Between Thieves

Between Thieves--October 15, 2018

But Jesus said to [James and John], “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 that I am baptized with?” They replied, “We are able.” Then 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.” [Mark 10:38-40]

You know, of course, who eventually does get those spots at Jesus’ right and left, don’t you? 

It is a detail we often overlook. But in another five chapters, Mark is going to tell us that alongside of Jesus, “they crucified two bandits, one on his right hand and one on his left.”  In other words, to ask for the places at Jesus’ side is to ask to go to a cross.  It is a request to lose it all… simply to be where Jesus is.

Jesus, of course, is convinced that it’s worth it—we have already heard him say, “Those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it” (Mark 8:35).  And he also tells these two disciples that yes, in fact, they will eventually follow in his path and lose their lives for his sake.  But he leaves us absolutely no ambiguity about what the terms will be.  If you want to be where Jesus is, be prepared to get nailed between thieves.  If you want to be where Jesus is, be prepared to lose it all.  If you want to be where Jesus is, be prepared for the splinters you get from carrying a cross.  As Dietrich Bonhoeffer so powerfully put it, “When Jesus Christ calls you, he bids you come and die.”

Now, like I say—and more to the point, like Jesus says—it is worth it, having that kind of life, to be where Jesus is.  Losing everything else is worth it to be with Jesus, on the road he walks, with the people he brings along as company, because it is Jesus. 

It is something of a cliché in movies to see the hero (or heroine) leave behind a successful career, a big promotion, or the possibility of becoming a star in order to be with the love-interest.  Sometimes it gets even more over-the-top, and you’ll see the hero make a bold, romantic (possibly desperate) attempt to win his love back, buying a last-minute plane ticket to catch her before her flight leaves, even leaving luggage and wallet and anything on him behind.  Sometimes it’s just heading out early one morning across country, leaving friends and a comfortable life behind, only with the line, “Gone to see about a girl.”  There is a lot of loss in those scenes, but when you are watching the movie, you aren’t supposed to be sad about it—you are supposed to understand that this is a happy thing.  These bold, daring gestures are good because the movie is saying, “For whatever this guy has to lose, it is worth it to be with the one he loves.”  It is the kind of scene meant to inspire a bit of hope.

The same thing is going on with us and Jesus.  Being his followers will cost something—like the guy in the movie leaving his baggage behind to make his way through the security check-point faster so he can catch the girl before the gate closes.  And it is a real cost, as real as the money the movie hero has spent on a plane ticket when he has no intention whatsoever of getting on an airplane.  But it is worth it, losing the money for the ticket, the baggage at the checkpoint, and his calm and cool demeanor along the way, to be with the One we love, the One who calls us beloved.

So when Jesus says to James and John that he knows they will in fact have to go through what he goes through, it is with the unspoken assurance, “We will be together through it.”  It is with the confidence of someone who is himself prepared to lose everything, all the way to a cross between thieves, for their sake. 

Think of what a pointless, sad movie it would be if the hero makes it to the airport, sees that the love of his life has made it through security and is sitting at the Cinnabon waiting for her flight, decides he really can’t be hassled to get past the check-point, and then just goes home.  Sure, he gets to keep his stuff.  Sure he hasn’t rearranged his life for her sake, and he can keep whatever money it would have cost him to buy a ticket.  But it sure sounds tragic to me, all the same.  And yet, we settle, we supposedly religious people, for about the same between us and Jesus.  There are costs we are just not willing to pay, inconveniences we are simply too busy to wade through, risks we are too afraid to take.  And yet there is Jesus, the One who loves us all the way to a cross, and we stand hemming and hawing at the ticket window, deciding whether he is worth going after… just to be where he is.

“The cup that I drink you will drink,” Jesus says to James and John, as if to say, You will be with me where I am after all.  We will go through it together. 

And when he said it, you have to think it inspired in those two chicken-hearted disciples a bit of hope.

Lord Jesus, let us follow where you lead, so that we can be wherever you are, and so that we can gladly let go of the things we had been afraid to unclench our fists from, so that we can be with you.