Matthew 20:20-28
American Standard Version
Then came to Him the mother of the sons of Zebedee with her sons, worshipping Him, and asking a certain thing of Him.
And He said unto her, What wouldest thou?
She saith unto Him, Command that these my two sons may sit, one on thy right hand, and one on thy left hand, in thy kingdom.
But Jesus answered and said, Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink the cup that I am about to drink?
They say unto Him, We are able.
He saith unto them, My cup indeed ye shall drink: but to sit on my right hand, and on my left hand, is not mine to give; but it is for them for whom it hath been prepared of my Father.
And when the ten heard it, they were moved with indignation concerning the two brethren.
But Jesus called them unto Him, and said, Ye know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. Not so shall it be among you: but whosoever would become great among you shall be your minister; and whosoever would be first among you shall be your servant: even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many.
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Mark 10:35
And there come near unto him James and John, the sons of Zebedee, saying unto him, Teacher, we would that thou shouldest do for us whatsoever we shall ask of thee.
And he said unto them, What would ye that I should do for you?
And they said unto Him, Grant unto us that we may sit, one on thy right hand, and one on thy left hand, in thy glory.
But Jesus said unto them, Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink the cup that I drink? or to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?
And they said unto him, We are able.
And Jesus said unto them, The cup that I drink ye shall drink; and with the baptism that I am baptized withal shall ye be baptized: but to sit on my right hand or on my left hand is not mine to give; but it is for them for whom it hath been prepared.
And when the ten heard it, they began to be moved with indignation concerning James and John.
And Jesus called them to him, and saith unto them, Ye know that they who are accounted to rule over the Gentiles lord it over them; and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it is not so among you: but whosoever would become great among you, shall be your minister; and whosoever would be first among you, shall be servant of all. For the Son of man also came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many.
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So no one's mind gets sidetracked, I will mention a couple things first. Mark's mom was a prominent follower of Jesus ...and her house in Jerusalem was was used as a common meeting place (Acts 12:12). In Acts, Chapter 15, it shows that the apostle Paul was traveling much with Barnabas ...then in verses 36-41, there was a disagreement as to whether to include young Mark. Paul then traveled with Silas ...and Barnabas seemed to think well of mentoring Mark. Apparently Mark was good at both speech and writing, so it is believed he wrote things down as he was told by witnesses of events ...so, perhaps the apostle Matthew gave more extensive detail, and we do not have disagreement between the Gospels of Mark and Matthew.
(But, a more interesting note to me is the three verses just before the ones I just listed: They were on their way up to Jerusalem, with Jesus leading the way, and the disciples were astonished, while those who followed were afraid. Again he took the Twelve aside and told them what was going to happen to him. “We are going up to Jerusalem,” he said, “and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles, who will mock him and spit on him, flog him and kill him. Three days later he will rise.”)
So, my observation is that Jesus just told them about how violently the leaders were going to stand against Him, orchestrating and witnessing His death ...yet, what is the present focus and primary concern of the mom and her sons? I don't see the focus being on His horrific death, but on their status when He rises again.
And my main question is: Do we see similarities of this, not so much viewing where we will sit or stand in Heaven, but where we stand here on earth?
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I'm going to back up a bit:
For Adam & Eve, it wasn't good for them to want the fruit off that one tree. God made it clear not to eat of the 'tree of knowledge of good and evil'.
But, there are other things that God does not forbid ...that we feel are good things. We see no wrong with wanting those good things.
And I am mostly in the company of believers, so we agree that it would be good to be in God's direct presence, and that He wants that for us too. And it is provided for those who desire it, not rejecting what God has provided.
I am speaking in generalities because that is where I believe we should begin. And as I see it ...it is good to want to sit in God's presence. So, what is wrong with what was asked by the apostles/or in behalf of the apostles, wanting to sit on His left or His right?
I know this is an aside, and of course I don;t know how it will be, but I don't read of Jesus sitting much when He came to earth as man. Why do we imagine Him sitting on a throne? Well, perhaps because many verses mention that language. Yet, 'seated' also means 'positionally'. He is the 'King of Kings' ...yet, by their understood meaning of 'king', god never wanted Israel to have a king. It meant a hierarchy to them, and so much that God wanted nothing to do with. Remember the response Jesus gave to the question of the apostles ...that rulers lord it over their people, and the high officials exercise authority. And the apostles were certainly witnessing that ...and would soon experience it even more intensely. Jesus gave a very direct response in saying, "Not so with you."
Jesus is supposed to be Lord of us all ...and we are equal in His eyes, regardless how the world views us.
God did specify who He spoke through ...and the prophets were acknowledged, though it seemed that during the times when the prophet did not speak ..they were seemingly content that the prophet was not speaking. They had their own ideas, and like we often are ...they didn't really want to hear it.
That seemed to be the case with some of the prophets too ...after all, they were humans too. We recall, with clear direction from God, Jonah clearly had his own ideas. Yet, when any of us mess up, it is more important how we respond afterwards.
Back to the apostles ...why is it wrong to want to sit next to Jesus? We see paintings of depictions of how John would sit next to Jesus, and lean against Him, as a loving child may do with his earthly father ...how much more special with our Lord. Are we to assume that when the apostles ate that they had a set seating arrangement?
(Don't we sometimes see that in churches today? Not so much a seating arrangement ...I have never seen that. I sit in the back, yet that doesn't mean I love the Pastor less than those sitting in front of me. And if someone sits where I normally sit, I sit somewhere else. Once I even sat halfway to the front ...though it didn't make me feel different, I just felt I was blocking other people from seeing, as me and my family are above average height.)
If there were assigned seats, and it was clearly status oriented, I would not feel right. And I don't think Jesus felt it was right either when those apostles coveted special status. Remember again what He said ..."Not so with you."
