We grow up trying to figure out what we are good at.
Where should we invest ourselves to grow our talents and minimize our weaknesses?
Where can we win more than we lose?
That’s why people take aptitude tests or have them given to their children.
It also explains why there are lucrative careers in the social influencing market.
We want coaches and advisors who can show us ways to succeed in this dog-eat-dog world.
From childhood on up we are trying to figure out who we are, and if we conclude we can’t win in conventional ways, we might then consider being the best at being bad.
Should we never find the love and encouragement we believe others around us apparently have then we might use this as our excuse for going down unconventional self-destructive paths.
And we will fall in with others who didn’t seem to fit in to the expectations of society either.
And as true as it is in the secular world it is no different in religious ones.
Therefore, the difference between most people, has nothing to do with whether or not they believe in God or attend church services.
They may be doing all of this just to fit in.
An ambitious individual who is operating out of the same heart and world systems they were born into will be disappointed with life in the end unless they are radically changed.
With this in mind let’s look at a couple of ambitious disciples.
35 And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to [Jesus] and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.”
Ambitious people are crafty. They plot and scheme to get what they want.
It’s a typical maneuver of children with their parents to run the blank check ploy. It goes like this — if you love me, please give me whatever I ask for — before I ask for it. They pretend this is a pure test of love but it is simply a childish manipulation because the supplicant knows that what they want is more than they deserve.
We do this with prayers don’t we? We say to God please give me whatever I want as proof you love me.
And when God declines the request the result is often anger against God.
Where it is hardest to see is when the request has merit. For example when we ask for someone we love who is sick or injured to be healed and they actually get worse or die.
Let’s keep reading.
36 And he said to them, “What do you want me to do for you?”
Jesus listens. He allows them to make their request.
37 And they said to him, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.”
On the one hand this seems like a request that shows faith and loyalty. These are good things aren’t they?
But then it is obvious that the request is an exclusive one. Had Jesus agreed, then the next and likely immediate fight would be between the two brothers for the better of the two positions.
There is also here a lesson about the desire to conquer without striving. It is advancement by who you know, not what you have done to earn anything.
38 Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking.
This is why even Jesus, when he definitely knows it would be better for himself physically, not to go to the cross, states that he wants more that his Father would decide his course. “Never the less, not my will but yours be done.”
Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?”
What was the cup Jesus was referring to?
They didn’t know at that time, but we do.
And what was the baptism he was referring to?
39 And they said to him, “We are able.”
No one is more confident that the one who is completely clueless.
And Jesus said to them, “The cup that I drink you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized,
They will later be martyred for being Christ followers. And many following after them will be as well.
40 but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.”
Prepared by Jesus’s Father in Heaven.
41 And when the ten heard it, they began to be indignant at James and John.
Why were they upset?
And here is the conclusion to this story about ambition.
42 And Jesus called them to him and said to them, “You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them.
43 But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant,
MUST BE — servanthood in the believer is not optional, it is the identifying mark of the true follower of God.
We are to be ambitious servants of others as the only practical way in this world to love God.
44 and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all.
45 For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
And this doesn’t change.
Heaven operates this way now and always.
Perhaps this is why the selfish will choose not to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.