One of the great things about the Gospels is not just their accuracy, but their
honesty. If you had lived with Christ, and were then putting together a
description of all that had happened for future followers of Christ to read, it
could have been tempting to gloss over some of the problems, the
misunderstandings, the imperfections and so on. You would have had to
include mention of Judas – that was so famous there was no way you could
leave it out. But some of the other faults and failings ... well ... it would have
been easy to say people won’t need to know about those.
So today, we’re into chapter ten – don’t forget that Mark’s Gospel is only
sixteen chapters long, and the last two are about Jesus’ Passion, Death and
Resurrection. Time is ticking away, and here we have James and John asking
to sit at Christ’s right and left in His glory.
Now you may have spotted that there was a certain hierarchy within the
Twelve. St Peter, of course is the one who is going to be appointed the deputy
of the Church, with Christ being the head. But there were certain occasions
where Peter, James and John were treated perhaps as slightly distinct from the
rest. Take the Transfiguration, when Christ took them up a high mountain – it
only mentions Peter, James and John going up with Him. Did the others stay
behind down below? Or what about when, after the Last Supper, they went
across to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray? In Matthew and Mark it says that
He took them all with Him and said to them: “Stay here while I go over there
to pray” (Matthew 26:37; see also Mark 14:32-33), and He took Peter, James
and John with Him. We also need to be careful because there were two
apostles called James: James the brother of John, and James the brother (or
more accurately, cousin) of the Lord. James the brother of John is the one
travelled the Roman Empire and is now connected with Santiago di
Compostella in Spain. James the cousin of the Lord was the first bishop of
Jerusalem. Surely, being bishop of Jerusalem was a rather important job as
well. But, as Christ says, following Him is not about status and importance,
but rather about service and taking the lowest seat.
So, if James and John struggled to understand what being an apostle was all
about, and what Christ was calling them to, then there’s hope for us all as well.
God’s grace can do its marvels. The apostles were all to run away, apart from
St John, at the time of the crucifixion; but afterwards, apart from Judas, they all
witnessed to the Lord across the Roman Empire, with all of them being
martyred apart from St John, but that was the Lord’s decision (see John 21:20-
23).
The second reading makes a similar point. Christ has gone through all the
different sufferings of the human condition, and also knows what it is to be
tempted as well. In some ways, everything has changed since the first century,
and in other ways, nothing has changed. Human beings are still the same; we
see rivalries today, and there were rivalries back at the time of Christ. His
grace helped them then, and His grace can help us now. Sometimes, when you
read historical novels, it not only brings alive the past, but also shows how,
however many years you go back, people still had the same hopes and fears,
challenges and difficulties, got on with some people and were irritated by
others.
Let’s give thanks, then, for the accurate picture given us by the Gospels. When
we read what happened in the first century, we realise that there is, truly, hope
for us all.
Curious about exploring things further? If you would like to ask further questions about the topics raised in these homilies (or maybe think it wasn’t explained too well!), please feel free to e-mail Fr Michael at stjoseph.thame@rcaob.org.uk