Meditationen am Gnadenstuhl: Friday of Oculi (Lent III)

Friday of Oculi (Lent III)

Daily Lectionary Readings: Genesis 40:1-23; Mark 10:32-52; (Sirach 18)

Mark 10:35-40 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.” And he said to them, “What do you want me to do for you?” And they said to him, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” And they said to him, “We are able.” 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, 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.”

The ambitious sons of thunder corralled Jesus off to the side of all the others. Their ambition is not healthy; in fact, it is evil. Evil ambition is always deceitful. When one wants something he shouldn't have but strives to attain it anyway, he becomes sneaky. They try to get a commitment to their request out of Jesus before they even ask for it! Wrong ambition skulks about to gain things of the flesh and misuses others to do it.

James and John want the top positions in Jesus’ kingdom, but they are thinking in terms of an earthly kingdom and the ways men establish them, not the ways and means of God's kingdom. They feel they are God's particular favorites. Their sin is pride, which births evil ambition. We are as guilty as they.

Perhaps we do not step over the stabbed backs of others to jockey for a higher position in the corporate ladder or seek to acquire greater wealth through unlawful means or cheating our neighbor. But we do sneaky things behind others' backs. Manipulation of others and scheming around sound like the stuff of melodramatic thriller movies, yet we manipulate and plan to get our own way. It is often so seemingly insignificant that we do not recognize it as a sign of evil ambition. We all know how it feels to be on the receiving end of such actions.

Solomon wrote, “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.”1 And Obadiah, “Though you soar aloft like the eagle2, though your nest is set among the stars, from there I will bring you down, declares the Lord.”3 Only when the burden of our conscience breaks us down in humble repentance that Christ Jesus can raise you up from the deep valley of avarice.

Consider what we pray for in the third petition of the Lord’s Prayer: Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. What does this mean? The perfect and gracious will of God is done even without our prayer, but we pray in this petition that it may be done among us also. How is God's will done? God's will is done when He breaks and hinders every evil plan and purpose of the devil, the world, and our sinful nature, which do not want us to hallow God's name or let His kingdom; and when He strengthens and keeps us firm in His Word and faith until we die. This is His good and gracious will.4

This is the Lord's ambition for you. Godly ambition is not lording our position over people nor scheming to achieve such a place. It is not self-centered or even focused on the mundane world. Nor does it desire greatness. It strives to imitate Christ. One becomes great when the distinction sought is obedience to the will of God. True ambition aims to minister to others, not be ministered unto. It looks for people to help and the ways to help them. True ambition seeks to become the servant of all. “Whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."5

Jesus comes to serve you with His cup of righteousness, His cup of forgiveness, the cup of His law written on your hearts, not to accuse you, but to instill in you the Godly ambition of fulfilling them in service to your neighbor. Jesus serves you even as your flesh continues to fight you and Lucifer rages against you. His cup abounds in steadfast love to guide you through the loneliness, suffering, and the temptation of selfish ambition in this life all the way to repentance to the forgiveness of sins, and finally a seat by his side in the world to come. “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.”6 “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”7

1Proverbs 16:18 (ESV).

2Incidentally, the traditional symbol used by the church to depict the apostle John is the eagle.

3Obadiah 4 (ESV).

4Small Catechism. The Lord’s Prayer, Third Petition.

5Mark 10:44-45 (ESV).

6Mark 10:35.

7Matthew 6:10.