Where do you feel?

What do you think when you hear about an honor chair? for example, traveling in first class; , in and of itself, creates a distinction. How about the positions of honor in a coronation of a king, a queen or a prince or the appointment of a presiding president?

In many sports there are positions of preference, assigned for a few, where you will pay more to see the game. All this leads us to see that the chairs of honor are the most sought after by this society that exalts the ego and the vain glory.

Apparently the disciples James and John were aspiring to these positions because of the belief that the reign of Christ was of this world. The daring request of these disciples: "Master, we would like you to do whatever we asked." They were asking the Lord to place them in the best jobs when their government began.

The confusion of an earthly kingdom, in the best style of those already existing, made them forget the words and life of Christ, whose main characteristic was that of a servant who did not come to be served. The nature of this request. They did not go to Jesus to ask for a "little stand" with which they could ensure their material well-being in the future. They did not ask to be workers in any part of the city where they would govern. Nor did they ask him to be mere servants to support them in his kingdom.

The petition points to the greatest: "Grant us that in your glory we sit one on the right and one on the left." Christian life does not consist in seeking Jesus to have popularity charges, but to render him the most humble of services.

Jesus said that in the celestial kingdom the seats of the right and of the left already have an assignment from the Father. So, why the ambition to want the chairs of honor and not those of service.

I. THE AVAILABLE SEATS OF JESUS ​​ARE OPPOSED TO THE AMBITION OF HONOR POSTS

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Let us do what we want

This approach could not be longer. Notice that it does not say "do what you want", but what we want. But the truth remains the same. What men want is not always what God wants. The thoughts of God are not our thoughts nor their ways our ways.

Notice that the response Jesus gave them was very benevolent. There was no rebuke at the time, but he confronted them with two questions to know what they were asking. What had the disciples seen in Jesus that led them to this approach? Underlying the human being is a desire for greatness. Even those who are so close to the Lord do not escape this temptation of popularity and exaltation.

We are seeing how many "servants" of the Lord use all their name and their supposed "cover" to project their image. The desire to have the largest church. The desire to be a celebrity in the media.

The desire to build an economic emporium, using the church as a platform, is something that is latent in many disciples. But the Lord does not offer that "seat." He does not have those popularity seats. Instead of offering a seat on the right and another on the left, he offers the "seat" of the brokenness of the self.

Remember that Satan already wanted to sit in that place. But his pride led him to be thrown out of heaven itself. The issue is not what we want, but what the Lord wants and wants to give us. The seat we least want is that of brokenness.

Grant us to sit down.

The translation of this verse would literally be: "Destine to us the two positions of greater honor in your coming kingdom". As expected, the rest of the disciples became angry. They were angry to hear that request. But they got angry because these disciples got ahead of them, because surely they were going to ask for the same thing.

What would happen if Jesus had given them a sign of hope about the request? The most certain thing is that among them a lawsuit in the best style of the political parties would have been generated. The struggle to want to be the greatest is part of the nature of this world.

Jesus has said that he who humbles himself will be exalted, but he who exalts himself will be humbled. The path of Christian greatness does not begin by demanding to sit on the right or the left of the Lord, but on the side of his will. One day Jesus sat down at the right hand of the Father, but first he lay down on the cross of Calvary.

Although it is true that Jesus promised his disciples that he would reign with him, as well as the church, it was ruled out that he would come as a political Messiah handing out charges for all the disciples. What Jesus said to his followers is that if anyone wanted to follow him he should "deny himself, take up his cross every day.

II. THE AVAILABLE SEATS OF JESUS ​​ARE MADE WITH NAILS OF SUFFERING

Can you be part of the vessel and of baptism?

It is these two questions that the disciples said they could. Would they be in any way prophesying what they expected to live because of the gospel? In fact, James was the first of the disciples to whom he was left shorter than his height, for they cut off his head at Herod's command. It is said that at royal banquets it was customary to offer a drink to the guests.

The glass would become a metaphor with which the life and experience that God offered to men was represented. One of the things mentioned by the well-known Psalm 23 is that "my cup is overflowing". Until that moment they had all been drinking from the cup that Jesus offered them from the beginning of their ministry.

