10:35,36
“Then James and John ...” The “then” highlights the pathetic thinking of James and John, the sort of thinking that we can all be guilty of. Jesus has just been speaking of the crucifixion, the agony He would have to go through, the most important event in human history, and what are James and John thinking of? Themselves! As I say, we can all be guilty of this in various ways. “Teacher, we want you to do whatever we ask”. This would be a rather presumptuous thing to say at the best of times, but in these circumstances! So Jesus invited them to ask their question.
10:37,38
“Let us sit at your right hand and at your left hand in your glory”. Maybe in telling them about His death and resurrection Jesus had talked about His future glory, 10:32-34 is a highly truncated account. At least they realised that Jesus would be glorified, but beyond that they hadn’t a clue what they were asking for. “Can you drink the cup I drink?” They were in effect asking to be on the two crosses either side of Jesus on Golgotha! We may criticise James and John, and with some justification, but when we ask Jesus to draw us closer to Himself, or to lead us, or to fill us more with the Holy Spirit, we need to realise that this might involve Him leading us to a cross.
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