INTRODUCTION

During the month of July, while our family vacations up at Chautauqua Lake in New York State, we worship every Sunday in a large amphitheatre that seats over 5000 people. Although there are plenty of good places to sit, Barbara and I have found a favorite spot where we can see and hear what is happening. Over the 25 years that we have been going there, we have grown partial to that particular wooden bench pew – so partial, in fact, that when somebody else gets there earlier and takes “our seats,” we feel slightly uncomfortable. Of course, we don’t ask them to move over – there are no reserved places in the Chautauqua amphitheatre – but we are partial to that particular spot.

In the churches where I have been privileged to serve in Princeton, New Jersey, Bryn Mawr and Sewickley, Pennsylvania and right here in Atlanta, Georgia, I have noticed that the same phenomenon is true for many if not most of you. You have preferred places where you like to sit on Sunday mornings.

I remember in one of those congregations an older man who always sat on the very back row. He had been doing so for a long time, just as his parents did before him. But unfortunately, one summer Sunday, the back section of pews was roped off to encourage people to sit closer toward the front of the sanctuary. Well, he didn’t like that, so he slipped under the rope and sat down in his usual spot. Even more unfortunately, a teenager who was ushering that day, asked him to move forward just before the Call to Worship. From where I was sitting up front, I could see how unhappy that man was, and most unfortunately of all, he took his bulletin, threw it down on the aisle, stomped on it, and walked out. At the staff meeting that following Tuesday, we decided to discontinue the policy of roping off the back aisles during the summer months!

You see, although there are no reserved seats at Chautauqua or in most churches I know of, we, almost all of us, do have our preferences as to where we like to sit on a Sunday morning.

In our gospel lesson today from Matthew, chapter 20, that was apparently what the mother of James and John, the sons of Zebedee, wanted from Jesus. He had just announced to His disciples that they were going up to Jerusalem where He would be delivered to the chief priests and scribes, condemned to death and crucified by the Romans and then would be raised from the grave on the third day (Matthew 20:17-19).

Before anyone could speak a word of protest or empathy, the mother of James and John, who must have been walking alongside the entourage on the road, interrupted the conversation. Assuming that she had heard Jesus’ announcement and realized that “big things” were about to happen in Jerusalem, she knelt down before Him and asked Jesus if He would command that these two sons of mine may sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom (Matthew 20:20-21).

Now I don’t want to sound overly critical or judgmental of her, but it does appear that she was somewhat aggressive and insensitive to the gravity of that moment, something akin to wearing a bright yellow outfit to a funeral. And yet her sons seemed to agree with the request, because as Jesus responded, He looked at them and said, You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink?, foreshadowing, I think, the Last Supper and the painful events that would follow soon thereafter. James and John, with their mother beside them nodding her assent, answered, We are able (verse 22). And of course, they really didn’t understand what they were saying.

So Jesus said to them, You will drink my cup, but to sit at my right and left hand (in the kingdom) is not mine to grant, rather it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father. Looking back, we know now what He meant, because all of those disciples ultimately gave their lives for the cause of Christ.

However, at that moment, the Bible says the others were indignant and upset with the brothers James and John, and Jesus knew the reason why. They wanted preferential seating in the kingdom too! So He looked at all of them and said, Whoever would be great among you must become a servant…even as the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many (verses 24-28). And that is how the story ends in the twentieth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew.

II.

Even so, we know from the rest of the New Testament and some legendary sources, how the story worked out and what happened to James and John. Remember, they were there, sitting close by to Jesus, at the Last Supper (John 21:20), just as their mother had hoped for. And it was John who stood by Jesus’ mother Mary at the foot of the cross (John 19:25-27) and then arrived first at the empty tomb on Easter Day (John 20:4).

William Barclay, the Bible commentator, tells us that John later suffered under the persecution of the emperor Domitian in Rome, was exiled to the Island of Patmos and finally died in Ephesus. His brother James, according to Luke’s account in the Book of Acts, was put to death by King Herod. Acts 12, verse 2, says that Herod laid violent hands upon some who belonged to the church. He killed James the brother of John with the sword, which as best we can determine, makes James the first martyr of the original twelve disciples. (See “The Master’s Men” by William Barclay, pages 29-39 and 100-104). Whether they fully understood or not when they told Jesus that they could drink His cup, both of those men were called to give their all for the Lord.

And I think that is where we enter into this story too. Because if you and I, like James and John, want to come alongside Jesus Christ, if we desire to be close to Him and to follow wherever He leads us, then we will soon discover that drinking from His cup will require something from us.

As Christian disciples, when we see someone suffering in pain, we cannot walk by on the other side. When we encounter injustice and oppression toward any of God’s children, we cannot ignore their cries. When the forces of evil wreak havoc upon this earth and hurt other people, we cannot stand idle. And when the least, the lost and the lonely are kept out and left behind in our society, we cannot remain silent.

Why? Because the closer we get to Jesus, the more we will realize that He wants us to see the needs of this world through His eyes, to touch the pain of others with His hands and to love all of our human sisters and brothers with His heart. If we want to sit next to Jesus and drink His cup, if that is truly our desire, then we must remember and never forget that He said, To those whom much is given, of them will much be required (Luke 12:48). For the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many (Matthew 20:28).

CONCLUSION

So if you came here today to this communion service, looking for and hoping to find that your “usual seat” was open and available, and if you have settled in and are feeling comfortable, then well and good, because Jesus Christ Himself has invited you to come and He wants everyone to feel welcome at this table.

But as we prepare now to eat this bread and to drink from this cup, listen ever so carefully deep down in your heart and soul to the question Jesus asks of you and me: Where would you like to sit? If our answer is, “Close to you Lord,” then know beyond the shadow of a doubt that the closer we get to him, the more He will require of us. “Where would you like to sit?” “Close to you, Jesus, as close as we can get to you!”

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.