James And John Call "shot Gun"

“James and John Call ‘Shotgun!!!’”

Mark 10:35-45

Did anyone else grow up calling “shotgun” when heading toward the car you were about to ride in?

If you called “shotgun,” you got the privilege to sit in the passenger seat in front, next to the driver.

And the first one to call shotgun got it.

Of course, someone would always say, “You already sat in the front last time,” and sometimes we would wrestle, for the fun of it, as we fought to sit in the front.

In this morning’s Gospel Lesson, James and John are sort of calling “shotgun” in the sense that they are trying to vie for the best seats next to Jesus when He is “glorified.”

The funny and, I suppose, sad thing about all this is that they have no idea what they are asking.

Jesus has just told the disciples, for the third time, what is going to happen in Jerusalem.

“We are going up to Jerusalem,” Jesus tells His disciples beginning in verse 33, “and [I] will be delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law.

They will condemn [Me] to death and will hand [Me] over to the Gentiles, who will mock [Me] and spit on [Me], flog [Me] and kill [Me].

Three days later [I] will rise from the dead.”

But the disciples appear to have missed everything.

And if we are honest with ourselves, don’t we all?

It doesn’t sink in.

We don’t put it into practice.

We forget and jostle for first place!

A decade or so ago a famous actress received an award—and I can’t remember her name—but in her acceptance speech she told the audience, “I want you to know that Jesus had absolutely nothing to do with my winning this award!”

This made some Christians livid!!!

One Church even took out a full-page add in the New York Times for which they paid hundreds of thousands of dollars—condemning the actresses’ words.

Is that humility?

Is that Christ-like?

Often, I hear Christ-followers complain that their rights are being trampled on by non-believers—or they demand their rights, sometimes in violent scenarios or in courtrooms.

Since when did Christians have rights?

And when did Jesus instruct us to “spank the world” because it doesn’t believe the way we do.

Since when do guns and a political candidate have anything to do with Christianity???

Jesus said to His disciples, “Your rulers lord it over the people they govern, and they take things by force—

exercising authority over people, but this is not the way it is going to be for you.

“Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all.”

It’s hard to have less rights than a slave.

We are told in verse 35: “Then James and John…came to him.

‘Teacher we want you to do for us whatever we ask.’”

And Jesus patiently responds, “What do you want me to do for you?”

“They replied, ‘Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory.”

James and John are thinking that Jesus’ glory involves worldly power.

They think He will be politically lifted up.

They expect Him to rule over Israel like a worldly king.

Kind of like a Christian Nationalist.

And James and John want in on the power that they assume Jesus wants as well.

“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?’”

“We can,” they replied not understanding a bit of what Jesus is talking about.

The cup Jesus will drink from is His unimaginable pain and ultimately death.

The baptism means, in a very real way, that Jesus will feel as though He is drowning in sorrow and suffering.

And little do they know that Jesus’ glory is the Cross.

And those who do end up at Jesus’ right and left in glory are a couple of thieves who share His same fate.

We need to be careful what we ask for, do we not?

“Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?”

Our Gospel Lesson for this morning points out our need to recognize how easy it is to give lip service to an idea, and how difficult it is to live out the actual requirement of discipleship, which is complete submission to God.

Do we ask that our lives “give glory to God,” yet avoid the giving up of self for the sake of others?

Some of Jesus’ final words to His disciples, and thus to us who want to follow Him was this: “A new command I give you; Love one another.