Tuesday, October 12

Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him. “Teacher,” they said, “we want you to do for us whatever we ask.”

“What do you want me to do for you,” he asked.

They replied, “Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory.”                                                                         Mark 10: 35-37

The mother of two young sons was making pancakes for breakfast. She overheard her boys arguing over who would get the first pancake; “I get the first pancake,” the older one said. “That’s not fair,” cried the younger brother, “you ALWAYS get the first pancake! I want the first pancake this time!” And on and on it went. The Mom, seeing an opportunity to impart a spiritual lesson said, “Now boys, if JESUS were here with you would HE be arguing about getting the first pancake?” The boys had been to Sunday School and therefore knew the answer their Mom was looking for. They both looked down sheepishly and said, “No.” She was pleased and said, “That’s right boys, if JESUS were here he would say, ‘That’s alright, my brother can have the first pancake, I can wait.’”

A few moments of silence went by, then the older brother looked up and said to his little brother, “O.K. Tommy, YOU can be Jesus today!”

I love that little story because so often I am like that as well. Like the little boys in the story, my default mode is to think of myself first. And that’s what is happening to James and John. Jesus has just been talking about (earlier in Mark 10) his coming arrest, trial and suffering – and yet James and John can think only of what’s in it for them!

Sometimes, I fear, that’s the way we approach our faith. When we pray, we tend to do a lot of asking God to do things for us. When we read the Bible – we look for words that will encourage us or make us feel better about our lives. When we go to church, we hope that the worship will include the kind of music and songs that we like most, and that the pastor’s sermon will be interesting. If we are not careful, we approach our faith from a “what’s in it for me?” perspective!

Jesus is teaching his disciples that following him means learning to think backwards. It means learning to ask not, “What’s in it for me?” but rather, “What do you want me to do for someone else?” Ask God to give you an opportunity to serve someone else today!

Brian Coffey