By Jared Warner
Willow Creek Friends Church
October 20, 2024
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Mark 10:35–45 (ESV)
35 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.” 38 Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” 39 And they said to him, “We are able.” And Jesus said to them, “The cup that I drink you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized, 40 but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.” 41 And when the ten heard it, they began to be indignant at James and John. 42 And Jesus called them to him and said to them, “You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. 43 But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, 44 and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. 45 For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
This week I struggled with the verses we shared today. I struggled in part because I had a migraine most of the week, but there was more to it. I do not want to speak on this passage. I do not like this passage. I might go so far as to say this passage haunts me.
Which makes it a perfect passage for this month. As some of my fellow ministers are teaching the dangers of celebrating Halloween, I am here teaching about haunting. But that is the point of Halloween, it is not to celebrate evil, but to recognize the fears we carry and to cling to the hope we have in Jesus. That message will have to come at a different time because today we need to look at why a passage of scripture haunts me.
The first thing is that a haunting originates in an internal fear, a fear that resides within us that holds both rational and irrational aspects. Is it rational to fear a building, to call a residence a haunted house? Sure. If the building is ill maintained, harm could befall anyone that entered. But why is a build’s maintenance neglected? This is where the irrational aspects come in. You do not have to agree with me, and you can believe that there are haunted houses, but what I am saying the fear we face in the places of our haunting is something that is within us. We have heard stories and we believe that those stories might be transferred to us. We felt a chill along with the story and now we have something somewhat tangible it is not just in our head but real. And it is real, even if it is all in our mind we cannot move beyond, we must live as if that is reality until something changes. We have these fears because it might happen. Is it likely to happen? That is not for me to decide. But this passage stirs something within me, it haunts me.
“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.’”
It is terrifying!
Yes, I am joking around a bit, but there is something deeper here. These brothers are asking Jesus to give them anything and everything they ask. They are asking Jesus to sign a check and trust them to write a reasonable amount on it. Give me whatever I want.
This is often how we approach prayer. We look at it from a transactional frame. If I do something good, I expect something in return. We learned this early in life, a baby makes a cute sound or face and they quickly learn that when they make that sound or face everyone in the room does something they like. They laugh or smile so the baby does it again, and they get the same response. Economist have called this the law of returns. Our employer calls it wages. But there is something more to this law of returns, the fuller statement is the law of diminishing returns.
“Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” Today I want this. My life would be perfect if only I had… fill in the blank. Some of us would like no homework. Some of us a spouse, others of us just want a raise. There are many who want something more noble, we want our health to return. The brothers say to Jesus, “we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.”
At this point I want us to just consider our life of prayer. Often we take this approach. I say this as we, but the very real phrase is that this is often how I pray. If you were to actually hear what goes on in my head at times as I sit in my blue chair, you would be appalled.
Jesus does not respond how I would respond. If you were to ask my son what my response would be he would be quick in his answer. Because it comes so often, “NO!” But that is part of the haunting aspect of this passage.
Jesus says to them, “What do you want me to do for you?”
As you let those words flow through your ears, what do you hear? “What do you want me to do for you?”
Do you hear the acknowledgment that Jesus knows their request is self serving? Jesus knows that their request is going to be indulgent. What do you want ME to do for YOU?”
Yet in the same breath there is love. I know that I will be asked a question that is self indulgent when I go to Target, yet I do not prevent the question to be asked. I often let an explanation or a clarification to be made before the final response is uttered. I know yet I like the ask. I do not like saying no but there are times when the question allows me to provide something different and often better. And yes often I dread the question because I know even if the ask is genuine I still have to say no.
I think James and John probably got the point before they even asked, yet the pushed on. They pushed on because they knew that Jesus knew their intention. They also knew that it does not hurt to ask a question as long as you are prepared to receive an answer.
“Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” This is a glimpse into the culture of the ancient world. The in a group the most important member would be in the center. Jesus, of course, is in the center. James and John recognized Jesus as being the most important person in their group. They acknowledged him as being the Messiah they longed for, as they stood in agreement with Peter as he made that profession in Caesarea Philippi. They saw him as their king and they want to be with their king as he enters that glorious kingdom. The most important figure is in the center, and on the right side is the second and on the left is the third.
This request is self indulgent, and yet it also exhibits their devotion to their king. Jesus had just for the third time expressed his coming doom, and they want to be right there by his side. But they do not fully understand what that might entail.
