Two Brothers With An Agenda

Two brothers walk up to Jesus. It sounds like the beginning of a joke doesn’t it? Two brothers, often referred to as the sons of thunder, walk up to Jesus. It was just after the third time he shared that crazy statement about going to Jerusalem to die. They knew he was just trying to scare off the less committed followers. They felt they really knew him so as they were walking up to Jerusalem they come up beside him. Speaking almost in a whisper so the other guys in the entourage wouldn’t hear. Hey Jesus…

This is where we pick it up in the scriptures. Peter recalls the moment in Mark 10:35….

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.”

I really love the moment in verse 38 when Jesus doesn’t say “sure” or turn and say, “What is wrong with you two knuckleheads?” Jesus does what he has done so many times he answers a question with a question. He says in today's vernacular - “Are you sure? Do you realize the cost of asking?” The words ‘cup’ and ‘baptism’ that follow get overlooked in our twenty-first century context. In Jesus time, the items were known to represent suffering and sacrifice. They might have believed Jesus was asking them are your ready to carry the burden of leading a nation. But Jesus was asking so much more.

How many times have you made a commitment without fully realizing the time and resources it would take to complete?

My wife and I were married with no children for seven years. I can remember during those first seven years deciding to get a puppy for my wife for her birthday. We had already been in a few shops but she had no idea because I told her I was allergic to cats and dogs. So when I brought the dog home she was so surprised. It was glorious for few moments until you realize all the stuff you have to buy and the vet bills. However, after a while we forgot about all that because of the joy. And then we decided to have a child. We didn’t think it would be much different. I can remember talking to people with children and arrogantly saying our lives wouldn’t change much more. The truth is I never thought of the costs - time, talent, resources and lowering of one’s pride.

The truth is we all do it and somewhere in the journey of completing the task we look back on the moment we said yes. In the case of James and John, it probably happened often. And I think they would have replayed verse 38 over and over again in their heads.

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?”

James and John probably replayed those words a hundred times. James as he endured the torture that led to his beheading. John probably even more as he reflected on the two men who hung on either side of Jesus before he went to the grave. He probably replayed the words each time he heard of each of the original disciples dying a martyr's death.

He probably thought about that moment before they tried to kill him by putting him in boiling oil.

Each time people looked at Him later in life.

Each time they read his prophecy about the end times. Each time he read Proverbs 16:18: