One day a Jewish mother and her daughter were walking along the beach at the water's edge. A huge wave crashed up the beach and swept the girl away. "Oh, God," cried the mother, shaking her fist toward heaven, "She's my only child. Give her back to me, and I'll go to the synagogue every day for the rest of my life!!” Suddenly, another enormous wave swept up and deposited the girl back on the sand. The mother looked up to heaven and said, "And where’s her hat?"

A good woman Mrs Zebedee – and a good Jewish mother. She wanted the best for her two lovely boys, and was overjoyed when they went into the family business. There's nothing like fishing for real prospects; she wanted them to be the best business in Capernaum. Though she wasn’t too keen on that partner of theirs, Simon, the one that Jesus nicknamed Rocky – you know the one, big bloke, big mouth, bit short in the tact & diplomacy department.

Anyway, all’s going well till Jesus turns up. He quite became part of the family – Mrs Z felt all motherly towards him, fed him up, offered him hospitality. And then he goes and tells her boys to stop fishing and follow him around Galilee. Them and that hothead Simon.  Leaving old Mr Zebedee to run the boats himself with a few nephews.  Not the same at all.  All the plans Mrs Z had for them, too.  It hit her very hard.

A Jewish young man was seeing a psychiatrist for an eating and sleeping disorder. "I'm so obsessed with my mother... As soon as I go to sleep, I start dreaming, and everyone in my dream turns into my mother. I wake up in such a state, all I can do is go downstairs and eat a piece of toast." The psychiatrist replies: "What, just one piece of toast, for a big boy like you?"

But Mrs Z was a good mother.  She picked herself up for their sake.  She went as far as joining Jesus’ group herself, to look after them – mothered & fed the lot of them, even Peter. And there they were going up to Jerusalem, and the two boys come up to her with some news: they reckon Jesus is making his bid for power now, going to challenge the Romans and bring in the new kingdom of God.
Right says Mrs Z, we’re going to sort this out – it's time you boys thought about yourselves and your families.  And she marches them up to Jesus and asks for a favour for her two lovely boys – to be as close to Jesus as possible, his right- and left-hand men. The other disciples get really cross with the brothers about this, because they see it as a grab for power and status – which it probably was.  But Jesus responds rather differently. He has this curious question: Can you drink the cup that I'm going to drink? What does Jesus mean?

The cup of suffering is an image in the Old Testament for the pain brought about by God's judgement on the wicked, the pain which Jesus has come to share. At the Last Supper, Jesus shared the cup and called it his blood, his life. So here, Jesus says to James and John, will you share my cup, share my suffering? Will you go with me, but with no guarantee of position or status?  For the highest honour in God's kingdom isn’t to rule, but to suffer with Jesus.  And that’s what James did some years later.

We can wonder what Mrs Z thought about what happened to James: when James got what she'd asked for, in following Christ to suffering and death;  not what she thought she was asking for.

MOSES' JEWISH MOTHER:
"That's a nice story. Now tell me where you've really been for the last forty years."

MICHELANGELO'S JEWISH MOTHER:
"Why can't you paint on walls like other children? Do you have any idea how hard it is to get that stuff off the ceiling?"

MONA LISA'S JEWISH MOTHER:
"After all that money your father and I spent on braces, that's the biggest smile you can give us?"

All of us want to do well.  We want to make an impact on the world, we want our lives to matter.  There are many ways of working this out -–you may have more than one.  Many do it through work, looking for promotion or a higher salary, or find a new job with more satisfaction.
We may do it through sporting achievement, or a hobby, or a voluntary group.  We may even do it through being someone important in church.  Or through our family – making sure they do well, even if we never had the chance.
James and John and their mother wanted them to do well.  Jesus didn’t say that was a bad thing.  But he redefined what it was to do well before God.  It’s not to achieve great things, it’s not being a bishop or being a ruler or having a position of honour, or being a celebrity.

To do well before God is to follow Jesus faithfully, even if you suffer & maybe die in doing it.
Think of what motivates you, what you want to do well in.  Would you die in order to do it? People sometimes do – e.g. people climbing mountains.  People follow their desire to do well, in the face of great dangers and possible death.

And that's what the apostle James did, as he followed Jesus.  He didn’t choose death, he chose life with God - and so can we.  But remember that doing well in God’s eyes may look like failure to others.  What God asks of us isn’t necessarily what our mothers would want for us.

As James shared Jesus' cup of suffering, so we come this morning to share in the cup of the Eucharist – to remind us that doing well means being with Jesus. It may not be comfortable, but in following him there is life for us and for all people.