For He Did Not Come to be Served

A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Mark:

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.”

As Jesus was journeying to Jerusalem to die, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to ask Him a favor.

James and John were the Sons of Thunder, firebrands, men who played everything to the hilt. Simon Peter was the loudmouth who always had to get in the last word, but James and John gave Simon Peter a run for his money. James and John were the ones who asked Jesus’s permission to call down fire from Heaven to burn the Samaritans that did not welcome them; that’s how zealous they were about people who snub Jesus.  But they were also the ones who will go with Jesus all the way to Gethsemane, only to fall asleep when he’d like company. They were that sort of friend.

James and John came to Jesus to ask a special favor. “Grant that in your glory, we may sit one on your right and the other on your left.”

Matthew recorded this same question in his gospel, but claimed it was actually the mother of Zebedee’s sons who asked; maybe he wanted to spare the apostles’ feelings by telling the story that way, or maybe Mark wanted to spare their mother. Or, maybe the question was asked more than once, by different people. But in any case, somebody in Zebedee’s family asked that the Son of Man would sit the Sons of Thunder to His right and left, in His glory.

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?”

“We can,” said the Sons of Thunder, but they couldn’t. They would scatter and run with the other apostles when the time came.

“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.”

The other ten apostles were indignant at the Zebedee family, whoever it might have been. How dare they ask a special favor, to be better than all the other apostles?  Simon Peter is clearly the Lord’s favorite, or at least he postures himself as the favorite. Good old Judas is the one that Jesus trusts with the money purse, so he must be the most trustworthy of all. The other Simon is literally a zealot, but now they’re trying to out-zeal him again. Who do they think they are?

Jesus puts a stop to their quarreling with a mystery: “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.”

This is the rule that Jesus established for all time: those who would be great in the Kingdom of God are not the showoffs who declare their love the loudest and demand great things. The greatest are the the slaves of all, who spend their time caring for others, as Jesus Himself did. The Church is not to have princes and emperors, but servants. By this you will know the true followers of Christ.

And Jesus went on to Jerusalem, to give His life as a ransom for many.

He went on to be baptized with the blood and filth and sand and spittle of a Roman Crucifixion, to drink the gall and vinegar, to accept the very worst death a prisoner could die, because that is what human beings chose to do when confronted with a God who came to serve.

When He was lifted up on the cross, the junction of Heaven and Earth, on Calvary where the gates of hell were broken and Mankind was reconciled to the Father, two were chosen to be lifted up on His right and on His left. They were robbers and murderers, the worst of sinners. One sinner repented and joined Jesus in paradise. The other sinner reviled Him, and what became of that man, we don’t know.

When the Son of Man died, there was a great noise of thunder, and darkness covered the land.

The Sons of Thunder went out to preach this new Gospel of love and service and giving one’s life as a ransom for many. James would be the first of the Apostles to be martyred, beheaded by Herod Agrippa. John would die last, in exile on the island of Patmos. That was how they joined the Lord in glory.

For the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve.

Mary Pezzulo is the author of Meditations on the Way of the Cross, The Sorrows and Joys of Mary, and Stumbling into Grace: How We Meet God in Tiny Works of Mercy.