And then they give a reason. A favor they want, a need they have, something they need you to do for them. That's the reason they called, and that's why they weren't exactly 100% interested in what you had to say right off the hop. There was something that they wanted out of this exchange, and that was the focus from the get go. The asking of how you were doing, that was just so much deception, really, and just a means to an end. How quickly can the conversation be steered into you giving them what you want?
Now, this is similar in many ways to what happens between Jesus and the 'sons of thunder' in the gospel reading from Sunday. In the Gospel reading, Jesus tells his disciples that he is going to die, he is going to be killed, he is going to be slain, and removed from the world. He is going to be spat upon, beaten, killed and then is going to rise. James and John, when they hear this, sort of immediately segue into 'so, Jesus, about us for a second.' Jesus gives them the platform that they're looking for, letting them explain themselves 'okay, what is it that you want to say?' 'Grant us to sit, one on your right, and one on your left, when you come in glory.' In other words, now that Jesus has gotten it out of the way where he has told his disciples that his work is about to be fulfilled, that he is going to be killed, that he is going to be slain, they sort of turn that into talking about what they are going to get out of the deal. Jesus, as he does, answers their question with one of his own 'can you drink of the cup that I drink? Or be baptized with the baptism with which I will be baptized?' And they responded 'we can.'
Of course they answer that way. Can you drink of that offered cup? Sure. Why not. That sounds easy enough. It's easy to say that until you know what's in the cup, or how much it holds. This is a similar sort of question to what we have in weddings in our church you know. In our church ,we have our couples go through vows, commitments, they make promises to one another, in the sight of God and the congregation. And this is the sort of promise that they make, and they actually don't know what they are promising, not really. They think they do, of course, in the same way that James and John thought they knew, sure we can drink that cup, no problem. No difficulty at all.
But when couples get together, when they get married and promise to stay together in sickness and in health, for richer or for poorer, for better or for worse, and when you're all fancied up to ya-ya, when you're wearing special underwear that you're probably expecting to see each other in later, when you're in the middle of a party that you have been building up to for months, it's almost an iron clad guarantee that you'll say 'sure, I can drink of that cup, no problem.'
If you were to know that one of your children would die, if you would know which of you would get sick and how sick they'd get, if you would know when your spouse would get Parkinson's disease, or Alzheimer's, if you would know when cancer would set in and the money would run out, would you drink that cup? Would you drink of that cup if you actually knew what was inside? Based on the divorce rate here in this nation, I would say that people wouldn't. People break up for a number of reasons, but because people get sick, because the money runs out, because people aren't having fun anymore, those aren't rare reasons. They're shockingly common. And this is a matter to really take carefully. Can you drink of that cup? Can you follow through with your promises?
When Jesus asks James and John if they can drink of the same cup, and be baptized with the same baptism the answer that they give is that they sure can, don't worry about it. That seems like an obvious conclusion, but we already know they can't . we have the perspective to know that James and John are going to leave, they're going to run, they're not going to be crucified to the left and right of Jesus, that honor belongs to bandits and insurrectionists. They are about as good at following through with that promise as we are to following through with any of our promises, marital or otherwise. We don't keep our word, we don't stick to our covenants, we don't follow through with the promises that we make, which is why the vague threat that Jesus makes in this passage is so important. He promises James and John that they will drink of that cup, that they will be baptized with that same baptism, that will happen. But that isn't a threat. It's a promise.
The thing is, that we are bad at keeping our end of the bargain. we are people who make a wreckage out of promises and dust out of covenants. We have made countless deals, given our word countless times, and disappointed countless people. This is how we do things in the world, how we have always done things, we have made promises and failed at keeping them, entered into covenants without knowing the details, this is who we are. But this is why the cup, the baptism are promises, not threats. Think about Jesus in the Gospels, asking God if the cup of suffering could pass from him. That cup didn't pass from him, it didn't pass to anyone else. In the garden, it became clear that the cup was going to rest with Jesus, and he would have to drink it to the dregs. That was his job, his role, his duty, and he fulfilled it. And instead of drinking that cup, instead of drinking the cup of suffering, the wine mixed with gall, James and John were given another cup. They were given the cup of salvation, the cup of the body and blood of Christ the cup of salvation. It's the same with baptism. Jesus was baptized in the Jordan, and when he came up out of the water, it was with the sin of the world on his shoulders. All that sin was washed off of people like James and John, and clung to Christ.
They drank of the cup, they were baptized in the baptism, and we are too. This is because we are in a new covenant with God, a covenant not guaranteed on our obedience, on our follow through, but instead based on the work of Christ. He gets the gall, we get the glory, he gets the dirt, we get the divinity. And this is part of why we need the sacraments so much, because Jesus knows who weak our faith is, how we need a sign, we crave it, we require it, we need the guarantee of the covenant, and that's what our sacraments are. They're marks, signs of the fidelity of Christ. When we say the words of institution, we repeat the promise of Jesus, that this is his body, his blood, that he is giving us as a mark, a sign, of the forgiveness of our sins. We need this in such powerful ways. Baptism saves us through the water and the word, communion forgives through the body and the blood, this is the way through which Christ continues to show his constancy to his end of the covenant, and this is the only end that really, genuinely matters. If we could drink that cup of gall, all the way to the end, then it would be possible for us to ascend to the left and right hand of Christ. Instead, because only Christ can drink that cup, can make peace and mediation between man and God, we gain his forgiveness and his salvation. He doesn't say to those who are at his side on earth that they will be at his right or left when he enters his kingdom, but instead, he tells them of a completely one-sided covenant. A covenant based on what he has done, on how he has borne the sins of the world.
Today, you will be with me in paradise.
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