35 Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him. “Teacher,” they said, “we want you to do for us whatever we ask.”
36 “What do you want me to do for you?” he asked.
37 They replied, “Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory.”
38 “You don’t know what you are asking,” Jesus said. “Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?”
39 “We can,” they answered. Jesus said to them, “You will drink the cup I drink and be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with,
40 but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared.”
41 When the ten heard about this, they became indignant with James and John.
42 Jesus called them together and said, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them.
43 Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant,
44 and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all.
45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Jesus answers James & John's request without really addressing the heart issues that motivated that request. He lets the situation play out in the whole group before getting them together to address the issue of ambition / ego in the Kingdom of God. To our natural way of thinking, the point of greatness is to serve us - to feed our ego or satisfy our lust for power or to provide material comforts. In the Kingdom of God the manifestation of greatness is serving others.
It's interesting the way Jesus lets the whole group get involved in the dispute before He exposes the difference between natural and Kingdom thinking. Maybe if He dealt with it with James and John immediately the other 10 would have felt quite self-righteous and maintained an indignance with James & John. By letting them buy into the dispute, Jesus demonstrated that we all suffer from the same disease - we are all in it for ourselves and we get upset when others try get in ahead of us! James and John weren't alone in what their hearts desired, they just had the confidence / naivety to go after it!
Reflection
What behaviours from others grate on me? How does that speak to my own heart condition?
How am I leading groups to discover their "natural" patterns and helping them to learn & apply biblical, "Kingdom of God" ones?
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