This is where we often find ourselves. We pray, we ask, sometimes we make self indulgent requests and at other times we express our immense faith but we do not always understand what we are asking.
My grandmother took me aside one day after a meal, and asked me why I wanted to become a pastor. I found it to be odd in the moment, but she asked, “Why do you want to be a pastor?” She then expressed a list of things. Things that are often seen in leaders of organizations, and she wanted me to tell her. I did not have words to say. It terrified me to admit that I felt a calling to be a pastor, I did not want any of the trappings of power, and I nearly cried as she spoke. Finally, all I could say was, “I just want to serve Jesus.”
I had no idea what was going to come in the future. I prayed and plead, I begged but like James and John I did not know what I asked.
“Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?”
Jesus looks these passionately devoted men and he asks this question. It is a heavy question. The cup is a symbol of blessing and of wrath. The Psalmist says, “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.” This speaks of abundance, of blessing and grandeur. The cup of hope, but there is also a cup of wrath. The Psalmist also says, “Let him rain coals on the wicked; fire and sulfur and a scorching wind shall be the portion of their cup.”
“Can you drink from the cup that I drink?” Jesus asks.
As most of you are aware I am a complete nerd. I spend most hours of the day listening to videos playing in the background as I work, and often those videos are about weird archaeological artifacts that have been found. One such day I saw a video about an assassin’s cup. A cup where, when held just right, you could drink pure wine from it. But if held differently, poison would be released into the liquid and consumed. Both assassin and target could drink from the same cup one would have the purity and the other poison. That is the image that came to my mind when Jesus spoke of the cup.
And that is often what life gives us. We desire the cup of blessing. We want the purity of the refreshment, but as we move through life we do not know of which side of the cup we drink. Our desire demand one thing, but at times we swallow the bitter draft of suffering.
Jesus also mentioned baptism along side that cup. The church speaks a great deal about baptism, and often we focus on the ritualized sign of repentance. Jesus teaches about baptism but often our understanding is skewed from centuries of tradition. Baptism comes from a word that means immersion. The use of the word is often associated with dying cloth. You immerse the fabric into the dye, you let it sit beneath the liquid as is become completely saturated with the pigmented solution. You then rinse and repeat until the fabric has taken on a new hue, and can be used for a new purpose. All fabric begins in a raw state, it is through baptism that new life is given and the fabric can emerge for common or royal use.
As Friends we believe that we obtain grace through faith in Jesus, just as every Christian denomination, yet we do not always practice ritualized baptisms. This does not mean we do not believe in baptism, in fact we believe deeply in baptism. We believe so deeply that the ritual is not enough. For a ritual to have any meaning the faith and the grace must already be present. And for that sign of repentance to hold validity your life should bear the fruit of repentance. What I mean to say is that like the dyed cloth we have a new nature because of the substance we as believers have been saturated in.
That is one way of looking at baptism. But this baptism of which Jesus speaks of today not baptism of repentance, it is a saturation of a different sort. He is bearing the responsibility of humanity’s sin. Can you be baptized with the baptism with which Jesus is baptized? Can you take on the responsibility, the blessing and punishment for yourself, your family, your neighbor, the person down the street, your entire nation and the world?
We do not like thinking about this in the Western church because we have an individualistic view of faith. This is my faith and I am only responsible for myself in that view. We are not wrong in that view, but we are not fully correct either. We do not live alone even if no one else lives in the same house. We live within communities, we interact with others. In one of my favorite books, I would tell you what it is except I would prove my inability to speak, but in this book there is a saintly elder that speaks with a young monk.
“Every day, every hour, every moment, examine yourself closely and see that your appearance is seemly. You may, for instance, pass a small child; your face may be angry, you may be uttering wicked words, and there may be rage in your heart; you might not even notice the small child, but as long as the child sees you in this state, that unseemly and ugly picture may become engraved in his innocent little heart. So, without knowing it yourself, you may thus have sown an evil seed, which perhaps will sprout within the child, and all simply because you failed to control yourself before the child, because you failed to cultivate within yourself a considerate and active love for others.”
What this fictional elder is saying is that we bear a responsibility to everyone. We are our brother’s keeper. How we live our lives today ripples through history as we interact with those around us. The question the world asks in reference to suffering in the world and where God is in it. The answer does not fall in the lap of God, but each of us. We are self indulgent, we want, we desire. And as we indulge ourselves in momentary gratification we have not prepared ourselves for the responsibility of the consequences. Why do children face abuse? Because we are self indulgent people, that have raised self indulgent adults, that do not know how to treat others, especially children, with respect and dignity. Why are people living in poverty and in hunger? We have enough food in our world today to feed everyone to their fill. Lack is not the cause of hunger.
