As an expert and educator of our human heart, in the Gospel of Mark, Jesus helps his disciples to reflect on the desire of power, which makes its nest in the depth of their being. The Master knows well that men or women in authority must keep in mind the subtle temptation of power hidden in the very exercise of authority. The opposite of love, in fact, is not hatred immediately, but power. Each and all of us love the persons with whom we share our daily existence but, at the same time, we want that others do what we desire. In each person there is the desire of abusing power on the other. This attitude is present in the families, in the Institutes, in the Church and in society.

"[32] They were on the road, going up to Jerusalem; Jesus was walking on ahead of them; they were in a daze, and those who followed were apprehensive. Once more taking the twelve aside he began to tell them what was going to happen to him. Now we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of man is going to be handed over to the chief priest and the scribes. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the gentiles, who will mock him and spit at him and scourge him and put him to death; and after three days he will rise again. James and John, the sons of Zebedee, approached him. ‘Master’ they said to him, "we want you to do us a favour’. He said, ‘What is it you want me to do for you?’. They said to him, ‘Allow us to sit one at your right hand and the other at your left in your glory’. But Jesus said to them, ‘You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the cup that I shall drink, or be baptised with the baptism with which I shall be baptised? They replied, ‘We can’. Jesus said to them, ‘The cup that I shall drink you shall rink, and with the baptism with which I shall be baptised you shall be baptised, but as for seats at my right hand or my left, these are not mine to grant; they belong to those to whom they have been allotted’. When the other ten heard this they began to feel indignant with James and John, so Jesus called them to him and said to them, ‘You know that among the gentiles those they call their rulers lord it over them, and their great men make their authority felt. Among you this is not to happen. No; anyone who wants to become great among you must be your servant, and anyone who wants to be first among you must be slave to all. For the Son of man himself came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many’.

The disciples sincerely believe that Jesus is the promised Messiah. Peter has manifested it on behalf of all the others (See: Mark 8, 27-29). However, they have serious difficulties to accept the weak image of the Messiah that Jesus expresses; he is a humble and little Messiah and, what is worse, oriented towards death. The desires, the expectations and hopes of Israel about the Messiah seem to shatter before the way Jesus introduces himself. The reaction of Peter at the announcement of the passion reveals this dissatisfaction and leads to the misunderstanding of the master’s mission.

The text states it clearly, ‘Taking him aside, Peter tried to rebuke him". Jesus rebuked Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are not thinking as God thinks, but as human beings do" (Mark. 8, 33). Peter is "Satan", because he re-proposes to Jesus the temptation of the devil, who had pushed him towards the idea of a powerful and triumphant Messiah. Jesus puts Peter back to his place, behind the Master. The place of the disciple is not before, but behind the Master. Peter has always the desire of telling Jesus what he is supposed to do, how to behave. Peter loves his Master, but wants Him to do what he (Peter) says. Here is the hidden desire of power over the other.

Yet, this is not all. Besides thinking as Satan thinks, the disciples reveal that they do not understand Jesus at all. After the second (See: Mark 9, 31) and the third announcement of the passion (See: Mark 10, 32-34), a dispute on "power" is born among them, a squabble on who was greater out of them. The temptation of power is much more rooted in us than what we could ever think and enwraps all the disciples. Jesus helps them understand that between the worldly power and the glory of the cross there is a deep opposition.

Moreover, our episode is the conclusion of all the teaching started in 9, 35 with the words, "If anyone wants to be first, he must make himself last of all and servant (diaconos) of all". In v.44 of the above given text the following is underlined, "If anyone wants to be first, he will be slave (doulos) of all". These two verses enclose a peculiar teaching: the need, for the disciple, to abandon the desire of power and to take the last place to serve all the others, like the Master. V.45, then, gives us the motivation of this attitude, binding it strictly to the service of the Son of man.

Our text can be subdivided into two moments: a) Jesus announces his passion, death and resurrection for the third time (verses:. 32-34); b) the dispute on power, which can be subdivided into three units: the dialogue between Jesus and the sons of Zebede (verses:. 35-40), the reaction of the other disciples (v. 41), the answer of Jesus (verses:. 42-45).

Announcement of the passion,
death and resurrection (verses: 32-34)

The Gospel of Mark is like a journey. Jesus, the disciples and the reader are directed to Jerusalem. The life of Jesus will come to its violent conclusion in the city of Jerusalem. It is a journey traced by God in the Scriptures and accepted by Jesus with a firm decision: "He walked ahead of them" (v.32). He the Master walks ahead of the disciple, he is first to climb and to lead the way.

The disciple is such because he is behind. When Peter rebuked the Master, he answered, "Get behind me, Satan!" (Mark 8,33), as to say, ": "You, peter, want to walk before, you want to lead the way. This attitude is not appropriate for a disciple, who has to be behind and look at the Master! Since you are a disciple, your place is behind me". In fact, the disciple is one who puts his feet on the footprints of the Master, one who over-poses himself on the Master’s journey. If he wants to put himself before, the disciple denies himself.

