Matthew 20:20-21
The Request of the Mother of James and John
Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came to him with her sons, and kneeling before him, she asked a favour of him. And he said to her, “What do you want?” She said to him, “Declare that these two sons of mine will sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom.”
A mother
who watched her sons
throw their lot in with the itinerant teacher
Saw them wandering coast to coast
attracting crowds
along with controversy
Saw them welcomed and feted in some places,
excluded and body-swerved in others
Of course she wants to explore the payback
It’s her role to think about their pension plan
She got the premise wrong
with the best of intentions.
And I’m bound to wonder how she felt
when she realised
That the future she imagined
would come at an even greater cost
than she could possibly know
And in a flight of fancy
I imagine her and Mary, the mother of Jesus
comforting one another
as they faced their grief together
as mothers of sons.
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