20 Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came to him with her sons, and kneeling before him, she asked a favor of him. 21 And he said to her, “What do you want?” She said to him, “Declare that these two sons of mine will sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom.” 22 But Jesus answered, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink?” They said to him, “We are able.” 23 He said to them, “You will indeed drink my cup, but to sit at my right hand and at my left, this is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.”
24 When the ten heard it, they were angry with the two brothers. 25 But Jesus called them to him and said, “You know that the rulers of the gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. 26 It will not be so among you, but whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, 27 and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave, 28 just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many.”
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James and John had pretty good opinions of themselves. And why not? After all, they were among the chosen Twelve, chosen personally by Jesus to be his disciples. Jesus took them along when he went into the home of Jairus to cure the man’s daughter. More impressively, they, along with Peter, were invited to accompany Jesus to the mountaintop to witness Jesus’s transfiguration and conversation with Moses and Elijah. According to Luke, they were the ones who were in charge of preparing the Passover Meal the night before Jesus’s crucifixion.
It’s not surprising then, that when Jesus talks about the coming kingdom, they expect special treatment.
Their mistake is in thinking that Jesus’s kingdom will be like every other earthly kingdom. They have still not been able to grasp that Jesus’s kingdom is entirely different than the kingdom’s of Caesar or Herod.
Jesus’s kingdom is an upside-down, inside-out kingdom. The kingdoms of earth operate by layers of competition to get ahead, to get to the top, to stay on top.
We’ve experienced or observed that since kindergarten. Who gets picked first to be on a team? It shouldn’t matter. A team is supposed to be a group that cooperates with each other. But it doesn’t start out that way: it begins as a competition. The competition, the mantra of “We’re #1!,” the distribution of grades on report cards, the desire to support one’s self and one’s family—all depend on competing with others to get ahead of other people. We have to get there before somebody else does. We have to get something before somebody else gets it. That’s the way the world works.
Martin Luther, in the 16th Century, tried to figure out how we could understand the difference between the kingdoms, the governments of the earth and the kingdom of God. Nowadays we say we Christians are “in the world, but not of the world.” We have to live in a world that is dangerous, corrupt, evil, frightening, confusing. But we can live in that world with an attitude, with a motive that is the opposite of the greedy, get-what-you can rules of economic, political and social systems.
That is what Jesus explained to James and John. This was not the first time Jesus had tried to teach his disciples and all his followers about a new way of living. And none of us will ever hear it often enough, either.
“You know that the rulers of the gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. 26 It will not be so among you, but whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, 27 and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave, 28 just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many.”
“…whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant…”
Not first in line. Not the best. Not the brightest. Not the richest. Not the most powerful. The only order of organization in the Kingdom of God begins at the bottom—-and stays there.
When we pray, “Thy kingdom come,” we aren’t thinking of a calendar date a year or a century for now. We pray for our own selves to live in the kingdom as we serve each other, as we serve our brothers and sisters who live among us.
Yes, we live in the world, but we can live in the kingdom at the same time. The constitutions, the by-laws, the proclamations of businesses and governments keep order, but are ultimately uneven and unfair. A law that benefits one person will usually harm another person.
In the Kingdom of God, no one is harmed because everyone is deserving of help. Jesus set the standard for us:
Phillipians 2 5 Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, 7 but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, 8 he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death— even death on a cross.
One of my favorite stories of Jesus is the story of him washing the feet of his disciples before supper. This was usually the job of a slave and it was part of the routine of visiting someone’s house. Feet were filthy from walking among people and animals all day. Jesus graciously, without comment, without looking around, without chastising the host, knelt in front of each disciple, dipped each foot in a bowl of water, caressed it, and then carefully dried it off with a towel. One after another.
We honor that loving act on Maundy Thursday each year. But that is a mere symbol of the acts we do for the love of Jesus. To serve as Jesus serves is to serve with love and mercy and grace. We don’t serve because we have to serve or because it’s expected of us. When we serve, we are filled with love. Not sympathy, not pity, not disgust, not self-righteousness. When we serve, we are filled with love. And that’s how the kingdom spreads from one person to another, because love cannot be contained.
James and John did go on to serve, to follow in Jesus’s footsteps. May we follow in their footsteps, letting the love of the Holy Spirit guide us to love others through our words and thoughts and actions. Amen.
Some Kind of Faith 