James the Elder, Apostle
Mark 10:35-45
July 25, 2004
Today we pause in our regular schedule of readings from Luke to celebrate a festival, a Saint’s Day. The Saint of the Day is known as St. James, the Elder, Apostle. So before we go any further, we need to figure out just who he is.
James is a fairly common name in the New Testament. First of all, there is a book called the Letter of James in the New Testament. We don’t know for sure who the author is, but it is unlikely to St, James, the Elder.
Next, Jesus had a brother named James, who became the leader of the early church at Jerusalem. James, the Brother of Jesus has been in the news recently, because an ossuary—that is, a bone box—turned up in the Holy Land with the inscription “James, Son of Joseph, Brother of Jesus.” The jury is still out on whether it is authentic, or a fake.
Then, there were two disciples named James. One was called James the Less, or James the Younger. He was the son of Alphaeus.
Finally, we get to James the Great, or James the Elder, the older of the two Jameses. This James was the Son of Zebedee, and we rarely hear him mentioned without his brother John, also a disciple.
James and John—two of the first disciples that Jesus called. James and John, part of Jesus’ inner circle. James and John, the outspoken brothers who Jesus nicknamed “Sons of Thunder.” James and John, equal as disciples, yet it is James whom the church has named a saint. But the way he got that distinction wasn’t pretty.
James is named as a saint because he was the first of the disciples to be martyred, that is, killed for the faith. We heard in today’s reading from Acts that King Herod had James, the brother of John, killed with the sword—that is, beheaded. Around the year 44, Herod Agrippa killed James in a campaign against the Church, in an effort to gain favor with his Jewish subjects. So within ten or eleven years of the death of Jesus, James suffered a similar fate. As Jesus predicted, James drank from the same cup of suffering as he did. Hence, the title of Saint.
Now, if I were St. James, I would be honored to be called a saint, but embarrassed by the Gospel text chosen for my Saint’s Day. It’s that humiliating account of James and John that we just heard.
On the way to Jerusalem, Jesus tells his disciples what awaits him there. But the disciples don’t yet understand. They think that Jesus will be installed as Messiah and King of Israel. James and John, ever ambitious, are the first in line to apply for positions in the Cabinet of Jesus’ new government.
Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you. Grant us to sit, one at your right hand, and one at your left, in your glory.”
Throughout Mark’s gospel, Jesus has been teaching his disciples that his way is counter to the world’s way. Jesus is on a journey, but it is not a journey to fame and fortune. It is a journey toward the Cross. But the disciples keep misunderstanding, and making fools out of themselves. In today’s gospel, it is James and John’s turn.
Jesus tells them that they don’t know what they are asking. Can you drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with my baptism? Sure we can, James and John say. We’ve shared the cup with you around the table many times. And we know about baptism. But they don’t, not really.
When Jesus speaks of the cup, he is referring to his cup of suffering. Remember how in the Garden of Gethsemane, before his arrest, he prayed, “Lord, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me?” James and John did not understand what drinking Jesus’ cup meant. Nor did they understand his baptism. Jesus didn’t get a Christening party after his baptism, you know. No cake and presents for him. Instead, he was driven out into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan for 40 days. James and John just didn’t get it.
Jesus tells them that someday they will drink his cup and be baptized with his baptism—and in fact, James and John did go on to suffer for their faith. Both died as martyrs—first James, and then John. But that would come much later. For now, all they needed to know was this;
“It isn’t up to me to grant who will sit at my left and right when I come into my glory. That’s already been decided, by a higher power.”
Jesus did not come into his glory in the way that James and John expected. He was not glorified as an earthly king. Jesus came into his glory on the cross. There were three crosses on the hill that day. Jesus died along with two thieves—one on his right, and one on his left—the positions that James and John asked for.
James and John didn’t know what they were asking for, and neither did the other disciples, or they wouldn’t have gotten mad at James and John. Maybe they are mad at them for asking such an outrageous thing of Jesus—but I think it is more likely that they were mad because they hadn’t thought of it first. All of them wanted to be important in the new order that that Jesus was about to usher in. All of them wanted to be great. But Jesus has something to say to them and to us, about greatness; “Whoever would be great among you must be a servant, and whoever would be first among you must be as a slave. Listen—I didn’t come to be served, but to serve, and to give my life as a ransom for the likes of you.”
Fortunately for the disciples, and fortunately for us, Jesus was a patient teacher. He patiently and repeatedly took the time to teach us that his way often leads in a different direction than the way we think we want to walk.
Jesus kept pointing his disciples toward the cross, because the cross was the way that God would get what God wanted. God doesn’t do things the way the world does, by power, coercion, violence, and vain-glory. That may be how the world gets what it wants, but God does it differently. God wanted to bring the world back to himself, and he accomplished that—by the cross—by suffering, serving love.
James and John misunderstood what Jesus and God were up to, but the good news is that Jesus continued to teach them, and they continued to follow. When Jesus told them that he had a difficult “cup” and “baptism” ahead of him, they continued to walk with him, even though they didn’t yet fully understand. Even though Jesus speaks to them in words that are tough and offensive—like, “Whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all”—they continued to walk with him along the way that leads to the cross.
After the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus, James and John, along with the other disciples, finally did “get it.” They learned what it meant to serve in the Kingdom of God. They boldly served God by founding the Church in a culture that was hostile to it. They offered themselves as living sacrifices, just as Jesus had done before them. They became saints, as will all who follow Jesus’ way of humble service. AMEN