The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1928-05-05
Sunday School
Lesson
The Interna tional Uniform Sunday
School Lesson for May 6. Jesus Stand
ard of Greatness. Mark 1O:35-45.
BY VIM. f. GILROY, ID. ID.


BY VIM. f. GILROY, d. D.
Editor of The Congrega tiOnaiist
/ THIS lesson strongly enforces the
L teaching Of the last; namely,
that true discipleship is more than
matter of the remuneration OF
wealth or power. 1t finds it mean
ing only as such remuneration
springs from a supreme devotion Of
the life to God.
We have seen the rich young man
going away sorrowful because of his
great possessions, declining the in
vitation of Jesus to come and fol-
low him. Here we have two men Of
4 different mold and character, broth
ers, and sons Of a mother who had
! commanding ambition for her boys,
who stands before us in the brief
1 glimpses that we have of her as
the dominating influence in that
family. She is not only Zebedee's
wife, but the mother of Zebedee's
children'-a very suggestive distinc-
/ ton.
Zebedee does not seem to appear
| in the narrative. He may have been
very plain honorable man who
played his part well, but his wife,
and the mother of his sons, had the
/ chief share of the family ambition.
Her sons, James and John, seem to
have inherited their mothers energy
and strength of character as well as
her persistent ideal of success in
life.
They had cast in their destiny
with Jesus They were among those
who had left all and had followed
him. At least they had left their
particular callings and ordinary in
terests, but it could hardly be said
that rhey had left all, for they had
brought with them larger dreams
of power and ambition than they
had been able to achieve in their
daily OCCUPATIONS
They were as much enamOred of
these ambitions as the rich young
man was of his great possessions,
and it was just as difficult for them
to surrender those ambitions as it
was for the rich young man; but
they were strong where he was
weak; they were men of large mold
and commencing spirit. and when
Jesus set before them the ideal Of
true greatness, though they did not
| quite understand it and were not to
understand it for some time to come
until Jesus himself had shown them
the truth through the supreme sac
rifice of the cross, they rose to the
demands of so supreme a calling
and opportunity. They indicated
the truth of their words to Jesus,
we are able"
The story itself is one strikingly
effective in the simplicity with which
it sets forth the play Of human in
terests and emotions. The mother
of James and John is splendidly
| frank in revealing what she wants.
/ She is concerned about achieving
the highest place for her sons. Her
/ eyes are full of a kingdom with a
| king sitting on a throne symbolic
of his power and if her sons can
only share that power, the one sit
ting on the right hand and the
other on the left hand of the king,
her dream of ambition will be fully
satisfied.
1t is interesting that there is in
her dream no primary thought
either of righteousness or of serv-
ice, though, perhaps, to give her
credit she may have thought of this
kingdom as one of spiritual glory for
! Israel.
The reactions Of her request are
almost exactly what one would eX-
pect. The other ten disciples were
moved with indignation. One can
think of the wrath of Peter when
he heard this request on behalf of
James and John; and one can cas-
lily picture forecful and impetuous
Peter stirring up the other dis
ciples to the sense of the injustice
of these other two trying to pick
/ out for themselves in advance the
chief places.
But how quickly Jesus turns the
| : incident into the simple wit
ness of the deeper and glorious
things of servicel
How beautifully in just few
words he portrays the glory of an
ideal utterly different from this
an ideal of greatness in which not
the reward, but the doing, is the
supreme thingl
1t is an ideal of greatness that the
world very slowly appreciates. 1t is
so natural for us to think Of life
almost entirely in terms of getting
and to think of it so little in the
i terms of that giving which is an ex-
/ preston of the human spirit. Can
we doubt, however, that he lives
most who most expresses his spirit,
rather than he who mostly derives
from life instead Of making his con-
tribution to it?
This ideal of greatness in the
teaching of Jesus was not merely
a theory or a philosophy. The
beauty of it all is that Jesus so
truly exemplified it in his life,
and it was here that he linked his
teaching with the lives of James
and John and the other disciples