In today's Gospel, the mother of the sons of Zebedee asks Jesus to place her sons on his side in his kingdom.
Maybe the mother of James and John thought that Jesus was an earthly Messiah and so she asked for her sons to have the place of honor.
I guess this is a bad case of being inattentive because Jesus had just said "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death, and hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and scourged and crucified." So the place on the left and right of Jesus were not places of honor but dishonor, occupied by two thieves.
That is why Jesus replies, "You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the chalice that I am going to drink?" which must have sounded like a strange question because why can't anyone drink from another person's chalice? And drink from the chalice James did, dying by the Herod's sword.
Maybe John escaped a violent death because he did drink of the cup of Jesus somewhat when he was brave enough to stand at Jesus' side during the crucifixion.
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