This week's gospel text from Mark follows on the heels of Jesus' third passion prediction. Jesus and the disciples are about to embark on their journey toward Jerusalem. Apparently, however, the notoriously obtuse disciples of Mark's Gospel refuse to acknowledge the message Jesus is trying to reveal to them. Despite the explicit nature of this third description of his impending passion, Mark 10:35-45 gives us another example of the disciples' denseness.

James and John approach Jesus with a request, a pitiful response to Jesus' description of what awaits him in Jerusalem. At best these disciples might be credited with echoing the final scene between Elijah and Elisha in 2 Kings 2:9. There the soon-to-depart Elijah instructs his apprentice Elisha to "Ask what I can do for you, before I am ta…