Intro to Chapter 23: Greatness in the Kingdom of God
Jesus’ disciples never seemed to grasp the nature of the kingdom he was constantly telling them about. They were expecting a messiah to throw off the yoke of Rome and restore the Davidic kingdom of old. Even at the end, just before the Ascension, they asked, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”
It mattered a lot to them what would be their place in the kingdom, both collectively and individually. They argued about who would be the greatest among them, about who would sit at Jesus’ right and who at his left. They were still arguing about it on the night before his crucifixion.
When Jesus asked James and John whether they could drink the cup he drank or be baptized with the baptism he was baptized with, their answer was a firm yes. John and his mother Salome would be at Calvary to see who occupied those coveted places to Jesus’ left and right. Though James and John didn’t drink of the cup at that time, the cup was coming for both of them. James would be beheaded by Herod Agrippa. John would be boiled in oil and exiled to the island of Patmos, where he would receive his apocalyptic Revelation.
Both were to be great in the kingdom, but it was not the sort of greatness that either could have expected.