It is God's Call, not Ours [Wednesday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time]

JESUS WITH THE SONS OF THUNDER,
THE BROTHERS JAMES AND JOHN.
Image from ocarm.org

"... but to sit at my right or at my left is not mine to give 

but is for those for whom it has been prepared." 

- Mark 10:40

Today's reading is about the request of the Sons of Thunder, the brothers James and John, sons of Zebedee, to be given the privilege of sitting on the Lord Jesus Christ's right and left sides when He assumes His rule. They were thinking about earthly reign and possibly thought that it would be important that they ask Him before everyone else do so that they could get prioritized among the choices.

We do know that the brothers were among the three closest to the Lord among the Apostles, together with Peter. As a matter of fact, only the three of them were with the Lord in some important events recorded in the Bible such as the Transfiguration [see Matthew 17:1] and the raising of the daughter of Jairus [see Mark 5:37]. They were also the ones whom the Lord called to stay closer to Him during His agony at the garden of Gethsemane [see Matthew 26:37]. There are even scholars who say that the two brothers were the Lord's cousins, their mother being possibly a sister of the Blessed Virgin Mary. 

However, they didn't get a positive response. The Lord told them that they would surely taste trials and sufferings just like Him, but to give them the positions they were asking for was not His to give. Actually, the Lord told them, the positions have already been allocated. The brothers were still thinking on the level of the world, not yet as followers who have acquired the Holy Spirit. For as we have read again and again, only after the descent of the Holy Spirit did they fully understand the things that the Lord have been telling them and were infused with zeal to proclaim these things to the world [see Acts 2]. By then, they knew that the Lord was not an earthly ruler but a heavenly king and they were already prepared to give their own lives to give Him glory.

Now, the other ten were of course indignant because the brothers seemed to have betrayed them, not that they abhorred what the brothers did for the reason that they should not have done it for it was wrong, but because the brothers got to request the Lord about those positions ahead of them! Remember, all of them were still thinking on the level of the world and no one among them has yet received the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, the One who guides to all truth [see John 14:26].

So the Lord gathered them and told them that they were all wrong. He told them that His kingship is very much different from that of earthly rulers. He told them that if they want to be first and the greatest in His kingdom, they must be the servant and slave of all. He actually made an example of this by washing their feet during the Last Supper where He told them afterwards to wash each other's feet [see John 13: 1-14].

The Christian leader doesn't lord it over those God has entrusted to him to take care of. Instead, he is expected to even lay down his life for their sake [see John 10:11], not the other way around. Giving glory to the Father by being obedient to His will is what matters most for him [see Luke 22:42]. He doesn't expect to be given the coveted left or right side places, important thing is that he gets a place in the Father's house [see John 14: 2-3].

It is not ours to ask God for the choice seats in His kingdom. For it is not us who tells Him what we will do in order to give Him glory - it is He who calls us in accordance with what we can do not in accordance with what we want to do. It is He who provides the mission, we only fulfill it. It is He who gives the necessary help, we only pray for them.

May we be faithful followers and not ambitious adventurers.