In today’s Gospel reading two of the very first disciples make a request of Jesus. James and John were the sons of the fisherman Zebedee. They were called by Jesus on the shore of Lake Galilee to follow him, just after Peter and Andrew were called. James and John had been with Jesus for the whole of his public ministry, in Galilee, and now on the road up to Jerusalem. They were probably expecting Jesus to claim his royal throne there. ‘Wouldn’t it be a good idea if we could sit either side of him?’ thought James and John.
This story is a clear case of ‘Be careful what you wish for’. They ask for the glory but they end up sharing in the baptism of Jesus and drinking the cup Jesus drinks from. No glory is promised. That’s for someone else to give says Jesus.
What is this baptism and cup Jesus is speaking of here? Both refer to his death. Jesus sees his death coming. He calls it a baptism, meaning a drowning. He calls it drinking from a cup. We remember Jesus’ prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night he was arrested: ‘Father, take this cup from me. But not as I will but as you want.’ The cup to be drunk is his death on the cross. James and John shall have a share in this Jesus promises. The tradition is that all the Apostles were put to death for following Jesus.
What is the meaning of this for us who are followers today of Jesus? Jesus, our brother, friend, king, teacher, Lord – all those things – goes to the cross and dies. It is no accident. As our gospel story strongly suggests Jesus sees the inevitability of his death: ‘The baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized’. No maybe’s or possibly’s. Jesus will die and the disciples of Jesus will have a share in this.
Before we see what this means for Christians today, let us go back to our first reading. It was from Isaiah chapter 53. Arguably this is one of the most important chapters in the Old Testament. It is one of the lessons which can be read on Good Friday, the day when the Church through its worship, enters into the death of Jesus.
This chapter speaks of an individual who has a strange vocation:
Surely he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases … 5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities … by his bruises we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have all turned to our own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Whoever this person is, everything is done for others. According to some, this passage is quoted or alluded to over 80 times in the New Testament. What happened to this person in Isaiah 53 is what happened to Jesus. ‘Surely [Jesus] has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases … [Jesus] was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities … by his bruises we are healed.’
Jesus, the one, single human being, dies for the many. As Jesus final words in today’s Gospel reading has it, ‘For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, giving his life a ransom for many.’ The service of Jesus is his dying for the many, us included.
How do we live this out? One of the ways is intercession. Intercession is both a form of prayer and a way of living. As we have seen, the Isaiah passage so often applied to Jesus, even uses this word: ‘he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.’
Jesus by his prayer and his action, his dying and his going to the Father, intercedes for us, for the whole world. He does what we cannot do for ourselves and invites to share in what he has done. As St Paul writes in his Letter to the Romans, ‘… Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who … intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ?’
The Christian life, both for individual Christians and Christian churches is marked by intercession and interceding, acting for others, as Jesus acted for us. This vocation asks of us certain questions: In what ways does our church act for others as Jesus acted for others? The way in which a church interacts with its locality, or not, will give us the answer. Does the way I live have the spirit of intercession- loving the neighbour -about it or not?
In the Eucharist of course we have the intercessions, that special time for prayer for others. It is a special time to join in the eternal intercession of Jesus. Here is our opportunity to join in Jesus’ intercession – for the Church across the world, for the world God loves so much, for our local community whose needs press upon our doorstep, for the sick in body mind and spirit and for the departed and the bereaved. In each Eucharist we have a divinely inspired job to do: praying for the other that we may act for the other, letting the Spirit catch us up into Jesus’ costly but victorious intercession.
Jesus asks us, Can you be baptised with the baptism I undergo? When we were baptised and confirmed we answered ‘Yes’ to this. The candidate for baptism is asked ‘Do you want to be baptised?’ ‘I do’, comes the reply. Jesus asks us, Can you drink from the cup I am to drink? When we drink from the sacramental cup at the altar we answer ‘Yes’.
As we live out our Christian life we discover more and more its meaning and its cost, its joy and its grace. We discover that living fully is about interceding for others, acting for our neighbours, loving our world. This is Jesus’ work in us, the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Service: Canon Bill Croft. 20th October 2024. (St John The Baptist Church Peterborough UK)
Readings: Isaiah 53.4-end, Hebrews 5.1-10, Mark 10.35-end