Jesus asks two of his most beloved disciples, if they can drink the cup, and be baptized in the baptism that he is baptized in. Will they bear the sins of the world on themselves? Will they be willing to take the responsibility, the blessing and the wrath of the rebellious world and lead rebellious people?
“We are able.” They say. And you can almost hear the reservation, and pain in Jesus’s voice as he acknowledges the reality. They will bear it. They will be saturated in it. Just as we are. If we stand up and say “Black Lives Matter” there is a quick retort “All lives matter.” And suddenly I am labeled woke and canceled. If I were to say Palestinian people are oppressed, people will quickly jump on to me saying that Israel has a right to defend themselves. And I have not said anything wrong. If I say Americans are taxed too much, I am quickly called names. If I say I am a conservative or liberal we quickly come to a conclusion and make a judgment. And suddenly I am an enemy instead of a friend. Oh Friends, we will bear the cup if we decide to follow Christ. We must bear the cup, we must be saturated in the suffering of this rebellious world because that is where Jesus is.
He heard the brothers give their response, and he told them yes, you will bear it. And they immediately bore some of that burden as the others became indignant. We jump to conclusions, we fail to listen and we get short sighted. Jesus then uses this opportunity to give his disciples, in my opinion, the greatest nugget of wisdom of all his teaching.
He calls them to shut up and to listen. “You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them.” We could go into the nuance of why Jesus used the term Gentiles here, but the important thing is that he is using this word not to describe a nation or race. Instead he is using it to speak of those that are not seeking God’s kingdom, or the people of the world. The kingdoms of humanity use violence and manipulation to force people into a submissive state. We know this well. If you were to turn on the news you will hear people saying certain groups will only respond through the use of force, justifying the use of force against them. They are not wrong but they are only looking at things through the lens of the kingdoms of men. And the submission gained by force is not love but fear. The fear of loss. If I do not submit I will lose my life or my lifestyle. “But it shall not be so among you.”
I said that this passage haunted me this week. It haunts me because I am right in the middle of each of these verses. I am the one begging Jesus to do whatever I ask of him. I am the one listening to him reveal how selfish I am. I am the one that made a profession of faith and devotion to the point of leaving my hometown to serve Jesus, and I am the one that said I can bear it even though I have no clue what that might be. I am right here with James and John. And so are each of you. We are all with them because we are members of humanity.
I want to see Jesus enter into glory. I want to stand with him as he enters his rightful place as King of kings and Lord of lords. I want to be there. But I am selfish. I want the cup of blessing, but I do not want to taste the bitterness that accompanies the initiation of true justice. I want justice but only if it does not affect my way of life. So what do I do?
“It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
This passage is haunting, because so much of our culture and way of life is packed into these words. Its haunting because wars are waging, violent acts are being done to people that only want to live. Its haunting because there is a presidential election in a few short weeks and I am supposed to vote for the person I feel will lead our nation best. And I want our nation to a people devoted to the teachings of Christ. And I remember the words written in a Russian novel that floored my way of thinking, I am responsible.
I am haunted by these verses because I am divided. I have irrational fear … and hope.
“Teach us to pray” those same disciples once asked. And Jesus responded. “Our father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”
Teach us to pray. Not for whatever we ask, but for what we need today. Teach us to pray not that we get our way but that we forgive. Teach us to pray not for our will but His to be done here on earth as it is in heaven. Teach us to pray as we become instruments of justice and beacons of hope in our world. Teach us to pray as we join Christ in his glorious triumph over the rebellion, not with force, but service. As we drink from his cup, and are saturated in his baptism. Let us give what we have and who we are so that this community will know the great love God has for them. Teach us to pray.
Previous Messages:
Living Stones
By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church May 03, 2026 Click here to Join our Meeting for Worship Click to read in Swahili Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili 1 Peter 2:2–10 (ESV) 2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— 3 if indeed you have…
Endure
By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church April 26, 2026 Click here to join our Meeting for Worship Click to read in Swahili Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili Query 4 (Faith and Practice of EFC-MAYM pg 61) Do you provide for the suitable Christian education and recreation of your children and those under your care, and…
Ransomed to Love
By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church April 19, 2026 Click here to join our Meeting for Worship Click to read in Swahili Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili 1 Peter 1:17–23 (ESV) 17 And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time…
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