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Commentaries
English
Mark
  
14. The Haughty Request of the Sons of Zebedee
(Mark 10:35-40)
35Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to Him, saying, “Teacher, we want You to do for us whatever we ask.”36And He said to them, “what do you want Me to do for you?”37They said to Him, “Grant us that we may sit, one on Your right hand and the other on Your left, in Your glory.”38But Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you ask. Can you drink the cup that I drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?”39They said to Him, “We are able.” So Jesus said to them, “You will indeed drink the cup that I drink, and with the baptism I am baptized with you will be baptized;40but to sit on My right hand and on My left is not Mine to give, but it is for those for whom it is prepared.”


The meek Lamb of God proceeded to the altar of his life, while his disciples thought of politics, presidency, honor, authority, and predominance, seeking the glory of this world. They did not recognize the necessity of the cross, supposing that they could serve God without repentance and regeneration, and they were proud in their hearts. John and James followed Jesus. They left their profession as fishers, thinking they were better than the others, because of their family relationship to Jesus, and their belonging to the priestly family. They expected that he would reign on the earth with great pomp and glory, and wished to be distinguished in the day of his triumph.
Jesus did not deny their request immediately, but he blamed them because they did not know what they were asking for. He condemned their intents, and uncovered their ignorance and shortsightedness with his checking question: could they drink the cup of God’s wrath, and bear the baptism of the sufferings of the cross? It appears, from their answer, that they did not know their weakness and corruption, nor did they know the holy God in his anger, or the need for the Lamb of God, and the necessity of Jesus’ death. They failed completely in the exam of following Jesus, for the Holy Spirit had not yet dwelt in them, nor had they experienced the knowledge of their deep sins or their justification by the cross. They were spiritually blind, and humanly arrogant.
It is astonishing that Jesus did not refuse their preparedness to suffer with him while they were not renewed, but he declared to them that following him means suffering for the sake of serving the others. As Jesus the righteous suffered for the sinners, so the baptism of the Holy Spirit does not only come with joy, gifts, and shining certainty, but is also followed with Satan’s temptations, and hatred of those who are possessed with the devil.
Are you prepared to pay the price for following Jesus? Are you willing only to enjoy the grace, or are you prepared to give your life in the midst of mockery and hatred?
The reward for our fellowship with God and his Son is not as John and James imagined. It is impossible for a man to sit at Christ’s left hand, for this is the place of the Father, who seated his Son at his right hand. The request of the sons of Zebedee shows the haughtiness of the insinuating devil that insinuated into the disciples’ ears, trying to instigate them against the Spirit of their Master.
Where is our place in heaven? Are we among those who are brought near, or among those who are taken away? All those who believe in Christ become connected with his Spirit forever. We are his spiritual body, and are not separated from him. The entity in heaven is love, spirit, and unity, and not self-esteem, and separation because of pomposity and boastfulness. Jesus prayed asking his Father “that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You.”

Prayer
O Lord, you are patient with us who are proud and ignorant. You did not refuse us, but you drank the cup of wrath that we might live in the power of your Holy Spirit. You bore the baptism of suffering on the cross that we might be baptized with your Holy Spirit. Forgive us our foolishness, our self-esteem, and our lust for power. Transform us into your image that we may lower and humble ourselves, and become meek and prepared to serve the others, and bear their mocking, their rejection, and their blows that they may be saved. Amen.
Question
How did the question and answer of the sons of Zebedee uncover their spiritual state?