MY ........ WHAT????

‘The mother of Zebedee’s children’ (Matthew20:20-28) is a Biblical phrase that has fascinated me since I first read it many decades ago. This morning at our early worship service, it was read again, and I brought my fascination with this saying to the attention of the other worshippers.

It appears that Matthew wanted to portray Zebedee’s wife as a no-name product in the tradition of Old testament times. Maybe his obsession with showing that Jesus was in the tradition of the ancient ways clouded his presentation of the story. After all, Lot’s wife is nameless, as well as other women of Biblical times.

I hate to think that people looked upon another human being as ‘my property’ or ‘my possession’. Yet, even today,one hears people described in a similar manner.

A choir director refers to the singers as ‘my choir’.

A priest talks about ‘my parish’.

A counsellor mentions going to visit ‘my ladies’.

What is the perception here? Is it just terms of endearment? Is it a warm and fuzzy way to identify relationships? Or is it a conscious or unconscious effort to lord it over another human being?

Each case may be different and deserves individual dissecting and analyzing. On the PASSPORT TO EASTER road, it may be an occasion to examine the motives behind the language we use to describe other people.