To Sit Beside Jesus

 My household had ten people at Thanksgiving dinner. As I set the table, I was particular about where I put the extra chairs, imagining where people would sit. I considered peoples’ needs: a sometimes shy 8 year old, people with hearing aids, those who like to talk, those who don’t, one who is most comfortable beside someone they know well, those who need access to get to the kitchen. It takes a little bit of planning to have a well-balanced gathering around the Thanksgiving dinner table.

This image sat with me as I thought about the reading from Mark.

James and John want to sit beside Jesus.

 

Let’s imagine the story giving the disciples the benefit of the doubt – James and John simply want to sit beside Jesus. Have you ever been going somewhere with a group of people, and you hope that you get seated beside a certain person, or you pray not to get stuck beside so-and-so? Have you attended a social event, a party, where you are attracted to having conversations with some people and avoid others as much as possible?

 

Let’s imagine the story giving the disciples the benefit of the doubt – James and John want to sit beside Jesus.

The beginning of the chapter tells us that Jesus and the disciples, that is 13 men, are on the road to Jerusalem. These 13 men have been a group, teacher and disciples, for 3 years. I am sure that they did not all get along. In fact, some of them may not even have liked each other. There are enough clues in the Gospels to know that the disciples were from various backgrounds, with diverse understandings of Messiah, and have a range of opinions on Roman occupation and how to address this. Let’s just say the disciples tolerated each other for Jesus’ sake.

 

Let’s give the disciples the benefit of the doubt – James and John want to sit beside Jesus because they know something about Jesus. I believe the disciples know a whole lot more than we give them credit for.

Let’s imagine that James and John are not asking to sit beside Jesus -at Jesus’ right or left hand- for reasons of status or ego, or to be chief officers in the Messiah’s earthly court in Jerusalem. Let’s imagine that to sit beside Jesus in glory, was seen not as of this world and realms of ruling, but rather the disciples had an inclining that Jesus was talking about the coming of God’s kindom, spiritual realms, and eternal life. The 10^th chapter of Mark goes on about conversations on the street  - ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ Jesus talks about “how hard it will be for the those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!’ Jesus talks about the age to come and the turning around of circumstances – reward- for those who spread good news, where first become last and last first. Then we get the story of James and John asking to sit beside Jesus. They understand in part, that Jesus is talking God’s vision, larger than their one life. Oh course, they don’t specifically know that Jesus is going to die. And certainly not the surprise of resurrection.

But let’s get real, they know death is a possibility. John the Baptist has been beheaded for what he said and did. There are those who are continually trying to trap Jesus into a fight, to insight anger from Roman authorities. Jesus has been chased out of towns. His talking with the marginalized and foreigner, eating with them, touching them or them touching him are all disruptive radical actions. Jesus draws large crowds, preaching an overthrowing of human ways – a redistribution of wealth, a change of power and authority. The disciples know that it is risky to hang around with Jesus. Jesus’ protest of the authorities in his time through word and deed is anything but quiet. Of course, the disciples know that sitting with Jesus is dangerous.

 

Let’s give the disciples the benefit of the doubt. James and John want to sit beside Jesus, to reserve their seats, to make a statement that they have chosen to sit beside Jesus, believing beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jesus is bringing change, that God has heard the cries of the people and is about to fulfill God’s promises.

 

This weekend the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Halifax-Yarmouth hosted a Eucharistic Congress, with the theme: ‘Communion to Heal the World.’ A Eucharist Congress is a gathering of Catholics to reflect on unity via the communion meal, to reaffirm and re-emphasize the source of faith, and to focus on the heart of the matter Jesus Christ. As part of the event, a 5km procession was walked between the church on Mumford Rd. and the Basilica downtown. The purpose was in a sense – to sit beside Jesus- the procession was a bold witness of faith, proclaiming to the world Christ is alive. The act of procession made a statement by the participants, we have chosen to sit beside Jesus, believing beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jesus brings change, that God has heard the cries of the people and has and is fulfilling God’s promises.

 

Let’s ask ourselves, do we have the courage of James and John, to not only ask, but actually sit beside Jesus? Are we prepared to reserve our seats, to make a statement that we have chosen to sit beside Jesus, believing beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jesus is bringing change, that God has heard the cries of the people and is fulfilling God’s promises.

Every week we come and participate in Eucharist – in Holy Communion- Do you realize that by participating we are putting ourselves in a hot seat? When we participate in Communion, we sit with Jesus at the table. Jesus invites us to sit beside him at the table and share his body and blood; this sitting beside Jesus changes us for we are rubbing elbows with the incarnate Word. The Word that from the beginning has breathed God’s breath into every creature and atom of creation. As we eat at Jesus’ table, Christ’s presence rises to resurrect in us a creative grace that through the Spirit works in us to overflow into the world. Re-unified with God, Christ sits within, and we can do no other than proclaim Christ is alive!

 

Let’s ask ourselves, do we have the courage to sit beside Jesus?

The Gospels recount many instances of Jesus and who he chose to sit beside, and in many of the stories the disciples question Jesus’ choices. Not so sure themselves that they wanted to sit beside those Jesus’ invited: the marginalized and the nobodies of the time, described as widows, orphans, women, children, foreigners, Gentiles, lepers, the demon possessed, sinners. If we chose to sit with Jesus, we also sit with those whom Jesus has invited.

If we eat with Jesus at Jesus’ table, it means that we eat with the marginalized, convicted through our union with God, and Christ sitting within, we eat at a thanksgiving table that is not as nicely curated and balanced as my Thanksgiving dinner table was. When we ask to sit beside Jesus, we are choosing to sit- inviting ourselves to sit- in dangerous and risky places, meaning uncomfortable, maybe unpalatable, and certainly outside of our regular practices. We will be sitting with the least favourable persons we can imagine. When we sit beside Jesus, we will know in our hearts and by the reaction (probably unfavourable) of society around us, that we are in Christ’s presence.

To actively sit beside Jesus –

 We sit in tent encampments, we sit in prisons, we sit beside foreigners, we choose to invite the hungry to our tables and into our homes, we protest injustice with word and deed; we choose to invite others to come, sit with us in church, and to participate in God’s meal. We embrace that sitting with Jesus will be seen as disruptive radical action because we are about sitting in the heart of Christ- where there is a reversal of human ways, a redistribution of wealth, a change of power and authority. To sit in Christ is to be recreated, to experience resurrection from the ashes of humanity to all humanity and creation sitting beside Jesus – for the fulfilment and wholeness of God’s promises; a the healing of the whole world.