An uncomfortable gospel reading this morning. Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem. And he finds himself embroiled in a really stupid, inappropriate argument about greatness and authority. Yet again, his disciples have utterly missed what he was trying to say.

And as he talks of his imminent demise – the mockery, the spitting, the floggings, the pain, the shame - so the mother of James & John, her name was Salome, sidles up to him and asks a question about the top table in the kingdom of heaven. It was almost as if not only had they not understood his message, but they simply didn’t care - except about themselves.

And what she wanted to know was whether she could secure the best seats, the places of greatest authority, in the kingdom of God, for her two sons – one on the right hand and one on the left of Christ.

But Jesus doesn’t say Yes, and he doesn’t say No: instead he brings in a different kind of argument: yes, they can live as members of the church, sharing the cup of communion and the waters of baptism. In other words they can go a long way with Christ, they can even be his presence in the world, and that’s a hugely important and powerful thing….

But it’s not the same as what they were asking. What they were asking for was position, for class, for status – that goal which was so important to the world around them, that prize that would really make following Christ worthwhile: big, posh, grand, real greatness!.......

So two rival & opposite perspectives on authority, meet head on. On the one side that of Salome, James & John, that which the world knew then, as the world knows now, that authority which draws to itself a status and a power and a pride, that authority which oversees, and looks down on, like the rulers of the Gentiles who lord it over their subjects, and their high officials in all the authority they exercise over them.

And on the other side, an authority gained by exactly those things of which Jesus was speaking, those things so missed by his disciples in their blind and self-centred ambition: that authority validated by the quality of his suffering, his passion & his death on the cross.

Where do our priorities lie. Are we looking for status, for position, or are we looking to share in the authority of Jesus – through service and engagement with those in need?