Mark 10:35-41

New Living Translation

Jesus Teaches about Serving Others

³⁵ Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came over and spoke to him. “Teacher,” they said, “we want you to do us a favor.”

³⁶ “What is your request?” he asked.

³⁷ They replied, “When you sit on your glorious throne, we want to sit in places of honor next to you, one on your right and the other on your left.”

³⁸ But Jesus said to them, “You don’t know what you are asking! Are you able to drink from the bitter cup of suffering I am about to drink? Are you able to be baptized with the baptism of suffering I must be baptized with?”

³⁹ “Oh yes,” they replied, “we are able!”

Then Jesus told them, “You will indeed drink from my bitter cup and be baptized with my baptism of suffering. ⁴⁰ But I have no right to say who will sit on my right or my left. God has prepared those places for the ones he has chosen.”

⁴¹ When the ten other disciples heard what James and John had asked, they were indignant.