Intro Our Lord Jesus is only a week away from His own crucifixion, and He is talking, not to any random disciple, but to his step-nephews, James and John. We know that Zebedee is the father of James and John. Tradition has it that Salome is the wife of Zebedee. Tradition also has it that Salome is the daughter of Joseph, Jesus’ stepfather, from his first marriage. And so if Church tradition is correct, Salome’s two sons, James and John, are related to Jesus through marriage.
In a week, Jesus will entrust John with taking care of His mother, Mary. James will begin contending for the faith in and around Jerusalem. John will die a natural death in exile on a little rock of an island called Patmos. James, whom we remember today, will be the first Apostle martyred because he was a Christian. One brother was the first Apostle to die; the other, the last Apostle to be alive. One brother sheds his blood. The other suffers the loss of all he had because of Christ. So, both drink the Lord’s cup--the cup of suffering, which Jesus prayed to the Father to take from Him, but which He did not refuse when it was given Him to drink. Main Body So there is Jesus, leading the way, going to Jerusalem, a couple of days before Palm Sunday. The founder and finisher of our faith that He is, Jesus leads the way to Jerusalem, the city of the Temple, the place of sacrifice. Yet for our Lord Jesus, this sacrifice will be different. It will take place outside the city walls, not in the Temple. He will offer Himself, not an unblemished animal as the sacrifice. On the way to Jerusalem, the Lord takes the Twelve aside and reveals the purpose of this trip: We are going up to Jerusalem. The Son of Man will be handed over to the high priests and the scribes, and they will condemn Him to death. Then they will hand Him over to the Gentiles, and they will mock Him, spit on Him, flog Him, and kill Him. But after three days He will be raised (Mark 10:33-34). This was the third time that our Lord told them of His impending death. Yet, the disciples still did not fully understand this prediction of His death. It was then that James and John, who had the nickname the “sons of thunder,” came to the Lord with a request, a prayer. They asked Him, “Rabbi, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you” (Mark 10:35). In other words, they asked Jesus, “You just sign the check; we’ll fill in the amount!” We can easily imagine what went on within the minds of Zebedee’s sons. No doubt they reasoned, “We left our dad’s fishing business for this life on the road. The good Lord did promise to take care of us. Now we’ll ask him to make good on that promise. Didn’t Jesus say, ‘Ask, and it will be given to you’ [Matthew 7:7]? Now we’re asking.” If the prayer of James and John strikes you as incredulous, so also is the Lord’s answer. He doesn’t throw up His hands in exasperation over His nephews’ foolish prayer. Instead, He patiently says, “What do you want me to do for you?” (Mark 10:36). By their answer, James and John prove that what they want is not what they need. James and John want recognition. “Let us sit in your glory, one on your right and one on your left” (Mark 10:37). In other words, “Let one of us be president and the other vice president over the corporation of your Church.” Zebedee’s sons want posts of prestige, places of high position, and stations of status. But there’s a problem; that’s not what they need! What James and John need is what every follower of Jesus Christ needs. They need, as we need, what the Lord knows we need, not what we think or feel we need. We need His life-giving ransom on the cross. We need the death of the Righteous One for an unrighteous world. We need it because we are like James and John. We need it because we are also like the other ten disciples. Like James and John, we become greedy for what isn’t ours. Like James and John, we don’t even know what to pray for as we should. Our prayers are selfish. We forget to give thanks. We’re like five-year-olds, begging for candy and ice cream for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. We want what is sweet and easy. We want comfortable lives, happy families, and secure jobs. We want to get a close parking spot at Walmart. We want just enough sunshine and just enough rain. And, if it’s not asking too much, we wouldn’t mind a little more money, a nicer car, and college degrees for our kids, and smiles on the faces of our grandchildren. Although we might not voice such prayers, if our hearts spoke to heaven, these are but a sample for which we would pray. Yet, we aren’t just like James and John, we are also like the other ten disciples. They became jealous of James and John. We, too, become envious of the gifts the Father gives to others. We, like them, gripe and complain of their unworthiness, instead of repenting of our own. Thank God that our Lord Jesus Christ chose to release James and John from the enslavement of their greed, and the rest of His disciples from the bitterness of their envy. Jesus made that release by the ransom that He paid. For “the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for the many” (Mark 10:45). Ransom is the price that someone pays to free someone else from slavery, from bondage. Slaves do not earn wages, so they can’t buy their own freedom. An outside party must pay the ransom. In the language of the Old Testament, that outside party was called a “redeemer.” In the language of the New Testament, our