Grace to you and peace from God our creator and from our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, Amen.
“Be careful what you wish for.” We all know stories that have this as it’s lesson - once wished for, having what we desire seems awesome at the start, but we find out that there tends to be pesky, unforeseen consequences. While most of these stories include a magical element - a creature or item that grants these wishes, occasionally we find that this can still happen to us out in the real world - we finally receive something that we had been coveting for a long time… only to find out that it’s not quite as amazing as we had hoped.
In a way, James and John may have felt as though they had stumbled into something too good to be true. They had been following a man who so far had been doing AMAZING things – healing people from their illnesses, casting out unclean spirits, walking on water, feeding thousands of people with very little, and flouting the authority of those in power to turn the world upside down. And THESE two, James and John – just two sons of a fisherman – got to be a part of the inner circle! This was THEIR ticket to be SOMEBODY when the world told them they were NOBODIES. They finally had ARRIVED!
Well… not quite. Jesus and his disciples were
on their way to Jerusalem, where they thought Jesus was going there to
be crowned a king. Because that’s what usually happens – a king goes to
Jerusalem to be anointed and recognized to rule. But actually, Jesus was going
to Jerusalem to die… and actually, he has been pretty upfront about this
the whole time. In the verses prior to this, Jesus said, “See, we are going up
to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and
the scribes, and they will condemn him to death; then they will hand him over
to the Gentiles; they will mock him, and spit upon him, and flog him, and kill
him; and after three days he will rise again.” Seems pretty straightforward.
But all John and James heard must have been something like “Bla Bla going to Jerusalem … bla bla after 3 days, rise again.
They must have thought “OOOOH yes, king
time!” And THIS was their chance to ask for prime spots in the new regime. The
left hand and right hand were reserved for only the next most powerful people,
like joint chiefs of staff. It wasn’t enough for them, apparently, for the
privilege to follow him and hear his most exclusive teachings. They wanted
more. They wished to be able to do what Jesus did… and they missed the fact
that Jesus was going to suffer and die.
But Jesus DOES grant them their wish… sort of. James and John DID get PART of what they wanted… after Jesus’s death and resurrection, they went on to proclaim the coming of his kingdom, and they DID give their lives for it – meaning they drank the same cup and were baptized with the same baptism as Jesus. It wasn’t what they THOUGHT they were going to get… but likely, by the end of their lives, they realized that what they GOT was infinitely better that what they had WISHED for.
If you remember the last time you went to
a baptism, you might have heard the pastor talking about how we have died with
Christ in his death, and we are raised with Christ in his resurrection. When
Jesus refers to his baptism, he is not talking about the day he was baptized in
the river with John the Baptist. He’s talking about his upcoming death. In
Luther’s Small Catechism, Luther writes that baptism “signifies that the old
person with all sins and evil desires is … die daily…. And … that daily a new
person is to rise up to live before God…”
Likewise, in the garden of Gethsemane, alone in the darkness before his passion began, Jesus prays that the cup might pass from him… not a cup of fine wine decorated in gold befitting a king, but the cup that Jesus is to drink from is his suffering and death. Jesus DID drink from this cup, handed himself over to the power of death, was tortured and mocked, and finally hung on a cross. And two people WERE on Jesus’ right and left hands…. But not James and John, but instead criminals condemned to a shameful death, as Jesus was.
In
the world’s eye, this Jesus was a failure – he hung out with the people nobody else
wanted to be around. No fancy buildings were named after him. He didn't write a
best-selliing book. Instead, he was murdered by the state as an enemy… but that
was not the end of the story. As Jesus himself said, on the third day, he would
rise. And we who follow Jesus, who are baptized into the death AND resurrection
of Jesus, ALSO receive this abundant and eternal life.
The
last thing the world needs is another kingdom built in the image of James and
John, built in the image of the powers of this world. What we need, Jesus
proves, is a Kin-dom – of K-I-N, where we are all remember and act like are kin,
we are family to one another, instead of lord it over one another as the powers
of the world do.
Following
Jesus means that we take up our cross. Following Jesus means that whoever will
be first must be last. Following Jesus means prioritizing the least likely to
reciprocate. Following Jesus means success often looks like failure.
Be
careful what you wish for, because with Jesus, you just might get it. And more
than you ever expected. More discomfort, but more growth, more love, and more
joy, more life. Thanks be to God, Amen.
