This week’s readings from the Gospel of Matthew
25. Approach to Jerusalem – Matthew 20:17-34
26. The Kingdom Claimed – Matthew 21: 1-22
27. ‘What right have you? – Matthew 21:23-22:14
28. Questions and More Questions – Matthew 22:15-46
29. Woes and More Woes – Matthew 23: 1-36
30. Trouble Ahead – Matthew 23:37-25:13
This week, I picked up a book at the library about St Andrew and his cross. It’s a look across history at the stories that accumulate around the figure of Andrew, one of Jesus’ closest disciples and now the patron saint of Presbyterianism. It includes some of the earliest accounts of Andrew’s life and death, including one from Jacobus de Voragine’s Lengenda Aurea (The Golden Legend) – a medieval collection of the lives of the saints and one of the best sellers of that period. In this telling, Andrew debates with the proconsul Aegeas, who eventually sentenced Andrew to death.
Aegeas, hearing of Andrew’s preaching said:
“ These are the foolish things which your Jesus preached, he who was hung upon the punishment stake of the cross.”
Andrew answered, “He chose to accept the agony of the cross, and not for his fault, but for our salvation.”
Aegeas said, “How can you say he deliberately chose the cross when he was betrayed by a disciple, seized by the Jews, and crucified by the soldiers?”
Andrew proceded to give five reasons to show that Jesus’ suffering was voluntary and the first of these was that he told his disciples that it would happen.
Which is a great bit of logical footwork. Of course, for the gospel to make any sense, Jesus needs to choose the cross. And how much more compelling that choice when we consider that it wasn’t the product of one night of agonizing prayer, but the culmination of a long journey and a long-held certainty.
“Listen,” he told them, “we are going up to Jerusalem, where the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the teachers of the Law. They will condemn him to death and then hand him over to the Gentiles, who will mock him, whip him, and crucify him; but three days later he will be raised to life.”
And that’s how this week’s reading begins. Again – for the third time – we hear Jesus tell those closest to him that he will die and be raised again. This kind of repetition sounds familiar in this parent’s ear. Again and again you tell them, hoping that it will sink in. Hoping that, when the time comes that they need to remember, they will have your words deep inside them and that they will be ready.
But, it seems that they aren’t quite there yet. Because in the next section, the mother of the sons of Zebedee is petitioning Jesus for promises of status for her boys. Again, a familiar ring. All parents want assurances that our children will be honoured and loved. And we use whatever words we have to try and make sure that happens. But our own weakness and flailings are evident in our words. Our own misguided attempts at understanding come through clear as day. And Jesus says, “you don’t know what you are asking for.”
But that’s also it. We ask because our hearts are full, and we need to say something. And we don’t know what to say. The mother of James and John must have loved her sons and been proud of the wonderful work they were doing with Jesus. She must have been caught up in the movement and, like the rest of them, trying to hold onto something that she was only just beginning to see. She knew that Jesus would be King. She wanted her sons included. So she asked. And Jesus reminded her – and her sons and all who would hear – that this was going to look a little different.
“If one of you wants to be great, he must be the servant of the rest. And if one of you wants to be first, he must be your slave – like the Son of Man, who did not come to be served but to serve and give his life…”
I imagine that mother hearing those words. I imagine her understanding in an instant. Remembering, with a rush, her own mother telling her that when the babies come, they come first. That to be a loving mum, you need to listen first to their needs. That, in listening and tending them first, she will learn how loving feeds you, too. That you will grow strong by serving them.
It would be something like that.
Later this week, we’ll come to Matthew 23, and Jesus aching to gather Jerusalem as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings. That strong image of mothering love, that aching heart of God. We shared this passage yesterday at our church. In Britain where I’m living right now, Mother’s Day is celebrated in March, so there were flowers aplenty yesterday and celebrations of mothering love. And, remembering Jesus’ image of loving wings, we showed the children how to use fun foam to make tattoo necklaces. Of course.
