I have a literature degree. Part of what I have been trained to do throughout my life is to read texts closely, dissect them for meaning, and look in every word and phrase for connections to the rest of the text. That’s why, the last time we had this text in 2021, my eyes were opened to what I thing Jesus is really trying to tell us.
When James and John, the Sons of Thunder, come and ask to sit on Jesus’ right and left, many commentators will veer off into the significance of sitting at the monarch’s right and left hands. We get a run down of supposed advisors who get to sit next to the monarch. We also get to hear that those at the right and left would take up the mantle of the movement if the predictions Jesus was making about his impending death came true. Now, I am not going to dispute these things. They may well be true or not, but those answers are above my pay grade. I can read between the lines though.
First, we need to remember that Gospels, in their original contexts were not tools for conversion. Rarely in Antiquity would someone have had the chance to read a Gospel apart from the context of a religious service much less to be convinced of the truth of the claims in that Gospel. Certainly, no one would stand on a street corner passing out hundreds of copies trying to convert people. Gospels were meant to strengthen the faith of people who already believed in the communities in which they were written, and the Gospel writers assumed their books would be read over and over and over again.
So in this week’s Gospel passage, James and John ask, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” Jesus answers “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?” They answer “We are able.” Then Jesus makes the turn: “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 hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.” (emphasis added by me)
Mark writes this passage which is dripping with irony. We know, as good, repeated readers of Mark’s Gospel, that James and John are four chapters away from abandoning Jesus as he is lead away from Gethsemane. They are not there when Jesus is charged, convicted, and crucified. They are not even there for the Resurrection – only the women are. Jesus is predicting that one day they will follow him in drinking this cup and being baptized in this baptism, but not yet. Jesus is referencing the bandits who will be crucified with him. He isn’t speaking about that glorious kingdom that is to come at the end of the age.
Jesus’ glory is ironic. His glory is abandonment and condemnation. His glory is the cross. His glory is to stand toe-to-toe with the powers of this world – Sin, Death, Violence, Empire – and say no more; it ends with me. Jesus’ glory is to stay faithful to the mission of the redemption of the world to the end. In Jesus’ glory, the powers of this world said ‘No’ to the salvation of God. God, however, said ‘Yes’ to Jesus and raised him to prove what the Kingdom looks like; to show what true glory is.
We, too, are to join in this mission. Each one of us is called in our own way to stand up in the world on the side of God, following Jesus in the power of the Spirit. We need not have all the answers or know what the end game is, but we are called to take our place in God’s YES to love, mercy, kindness, justice, and peace. How will that look for you today? Tomorrow? Next week, month, and year? When we join God’s mission – when we ask to drink the cup and to be baptized – we don’t know what we are asking or what kind of glory we are signing up for. Thanks be to God.
St. Augustine's Chapel 