NOTES for Mar 10:32-45
Apparently, Jesus’ words about the cross that must be taken up (that is, like a person sentenced to execution, shouldering the crossbeam that was nailed to the post used for crucifixion) and about His own death left the disciples utterly confused. As the evangelist says, they “were troubled,” and at times they were overcome with terror. But why did this happen to them? Were they not ready to die for their Teacher and Leader? Had not even the earliest clashes with the scribes, the Herodians, and even the Pharisees already foreshadowed the entirely predictable persecution of Jesus and those who shared His views?
Yet the issue here was apparently neither cowardice nor the collapse of illusions about the coming struggle against corrupt, anti-popular authorities. What drove them to complete despair was Jesus’ principled rejection, in the face of the now real threat of being destroyed by the machinery of the state, of violent methods and of any form of self-defense at all. Indeed, what is striking in Jesus’ words and actions during the last weeks of His life is this doomed drive toward death combined with the absolute conviction that it was simply impossible to act otherwise. He was wholly seized by the power of God and ultimately fulfilled His mission, His purpose. For this He went all the way, in spite of everything...
Against this background, how petty and absurd the disciples’ requests for privileges and honors in the Kingdom of God appear. And it makes no difference whether they understood it in an earthly way or in some spiritual sense, which is also possible. Christianity is not at all about earning merits or cultivating special supernatural qualities within oneself. Christianity, that is, following Christ, is life according to one’s calling, the creative fulfillment by each Christian of his unique purpose, sometimes in spite of everything and not infrequently at the risk of his life. And all this is not for the sake of “heavenly” bliss, rewards, or titles, but in order, here and now, to find harmony with oneself and the happiness of unity with people and with God, in joyful mutual enrichment and the sacrificial pouring out of oneself.