Job 38:1-7, (34-41) Psalm 104:1-9, 25, 37b Hebrews 5:1-10 Mark 10:35-45

Whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant.

Mark 10:43

The disciples James and John of Zebedee imagine themselves in the Kingdom of God, seated in greatness at the right and left of the throne of glory – the throne inhabited by Jesus, their earthly leader and teacher whom they followed and adored. The brothers are riding high in their self-importance; they think they’ve got whatever it takes; they wish to share in the glory and adoration of the everlasting kingdom, seated one at the right and one at the left of Jesus.

Jesus’ response is bewildering, though not uncommon that Jesus would answer a question with a question. James and John are speaking of a throne, and Jesus, enigmatically, begins speaking of a cup and baptism. “Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” [Mark 10:38]

The cup – surely that is the cup that we read of in Psalm 23… the cup that runneth over with joy and salvation? And, the Baptism. Is that the baptism where the voice of God came from heaven as Jesus came up out of the water of the River Jordan and the Holy Spirit descended in the dove? A quite magnificent and inspiring show of God’s power and glory. Yes, that’s the baptism we each imagine for ourselves. James and John are truly star-struck at the thought of it all.

We shake our heads and sneer as did the other ten disciples at the arrogance of James and John.

And, yet, isn’t it true that we enter into our life with Jesus Christ with the similar unrealistic expectations as did James and John – expectations of grand seats of honor, expectations of our cup ever-overflowing with the joy of our salvation? And, don’t we mostly expect our baptism to promise us a life of magnificence in the awesome presence of the Holy Spirit? Certainly, we have this expectation for the Church, the Body of Christ, which we share.

So why is it that life is so hard? Why is it that following Jesus Christ doesn’t always feel like an overflowing cup of joy? Perhaps even James and John have begun to recognize the difficulties of discipleship; perhaps their show of bravado is actually a show of desperation in seeking some assurance of glorious rewards and security upon the completion of their earthly discipleship.

Life is hard as we work toward full acceptance of the life of sacrifice of self for others. Life is hard as we accept the transformation into servanthood that discipleship demands. Self-sacrifice as a disciple of Jesus Christ is a life of service that lives into the unfolding of the reign of God. We, the Church, are after all, a human relationship; we are sinners seeking to serve one another to the glory of Jesus Christ. We are sinners in need of one another’s grace and mercy; that doesn’t change just because we walk in through these doors.

So, it seems this cup of which Jesus speaks is the cup described in other psalms and in the ominous words of the prophets – the cup of woe and suffering – the cup that Jesus pleads with the Father to remove from him in the garden just hours before the Crucifixion. This is the cup from which we commit to drink as followers of Jesus Christ.

In their euphoric and idealistic state, James and John are not considering this more ominous image of the cup – the cup that would be “poured out for many” – the cup of the blood of Christ. James and John do not yet understand this connotation of the cup; neither do they understand the full expanded meaning of baptism – the going down to death in the grave, the overcoming of death, and the emerging to life again.

The cup of which Jesus was to drink would be the cup of condemnation, humiliation, and death; his life a ransom for many. If we are to follow Jesus, we too drink of this cup. Jesus’ baptism, like our baptism, is symbolic of that death. We die that death to our old selves, but as we are brought up out of the waters of our baptism, we are assured of our everlasting salvation in our new life in Christ – a life of self-sacrificing servanthood, not as an end in itself, but a life with Christ that unfolds for ALL the reign of God.

Jesus’ disciples were to drink of the cup of which Jesus would drink and be baptized in his baptism. Each disciple would become infamous in greatness by becoming a servant to all, martyred for that servanthood.
But, even Jesus himself could not grant James and John the honor of being seated at his right and his left in his moment of greatest glory. In one of the greatest of all ironies, it would be two bandits mocking Jesus as he hung bleeding and dying on the cross who would be forever seared in our memory as those granted the honor of being at the right and left hand of Christ – the cup poured out for all.

Whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all.

Mark 10:44