The disciples in Mark’s Gospel just don’t get it. They’re like those hapless comic figures in the movies who can never get anything right. Tell them “x” and they will do “y.” Are they just not listening? Inspector Clouseau, the Pink Panther, thinks he’s a great detective but he never gets it: a bit like our disciples today. Or maybe they’re just unlucky, like Steve Martin and John Candy trying to get home in “Planes, Trains, and Automobiles.” They make every mistake in the book, and you wonder if they’ll ever get there. It’s one mishap after another. Or maybe Jesus’ disciples are just klutzes; we watch them spellbound as they head toward the banana peel. For whatever reason, we know they’re going to get it wrong.
The stage has been set by Jesus telling the disciples for the third time, just a few verses before our reading, that he is traveling toward Jerusalem, where he will be arrested, tried, and crucified, and after three days rise again. The brothers James and John take this moment to advance their own claims to a honored place in the kingdom. Again, it’s like they’re not listening: just at the moment that Jesus tells them what lies in store for him, they want to know if they can join him and sit in the most important seats in the house. Clearly, they have no idea what they’re getting into.
He’s talking “crucifixion”; they’re talking “glory.” “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and the other at your left, in your glory” (Mk. 10:37). Jesus knows James and John have no idea what they’re saying. They’re klutzes, after all; stooges, who have no idea what’s going on! Jesus asks them, “Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” (Mk. 10:38). They answer: yes, we are able!
Given the context of Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem, the cup that he drinks is the cup of Gethsemane: the cup that Jesus, on the night of his betrayal, prayed that he would not have to drink (Mk 14:36). The baptism with which he is to be baptized is the baptism by fire, the baptism of his death that the Apostle Paul talks about in the Letter to the Romans (Rom. 6:3). James and John have no idea, not because they haven’t been around and heard the teaching, but because they are locked into an old way of thinking about leadership. They’re looking for the prizes and rewards that go with the places of honor. But just in case you think I am being too harsh on them, their klutzy confusion gives us a clue as to the right way for us to go.
In our Gospel reading, our Lord Jesus Christ is modeling a different way of being. When it comes to leadership, he makes three points. First, there are no guarantees when it comes to leadership. You can be certified and credentialed, fill out all the paperwork and the application, and still not be chosen. They might even owe it to you: it doesn’t matter. As Jesus says, “to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared” (Mk. 10:40). Those decisions about leadership are apparently mysterious: Jesus doesn’t even know how they work! Apparently the honored place cannot be earned or owed, but is a pure gift and a grace.
Second, leadership is not about the place of honor, but about humble service. The other disciples are angry with James and John, so Jesus gathers them all together to underscore the point. “You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all” (Mk. 10:42-44). And just to make it absolutely clear that he is the model, Jesus links this different way of leadership back to his own sacrificial death: “For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many” (Mk. 10:45).
Third, even though leadership is a mysterious gift that cannot be earned by or owed to a person, when people are called to leadership they are stretched by the experience. As Jesus says to James and John, “The cup that I drink you will drink; and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized” (Mk. 10:39). The perks and privileges are beside the point: what matters is following Jesus. The seats of honor are not Jesus’ own to grant, but in the course of their leadership James and John will be tested.
What’s true for James and John is true for us. As St. Paul says in Romans, “All of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death… so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we might walk in newness of life” (Rom. 6:4). And just as we have been baptized into his death and resurrection, so we gather at the altar today to receive the Body and Blood of Christ in this holy sacrament, breaking the bread and drinking the cup of eternal life. We who are stretched by the call are also given the means of grace that will sustain us, come what may.
I hope our confirmands are listening closely today. They are re-affirming their faith, and stepping into the spotlight along with all of us. The truth is that we are all leaders in the Church, given the gift freely by God. We’re called to serve as Christ himself served others. We’re also given the means of grace and the hope of glory: the way of the cross, and everlasting life with God.