171 THE VULNERABLE AUTHORITY AUTHOR OF THE servant to slave, from “of you to “of all”. We already knew that “ great ” and “first” stand for “important”, “with authority”, “ powerful ”. The final word doylov gives a stronger emphasis on ˜ the two opposite elements of the paradox. The reader who has read the preceding paradox in 9,35 within its context has enough information to understand the meaning of 10,43-44, but the context of chapter 10 gives this interpretation even more nuances. Mark 10,43-44, integrated in the pericope 10,35-45, is found once again right after a passion and resurrection announcement. It is about the “ambivalence of power”, to use the words of François Vouga 31. There are two sections. The pericope starts with a dialogue between James and John on the one side and Jesus on the other (10,35-40), on account of their request to sit at Jesus’ right and left in the glorious Kingdom (10,37). This conversation is not about a “ simple ” opposition between the perverted exercise of power and Jesus’ plea for service. Even Jesus recognizes that the two disciples are willing to drink the cup he will have to drink, which means that they are capable of suffering like he will do (cf. 14,36). There is more, and Jesus simply refuses to do what they are asking. While James and John are asking “Grant us to sit...” (v. 37), Jesus answers : “[this] is not mine to grant” (v. 40). What Jesus is suggesting here is a more radical change in their life, since they are displaying a wrong basic attitude aimed at remuneration and reward for themselves 32. Jesus is more revolutionary: you either serve — without any footnote — or you do not! The question of reward is not on the agenda. Nobody is capable of deciding for oneself or for anybody else if anything will be given, and what that will be. The kingdom of God cannot be bought, not even by serving (Vouga). Honor and approval, if any, are a gift. Even more explicitly than in the first two paradoxes, the concern should not be greatness anyway. disciples “constitutes the climactic example of the disciples’ misunderstanding” and that Jesus’ answer is “the climactic saying” of the unit 10,42-45, which reprises and resumes the first two in ch. 8 and ch. 9. VOUGA, Politique, 73. Some of the ideas below are found in this chapter 31 of his book (73-87). See also A. DE MINGO KAMINOUCHI, ‘But It Is Not So Among You’. Echoes of Power in Mark 10.42-45 (JSNTSS 249; London – New York 2003), esp. 116-155 (Mark 10,41-45). VOUGA, Politique, 77: “Le dialogue ne distingue pas service et recherche 32 du pouvoir, mais deux attitudes de service et de relation au pouvoir.”