“sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory” (Mark 10:37). The story continues:
Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” And they said to him, “We are able” (Mark 10:38-45). They actually thought they were, but He knew they were not.
The disciples misunderstood what Jesus was doing! They thought that He was conferring status and they wanted to be at the head of the line. But Jesus was not conferring status, at least not as they understood it. He was conferring obligation and responsibility — servanthood. They had been interested in getting the honor and status of association with Jesus Christ. But Christ was interested in serving the Lord Himself and enlisting others to serve the Lord in His stead. They wanted to get, He wanted them to give. It is a classic problem in the life of the church. People come to Christ and to His church with the wrong hopes and dreams. People have it arsy varsy. They want what is best for themselves. Christ wants what is best for God.
Author of many Christian books, Phillip A. Ross founded http://www.Pilgrim-Platform.org in 1998, which documents the church’s fall from historic Christianity. Demonstrating the Apostle Paul’s opposition to worldly Christianity, he published an exposition First Corinthians in 2008. Ross’s book, Arsy Varsy — Reclaiming the Gospel in First Corinthians, shows how Paul turned the world upside down.