Murals (2008) by PHANTAST - Graffiti - Cultural Music & Art Association inc. - 98 Milne St. Benleigh
Salome loved Jesus nearly as much as her own two sons, James and John.
She would never forget the day they left their father and their fishing nets to follow Him. Lately, she, too, had come to believe that Jesus was the Messiah of God. She has smiled when she heard Jesus nicknamed her sons " the Sons of Thunder" and He invited them into His inner circle, along with Simon Peter. She had heard how Jesus had led the three up a high mountain. When they came down, her garrulous sons could hardly speak - but then the story came out: Jesus' face was blindingly bright like the sun... Moses and Elijah appeared and spoke with Him... Suddenly a cloud surrounded us and a voice from heaven said, : "This is My Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased. Listen to Him!" (Matthew 17).
Salome had left behind her comfortable home on the northwest shore of Galilee to join her sons - she remembered other words Jesus had spoken:"Ask and will be given to you; seek and you will find... She would no longer deny herself the one favor her heart desired. Kneeling before Him, she begged, "Grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at Your right and the other at Your left in Your Kingdom". Salome was only voicing their rising ambitions. Like any loving mother, she had simply asked for what she thought would make her children happy. But as Jesus' reply and subsequent events proved, this mother didn't begin to comprehend what she was asking for her children. Soon, the man she had approached on her knees as a would-be king would himself die on a cross. And she would be one of the women who witnessed His death.
After it was over, Salome may have remembered the anguished faces of the men who had been crucified with Jesus, one on His right hand and the other on His left - an ironic reminder of her request on the way to Jerusalem... Along with other faithful women at the cross, Salome was present on the morning of the Resurection and the angel's word - "He has risen! He is not here" - would have comforted her later in life when her son James became the first martyred apostle, dying at the hands of Herod Agrippa.
Instead of asking Jesus what He wanted for her sons, Salome acted as though she knew exactly what He needed to do on their behalf. She must have forgotten that Jesus had exhorted his followers to leave behind not only houses, brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers for His sake, but also children. In Salome's case, it didn't mean turning her back on her children but surrendering them to God. It meant putting Jesus above everything and everyone, loving Him better than her own sons. Only then would she understand the meaning of what they would suffer as followers of Christ. Only then would she really know how to pray. (Anna Spangler).