Proper 24 :: Isaiah 53: 4-12; Psalm
91: 12-16; Hebrews
5: 1-10; Mark
10: 35-45
This is a homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given
at St. John’s Church, in Huntingdon,
Pennsylvania on Sunday, October 18, 2015.
“WHAT
KIND OF GLORY
AND WHAT KIND OF A KINGDOM?”
(Homily texts:
Isaiah 53: 4 – 12 & Mark 10: 35 - 45)
What kind of
glory did James and John have in mind when they asked the Lord this question,
“Lord, grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, at your
glory”?
Their question
seems egotistical in the extreme. Talk
about tireless self-promotion!
Moreover, they
ask this question immediately after Jesus has told His disciples, for the third
time,[1]
about His coming suffering and death once they reach Jerusalem.
What could have
prompted this audacious question?
Was it a desire
to ignore completely what the Lord had just said? Was it impossible for James and John to deal
with the harsh reality Jesus had just outlined.
Was it a misplaced recognition that Jesus was doing something really
great, and that, because of His successes in healing, in raising the dead, and
in teaching, that He was destined to be the great new king, the new and just
ruler who would usher in a golden age for God’s people of the sort they had
known a thousand years earlier under King David?
What did they
think was going to happen once they all got to Jerusalem?
The impression
the gospels give us is that they thought that Jesus was going to be the one to
conquer the hated Roman occupiers. He
would be the one to get rid of the corrupt Jewish leadership. He would be the one to establish a new and
glorious kingdom.
And James and
John wanted to have a prominent place in this new scheme of things. They ask the Lord (if we may put it in
contemporary terms) to be appointed the Prime Minister and the Treasurer of
this new venture.
That,
apparently, was the definition of “glory” that they had in mind.
So James and
John begin their quest for power and greatness by asking the Lord for a “blank
check”. They begin by asking, “Teacher,
we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” Instead of turning them away, Jesus plays
along and responds by saying, “What is it you want me to do for you?”
So Jesus lays
out His definition of “glory”. He asks
these two if they are able to drink the cup that He will drink, and to be
baptized with the baptism He will undergo.
They confidently
answer, “We are able”.
We might pause
for a moment here to unpack the meaning of “cup”, and of “baptism”.
Later on, as
Jesus and His disciples have entered Jerusalem, and as He is praying in the
Garden of Gethsemane on the night that Judas and the band of soldiers come to
arrest Him, Jesus prays to the Father that, if it is the Father’s will, that
the “cup” He is to drink might pass from Him.
(See Mark 14: 36.) It is clear
that the word “cup” refers to suffering.
And of the
meaning of the word “baptism”, we might look at St. Paul’s explanation of the
meaning of baptism as we find it in Romans 6: 3 – 9. There, Paul likens baptism to being buried
with Christ in a death like His.
So the Lord is
pointing to a coming time of suffering, and of death, the sort of suffering
that our reading from Isaiah describes.
But this awful time will be followed by resurrection and the glory of
the Lord’s resurrected body, over which time, place and pain have no more
control.
This new kingdom
will be ushered in not by a glorious entry into Jerusalem as its leader rides
into the city on a white horse. No, this
kingdom will come into being as its leader rides in on a donkey.
This new kingdom
will be ushered in by what looks like defeat, suffering and death. Its power lies in its apparent weakness.
In time, each of
the disciples, who had become apostles as the Lord sent them out to carry the
good news of Jesus Christ, would drink the “cup” of which Jesus spoke, They would undergo the baptism that indicates
a death to self, for – tradition tells us – every one of the original twelve,
except for one, would suffer martyrdom for their allegiance to Christ. Jesus’ prediction to James and John came
true.
Each of us follows the Lord’s example, and the
examples of those original disciples, and that is the glory of this new way of
relating to God….each one of us takes up our citizenship in this new kingdom by
surrendering our will to that of the leader, Jesus, who surrendered His will to
that of the Father.
And the glory of
this new way of life is that each one who passes through the waters of baptism
becomes an inheritor of a glory that will last into eternity itself. As we move toward that glorious reality, we
die to self and become alive to God.
That, too, is part of this kingdom’s glory. We live out this new reality day in and day
out, giving up ourselves in submission to the God who loves us, and in serving
others in His name.
In an odd sort
of way, at least from the world’s perspective, the glory of this new kingdom is
revealed. For this is a kingdom whose
power shall never pass away.
So, Lord, give
us this sort of glory always.
AMEN.
[1] Verses 32 through 35. There are two earlier predictions of Jesus’
coming suffering, death and resurrection.
They may be found at Mark 8: 31 – 33 and at Mark 9: 30 – 32.
