The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-05-10
INTERNATIONAL.
SUNDAY SCHOOL
LESSON
For May IL is Jesus Faces the
Cross."-Mark 10:32.52.
BY WILLIAM t. ELLIS

For May IL is Jesus Faces the
Cross."-Mark 10:32.52.
When Religious Men Tried ''Pull."
The game of intrigue has been
played for ages High and low.
civilized and barbarian, have prac-
ticed it in all pursuits. The Bible
has many stories of it, and this in
cident from the experience of Jesus
and His twelve apostles is one of
them. The two cousins of the Mas
ter, James and John, with their
mother Salome, conspired to win from
Jesus a pledge to award them the
best places in the new kingdom which
He was, as they believed, about to
establish. There was nothing very
deep or dark or discreditable in this
little intrigue. viewed in the light of
the times. 1t was simply a conspicu-
GUS instance of self-seeking. Yet
nothing could have been more un-
seemly in that presence, and on that
occasion.
responsive chord is struck in the
feeling of almost any audience by the
old hymn, Some Time Well Under
stand" Most persons feel that they
are misunderstood. But how sadly
was this so in the case of Jesus! His
own chosen ones were constantly
Wounding Him by their failure to APP
prehend what was most fundamental
in His character and purpose. On
the present occasion He was drawing
near His passion. The triumpnai
Gethsemane and Calvary, were just
ahead of Him. His heart was weighed
down by these sobemnities. and He
sought the sympathy of the twelve
With all His tender yearning for hu-
man fellowship and understanding,
He unburdened His heart t. them.
He told them of what lay before Him;
barred His very soul to them
What was the result? How did
these particular friends show their
sympathy? Why. the very ones VINO
were nearest otHim in affection and
blood came to Him under those cir
cumstances with a selfish, petty
scheme for their personal aggrandize-
ment! Isn't it a wonder that Jesus
did not give them up altogether as
have grieved His sensitive soul more
in that hour of its darkness and hun
ger for sympathy? Truly. the Man
of Sorrows walked a solitary way,
misunderstood. of all men
The "Sons of Thunder" John ana
James. with their mother, Salome, ap-
preached Jesus when He was apart
from the others. They came near 10
Him, the text SaysEbuttonholed HIM,
in modern parlance. The request they
had to wake was bad enough. but II
put it forth thru their mother was
mans womenfolk to be boosting his
interests so: a man must attend to
his own affairs in a manly fashion.
What Il mistake it all was! The
very proffering of the request that
John and James should sit on the
right and the left of the Lord in a
temporal kingdom showed total
failure. to appreciate what Jesus had
SO patiently tried to teach. John and
james ought to have understood Him
and His mission better. Or at the
least their long association with Him
SHOULD have impaired to them enough
scf His spirit to have prevented them
from making such a selfish request,
with its implied unfairness to the 9TH
ers. They were slow-witted pupils
with whom the great Teacher kept
school.
about the present-day colloquial put
ting of the conduct of the family of
Zebedee The request was not even
fairly proffered. They asked that
whatever they might ask be granted
trying to bind the Master to a
course without knowledge of what it
was. But Jesus was too careful to
be so entrapped. He made them un-
cover their designs before He express
ed himself. Disingenuousness found
no encouragement with Him.
Where Angels Fear to Tread.
With self-restrained mildness where
Indignation would have been war
ranted, Jesus replied: "Ye know not
what We ask" OF how many present.
day petitions He could say that! The
child who cries for the burning lamp
is no more amiss in his asking than
are we older children in many of our
requests of God. These brothers lit
tie understood what leadership in the
spiritual kingdom meant; the price of
spiritual power is such that all but
the brave and the consecrated shrink
from it, To stand close to Christ.
which means possessing measure of
His likeness, is to have gone with
Him over the hard and lonely way
which the world has learned to call
the 'FVia Dolorosa.,'
Jauntily, because ignorantly. the
two apostles asserted their ability to
share the lot of Jesus, to drink of His
cup, to be baptized with His baptism
of sorrow and self-renunciation. Their
very willingness so to declare proved
their ignorance of the significance of
the words which they so lightly spoke.
changes The hasty answer opened
His eyes to a vision. He sees these
small-minded disciples. with their
petty, ignoble ambitions. transformed
in the twofold fires of the Heaven
sent Spirit and of affliction- Their
minds have been opened; they un-
derstand, in the light that streams
from the open tomb, the true char
acter and mission of their Messiah
Lord, and they are genuinely ready to
share His lot. Looking forward to
this, and to the sorrows that were to
follow them. He sadly says: THE cup
that I drink We shall drink; and with
the baptism that 1 am baptized withal
shall We be baptized" One of the two
vo,,pp men standing before him was
to be the first martyr from that
chosen band, and the other was to
live longest, and to know the bitter
ness of misunderstanding, ingratitude
and vain sacrifice
Rewards for the Ready.
Notwithstanding this, Jesus could
not-simply could not. because of His
own nature, because of His loyalty to
His disciples best interest. and be-
ca use of His implicit obedience to the