Jacob and John ben Zavdi approached
Jesus , telling him, “Teacher, we want you to do whatever we ask you.”
Jesus told them,“What do you want done for you?” They told him, “Give us this: We sit, when you’re honored, one at your right, one at your left.”Jesus told them,
“You don’t realize what you ask. Can you drink the cup I drink, or be baptized with the baptism I’m baptized?” They told him, “We can.” Jesus told them,“The cup I drink, you’ll drink. The baptism I’m baptized, you’ll be baptized. To sit at my right or left: It’s not mine to give. It’s been prepared for others instead.” Hearing of this, the ten
other apostles began to be irritated with James and John. Summoning them, Jesus told them,
“You know those considered ‘princes’ of nations
became masters over them;
their ‘great ones’
hold power over them.
This way is not for you.
Instead, if one of you wants to become ‘great,’
you’ll be their servant.
If one of you wants to become a ‘prince,’
you’ll be everyone’s slave.
For the Son of Man didn’t come to be waited upon.
He came to wait upon you —
to give his soul to bail out many people.”
Positions in the Lord’s cabinet.
En route to Jerusalem, Jacob ben Zavdi (whom we know by his Latin name, James), and his brother John, came to Jesus with a special request: Once Jesus took his throne as Lord Messiah, they wanted to take the two topmost positions of honor. They wanted to be his right-hand (and left-hand) men.
You see, they were on the way to Jerusalem. According to the Pharisees, and their End Times Timeline, the Messiah was gonna go to Jerusalem, toss out whoever was running it (who, at the time, was Pontius Pilate) with the aid of ten thousand angels, re-establish the Kingdom of Israel, and take his throne. Even though Jesus had just told them again he was gonna die—in other words, their End Times Timeline was wrong—they were stubbornly stuck on the false belief things were right on schedule. Christians nowadays do the same thing with our own End Times Timelines, ’cause human behavior hasn’t changed much in the past 20 centuries.
The apostles already expected to be Jesus’s top guys. His cabinet, so to speak. And in every cabinet, there’s usually a right-hand man, the leader’s closest adviser. Depending on the king, this would either be a job with huge responsibilities, who pretty much ran the kingdom for him—or no responsibilities, who just palled around with the king, and the king did everything himself, and just bounce ideas off you. (Or the bureaucrats would do everything. Kingdoms varied.) Either way, people would respect you and suck up to you and ask favors of you. These would be the “great ones” in ancient kingdoms, the courtiers who pursued power and wielded influence. Sometimes these great ones would even inherit the kingdom when the king died, as the generals of Alexander the Great did. Though according to the Pharisees’ timeline, Messiah was never gonna die, so that was out. Even so, the right-hand position was a nice one.
If you don’t ask, you don’t receive.
Most Christians criticize James and John for asking for these spots. They figure the other ten apostles were offended at them for the same reasons. “How audacious of them,” we figure. “How presumptive. How arrogant. How prideful.”
But this is incorrect. This was a request. Arrogant, proud, audacious people never bother to ask. They just assume. They take things for granted. I’ve been involved in many an organization where people took for granted they’d be promoted: They put their time in, worked hard, and felt they deserved promotion. But they were passed up for one very simple reason: They didn’t ask to be promoted. The boss presumed they were just fine with where they were. (’Cause some of us are just fine where we are.) And those who did ask, received. If you don’t ask, there’s no guarantee you’ll receive. It’d be nice if that’s how the universe worked—but even God expects us to ask, and not just take his attention for granted.
Had James and John been presumptive, they’d have asked Jesus nothing. They’d figure, by merit of being Jesus’s students—and more, by being his first cousins on his mom’s side, or by Jesus likely living with their family, or by seeing Jesus transfigured, or by knowing Jesus longest—they deserved to sit at Jesus’s right and left, and shouldn’t have to ask for them.
But they didn’t. They asked. And good for them. No, they didn’t get what they asked for. No, they didn’t entirely understand what they were asking for, as Jesus pointed out. But he didn’t rebuke them. He simply told them it wasn’t up to him.
The other ten weren’t irritated because James and John had done evil. They were irritated because James and John had got to Jesus before they did. They were irritated because they wanted those top spots. When you’re sure you deserve something, and someone else steps in front of you and asks for it, your response is almost always, “Hey! That’s mine.” That’s human nature. The other apostles figured they deserved those positions of honor. Jesus had caught them arguing, in the past, more than once, about which of them was greatest. So they were irritated because they were outmaneuvered.
The top spots in the Kingdom.
But none of them understood how the Kingdom works. Even though Jesus had explained it with plenty of analogies, they were still thinking in terms of “great men” and princes, who gave orders and people unquestioningly obeyed.
In order to really understand how they were thinking, you have to stop thinking of democratic governments. Our idea of leaders as public servants, comes from that. Their idea of leaders is a lot closer to that of a crime boss, or drug lord: Everyone beneath him does exactly as he commands, and people die when they don’t. Now, the idea of a crime boss as a benevolent public servant is ridiculous; we all know any criminal who acts that way is only putting on a show, while deep down they’re a greedy, violent animal. This is why the Kingdom of God was such a hard idea for people back then. No kingdom worked like that. Not even democracies work like that.
So this is why Jesus’s kids struggled so much with his teachings. They figured Messiah would be benevolent—but only to them, and their fellow Jews, and not so much to the Romans. (Probably not to the Samaritans or Greeks either.) He’d have the power of life and death over his subjects. People would fear him, pay him homage, and let him do as he wished. In their minds, Jesus would be a way better despot than Herod or Ceasar, ’cause he was God’s anointed despot, and lived under the Law same as they. He’d be like King David without the bad parenting and murdering.
But the Kingdom does not work like that. And even though our democracies have benefited greatly by 20 centuries of Christian philosophy, even the best democracies don’t work like the Kingdom. Because even in our democracies, positions are based on political power or connections. But in the Kingdom, it’s entirely based on grace.
Positions in the Kingdom aren’t for the people who have been Christians longest, or who have their theology straightest. They’re reserved for people who give up their own lives for others, and serve them and help them and lift them up. Just as Jesus has, and is our best example of such behavior. That earns us prestige in the Kingdom. Nothing else does.
Jesus had to introduce the idea of public service—and of earning our positions in the Kingdom not through birth nor connections nor accidents of good fortune, but through good deeds. This isn’t how any kingdoms at all have ever worked, and darned few democracies reward good behavior as much as they reward the appearance of good behavior—much of which ain’t all that good.
Bottom-up leadership was, and in many ways still is, a foreign idea. It’s one many churches try to practice, though we tend far too often to promote people for talent, not for good deeds; for personal connections more so than good behavior. We’re working on it. And we suck. But we’re doing better than most organizations. And once Jesus takes over, the Kingdom will be all about promotion based on service.
So if you want to be anyone important in the Kingdom, start working for it now. Stop figuring your position in this world has anything at all to do with your position in the next. Talented speakers and writers, talented artists and musicians, all the folks who entertain Christians and make their churches aesthetically pleasing, yet do nothing else, will be nothing in the Kingdom.
But those who love one another, serve one another, help one another, do for one another—and it only requires a willingness to help, not expertise—are gonna be “great people” in the Kingdom. They’re gonna be put in charge because they’re the kind of leaders God wants. They’re not gonna sit on thrones and give orders; they’re gonna get off their thrones and clean toilets, when necessary.
Who’s gonna be Jesus’s right-hand guys? Those who follow his Father as close as he does, and serve people as Jesus serves people. Is that your ambition? It should be.