Mark 10:37

‘And they said to him, “Grant to us that we may sit, one on your right hand and one on your left hand, in your glory.” '

This request assumes a statement like Matthew 19:28 in order to get their minds thinking in this direction. The idea of suffering had passed them by, but the idea of glory appealed. If the twelve were to rule, and Peter had shown that he came short, they felt that they deserved the favoured places (John would, after all, have one at the Last Supper - John 13:23). We can see from this the way the disciples were thinking and appreciate better why they were unprepared for what would soon happen. In spite of the warnings they could not rid their minds of earthly glory.

‘Matthew has ‘in your kingship' but the idea is the same. They may well have said ‘in your glorious kingship'. The idea of a glorious Messianic kingship preceding the establishing of the Kingly Rule of God was popular, and they wanted pre-eminence in sharing the rule and the glory. Compare how glory is to be given to the Son of Man in Daniel 7:14. It is interesting how quickly they could seize on ideas of glory and how slowly on ideas of suffering. But we often hear what we want to hear and neglect what is unpleasant, and invariably interpret in the light of our own fixed ideas.

That two disciples should make such a request baffles us, because we look at the disciples after they have been transformed. But in fact they were simply manoeuvring for position and seeking to ensure the positions that they had already calculated might be theirs (had it not been for Peter, and he had surely disqualified himself. It is an indication of how grossly they had misinterpreted Jesus' teaching, and of how self-seeking the disciples were at this point.