The disciples follow Jesus "discouraged…in fear" (v. 32). They do not understand fully, yet they have an intuition of what is going to happen to Him in Jerusalem. In the following of Jesus there is space also for fear. The Master Himself will experience it (See: Mc 14, 33). The following of Christ involves the whole life and this is why it is difficult sometimes

Perceiving the discouragement of his disciples, Jesus acts most tenderly: takes them aside and unveils to them what is going to happen to him in Jerusalem; he shares his life with them, his death, the waiting for his resurrection. There are six verbs to describe the action of men on Jesus: to condemn, to hand over, to mock, to spit, to scourge, to kill. "It is like the total of all evils, which reach their consummation with the murder of God himself". 1 However, the last deed is that of God "and after three days, He will rise" (See: 34).

Jesus reveals himself to his own as the suffering right man, the dead and risen Son of man. humbled and exalted. .

Dialogue between Jesus
And the children of Zebedee (Verses: 35-40)

In the context, which we have delineated, we find the words of James and John, sons of Zebedee. They join in the desire of wanting the supremacy over the others, "Master, we want you to do us a favour" (v. 35).

"We want you to do us a favour". These words express the will of power of the two. We may reformulate their request like this, "Lord, you must do our will, you must meet our desires totally". . This request is truly distorted for a disciple who lives only the will of the Master. It is the reversal of the discipleships’ foundation. If the disciple asks this, he makes himself master. The temptation of power has its uniqueness just because it puts a person in the clothes of its master.

"What we ask you". The disciples ask Jesus to be the executor of their plans. The disciple is one who follows the Master, on the contrary, here, he is one who puts himself before the Master. The question Zebedee’s sons unmask their will of power, their pure tentative of self-affirmation.

The Master answers, "What is it you want me to do for you?" (v.36). Jesus does not annihilate the desire of the disciple; he welcomes it even when it is evidently distorted, trying to educate him by comparing him with His life.

"Allow us to sit one at your right hand and the other at your left in your glory" (v. 37). It is a game with uncovered cards. The request the two brothers express is not limited to the prestige and the power to be had on earth. All this has already been excluded previously (See Mark: 9, 34-37). The actual desire of the two brothers now is to be elevated up to heaven, to take possession also of Christ’s kingdom of glory. It seems that the two brothers have perceived nothing about the confession of Jesus about his passion and the nearing death. James and John want "to sit in the glory" of the Son of God. "Glory is a synonym of God and in Hebrew it means "weight". It is his excessive love that has attracted him towards us. Every exaltation is vainglory, an empty weight, a non-God. His glory, instead, is the coming down of the Son, of the crucified man, a judgement on the world and the end of vainglory. Instead of these two brothers, two thieves, in fact, will be at his right and at his left, brothers of all of us (15, 27)".2

The two brothers aspire not only at a supremacy over the others, but also at the participation in the very glory of the Messiah. They do not perceive that they thwart the plan of the Father and His work in Jesus from their very roots.

Then, Jesus proposes to them the true greatness of the disciple, "You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the cup that I shall drink, or be baptised with the baptism with which I shall be baptised?" (v. 38).

We need to go through a terrible trial, the same as that of Jesus: to drink the chalice and be baptised, if we want to participate in the glory of the Son of man.

The chalice of Jesus is the one He himself will be tempted to refuse in the Getsemani: "Abbà! Father! For you everything is possible. Take this cup away from me. But let it be as you, not as I would have it"! (Mark: 14, 36). It is the chalice of the cross, the stupefying cup you have drained to the dregs" (cf. Is 51, 17; Sal 75, 9). "Drinking from his chalice is to participate in his destiny, becoming his disciples in service until death. Only like this we can participate in his blessing, in his chalice of salvation" (SEE: Psalm 115, 13). Drinking his chalice is to proclaim, "The Lord is my portion of heritage and my chalice" (Psalm: 15, 5).

Baptism is for Jesus his going into the depth, into the abyss, in solidarity with all men, will all the sinners. His death is like a bath in a sea of suffering for the salvation of mankind. The same term in the profane literature means "to swallow", "to get drowned" and sometimes even "to lose", "to let perish". To receive this baptism is, for the disciple, "to be buried together with him in death… to be completely one with him with a death similar to his own" (See:Romans 6).

Therefore, we can say that to participate in the glory of Jesus means, for the disciple, to participate fully to his destiny of death. The glory of the Master is the cross; the same glory is for his disciple. He who wants to belong to him must be ready to follow his own journey. By participating in his passion, his disciples bind themselves to him and with him to the Father. The mystery of Jesus’ passion is that it does not separate, but binds him to the Father. The same thing is valid for the disciple.

