Wednesday, Week of 2 Lent

“And as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside, and on the way he said to them, ‘Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man will be delivered to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death, and deliver him to the Gentiles to be mocked and scourged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day’” (Matthew 20:17-19).

It never ceases to amaze me how much the disciples failed to recognize what Jesus was about even as he was shoving it in their faces.

Here he is, laying out for them what we know as the mystery of our faith: that Christ has died, and Christ is risen (or, from their perspective, that he will die and be raised). And then they start bickering among themselves about who’s going to sit at his right hand.

Jesus tells them that they have to rethink the way they do things: “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you” (Mt 20:25-26). It isn’t important to think about who sits at Jesus’ right hand and who sits at his left. It is so not important to Jesus that it’s not even his business – the Father is going to decide (20:23). What’s important to him is that his disciples be prepared to drink the cup he is to drink, for they, too, are called to take it.

We are all called, perhaps most forcefully in Lent, to rethink the way we do things. We are called to rethink the way we live our lives, and the way we do church. We are called not to think about earning salvation or glory in heaven, but to walk alongside Jesus on the road to Jerusalem. We are called not to Lord it over others. We are called to put aside personal ambition. We are called to stop focusing on what we think is important and to listen to what Jesus is saying.

Discipleship is not about glory. Discipleship is being willing to walk alongside the Christ who dies, being willing to drink the cup, being willing to serve. It is being open to putting aside all the concerns we always thought were so important. It’s about risking everything on the path of love.

“whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave; even as the Son of man came not be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:26-28).