However, they did not understand that Jesus was going to accept to drink the most bitter cup, the cup that involved his bloody death on the cross of Calvary.

If Jesus granted us all the wishes, it would soon become evident that we desire fame or power, and that we do not want to drink his cup or pass his baptism; so often it would be a ruin to answer our prayers. But he loves us and will give his people only what is good for them. The sword of Peter and not the towel of Jesus is what becomes evident when one chooses the chair of ambition instead of the seat of the cross.

The chair of the cross has nails, the chair of ambition, pleasure. The apostles were willing to be part of the sufferings of the Lord, but first they thought of the ambition of the earthly chairs.

Or perhaps we can not imagine that the disciples aspired to that position to get out of their condition of poverty? Did they not have the right to occupy a place in the "government" of Jesus? Only they had made some mistakes because Jesus never spoke of an earthly kingdom. They had not understood, like Peter when he tried to persuade Jesus to face suffering, that he had to go to the cross.

We can not reign with Christ if we do not first take the seat of the cross. Jesus offered them a kingdom, but after suffering. Even as believers we are lovers of comfort and not very given to sacrifice.

III. THE AVAILABLE SEATS OF JESUS ​​ARE NOT THE SAME ASSIGNED BY THE FATHER

What they ask I can not give

When Jesus heard the request of these disciples he simply said: "You do not know what you are asking." How many times the Lord will have said the same of us. With this he shows that there are prayers that will hardly be answered because they have the element of selfishness and some personal ambition.

It was James who said: "You ask, and you do not receive, because you ask evil, to spend on your pleasures" (James 4: 3). Good thing the Lord does not always respond to some of our prayers because they would not do us any good. The principle is simple, we should not ask God where he has already said "no".

Reserved by God.

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What Jesus tells his disciples is that the final decision on the seats of the right or of the left is the power of the heavenly Father. In this there is something sublime. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, always bowed his will to that of the Father. He did not overlook what he was thinking. The disciples asked Jesus for something that was reserved for those to whom the Father had prepared it. One thing is very true in this, God has destined those posts for those who do not aspire, for those who have no selfishness, no pride, or anything other than honoring and serving the Lord.

There will not be able to sit haughty, arrogant believers, who do not have others as superiors themselves. Those are places reserved by the eternal Father.

IV. THE AVAILABLE SEATS OF JESUS ​​HAVE THE MARK OF SERVICE

Those who govern are lords

The intervention of Jesus was necessary so that the unity of the apostles would not be broken. By calling them to reflect on what they were asking he showed them the difference between the greatness of his Kingdom and the kingdom of this world. The Lord Jesus Christ teaches us that man without God becomes lord of other men, and reaches the height of enslaving them as if they were animals.

Those who seek to govern have in their minds the use of power to control, supervise and select their own. Those who come to govern have to pass bill to their adversaries. Others, abusing power, silence dissent to achieve their political projects. Jesus warned his disciples that this was not his "government". He had not come to be served, but to serve.

Those who serve, exalt

For those who think that Jesus was a revolutionary in the best style of the past or the modern, these verses take him out of such a team. Jesus was not a revolutionary as the left governments have cataloged. He was simply the promised Messiah, the Son of Man and the Son of God. Look closely at each of these words.

The teachings of Jesus seem a paradox: "He who wants to become great among you will be your servant." This is not how the world sees this matter. He also said: "Whosoever of you wants to be first, will be a servant of all." This seems absurd in a world of so much competition. Who wants to be "servants of all"?

Why did Jesus offer them other "seats", instead of the "chairs" they asked for? There are two very different approaches on the road to Jerusalem. Jesus sees the cross that is waiting for him, while John and James see the thrones that await them. But what did the other ten see?

They saw James and John. They did not see Jesus. They got angry and they got annoyed with Juan and Jacob. Why? Because they first came to Jesus with the request. They wanted the same thing and were furious because their partners had gone ahead of them. Does not this often explain our anger?

We got upset because someone thought about it before we did it. Our Model in the service said: "Because the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve ... and give his life."