Offering Pain Instead

They asked to sit one at his right, the other at his left.  It was something he could not give.  Instead he offered what was so much more powerful -- his pain.  It could be shared with friends and in being shared might become less.  Pain cannot be understood by the stranger, by the person who cannot feel what it means to you.  In offering it to them, Jesus may have been saying he trusted in their love for him.