Note from Pastor Al

 “You don’t know what you are asking!”

James and John had a simple question for Jesus but they prefaced that question with, what seems to me, a childish or sneaky caveat: “ do for us whatever we ask of you.” Thankfully Jesus has an appreciation for where they are driving and he perceives the limits of such a query. Here is the text in reference from Mark 10:35-37 “And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to him and said to him, ‘Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.’ 36 And he said to them, ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ 37 And they said to him, ‘Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.’ “

Jesus grapples with their request and applies wise counsel to the full picture of what they were prying into. “Jesus said to them, ‘You do not know what you are asking.’ ”Mark 10:38.

Their request was a measured and calculated grab for position and power. They were assuming some princely position for Jesus would give them a chance to be right next to him and share the prestige. They were hoping to secure two positions of honor in the conquering King’s court. This is no small request. 

But what James and John did not know is that Jesus’ glory starts in a much more solemn and horrific display. Jesus, in glory, first involves the wrestling match between love for humanity and justice for humanity’s sins. Jesus, in glory, does not begin and end on a throne but on the cross.

In John 17, Jesus alludes to this as he is about to enter the most torturous hours of his life, culminating in the gruesome and nightmarish Roman prescribed death for the worst of criminals: the cross.

“When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, ‘Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, 2 since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.’ ” John 17:1-2.

By asking Jesus for a place next to him in his glory, they were asking to suffer alongside him on Calvary.  “Jesus said to them, ‘You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink?’ ” (Mark 10:38) The cup that Jesus is about to drink is the cup of God’s wrath which would have been poured out on the world’s sinners, but God’s love is determined to let justice rain down on a different victim, a sacrificial Lamb of God, Jesus.

This is the place where Jesus' glory and God’s glory really shines: the cross. Why is it that God looks especially radiant and amazing (glory) when we view the tattered and bloodied cross? Because the cross is the place where God brings the necessary penalty, the wages of our sin. And the cross is the place where God, in an extreme amount of suffering, displays an unfathomable love for you and I. Love and justice meet at the cross. That is glory. The cross is God’s eternal glory. 

Imagine taking only God’s justice. This is the place where God would have had humanity punished and that would have satisfied his Holy, right justice. But that same justice would have shattered his love. Yet if He gratified his love for us and ignored justice, that would not make him holy. That would contradict his pure standards and right behavior.

The cross is amazing because it accomplishes both - love and justice. Jesus, true God, will display amazing pain and impeccable justice while loving each man, woman and child he created. That is his glory: his agony.

Hebrews 12 sums it up well and points to his ability to experience such horrific distress and torment: “[Jesus,] for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”(Hebrews 12:2). He focused on what this glorious display of love and justice would accomplish: it would bring us to him. We become his joy. We were the joy set before him that kept him zeroed in on the painful cross. He had everything else except us UNTIL he displayed the glory of his love and justice on the cross. Now we are his! Glory to Jesus. 

Prayer:

Lord Jesus,

Seat us wherever you like. We are simply amazed at your display of love and justice. We are happy to have the right to sit at your table in glorious eternity forever and ever. May each day we live, allow us to focus on the glory of your love and your justice. May the cross remind us that we are still here on this earth to point the world to this astounding and glorious mix of Your love and Your justice. Bless our words, our thoughts, our actions so that we give you glory. In Jesus’ name, Amen.