So three guys were trapped on a desert island. After days of starvation and barely surviving, they found an old lamp. They rubbed it and a genie appeared, offering to grant three wishes, one to each of them.
The first quickly said, “I wish to be in the finest restaurant in New York, with a huge steak dinner in front of me.” Instantly his wish was granted and he was gone.
The second man thought a moment and said, “I wish to be home with my dear wife, just as she’s taking my favorite home-cooked meal out of the oven.” And poof, just like that he’s there.
The third man scratches his head and says, “Gee, I can’t decide. I wish my two friends were back here to help me.”
There are lots of those three-wish jokes, all turning on the theme of how careful one needs to be regarding that for which we ask. Jesus isn’t joking when He gives the same warning to James and John in our text for this week from Mark 10:35-45.
In asking for places of honor, they do not realize what Jesus explains to them in verses 38 and 39, that honor in the kingdom of God only comes through sacrifice and suffering.
So let’s heed the warning of those wish jokes and remember what Jesus said in verse 44, “and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all.”