You what?

Matthew 20:24 - When the ten heard about it, they were indignant with the two brothers.

My first thought is, How did they hear about it? There were only four people in the and none of them are good candidates for saying anything to the others. James and John probably wanted to keep it quiet - I know I would. I can't imagine their mother broadcasting her failure to secure their place. Jesus might have - if only to teach all of them a lesson. No matter what happens, we get theology with that. So, unless James and John are fans of unnecessary drama, either they were overheard or Jesus saw a teaching moment. He certainly saw one after they heard about it.

My second thought was, Well of course they were indignant! Who wouldn't be? There seems to always be at least one person in any group who tries to put themselves above others ... even in churches and other religious organizations. It is upsetting and as we can see, it hurts relationships with others in the group. Ambition on its own isn't bad, as I mentioned in my previous post, but when others are hurt, it becomes sinful. And the brothers' ambition embodied and incarnated in secret hurts their relationship with the other disciples.

My third thought is to wonder why the ten got upset. There's the obvious, that some of their number were trying to get ahead at their expense. But, was there any other reason? Were any of them considering doing the same thing and hadn't acted yet? How competitive were the disciples? We rarely see this kind of interaction among them, but that doesn't mean that it rarely happened. Peter in particular was impulsive and hot-headed.

So, the lesson here is think before you act. Did James and John think about what they were doing? As I mentioned, there was precedent for their mother to approach Jesus, yet they were certainly in on the plan. Of course, no one can foresee all the consequences of our actions, however, that does not let us off the hook for being thoughtful and acting more intentionally for others rather than ourselves. Next, we will see Jesus' comments on all of this.
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