Mark 10:35-45 (NRSV)
Read Mark 10:35-45 on biblegateway.com
Verse 35James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came forward to him and said to him, "Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you." Verse 36And he said to them, "What is it you want me to do for you?" Verse 37And they said to him, "Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory." Verse 38But Jesus said to them, "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?" Verse 39They replied, "We are able." Then Jesus said to them, "The cup that I drink you will drink; and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized; Verse 40but 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."
Verse 41When the ten heard this, they began to be angry with James and John. Verse 42So Jesus called them and said to them, "You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. Verse 43But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, Verse 44and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. Verse 45For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many."
Devotion
“Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, to your glory.” The type of request similar to Peter Block description of “problem solving” questions “with little power” (in his Community: A Structure of Belonging, 2008). It pretends to be to the “glory” of someone else, but actually reflects an agenda of maintaining dominance. It is an effort to solve existing problems of power, but really carries no power of creating an alternative future.
“Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” A question of possibility with great power to transform. A question that, in answering it, evoke a choice for accountability and commitment. A kind of question that reminds of what Godwin Hlatshwayo once said: “Questions are fateful. They determine destinations. They are the chamber through which destiny calls.” The quick “we are able” response is one that asks of you to become a participant in the possibilities of God’s future as soon as you have responded.
Prayer
We find ourselves, too soon and too often, allied with earthliness: We pant after commodities, we look for quick fixes, we lust after pure well-being. And then you come, our true and only partner, you snatch us from deathliness, you nullify our phony covenants, and invite us to our proper fidelity. Amen.
(From a Walter Brueggemann class prayer on October 30, 2001.)