The answer of the disciples does not know hesitation. (v.38). In fact, they have not understood. There is not a single instant of reflection between the question of Jesus and their answer, thus the word of the Master does not become for them an interrogation and a possibility of change. They are shut up in their will of power, therefore unable to perceive the destiny of Jesus. Anyhow, because of our nature, nobody can be a disciple and participate in the death of the Master. This is uniquely a gift of the Spirit.

All the same, Jesus guarantees that they will be his disciples,: "The chalice that I shall drink you also shall drink" (v. 39). He has chosen them and his faithfulness will not fail. They will be incorporated in his destiny, passing through the same experience of suffering and death.

This will happen, "but as for seats at my right hand or my left, these are not mine to grant; they belong to those to whom they have been allotted" (v. 40). The Son of man has not come to confer privileges or seats of power, not even with regard to his glory. He has come to communicate his Filial humility. Granting to sit at the right or at the left pertains to the Father. Jesus is fully "humility", the son without power. It is the Father alone that grants to sit near him to those who make themselves little, like his Son.

Reaction of the other disciples (v. 41)
and answer of Jesus (vv. 42-45)

"Tthe other ten heard this, they began to feel indignant with James and John (v. 41). The others also love power and feel to be supplanted and threatened by the initiative of the two brothers. This is envy because of power. The reaction of the ten brings to evidence the sin of the world, common to all and for which Jesus dies.

Jesus then, "called them to him" (v. 42).The Master calls tenderly all his disciples to help them enter the mystery of his crucified glory. He welcomes them just as they are. He does not chase them away, but leads them to understand the misunderstanding they have fallen into about the crucified glory.

"You know that among the gentiles those they call their rulers lord it over them, and their great men make their authority felt" (v. 42). You know that those who seem to rule the peoples, become dictators over them and their heads "dominate them". The world is ruled by a precise principle: using others to the end of obtaining the supremacy over them In reality they are "upside down men". Their authority and supremacy are only apparent.

"This is not to happen among you"(v. 43). The disciples must carefully avoid the glory that the world exercises with its dominion. In fact "among you" there is the Son of man, the Humble, the Last One. "A reciprocal service is possible among you, because the Son is "among you". With Him we can rule our will of power and turn it into service.

"Anyone who wants to become great among you…" (v. 43) In the Kingdom of God, too, there is a greatness that is to be desired and asked. He himself desires it for us. However, this greatness is nothing but service, "Will be your servant, will be your deacon" (v. 43). Servant is the one whose work belongs to the other; it is the contrary of using the other or of making the other servant.

"Anyone who wants to be first among you must be slave to all" (v. 44). The disciple of Jesus is not only a deacon, but also a slave. In fact, while the servant works for the other, the slave belongs to his owner and is his exclusive property. In the community of Jesus, the disciples are slaves reciprocally; they are one another’s property. The paradox of the crucified glory rules his community: great is the one who serves, first is he who becomes slave.

Welcoming all the fractures and the desire of power present in the heart of his disciples, Jesus accompanies them towards the paradox-like newness. Starting from their desire of supremacy, He helps them to enter the other optics; he helps them to be transformed into Him.

"The son of man came not to be served, but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many. (v.45). First he gives the order, then he says the motive of the overturning perspective. The Master and Lord "has not come to be served, but to serve". This is the most beautiful definition that Jesus gives of himself. It synthesises the sense of his coming among us, the end of his life. He is our servant, our slave, one who puts his acting, his word and his life at our service. Thus, he reveals God himself: God is He who serves mankind, he who has handed over himself to the hands of men.

"In ransom for many", in ransom of multitudes, namely of all men and women…" The text recalls to mind Isaiah (53,10-12): "But the Lord has pleased himself to prostrate him with sufferings. When he will offer himself in expiation, he will see a progeny, he will live long, the will of God will be fulfilled trough him. After his intimate torment, he will see the light and his knowledge will be full; my just servant will justify many, he will shoulder their iniquities. Thus I will give the multitudes as a prize, he will loot the powerful, because he has handed over himself to death and has been counted with the wicked, while he carried the sins of many and interceded for the sinners".

Jesus offers his life in sacrifice at the service and ransom of the multitudes. His destiny of "the just sufferer binds him to the evil of the whole world. He shoulders the sin and wins it over for all men. Each man is a slave of sin; he lives in disaccord with God and he cannot reconcile himself with Him by himself and with his strength. Jesus has come to ransom the sinners and to reconcile them with the Father.

Thus, his life, being put at service, becomes an existence donated to all of us; it becomes a life that finds its last and definitive seal in death, as gift of life in God. This is what the Centurion will state at the feet of the cross, when, "having seen Jesus breathing his last in that way", he glances at the glory of the living God shining in his face, and announces for the first time on earth, the great secret of the Gospel, "This man was truly the Son of God" (Mark 15,39).

