Mark 10:32-45

32Jesus and his disciples were walking along the road towards Jerusalem. Jesus was walking in front of them all. The disciples were very upset. Other people who were following behind them were afraid. Jesus again took his 12 apostles away from the other people. He began to tell them what would happen to him soon.

33‘Listen!’ he said to them. ‘We are going to Jerusalem. There, someone will give the Son of Man to the leaders of the priests and to the teachers of God's Law. These Jewish leaders will decide that he must die. Then they will put him under the power of people who are not Jews.

34Those people will laugh at him. They will spit at him. They will hit him with whips. Then they will kill him. But after three days, he will become alive again.’

35James and John, who were Zebedee's sons, came to Jesus. ‘Teacher,’ they said, ‘we want to ask you for something. Please do it for us.’

36‘What do you want me to do for you?’ Jesus asked them.

37They said to him, ‘When you are king, we want to rule with you. One of us will sit at your right side and the other one at your left side.’

38Jesus said to them, ‘You do not understand what you are asking for. I will have much pain and trouble. Are you ready to have the same pain? Are you ready to die in the way that I will die?’

39James and John replied, ‘Yes, we can do all that.’ Jesus said to them, ‘Yes, that is true. You will have pain like mine. And people will want to kill you like me.

40But I cannot promise that you will sit at my right side or at my left side. God has chosen the people who will sit there. He has prepared the places for those people.’

41When the other ten disciples heard about this, they were angry with James and John.

42But Jesus told the disciples to come to him. He said to them, ‘You know the things that rulers of other countries do. They show that they have much power over their people. The leaders of those countries use great authority over their people.

43But you should not be like that. Instead, the person who wants to be great among you must become like your servant.

44Anyone who wants to be the most important person among you must work hard for you all.

45Even the Son of Man came to earth to be a servant to other people. He did not come here to have servants who must work for him. No, he came to die so that many people can be free.’