THE PRICE OF POSITION
5 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 n Mark 10:35-40
James and John were shrewd. Instead of being part of a squabble for the position of prime minister, they stood together and went straight to Jesus. Since arguing got them nowhere, they decided to secure their position by going right to the top. Reading their request leaves one with a feeling of outrage. They were bold and blatant and without any shame over their arrogance. They were not yet ECHAD!
Jesus seemed unfazed by their request but He was certainly aware of their naivety regarding their sense of top position. They thought it came by appointment. Jesus knew that it came through sacrifice, submission and suffering. He called it a “baptism”, and “drinking a cup”. These are concepts deeply rooted in the Old Testament. “Drinking the cup” was associated with God’s wrath over national and personal disobedience and sin. Baptism was a ritual washing to initiate a person into something.
For Jesus, baptism initiated Him into identity with the human race, including God’s judgment, and “drinking the cup” referred to His taking the wrath of God and the punishment for the sin of the whole world. According to Paul in Phil 2:6-11, Jesus would ultimately be accorded the place of highest honour because of His obedience to the Father from His place in heaven to death on a cross.
How could James and John be a part of that? How brash they were in boasting that they could drink of that cup and share in that baptism. What did they know, at that point, of the cost to Jesus? They refused to listen when He tried to tell them. Sadly, Jesus acknowledged that they would be part of that price in the future, not to secure God’s forgiveness but to spread the news to the ends of the earth. James would pay with his life before he even left Jerusalem. John would experience persecution and exile on a lonely island for the sake of the Master and His message.
Their request was evidence of their immature understanding but Jesus left it at that. He knew that life and experience under the tutorship of the Holy Spirit, would eventually lead them to understand the truth.