forgiveness.......the cup we are called to drink

James and John were brothers, recruited to follow Jesus along with Peter and Andrew.  Apparently these guys all fished together back in the day, and when Jesus called Peter to come and fish for people, James and John tagged along.

They were in the inner circle.  Our gospel writers tell us several stories of Jesus pulling just a few of the disciples into a time of revelation, and those few were almost always Peter, James and John.  They went up the mountain with Jesus to witness his transfiguration, a foreshadowing of his ascended glory.  In other words, these guys were tutored by the master on what it would mean for him to be the Anointed One.

So when they approach Jesus, so close to the fateful entrance into Jerusalem, and asked that they each be granted a seat of honor when Jesus came into his glory, well, you have to wonder what they had been thinking during all those private tutoring sessions.  'Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left when you come into your glory'.  What could Jesus say?  They had no idea what they were talking about so he asks, "Are you able to drink the cup that I drink...?"  Foolishly they say, "We are able".  Mark 10.35ff.

To drink the cup that Jesus drank.........we can think of it 'simply' as his cup of great suffering on the cross.  But what if the greatest suffering was endured long before the cross did its evil work?  What if the cup Jesus drank was a cup filled with the suffering of the whole world?

This is where we begin to understand the call to forgive, an even deeper cup to drink.