A reading of the holy gospel according to Saint Matthew. The mother of Zebedee's sons came up to Jesus along with her sons to do him homage and to ask Jesus a favor. What is it you want? Jesus asked. She answered, promise me that these sons of mine will sit, one at your right hand and the other at your left in your kingdom.
In reply, Jesus said to her, you don't know what you're asking. Can you drink the cup that I have to drink? We can, they said. Notice a change in pronoun. And Jesus said to them, from the cup I drink of, you shall also drink.
But sitting at my right hand or my left is not mine to give you. That is for those for whom it has been reserved by my father. Now the other 10 on hearing this became indignant at the two brothers, and Jesus then called them all together and said to them, you know how those who exercise authority among the Gentiles lord it over them? Their great ones make their importance obvious and felt. Now it cannot be like that among you.
Anyone among you who aspires to needs of all the rest. And whoever wants to rank first among you must serve them also. Such is the case with the son of man who has come not to be served by others, but to serve, to give his own life as a ransom for the many, and this is the gospel of the lord. Praise to you, lord Jesus Christ. In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit, amen.
This particular excerpt from Saint Matthew on this feast of Saint James about whom there is a great deal of controversy, about the same problem as the as the Marys in the New Testament, is revealing. It's revealing because it gives us a good clear insight into what some people, very close to Jesus, understood him to mean by his kingdom. Now when we go back and read the New Testament, we we read the words of our lord, we'll say, how could they have so grossly misunderstood it? Well, first of all, you have to go back a bit. They a Jew expected the restoration of the kingdom of Israel.
And when you said the restoration of the kingdom of Israel, they weren't talking about heaven or the or the great beyond. They were talking about the present tense when the bitterly hated Romans would be booted out. And when the kingdom of god would be restored where? In Jerusalem, in that city. And when the when the Jews would once again have their own country to themselves.
Now their objection, the Jewish objection you see, this is what you you have to understand. The Jewish objection to the to the Romans wasn't simply that of invaders, of conquerors, because actually the Romans were very sensible in the way they colonized, in the way they took over other nations. About the only thing they required were two things, tranquility, that means absence of conflict, don't rock the boat, and pay the taxes. For the rest, they could not care any they couldn't bother. In in in Palestine, in Israel, the Jews were in complete control of their judicial system, of their police system.
The only thing they couldn't do was to impose a death sentence. That's the reason they had to bring Jesus to Pilate. For the rest, the Jews let him alone. Well, then would you say if they were such a benignant, benevolent conquerors, restoring peace and order, building roads, sustaining the economy, bringing a welfare state to the Israelites. What was the Jews Jews objection?
Their objection was that these people were not Jews. They were pagans. And the Jew considered it that it that it would make them unclean even if they crossed the threshold of a Roman. That's the reason when the Roman soldier asked Christ to come and cure his daughter, he said, don't come in. You don't have to come.
Just say the word. Because the Roman soldier was sensitive to the Jewish feeling. So when when the expectation of the Jews was for the restoration of their kingdom on earth, and they had every reason to be to to feel that way. Every reason. But the question is, is that what our lord had in mind?
See, that's the question. And is the messiah come simply to be another ruler in the same in the same sense that Caesar was over in Rome? The fact is, without any shadow of a doubt, even after the crucifixion, even after the resurrection, those who were closest to our lord, those who had been with him long as, those who had heard practically every word that fell from his lips, they firmly believed that he was going to restore the physical kingdom of Israel in Jerusalem. And one of the best revelations of that attitude is is the mother of the of of the Zebedee boys. And you can just see this woman, all keen, willing to throw herself open to all kinds of criticism.
What for? For her boy's sake. You know that type of mother. There it's almost born in with being a mother, I guess. The sacrifices that they will make without any thought of themselves, without any thought of of their confusion or embarrassment or inconvenience or what will people think.
They're my boys, and I wanna see they get good jobs. And notice, she doesn't ask just for one. She wants both of them, and she wants both of her boys to be closest, one on Christ's right and one on his left, president and vice president, I suppose. Although one would have to be a girl today, I guess. So there you have it.
A very human scene. Very human. Now the point I wanna make for us is this. We can mistake the kingdom of god in our lives. What do we expect by being followers of Jesus Christ?
Anybody who has any maturity I remember when I was first started to teach ethics to nurses, the first thing I found after going back over a number of books was this, advice to nurses. Don't make any engagements unless you know what you're doing and then keep them. And then later on, you find out about don't enter into any contract unless you know what you're doing. Even our blessed lord said, don't start to build a house unless you figure out how much it's going to cost and can you afford it. It's common sense.
You've committed yourself to Jesus Christ. What do you expect to get out of it? Now this is the commonplace just yesterday, I heard a very eloquent plea for volunteers for on the radio for a very worthwhile work. No question about this at all. But the entire motivation, very elegantly done, was this.
Do this and you'll get so much out of it. And then they went on to say, well, how much you will get out by helping in this particular form of volunteer work. Is that the is that how Christ works? Oh, he made promises. He did indeed.
He doesn't left leave us hopeless. He doesn't leave us working in a void. He doesn't say, come follow me and stop right there. Not if you take his whole message. But what is the message of Jesus Christ?
Is it to to make this world comfortable, tranquil, to to do only what I say fulfills me? And remember, I become the test of that fulfillment. Of course. I don't bring in a third party. Oh, that would that would be absolutely disastrous.
I'm my own judge. I'm my own jury. I'm my own prosecutor. I'm my defendant. I decide what's for my good.
What fulfills me? What do I get out of it? This is the temper of the times. Think of Kennedy when he when he was inaugurated. He said, don't nation, ask what you can give.
What did you hear like that in the in in last week from San Francisco? Everything. What does can they give, give, give from the nation? Not what you can give that. To make the nation strong and all that or not, it's what can as if this was well, the point is, is this the attitude of Jesus Christ?
What do you expect from his kingdom? Shouldn't you be clear in your own mind about that? You've entered into some kind of a commitment. What are you going to get out of it? What kind of a test is it?
Supposing you were completely free as well, as as the majority of our citizens are to accept Christ or not to accept him, why accept him? In many instances, the answer to that question is because you will become part of a community, you will feel better, you will have a you will have a a more confident, secure view of life, you will be, as we say, happier. Happier, whatever in the world that means. See, nothing is more absurd than the pursuit of happiness. Happiness is a fiction.
You can pursue things, but how do you pursue happiness? And yet that's a a great phrase, you know, life liberty in pursuit of happiness. It's absurd. Pursue the things that will make you happy. Oh, that makes sense.
But what things? Our blessed lord has all these answers, but it's his answer. My kingdom, Christ said, is not of this world. Not of this world. Could anything be clearer than that?
So if you belong to Christ's kingdom, don't look in this to this world. This isn't where you belong. You are a foreigner. You are an alien. You are uncomfortable.
You are not accepted. You are rejected. You may even be persecuted. As a matter of fact, you may be a martyr. The thought is frightening, isn't it?
It is for me. When every time I wear these red vestments, would I have the guts to be a martyr? Yet these vestments mean that somebody did. We are called upon to follow Jesus, to be a member of his kingdom. What is his kingdom?
He said it is not of this world. Come follow me. In the name of the father and the son and the holy spirit. Amen.