But, there was also reference to those with whom it was common ...and it was not only common back then, it is also common today.
It is way too common for an elite status to be coveted. We should 'desire' things of God ...but to 'covet' usually means that we desire something that doesn't belong to us, or that we shouldn't have (because we don't have it, and there's a reason for that).
The same angel who coveted something that wasn't for him to have ...also tempted Eve with the same sort of covetousness, adding deception to it by claiming a dishonest ulterior motive.
Jesus said the chief priest and teachers of the law where going to turn Him over to be killed. I don't see how anyone could covet their position so much so ...that they would desire it at the expense of someone else's life. (Well, not in the church ...that is how organized crime often works.)
Yet, we can still stay within the law, and appear loving (not seemingly harming anyone ...at least not physically). And yet, we can still covet a position that is inclusive of building our own agenda ...with our own 'teachers of our laws'.
It is so very fragile. I understand how it often begins. Think of someone who goes to another country ...a country that perhaps is visualized as being rather uncivilized. Perhaps the people have a difficult life ...one that is perhaps forced upon them. They may fear that if they take a stance, worse things will happen to them. That is very difficult to try to help them, when seeing sincere efforts making it worse.
But, let's consider a people who by consensus believe something that they have coped with and accepted ...yet, you see how easily their life could be better with a little help. Do we say, "Oh, they don't have it that bad ...there are worse places on earth." Or do we find joy in the fact that their life could be even better? Well, the first consideration is that they may not trust you ...so, a friendship would have to be established with eventual trust. What if they had an epidemic and you wanted to help? Without your help, all the people would likely die ...but with your help, 40% of the people will likely live. They may not trust your figures, and they may see it as you killing over half their people. And especially, if none of their people are presently sick, they all get shots ...and then 60% of their people die. They may think you are the cause of all the deaths ...because they hadn't seen the sickness before you came, and they saw it as none of their people being sick until you came.
How do we tell people about the hope of an afterlife ...something we ask them to believe, though we have not experienced it? How do we express salvation, with it's message of hope through Jesus?
Well, many people have found ways to do it. It is often more difficult with our neighbor.
And those of us who understand and believe in 'salvation' ...do we do it the way Jesus said was being done during His time as man on earth? Do we do it that way, or do we do as Jesus said, and not so with us??
We may not imagine where we will sit in Heaven, but what of the Kingdoms we build here on earth that we claim to attribute to Him? Do we believe we are the 'true' church? Do we feel we are the ones who are doing it right?
For those of us who believe salvation is through Jesus, do we add things to it? Or do we hold fast to the belief that Jesus is Way, Truth, and Life (eternal life)?? Do we believe that it was very important to God that we have His own Word of who He is??
The sad part is when we say we believe in Jesus, but our view of Him does not at all seem like the same description that we read about in the Bible, which He had His believers very carefully preserve with much diligent committed work.
When you are a part of it, it is difficult for you to see the difference between growing in one's personal faith and growing within the acknowledgment of the groups standards as your verification of acceptance ...as if their acceptance is the confidence you need to assure you of His acceptance.
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Lately, I've seen many people go to Reddit to see what other people say ...but, I will go to Christian friends, the Bible, and trust the Holy Spirit will guide me towards truth, not popular opinion or Reddit. There are people on Reddit who may have something very meaningful to say, but I am not going to use a site for majority opinion.
If you were going to dig for diamonds or gold, and half the holes you dug contained only dirt ...and you were going to remain dirt cheap. But, if the other half had lots of gold or diamonds, you would consider that very successful.
If you needed an operation, and without the operation there is 100% chance you'll die ...you may think 50% that you'll live by having the operation is not the greatest odds, and you'd like better odds, but it's better than no chance to live.
With religion, you may think 50% of them lead you astray ...but that means that half of them are good, and it shouldn't be too difficult to find because churches aren't rare or few in number like gold or diamonds.
But, if you are looking for a church to tell you that sin is a blessing ...sadly that church may not be that difficult to find either.
I am going to say that sin can lead you to a more blessed life ...that is, if the sin weighs heavy enough to compel you turn from it, and turn to God. Often that path leads one to being more committed, and no longer tempted ...or at least a stronger resolve to resist. So, many sins have led us to God (we all sin), but not through the celebration of sin, rather through the turning away from sin.
And you may say, who am I to talk about sin? Well, you may have noticed that I didn't mention any sin in particular ...as I don't define sin, God does. And God has made many things quite clear.
Recently, I read an article where a group of people were having a rather consensus view that the church is getting desperate because they are losing membership, so they are now reaching out to us ...but it is 'too little, too late'. And they were sort of saying, "No thanks!"
If you read the Bible, it is not 'little' ...nor is it just as of 'late'. It's been around in each of your lifetimes, and during the lifetimes of your parents ...and their parents, and the parents of their parents. It's not the church you should be looking to, but to God. And if you read the Bible you can read how it is nothing new that people distort things, change things, do things their own way ...it has always existed, the battle between truth and the distortion of it.
You may be right in saying some churches are desperate ...but God isn't.
And God loves you ...but He doesn't love our sins.
We have to decide whether we love our sins more than we love God. You may say that since I admit I sin, then by sinning I am showing I love sin more than God ...but, that is not true. That is merely our human constant mess up. What I don't do, is furiously defend what God says is sin by stating it's not sin (or not so bad) and claim that what I read about God is not God ...and try to develop my own version of God, or dismiss Him entirely.
And if you belong to a church that does that ...then it may make you feel happy, but I don't know how you could imagine God would be happy about it. God wasn't happy when Eve believed she could made herself and Adam happy by believing the lie told to her.
