James: All I did was ask.
John: This again? Just great!
James: It wasn’t solely my idea, you wanted to ask too. You
wanted it as much as I did.
John: Yes, I guess I
did. To be at his right hand and his left. To rule, to reign, with him. To be
his cup bearer—secretary of state or VP of Miracles.
James: It was why we became Apostles. Why we wandered with
him for three years. At times we thought of it like it was a junior management
training program. That’s what being a disciple was.
John: I never put it that way.
James: *Side Eyes*
John: Okay. Maybe I did… we did.
James: How could we have known what was in store for him?
How he both disappointed and surpassed every expectation. We all got it wrong,
what Jesus was up to. Remember how Judas and Simon both thought they’d joined
the Jesus insurrection?
John: That was how the Romans eventually saw it.
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James (sadly): That’s who the crowd chose—instead of him—the
Insurrectionist Bar-Abbas.
John: And how they killed him.
James: A cross.
John: A cross, the tree of traitors.
James: Dead beside two criminals… criminals, not us, at his
right and at his left.
John: That wasn’t just.
James: That wasn’t great.
John: That’s what we were asking for, though. How’d we not
hear it? To be crucified with him. We just didn’t know that’s what we were
asking for. Thomas was the only one who saw that coming…
James: Lot of good that did him. He was just like the rest
of us when it happened. He didn’t handle it when it happened. Jesus crucified
with the criminals.
John: Drinking the last drop of the cup offered to him by
his father, even sour vinegar. A strange kind of cup bearer for a strange kind
of king.
James: If we’d been crucified with him… That would have been
an honor—in retrospect of course—we now know it, though then we didn’t—instead
we ran… only the women saw the whole thing… us guys all left.
John: The guys.
James: Yeah. The twelve.
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John: The twelve… or rather the other 10… were shocked by
our request.
James: Yeah they were. “Just great!” they said, “Those
sons of thunder, making noise again, trying to get ahead of us all again.”
John: But he explained what we were… what we should…
should have been asking for. It wasn’t about getting to the front of the line but
about greater acts of service.
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James: We were right to ask, in so far as we weren’t looking
for recognition or to be little tyrants.
John: Not to be served, but to serve.
James: The only kind of greatness that matters, is Kingdom
of God Greatness. Service is great!
John: Goodness is great. Humility, washing feet of friends,
seeking the least, the last, and the lost; that is great.
James: Justice… just greatness, that’s what we should
have asked for. A chance to serve, to love, to care. He re-defined it for us.
Greatness.
John: All of us. Everyone who follows Jesus must at least
know that. What greatness is, the greatness of Jesus Christ.
James: The greatness of our Risen Lord.
All: Amen.
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