January 30
Exodus 3-4
Psalm 17:14-15
Proverbs 3:27-28
Matthew 20
Desire for Recognition
“But Jesus called them to Himself and said, ‘You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. It is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave, just as the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.’” Matthew 20:25-28 LSB
Unfortunately, I think I can relate to James and John’s mama very well in today’s passage. As mothers we want the best for our children. We want them to do well and be recognized when they do. Salome was one of Jesus’ followers so she had a relationship with Him herself. On this day, she brought her sons to Jesus and asked, “Command that in Your kingdom these two sons of mine may sit one on Your right and one on Your left.” She had no idea what she was asking. She still didn’t understand the plan. She and many others expected Jesus to establish His earthly kingdom then and she wanted her sons to be in the highest positions in authority. She had no way of knowing that her sons were going to play an important role in the early church. James was the first disciple to be martyred. He was beheaded by King Agrippa I around 44 AD. John was persecuted, beaten, imprisoned and exiled to the Isle of Patmos and then died in 98 AD. John wrote 5 books in the New Testament including Revelation. They did not get the “honor” their mother desired, but they achieved greatness through their servanthood.
As a parent, the actions of our children can be a source of pride if we take it as a reflection of our parenting skills. “My children are great so I must be a great parent.” This is a sneaky source of pride because we can convince ourselves that it isn’t sinful to be proud of someone else’s accomplishments, but in reality we use it as a badge of honor for ourselves. It can also be really hard when our children are not doing the things they need to be doing and we take it as an indictment on our parenting. To be sure, there are things we can do as parents that help our children to become productive, godly adults. And there are things we can do that will likely lead them to be spoiled brats that don’t function well as adults. But sometimes great parents have kids that turn out bad and sometimes bad parents have great kids. Ultimately, we probably shouldn’t take the credit/blame for either. Personal responsibility and the work of God in their lives plays a more important role than anything we do or don’t do. The best thing we can do for our kids is pray, a lot!
We all have a desire to be appreciated. Some want public, more visible recognition and some are fine with just getting the applause from their family and friends, but we all desire some form of acknowledgement for what we do. I don’t think there is anything wrong with that. The problem is that there is a fine line between just wanting a little recognition and it becoming a source of pride. We could say that Salome was in the wrong here, and James and John didn’t have anything to do with it, but I don’t think that’s fair. They came along with her. They may not have known what she was going to ask Jesus, but there is no indication that they pushed back when they heard what she wanted. It seems that they might not have wanted to ask themselves, but they were not upset when Mama did. Can anyone relate? We don’t want to toot our own horn, but if someone else does, we don’t push back too hard. I don’t know where the line is. Pride is an issue that we all have to deal with in one way or another. The only way to guard against it is to continually ask God to reveal areas of pride in our hearts. Whether we get pride from our own accomplishments or from the accomplishments of our children, a recognition of God’s role in anything and everything we do gives us a healthy dose of humility. Any accomplishment we may have is a result of His work in and through us.
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