Reflection
The Gospel today presents Jesus highlighting the essential element of Christian living. Being in the world, but living out of the world, with eyes firmly set on heavenly realms. James and John, the sons of Zebedee approach Jesus and ask for a favor: “Grant to us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory” (Mk 10:37). What they ask for has to do with glory, honor and status. They sought a prime place in the future kingdom of the Lord. They were certainly right that the Lord would surely one day rule in glory, but they got it totally wrong in their understanding and perspective of the nature of this rule. His was not to be a kingdom of power and status, rather one of mercy and compassion.
What Jesus asks James and John is whether they are ready to share in the rejection and suffering that lies ahead for him. “Can you drink the cup that I must drink or be baptized with the baptism with which I must be baptized?” What they wanted was self-promotion. What Jesus asks for is self-giving. At the heart of discipleship is the giving of unselfish love, becoming the servant of others.
We are all called to join the one who did not come to be served but to serve, whose purpose in life was not self-promotion but to empty himself for others. It is only in following this way that we will receive that share in Jesus’ glory. We need to give heed to the words of the Lord who prayed for us who “are in the world, but do not belong to this world” (cf., Jn 17:15).
