The Problem with My Desires: Mark 10:35-37

If we claim to follow Jesus, then our desires must align with His, not the other way around.  This can be accomplished in two ways.  We can be like Jonah, who did God’s will but resented every minute of it, or we can be like Jesus’ disciples, who tried their best and made mistakes along the way.

James and John come to Jesus and ask a favor.  They want to sit at Jesus’ right and left hand when He is glorified.  Essentially, they want to be Jesus’ right- and left-hand men.  They want to oversee everything and be underneath the authority of Jesus alone.

I get it from a human perspective.  Recognition is important.  Handing out the orders is more fun than taking them.  Feeling like role matters is important.  The request of James and John makes sense on many human levels.

There’s a problem, though.  What makes sense from a human perspective often doesn’t make sense from a spiritual one.  I can’t fault James and John for wanting Jesus to affirm their importance, but I can fault them for wanting to exert their importance on Jesus.  Being a disciple isn’t about becoming Jesus’ right-hand man.  Being a disciple is about obediently following God.

Here is where James and John went wrong.  They come to Jesus to lift up their desires over God’s will.  They want to be elevated rather than accept the role God has chosen for them.  They’ve missed the point of everything Jesus taught them since the argument about the identity of the greatest disciple.  They still want to be the greatest.

This story always hits home.  For me, it hits home in my prayer life.  When I was younger and learning how to pray, I often thought of God in the same way as I thought of Santa Claus.  God showed up, gave me stuff, and made life more fun.  As I grew older, I realized the error in this thinking.  The error isn’t in thinking that God blesses my life; He does!  The error resides in focusing on what I want rather than what He wants for me.

To see a great example of this, turn to Mark 14:36.  Here Jesus prays in the Garden of Gethsemane.  He struggles with the imminence of the crucifixion.  He knows the pressure of the coming hours.  He asks the Father to remove Him from this path.  Yet, He tempers His request by remembering that the Father’s will is most important.

It’s not wrong to ask for things we desire.  They are, after all, already present in our heart and mind; God already knows of their existence.  We might as well get the desire out in the open!  After asking, though, it is important to remind ourselves that only the desires which line up with God’s will are worth pursuing.  He knows what’s best for us.  If we claim to follow Jesus, then our desires must align with His, not the other way around.