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In Matthew 20, we find an ironic juxtaposition of Jesus' call and our ever-present desire for our own greatness. And as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside, and on the way he said to them,   “See,  we are going up to Jerusalem. And the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will  condemn him to death   and  deliver him over to the Gentiles  to be mocked and flogged and  crucified, and he will be raised on  the third day.” (20:17-19)  In the very next verse , look at what happens.   Then  the mother of the sons of Zebedee came up to him with her sons, and  kneeling before him she asked him for something.   And he said to her,  “What do you want?”  She said to him, “Say that these two sons of mine  are to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left,  in your kingdom.”   Jesus answered,  “You do not know what you ...

This week in my reading through the Bible, I arrived at John 11 - the story of Lazarus, Mary, and Martha. This has become a treasured passage for me over the years as I walk through seasons of loss and grief and confusion.  Some observations: Jesus said Lazarus' sickness "is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it." (11:4) - which echoes of 9:3 when Jesus said the man was born blind not because of sin, but so that "the works of God might be displayed in him." 11:5-6 - "Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. SO, when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was." (Isn't that "so" intriguing??) Martha and Mary both independently say the exact same thing to Jesus, word for word. "If you had been here, my brother would not have died." (11:21, 11:32) The Jews who are there echo this statement in 11:37 - "Could not he who opened the eyes ...