Sunday of St. Mary of Egypt
As Jesus was teaching, two of his disciples gathered up enough courage to ask him a bold question.
James and John, who were brothers, decided to ask if one of them could sit at Jesus’s right and the other at his left.
In response, Jesus asked if they comprehended what that meant; whether they could “drink of that same cup.”
As the gospel story progresses, we do, eventually, see two people at his right and left: the two thieves who were sentenced to death, just like Jesus.
Today, we know that to be on Jesus’s right and left is to be co-crucified with him.
James and John weren’t ready for this.
Why?
Because their question had the wrong motivation. It was an ego driven question.
They still believed that the messiah (Christ) was a political king who would, one day, overthrow Herod and reestablish political Israel.
In their minds, to sit at Jesus’s right and left meant that they were get to sit next to a king, and they would acquire all the status and privileges that come with that.
Pride and ego are still passions we struggle with today. It’s a part of our fallen human nature.
But, in our day, our pride takes on new forms.
Today, as Americans, our pride also is entwined with consumerism. Our egos tells us that we deserve to be served and everything should be handed to us for our own consumption.
And, ironically, we often treat the church the same way.
We demand that the church fulfill our needs and wants; whether it’s the languages we want, the ministries we think the church should engage in (which often become self-serving), or, even now, streaming the services we want to see while we sit at home and simply watch.
The question is: How do we move past this? How do we go from the scriptural James and John, who were ego-driven, to the saints they eventually become?
Scripture: Mark 10: 32-45 (click here to read)
Bottom Line: To grow, we first must learn to serve
Discussion Questions
- Before today, how did you understand James and John’s question about sitting to the right and left of Jesus? Did you see anything wrong with the question? What did you think of Jesus’s answer? Was he too harsh?
- The disciples’ question come from ego and pride. They wanted to associated with royalty. When, in your life, has your ego and pride gotten in the way? What happened? How would you have thought about your situation differently if Jesus had been there to say, “Remember you should become a servant?”
- The Christian life is one of serving. To be able to do this, we must become mature and responsible Christians. How have you grown in your Christian walk? What do you still need to work on? How can you overcome the obstacles that stand in the way of your spiritual growth?
Moving Forward
Our question—moving beyond pride and consumerism—hits at the very heart of what it means to become a mature Christian.
It’s often too easy to remain as a “baby” in our Christian walk.
At some point, we are called to grow up, mature, and take on responsibility.
This means cultivating our own deep spirituality, as well as supporting our church.
By growing, we become healthy, well-adjusted adult Christians.
The answer to how we do this comes in the last few verses,
“Whoever among you wishes to be great will be your servant, and whoever among you wishes to be first will be the slave of all.”
Moving beyond ourselves to serve our brothers and sisters and our community helps us mature.
We go beyond thinking about ourselves to being, instead, trusted members of our families, workplaces, and churches.
We see this at work in the story of St. Mary of Egypt, whom we commemorate today.
As a young lady, Mary was completely involved in fulfilling her own passion; she thought life consisted in the satisfaction of her fleshly lust. Other people were simply “things” to be consumed for her satisfaction.
In fact, her pride wouldn’t even let her charge the men she saw, even though she lived in abject poverty.
Eventually, she came face-to-face with the Mother of God in Jerusalem.
Because of her sins, she wasn’t able to enter into the church to see the Elevation of Cross.
By the grace of God, this confrontation opened her eyes. She realized that she needed to repent and stop using others for her own pleasure.
Later in the story, St. Zosimas counters Mary in the desert and he had to learn the same lesson.
He recognized that Mary was very holy and he wanted her to bless him.
But, as a priest, it was his job to pray and intercede for her—Mary’s saintly status didn’t release him from serving, specifically from praying for her and bringing her communion.
James, John, Mary, and Zosimas all had to learn that becoming a servant is how the gospel is fulfilled.
It’s how they overcame their pride and consumerism, and how they found their path to God.
For us today, we are also called to become servants, and the opportunity to serve is all around us.
The question is: Will we ignore the call to draw closer to Christ in this way, or will we start down the path to becoming a mature Christian?
Changing Your Mind
“You know that those who are supposed to rule the gentile peoples dominate them, and that their great men wield power over them. But it is not so among you; rather, whoever among you wishes to be great will be your servant, And whoever among you wishes to be first will be the slave of all; For even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his soul as the price of liberation for many.” (Mark 10:42b-24)
Thank you for this teaching. I had not previously made the connection that James and John were talking about a worldly kingdom. Still I am unsure of what Jesus meant by his response “Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?”
In this context, what is the cup and what is the baptism?
Hi Jonathan,
Thanks for reading!
The cup and baptism, in this context, refer to martyrdom. In fact, early Christians considered martyrdom a “baptism of the blood.”
“Martyr,” in the original Greek, doesn’t mean a sacrificial death. Instead, it means “witness.” So, when Christ dies on the cross, he’s a witness to the glory of God. And, when we give our lives for Christ (either as a traditional martyr or through service to others), we are imitating Christ in the sense that we are putting others’ needs before our own. In this way, we’re mirroring the image we see of Christ on the cross and we too become martyrs/witnesses of God’s glory.