The gospel lectionary reading for Trinity 21 in this Year B is Mark 10.35–45. The lectionary choice is unfortunate this week, in that it cuts out the verses following last week’s read, Mark 10.32–34. Not only do these verses provide continuity with last week’s reading about the (rich) (young) (ruler) man, but they are an integral part of the section, with reference to the Son of Man at the beginning and end.
What does the request of James and John tell us about human ambition and natural opposition to the ways of the kingdom? What does Jesus’ response tell us about his grace and forbearance? How do the values of the kingdom challenge in invert the values of the world?
Come and join Ian and James as they explore these questions!
Full written commentary behind the discussion can be found in the following post.
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JAMES and JOHN
EtymologyThe name given in the Gospels, Ζεβεδαῖος, is probably a transliteration of the Hebrew name Zəḇaḏyâ according to Spiros Zodhiates (The Complete Wordstudy Dictionary), or the truncated version Zabdî (זַבְדִּי), says BDB Theological Dictionary, and so means “Yahweh (or the Lord) has bestowed”.[5] Other popular interpretations of the name are: “abundant” (Hitchcock’s Bible Names Dictionary) or “my gift” (Smith’s Bible Dictionary).[6] A possibly more sinister interpretation of Zebedee may be derived from Strong’s Hebrew Lexicon #2061 z’êb, pronounced zeh-abe’, meaning wolf, and #1768 dîy, pronounced dee and meaning that, rendering That (or The) Wolf, possibly suggesting Wolf-Leader.
Washing up? Before the end of a meal! At someone else’s house!!
My mother in law used to do this and it drove me crazy.
Yes, don’t you just hate passive-aggressive virtue signalling!
yes. not holy at all.
For a broader context we need to remember the question asked earlier “Who then can be saved”? and also:-
This request ( Luke 20:20)was made by them not long after they had heard our Lord’s great promise that his apostles “in the regeneration” should “sit upon thrones,” judging the twelve tribes of Israel” (Matthew 19:28). and very soon after they had heard his repeated announcement of his sufferings and death. But the thought of the glory which was to follow swallowed up the thought of the suffering that was to precede it; and so these two disciples were emboldened at once to ask for prominent positions amongst the thrones
His kingdom was spiritual and heavenly, not carnal and earthly, as they supposed;
because they sought the glory before they had gained the victory;
“Are ye able to drink the cup that I drink? or to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with”?
It is as though he said, “It is by my cross and passion that I am to attain to the kingdom; therefore the same way must be trodden by you who seek the same end.”
Our Lord here describes his passion as his cup. The “cup” everywhere in Holy Scripture, as well as in profane writers, signifies a man’s portion, which is determined for him by God, and sent to him. The figure is derived from the ancient custom at feasts, by which the ruler of the feast tempered the wine according to his own will, and appointed to each guest his own portion, which it was his duty to drink.
He had already spoken of as his cup, as his baptism. He uses this image because he would be totally buried, immersed, so to speak, in his passion. But it seems probable that the idea of purification entered into this image. It was a baptism of fire into which he was plunged, and out of which he came forth victorious.
The fire of his bitter passion and death tried him. It was his “salting with fire.” It pleased God to “make the Captain of our salvation perfect [complete]through sufferings.”
Our Lord asks these ambitious disciples whether they could drink his cup of suffering, and be baptized with his fiery baptism. Mark 10:38
Of course, we can see in hindsight that this Salvation is a progression and just as then so today people do not always see the “big picture,” of Salvation, principally because it is seldom preached or taught. The people are kept in a state of poverty and bondage.
In the Jewish Antiquity this progression is animated in the Alter of Sacrifice, the Laver of Washing [sanctifying] and the complete changing of clothes [divesting of one’s[identity]
And reclothing in purity of linen which “does not cause sweat”.
Thus, and only then can one enter into “the Holy Glory”.
Faith is not a mere ascent to a series of statements and the Cross is but the firing line.
Faith is a co-operation with the will of God.
Hence the fight of, the work of, the race and the endurance of Faith.
Faith as we are informed in
Heb. 12:14 teaches, “Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord.”
Thus some of our divines proclaim;-
“Those who make comfort the great subject of their preaching seem to mistake the end of their ministry. Holiness is the great end.” John Henry Newman
“Lose your life and you will save it. Submit to death, death of your ambitions and favorite wishes every day and death to your whole body in the end: submit with every fibre of your being, and you will find eternal life.” C. S. Lewis
“Conversion does not make us perfect, but it does catapult us into a total experience of discipleship that affects – and infects – every sphere of our living.” Richard J. Foster
“Our main doctrines, which include all the rest, are three: That of repentance, of faith, and of holiness. The first of these we account, as it were, the porch of religion; the next, the door; the third, religion itself.” John Wesley
Perhaps the disciples imagined that Jesus was merely speaking a fable;
That after a little local difficulty he would come to rule in the “regeneration”
( a bit like the second coming of Trump)
For our Lords Spiritual who “lord it” are not sanctified, of those who sow discord they are most Carnal, and those who are not “circumcised” in heart are but Philistines.