Sigmund Freud was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies seen as originating from conflicts in the psyche. Freud saw the psyche structured into three parts (i.e., tripartite), the id, ego, and superego, all developing at different stages in our lives. These are systems, not parts of the brain, or in any way physical, but rather hypothetical conceptualisations of important mental functions.
According to Freud’s psychoanalytic theory, the id is the primitive and instinctual part of the mind that contains sexual and aggressive drives and hidden memories, the super-ego operates as a moral conscience, and the ego is the realistic part that mediates between the desires of the id and the super-ego.
In simple terms, we can define ego as ‘someone’s sense of their own worth’. Having a healthy ego means we can maintain a healthy sense of self, but an imbalance can lead to problems, including excessive self-centredness.
I’m wondering if this might have been the driver behind the request from James and John, the sons of Zebedee, that Jesus allow them to sit, one at his right hand and the other at his left hand, when he finally revealed himself as the Messiah.
To sit at the right hand or left hand of a king was to assume the highest position of power in the kingdom. Believing that Jesus was in fact the Messiah, James and John obviously still thought of the Messiah in terms of someone who would overthrow the Roman Empire and establish his own kingdom in its place, and they wanted to be the power brokers in that kingdom.
This is despite the fact that Jesus had already told the disciples that he would be handed over by the Jewish religious leaders to suffer and die. Clearly they didn’t believe him. They also clearly hadn’t been paying attention to his teaching about humility.
On more than one occasion when teaching the disciples, Jesus used the example of a little child, which had no value in society in Jesus’ day, to demonstrate the countercultural nature of God’s Kingdom. In the Kingdom of God all people were of equal value or importance, irrespective of their perceived value in human society.
Jesus uses the request from James and John as another teaching opportunity for his disciples when he contrasts the meaning of greatness in the Gentile world with what it means in God’s Kingdom. “But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all.” (Mark 10:43-44 NRSV)
He then explains to them how they still don’t correctly understand what his own mission and ministry entails, “For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:45 NRSV) Jesus was not the type of Messiah the people (including the disciples) had been expecting. He was not going to be an egotistical king who expected everyone else to wait on him while he did whatever he pleased. He would do the complete opposite and put the needs of others before his own. Ultimately, he would sacrifice his own life for the sake of others.
This serves as a reminder to us of the need for us to keep our own egos in check, and to think of others before necessarily thinking about ourselves.
