My younger brother would introduce his request to our mother by saying, “Now don’t say me ‘no.'” James and John utilized s similar preemptive strategy: ‘Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” My mother would, at times, say “no” to my brother since he really didn’t need that eighteenth Oreo. Jesus said “no” to the brothers because what they were asking for was not the best for them. The context of this story is the journey to Jerusalem where Jesus was going to suffer and die. James and John needed “situational awareness,” better grounding in the reality of what was happening around them. Then they would understand that what God gives is better than what we think we need.
MAY262021
By Church Staff
