Twenty-first Sunday after Trinity 2018 (St Nicholas)

8.00 am at St Nicholas

Job 38:1-7, 34-41 and Mark 10:35-45

James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came forward to him and said to him, ‘Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.’ And he said to them, ‘What is it you want me to do for you?’ And they said to him, ‘Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.’

What does glory look like?

The LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind: ‘Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?’ In other words, the absence of divine skill results in darkness; or, at least, in a dimming, a diminishing. And yet it would appear that the possession of divine skill comes with a deeper darkness, of an altogether richer quality. A darkness in which the morning stars sing together. A darkness across which lightning flashes, and young lions hunt.

God is sovereign, over the world, its peoples, the heavenly beings. The King of the Universe, who creates and sustains life, possesses a weight of glory we cannot stand up under.

In our Gospel passage today, James and John want in on the glory. After all, they are known as the Sons of Thunder, and thunder goes with lightning in the darkened sky. But Jesus cannot grant their request, because it is not in his gift to appoint his right- and left-hand man in glory.

We know who they are, but they don’t even get their names recorded for posterity. That is the upside-down nature of divine glory. But they do appear, later in the Gospel. Listen closely, or you’ll miss them:

It was nine o’clock in the morning when they crucified him. The inscription of the charge against him read, ‘The King of the Jews.’ And with him they crucified two bandits, one on his right and one on his left. Those who passed by derided him, shaking their heads and saying, ‘Aha! You who would destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself, and come down from the cross!’ In the same way the chief priests, along with the scribes, were also mocking him among themselves and saying, ‘He saved others; he cannot save himself. Let the Messiah, the King of Israel, come down from the cross now, so that we may see and believe.’ Those who were crucified with him also taunted him.

When it was noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. At three o’clock Jesus cried out with a loud voice, ‘Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?’ which means, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ When some of the bystanders heard it, they said, ‘Listen, he is calling for Elijah.’ And someone ran, filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a stick, and gave it to him to drink, saying, ‘Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down.’ Then Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed his last. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. Now when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, ‘Truly this man was God’s Son!’

Mark 15:25-39

Human words without knowledge, bringing with them a darkness, or dimming of the light. And in that darkness, a greater, deeper, richer darkness at work: the thick darkness that surrounds and attends God, in which skill is at work to bring-about something breath-taking.

What does glory look like?

For those who have eyes to see it, the glory of God is a man hung on an executioners’ scaffold, with two bandits for company.