An Ambitious Mother

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An Ambitious Mother

Tuesday, 10 May 2011 06:22

May 8, 2011

“AN AMBITIOUS MOTHER”

Matthew 20:20,21

By Pastor Ole Lillestolen

Happy Mothers Day to our mothers. Do you know one of the things that I deeply appreciate about mothers? It is the fact that mothers want the best for their children! Often they are committed to doing everything they can to help or to enable their children to experience the best in life. Because mothers are usually like this, I want to explore the question of what is the best for our children, a question which is equally important for fathers. But there is another side to mothers that we often forget about, and that is the prayer side. Interestingly, wanting and praying for the best for her children were both exemplified in the mother of James and John.

Matthew 27:55,56 tells us that she was part of a team of women who followed Jesus and His disciples in order to tend to the physical needs of the group. We read that when Jesus was crucified, “many women were there looking on from a distance, who had followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to Him, among whom was Mary Magdalene, along with Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee.” It looks like Jesus’ entourage was a pretty good sized team of disciples and support people.

This was a fairly typical arrangement for traveling groups, including armies. People followed along to cater to the needs of the group. The mother of James and John was so convinced that their choice to follow Jesus was the right thing to do that she joined the support team, at least for periods of time, in order to help her sons get the most out of this time which they were having with Jesus.

It looks like this mother’s name was Salome since in the various gospel accounts of the crucifixion crowd three women are mentioned, but some lists name the third woman Salome rather than list her as the mother of James and John. Salome, then, most likely knew that for her sons this time with Jesus would most likely be a fairly short period of time, a few years at the most. She fully expected their relationship to last their lifetimes, but discipleship was like going to school. People followed for a certain period of time and learned from teachers who were generally not part of a grounded school facility, just like going to college today. Salome sacrificed her time with Zebedee in order to enable James and John to get the most out of their time with Jesus, doing jobs that would have diminished teaching time.

In the process, she heard a lot of what Jesus taught her sons. Like the disciples, she was confused in thinking that the Messiah was going to set up a kingdom on earth at that time, but she got the point! Jesus was the Messiah who was going to set up a kingdom! She believed in Him!

Salome doesn’t usually get high marks for what she did with what she had learned from Jesus, because she made a special request of Him for her sons. She asked Jesus to: "Command that in Your kingdom these two sons of mine may sit, one on Your right and one on Your left." She is denigrated for asking this because these were positions of honor and power.

In the Sanhedrin, which was the governing body of the Jews at that time, there were three persons in leadership. The prince of the Sanhedrin (Ha-Nasi) was the main ruler and he sat in the middle of two rows of senators or elders. On his right hand sat an elder called Ab (the word for father is abba, and he was considered to be the ‘father’ figure of the Sanhedrin). On the left sat a person called the ‘Chacham’, or the ‘Sage’. These persons transacted all of the business of the Sanhedrin in the absence of the president.

James and John were apparently fully aware of what their mother was doing and they let her do it. They wanted those positions. The rest of the disciples got hot under the collar and verse 24 tells us that, “hearing this, the ten became indignant with the two brothers.” Salome and her sons didn’t really know what they were asking of Jesus, but let’s not fault these three people too much! They might have had their eyes on the wrong positions, but they wanted to be involved, intimately involved with Jesus and with what He was doing!

A couple of verses later Jesus taught them that, “whoever wishes to become great” in His kingdom, “shall be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave; just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” But, what they wanted was that they wanted to be in the thick of things with Jesus!

Let’s remember also that when John described himself in his gospel, he called himself, in John 20:2, “The disciple whom Jesus loved!” When Jesus was dying on the cross He placed His mother in the care of John, saying in John 19:27, ““Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her into his own household.” So, I’m not sure that this was actually a completely negative thing on the part of Salome and her two sons. This seems to be more part of the process for John, anyway, of becoming that disciple who enjoyed a very special relationship with Jesus. He became the longest surviving disciple, and he was blessed to be the one who shared Jesus’ final words to us in the book of the Revelation. In many ways he became the embodiment of the Sanhedrin’s Ab and Chacham. In many ways Salome’s request was granted!

The question for us today is, however: “What do you long for on behalf of your children? Are you aiming high enough? In fact, are you in tune enough with what God is doing in their lives to recognize what God has in store for them in His plans for their lives?”

Proverbs 22:6 tells us, “Train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old he will not depart from it.” One of the ways this can be read is to read it, “Train up a child in his particular way, then when he is old he will not depart from it.” And, the idea is that when we as parents work hard at discovering what God has created our child to be and to do, we can help our child toward the fulfillment of that goal of God’s, which will also be the goal which will make your child’s life the best possible life!

We spend a lot of time and energy helping and enabling our children to develop and enjoy their academic, athletic, or musical abilities, but do we give due attention to developing their gifts and talents in view of God’s calling in their lives? Salome left Zebedee at home, tending his fishing nets, while she helped John and James develop their understanding of what it meant to be a follower of Christ. I’m sure it was hard to leave her husband for that time. But, she was looking beyond recreation and occupation to the very heart of what life is all about!

The Apostle Paul wrote for us, “For me to live is Christ”(Philippians 1:21)! Christ said, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6:33). Christ did not tell us that we should not make room in our lives for academics, athletics, and music. He just told us that our first priority must be Him and His plans for us. Put Him first and we will even enjoy everything else in life more than we would have if we put them first! There is nothing worse in life than setting your goals too low and reaching them! And, parents, there is nothing worse for parents to do than to encourage your children to set their goals too low by modeling and pushing them toward low goals!

Mother’s Day is an excellent day to ask yourself, “Am I encouraging my child to set Christ as his or her highest goal in life?” And, “What can I do to accomplish this goal better?”

Salome did not hesitate to pray. She asked Jesus for what she considered to be the best for her children. Are you having a conversation with God about what He has planned for your child? The issue is not figuring it out on your own. The issue is having the conversation! Salome was having the conversation!

Salome did not hesitate to sacrifice her time and comfort and probably a whole lot of other things in order to help her sons get the best out of their opportunity with Christ. Your child will rarely get the most out of their opportunity with Christ if you are not willing to sacrifice to help them get to that point! Although, in the end, I think it’s pretty sure that when all was said and done Salome would have said, “Those time following Jesus and helping out were the best times of my life!” Sacrificing for God has a way of becoming the means to His blessing.

God was talking about giving to His work in Malachi 3:10 and He promised, “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test Me now in this," says the LORD of hosts, "if I will not open for you the windows of heaven, and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows.” Giving of our time, our resources, our talents, indeed our whole lives, is always the path to blessing. In the end, it is always God who is the true giver!

I may come to Christ when I hear Him tell me to give myself and my life to Him, and I may feel like I am giving up something by doing what He tells me to do in order to ‘be saved’. But, what really happens is that I give myself to Him who wants and is able to make something of me! God is the giver, through and through. When I give to God, I give so He can give to me! When I put my messed up mortal life in His hands, He transforms me by His Spirit and gives me eternal life to boot! Right? How am I modeling this reality for my child? Maybe we can learn from Salome! She had expectations of Jesus!