homily notes: 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Who do James and John think they are?

We've all seen people doing this - or us doing it ourselves: trying to secure a position, trying to grab some power while we have the opportunity.

Here it seems to make some sense - James and John are two of Jesus' closest disciples. Along with Peter and Andrew, they were the first to be called. And these two brothers, James and John, are often taken off separately with Peter. Jesus treats them as his inner circle.

In today's gospel, they seem to be trying to solidify that position - to make sure that when Jesus establishes his kingdom, they'll be right at the top with him.

But their request comes at a pretty strange moment. Immediately before this story in the gospel of Mark, Jesus had predicted his passion and death for the third time:

“Behold, 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 and hand him over to the Gentileswho will mock him, spit upon him, scourge him, and put him to death, but after three days he will rise.”

That's pretty clear! But somehow, James and John think that this is their moment - and they ask Jesus, that when he comes into his glory, they can be right there with him, at his left and right.

Despite the strangeness of their timing, Jesus doesn't shoot them down. He very simply responds: "You do not know what you are asking." Then he asks them a question - can they drink the cup that he drinks or be baptized in the baptism in which he will be baptized?

In the Bible, the cup is a symbol of what God has in store for someone. This can be blessing or judgment. For Jesus, the cup he refers to is the cup of his passion - think about his prayer in the garden before he is arrested: "Take this cup away from me, but not what I will but what you will."
Jesus does drink this cup - he pours out everything he is in his passion, he accepts willingly the suffering that comes to him.

Jesus also mentions baptism. Baptism, even now, is a symbol of dying to sin. Just as the flood of Noah's time cleansed the earth, the water of baptism cleanses - but it does that through a death. The baptism Jesus is speaking about is his own passion and death.

These are the things Jesus lays out before James and John - and they say "yes," we can accept these things. And even though they don't really know what they are accepting, it's true - both of these men give everything up for Jesus. James was the first apostle to be martyred for his faith. John, according to tradition, was never martyred - but they certainly tried, it just didn't seem to work..

Both of these men thought they knew what Jesus could do for them, but he had much more in store. What they came to understand - and live out - was that we have to be joined to the passion and death of Jesus to experience the new life that comes after.

We are baptized into Jesus' death - all of us are joined to him. We drink his cup every time we receive the holy Eucharist. We're one with him, and through this union, we receive the life of God.

So, even though they were looking for human, worldly power, the question James and John asked reveals to us the kind of God we have. Jesus is the high priest who offers himself for our sake, he gives his life to ransom us from sin and death.

By joining ourselves to that sacrifice, we participate in his passion and death - and experience his resurrection.