Thought of the Day !!

James and John, Zebedee's sons, came up to him. "Teacher, we have something we want you to do for us." "What is it? I'll see what I can do." "Arrange it," they said, "so that we will be awarded the highest places of honor in your glory—one of us at your right, the other at your left."
Mark 10:35-37 (The Message)

This passage comes directly after Jesus has told his disciples for the third time that he must suffer, die and then rise three days later. This last time he's even gone into great detail of the suffering that he will endure. It will entail being spat upon, being mocked and even flogged. Then finally he will die.

In each of the three times that Jesus shares this with the disciples, they respond to him in the wrong way. They respond as the world would respond; with selfish motives of power and gain. But this time is, in my opinion, the worst. Jesus has just given them some grave news to think about, and even though there is good news to come with the resurrection, I don't think that they understood this yet. Then comes a response so hideous I dare mention it. They ask for a favor.

Think about it. Jesus is about to go to his death. And in essence they say, "Hey Jesus, before you do that, would you do us a big favor?" How selfish can they be? But then again, how selfish we can be at times too.

Don't they understand? Haven't they been listening? Before we go casting stones in their direction, let us think about how we just might hear what we want to hear as well in the gospel. Many people hear how Jesus wants to take our burdens away, while forgetting that he wants us to take up the burden of our crosses and follow him.

The key to this whole issue is to allow Jesus to abide in us and therefore guide our responses to everything. I challenge you today to go into the world and before every decision and every response to someone or something, ask yourself this question. "How would Jesus want me to respond?"

In the love of Christ,
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