really is. Okay, so maybe Jesus was just a bit more patient with the brother’s demands than I made him out to be.

Yet, if we are all honest, we must admit that we have asked the same of Jesus as they did in some form or another. Each of us have looked heavenward and have humbly asked, demanded vociferously, or cried out, “Jesus, I want you to do this for me!” All of us make demands upon God to intervene in our life and world in some way. Hopefully, the demands we place upon God are not a brash desire for power like theirs, but we all ask Jesus for something sometime. I suppose the Zebedee brothers are a good reminder to be thoughtful about what we ask for from the Lord. They do remind us to be bold in our requests as well but perhaps with not as much hubris in the asking. Our scripture text this morning teaches us three important lessons for our takeaway.

We can approach God boldly in prayer.

Sometimes the best prayer is when no words no words are said. It is helpful to understand prayer as our consciously entering the awareness of God’s presence. No words are really necessary.

Finally, when we are through praying, we go to serve and love others as Jesus loved and served us.

That pretty much sums up what it means to follow Jesus and live a “good Christian life.” It’s pretty simple and that is the irony. It is simple but it is hard as heck to do it. Just ask Peter, James, and John.

The Spirit add understanding to these words in ways we each need to hear them. Amen.

© October 20, 2024, by Patrick H. Wrisley. Sermon manuscripts are available for the edification of members and friends of First Presbyterian Church of Glens Falls, NY, and not be altered, re-purposed, published, or preached without permission. All rights reserved.

[1] The New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, 1995 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved

[2]The Gospel of Mark: A Beginner’s Guide to the Good News by Amy-Jill Levine (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2023). See https://a.co/cgB5qsw.