Our solidarity with Christ and our brothers leads us to the glory of the cross. Before being a service, Christian life is a mystic. The Christian service does not have its foundation in the feelings of sharing the life of men or in a simple help offered to the least ones. The deep roots of the Christian service are in Christ, the Last One. Our solidarity with him leads us to be the last, namely a servants, slaves of our brothers. The more I am united with Christ the Last One, the more I am servant and slave of the last ones, and the more my service of authority makes Him visible: The last of the last ones.

True, the service of Jesus and his radical saving effect are unique. Yet even the tiny and contradictory service of the government can express a liberating quality and can awake hope, can free us from the spiritual and physical need, bring help, favour peace, promote the life of the singles and of the communities, if it is disinterested.

The Gospel of John affirms:

"I have come in the name of my Father and you refuse to accept me; if someone else should come in his own name you would accept him" (John: 5, 43).

"Why do you not understand what I say? It is Because you cannot bear to listen to my words. You are from your father, the devil, and you prefer to do what your father wants. He was a murderer from the very beginning; he was never grounded in the truth; there is no truth in him at all. When he lies, he is speaking true to his nature, because he is a liar and the father of lies. But it is because I speak the truth that you do not believe me" (John 8, 43-47).

"Do you believe at last? Listen; the time will come –indeed it has come already- when you are going to be scattered, each going his own way and leaving me alone. And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me" (John: 16,31-32).

The devil is "shut up in his own being". The devil and his children have their own "glory": a self-love, their own will and doctrine, as well as their own utility. To welcome oneself and to make oneself an idol is to refuse of being an icon, namely an image of God, a communion.

The "property" and the "glory" of the devil are the exact contrary of the word and the existence of Jesus: the glorification of the Father. As Son, Jesus does not have "anything of his own"; His Father is "His own"; all of his being is an exclusive communion with the Father, even in his abandonment, and with those that He himself has entrusted to him, namely all men and women.

Those who have a service of authority in the community must be aware of what "their own" is; the exclusive and demoniac "their own". Through the relation with Jesus, in the Spirit they can open themselves to the authentic "their own": the Father and the brothers.

The service of authority becomes precious when it helps the brothers and sisters to acknowledge their individualism and their rigidity. The peculiar service of authority consists in widening the horizons, in letting idols get out from the shut up area of the heart, in quitting acquired models too much bound to self-love, self-will, self-doctrine and utility. This journey will always meet with criticism and polemics. The important thing is not getting discouraged and continuing to offer the prophetic newness of the Risen Crucified. The authority that does not take for granted criticism and polemics risks to get drowned in its demoniac "own".

The envelopment in the role: Nicodemus is the person who, in the fourth Gospel decidedly envelops the role. He is surely a good and sincere person, but extremely bound to his social status, to his intellectual prerogatives, to his juridical condition of master. Being too much bound to these roles, he cannot succeed in living them freely and openly, rather he is suffocated by them. This slows him down in his journey of faith and of following. Any one who has the mandate of authority experiences this somehow.

Envy, as a fear of authority subtraction: The fourth Gospel shows how the heads envy Jesus. Their envy is aroused by the fear of losing power before the people and transforms itself into accusation against him (See: John 7,31-32.44-49.51-52). People investing authority must interrogate themselves on the dimension of their envy, understood as fear of losing authority before the others.

The vainglory: "How can you believes, you who glorify one another, without seeking the glory that comes from God alone?" (John 5, 44). Jesus exposes the human need of seeking reciprocal praises and glory (I praise you and you praise me!), rather than seeking the glory of God. Vainglory linked with the exercise of power, expresses itself mainly with the use of authority to create consensus around one’s own person and those projects favouring exclusive personal recognitions. Martini observes, "It is undoubtedly easier to receive applauses than whistling: however, it is more beautiful to accept whistles because, when we are in contrast with somebody, it is possible to express a value"; the "weight" can truly emerge from the contrast, the weight of somebody, above all, the value of those who are in authority.³

The stepping behind: The episode of the blind man who acquires his sight, brings to evidence the passage from darkness to the light of faith through the intervention of Christ (See: John 9). The man, blind from his birth, is led to Jesus, towards a totally new light. He is not restored to a good he had already possessed, but is re-born to a new existence.

The service of authority in the Church should express itself in an analogous way with that of Jesus towards the blind man. Those who are invested with authority are called to encourage the brothers with discretion and not with directives, so that each man may go back to his own original nucleus, namely the power donated to each one to be put at the service of others.

To operate in this direction it is opportune for the authority to leave space for those who serve. When the authority withdraws, the other can attempt its own responsibility and proceed in its own journey of freedom.