Mother's Day tribute.

Then the mother of Zebedee’s sons came to Jesus with her sons and, kneeling down, asked a favor of him.

²¹ “What is it you want?” he asked.

She said, “Grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other at your left in your kingdom.”

²² “You don’t know what you are asking,” Jesus said to them. “Can you drink the cup I am going to drink?”

“We can,” they answered.

²³ Jesus said to them, “You will indeed drink from my cup, but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared by my Father.”

One thing i never quite noticed before is that James' and John's mother doesn't get a lot of attention in this story, but maybe she should. What if when we worshiped Jesus (in greek, "kneeling down" is the same word for "worshiped") and when we get to that place where we know we have His attention, we begged and aspired (the greek for "asked" in that verse) for God's absolute highest blessings. By the end of this conversation Jesus has the disciples, the sons in position for martyrdom, an honor of the highest degree in the Kingdom. Now, whether the Father has them sit where they want is still in question by the end. And though the end is still unclear, the means have become very clear. And the tone of this doesn't seem like a rebuke either, in fact, it seems more like a teachable moment. Later on, the rest of the disciples all get a lesson in how "to be the greatest" as well.

As we aspire to "make disciples of all" i believe there's a nugget hidden in this. We don't want to simply make disciples (sons and daughters) by just getting people through their tragedies and dramas... don't we want to beg and aspire for Jesus to bless them with things we don't even understand? The highest blessings of heaven? And how unselfish is this of their mother too! She has Jesus full attention, He asks her (think about this for a minute) what SHE wants! And then her response has nothing to do with herself or her well being! So what if she has no idea what she's asking for... it's AWESOME!

I don't believe this to be some sort of formula we can follow, but at the same time i feel like there's treasure here that we can see. Worship, grab the attention of Jesus. Then let Him address you. Then address Him with your highest desires for your closest friends. And then let Jesus direct them.