Maxine King

Dear friend,

The Gospel passage appointed in the Office lectionary for today, Matthew 20:17-28, is the story of Jesus being asked if he would seat St. James and St. John beside him in his kingdom. I’ve been thinking a lot about prayer lately, and it was helpful for me to think about this passage and the dialogue between the apostles and Jesus as a type of our approaching God in prayer.

The passage begins with the mother of St. James and St. John approaching Jesus, asking if her sons could be seated beside him in his kingdom. In St. Chrysostom’s commentary on this passage, he surmises that the apostles have enlisted their mother to do the asking in order to shield themselves from the shame of their desire. Jesus gets right to the heart of the matter and directly asks the apostles themselves: “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink?”

St. James and St. John say that they are able, though we can assume that they don’t have any idea what they are affirming, despite Jesus having just told them of his crucifixion. Regardless of their understanding, it is doubtful that any of the apostles at that time would have been able to drink the same cup that Jesus was about to drink -- St. Peter would soon deny having even known Jesus three times rather than face his own suffering.

It is easy for me to see how my approach to Jesus in prayer is so like the Apostles’ approach here -- how it is so often corrupted by deceit, how I attempt to hide my true intentions, how I promise I am ready for things that I do not understand. However, through the Trinity’s work of redirecting and transforming our distorted desires in prayer, our will is gradually conformed to God’s. It is good news then that our praying is not done by our own efforts, but that it is a however imperfect participation in the pre-existent will and desire of God we find ourselves enveloped within. As St. Paul says in the 8th chapter of the letter to the Romans, “we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.”

Jesus models this both as the one praying (as in the garden before his crucifixion) and in this passage, as the one being prayed to. He takes St. James’ and St. John’s request to be seated next to him in the kingdom, born of misplaced self-importance and pride, and directs it towards himself on the cross, ruling not as a tyrant, but as a slave. This is the intended end of all our prayer, not just St. James’ and St. John’s request: that all our desires may be directed towards God.

Maxine King
Beloved in the Desert Corps Member