Redeemer is Jesus Christ. As the Small Catechism says, Jesus “freed me, a lost and condemned creature, acquired and won me from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil--not with silver or gold, but with His holy and precious blood, and with His innocent suffering and death.” But what Jesus did and continues to do is to save us. This is more than a free get-out-hell card. For our Lord’s cross, freely carried for us, also forms and shapes our prayers. It shapes our prayers because His cross allows us to call God “our Father.” Our Lord Jesus Christ transforms our self-centered prayers. He enlarges them by the generosity of His cross and His empty tomb. Think about it, the prayer that our Lord teaches His disciples to pray is only possible because of His cross! To know the crucified Son is to know the Father. Knowing the Father through His Son in the Holy Spirit gives us the confidence and courage to ask God to give us--not what we want, but what we need; not what we want, but what He wills. God wills that His name be hallowed--made holy in us as we cling to His Word with singular and undivided faith, living a holy life by that Word. God wills to give us His kingdom through faith in Christ Jesus. God wills to have His good and gracious will done in our lives. He wants that our will be brought into perfect alignment with His will. Our Father delights to give us our daily bread, for he is the Lord who opens His loving hand and satisfies the desire of every living creature. He wills that we forgive the sins of those who sin against us, just as He forgives our sins fully and freely because of Jesus. He wills to deliver us from every evil of body and soul and bring us at last to live with Him forever as a new creation. God wills that we receive all His great and precious gifts with the sturdy “amen” of faith. In other words, when we pray as our Lord has taught us, we are asking our Father to give us not what we want or think we want, but what we need. He knows we need! That’s what praying in Jesus’ name really means. Sometimes when the Lord gives us what we need, He gives us pain. For James and John there would be a cup and a baptism. Cup and baptism point to suffering for us, as they did for our Lord. Not everyone may drink the cup our Lord had to drink. But James did. James was the first apostle to give his life for Jesus Christ. Acts chapter 12 even tells us who it was who demanded his head. It reads, “About that time, Herod arrested some who belonged to the Church, intending to persecute them. He even had James, the brother of John, killed with a sword” (Acts 12:1-2). As quickly as thunder rolls across the sky, this son of thunder bowed his head and drank the cup of woe. He would receive the baptism of blood, and to his lips would be pressed the chalice of martyrdom. That is what we sang in our sermon hymn: O Lord, for James we praise You, Who fell to Herod’s sword; He drank the cup of suff’ring And thus fulfilled Your word. Lord, curb our vain impatience For glory and for fame, Equip us for such suff’rings As glorify Your name. (LSB 518, stanza 21) The cup and baptism of suffering are also for us. Maybe it’s not in the form of martyrdom. But that matters not. For in our daily dying to sin, we will suffer as our sinful flesh dies the death that God set in motion in holy baptism. It hurts when God divorces the sinner from his sin. It hurts when God nails our old, sin-infected flesh to Jesus’ cross. It hurts when God does a heart transplant on us, taking from us our sin-hardened heart, and creating in us a new heart that beats by grace through faith. But that is a hurt in which we can rejoice. For God is using the trials in our lives to cultivate perseverance. And through perseverance, God builds character; and through character, He forms hope. And this is the hope that does not disappoint, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom He has given to us (Romans 5:5). Conclusion Our Lord takes away, but only to give. He took away the childish prayer of James and John to give them something far greater. James and John wanted prestige--but they needed salvation! They wanted status--but they needed to learn the simplicity of servanthood! The Lord gave them what they needed: His cross and empty tomb. From this same crucified-and-risen Lord, learn to pray in faith. Learn to pray, “Lord, give me--not what I want--but what I need. Amen.” -- Rich Futrell, Pastor Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church, Kimberling City, MO Where we are to receive and confess the faith of the Church (in and with the Augsburg Confession): The faith once delivered to the saints, the faith of Christ Jesus, His Word of the Gospel, His full forgiveness of sins, His flesh and blood given and poured out for us, and His gracious gift of life for body, soul, and spirit. ___________________________________________________________________ 'CAT 41 Sermons & Devotions' consists of works that are, unless otherwise noted, the copyrighted property of the various authors; posting of such gives members of this list implied consent for redistribution _with_attribution_ unless otherwise specified by the author (as long as no charge is made for the work and it is not made part of a compilation), as well as for quoting or use in a congregational setting _with_or_without_attribution_. Note: This list's default reply is to the *poster*, NOT the list. 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