Those of us who were brought up in church and later started thinking for ourselves have fragments of dogmatic clutter littered about the mansions of our minds – verses we’ve always seen a certain way…until we don’t. Those sudden moments of clarity can be as hilarious as they are frustrating, followed by the question – what was I thinking all those years?

There’s a well-known passage from Mark chapter 10 in which the brothers, James and John, ask Jesus if they can sit on either side of him in his glory. Here’s the passage for a reminder. Mark 10:35-45 (abbreviated),

Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him. “Teacher,” they said…“Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory.”…

 

…Jesus called them together and said, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Before digging into Jesus’ response, it’s helpful to clarify what James and John were asking for. Prior to Jesus’ death and resurrection, his disciples had little clue what the future might hold, and most likely shared the Jewish expectation of victory over the Roman occupiers and an earthly kingdom with borders and an army, etc, with Christ at its head. They were not asking for some kind of preeminent position in the afterlife.

Let’s abandon terrible notions of Heaven

Over the years, I’ve only ever heard the idea of someone sitting on Jesus’ right or left talked about in the context of Heaven, rather than Earth.

Jesus’ response was to point out the folly of their thinking, rather than to insist that there would certainly be people sitting on his right and left – in childhood, I assumed this great honour would be given to Jesus’ two favourite Christians from church history. My youthful notion of Heaven was something like a megachurch meeting, with Jesus’ throne up front and everyone basking in his glory. And why wouldn’t I believe that? The hymn, Amazing Grace, includes these lines:

When we’ve been there ten thousand years

Bright shining as the sun

We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise

Than when we first begun

Naturally, I wanted to be right up the front with Jesus, because I believed that Heavenly pecking orders are established by our deeds in life, and are therefore unchangeable. This was backed up by Paul’s teaching on running the race set out for us, and numerous other passages of scripture weaponised to turn us into competitors rather than companions. Sitting on Jesus’ right or left was the ultimate prize, and if someone took such a seat, it wouldn’t be available to anyone else, would it? Anyone thinking this way must surely believe that we are at least subconsciously in competition for God’s approval.

When I shifted to Charismatic Christianity and explored spiritual gifts, I came across more evidence that Heaven was this way. Rick Joyner’s The Final Quest claims to be a long, prophetic vision, laid out in a book that was ubiquitous in Charismatic circles for several years. Joyner acts as the narrator in the story, telling us about each stage of the ‘vision’ from his perspective as the dreamer, until he finally reaches Heaven and he enters a huge, mega-church-like venue with Jesus up front on a throne, blazing with glory, and others standing before him in endless rows. The further away a person was from Jesus, the less glorious they were, and yet even those at the back were just happy to be there and accepted their place in the pecking order.

This is where I start to get really bothered. Is this really what we expect from Heaven? After a life in which Jesus resides within and at one with us through his Holy Spirit, are we to be eternally relegated to the back of a room, separated from our loving Lord? If this, or anything like this, is the case – the permanent establishment of a meritocracy within which there is no scope for change – then Heaven is a major downgrade from Earth. In such a scenario, we would be unable to learn and grow, and would be living at an established, unbreachable distance from Jesus himself. What is this except permanent separation from God, and how is that different from the equally cruel (and false) doctrine of Hell?

Jesus’ response to James and John

I’ll paste it in once more for ease of reading:

Jesus called them together and said, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be servant of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Jesus is careful to expose elements of competition that will not have a place in Heaven:

• Lording it over others, including exercising authority over others. None of us get to be the boss in Heaven, or in other words, there is no pecking order.
• That greatness is found in service. Not that service will eventually result in becoming great, after which we don’t have to serve anymore, but that greatness and service are one and the same. Love is everything, now and forever, and we are all part of a unified whole!
• Jesus, our perfect example, showed and shows us what service looks like. This is the nature of love – to serve those around us with a full heart. Not putting ourselves down, or thinking that service is somehow lowly or degrading, but to discover the greatness of love in our service of others. Jesus has always served us and will continue to do so in Heaven, just as we serve him and each other.

I can only conclude then that nobody will be sitting on Jesus’ right or left in Heaven, and strongly suspect that we won’t be sitting much at all, or stuck in a stuffy throne room, locked  in fixed positions for eternity. This is a mortal attempt to explain the immortal, the carnal mind’s cage for the uncageable mystery. The ultimate aim of the Gospel is the union of all things under Christ, including our union with God and with each other. I cannot see how we will experience this perfect union if some are more important than others. Surely our eternity will be more wonderful, more mysterious, more surprising, more stretching, more liberating, more empowering, more delightful, more intimate, more spiritual than anything we’ve known here on Earth!

I hope we can abandon carnal notions of Heaven and abandon ourselves to trust. Let’s live and love in the moment, abandon ourselves to service, and leave Heaven to God. 2 Corinthians 9: 7-10,

No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. However, as it is written:

 

“No eye has seen,

    No ear has heard,

No human mind has conceived”—

    The things God has prepared for those who love him—

 

These are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.

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