We often approach the words of Christ through our own lens. Sometimes we misunderstand that we only need to wrestle down our pride and we will have found our center, but Jesus teaches us something more enigmatic than this. Scripture describes a story of competition for position and yet we find that it is not possible to compete for “glory”! In this passage, Jesus is actually challenging the disciples to drink a certain baptism or to consent to an immersion into a deeper understanding and experience of a revelation of our own true nature or and encounter with the “Christ”! In response to the challenge, the disciples claim they are indeed able to experience this knowledge, for they have been journeying with Him, and they have discovered a renewed identity of themselves, one beyond their struggles to belong, their worries about whether they have got it “right” or not. In an experience of glory as they journey with Jesus, they discover that yes, they CAN see themselves as beloved and innocent! Over time, as we foster this relationship with Jesus, where our true identity is revealed to us in His glory, we can find our place at the community table. And we discover that our place at the table is as organic as our journey in knowing and experiencing our identity in Christ!
