These comments are quite thought provoking. And now I simply pose these following as "food for thought":
1. James the brother of John later on, finally did suffer martyrdom (Acts 12:2). But your point is well taken, Moviegoer, that at the moment of the Crucifixion, he and John must have been thinking, that could have, or would have, or should have been me, if I had got what I asked for. As they say, "be careful what you ask for".
2. But then my other thought is, who exactly was there witnessing the crucifixion among the disciples? We know that John was there, because of John 19:26 ("Woman, behold your son"). We know that other women were there (John 19:25) including Mary, Jesus' mother, and two other Mary's (but I admit, I haven't taken the time to cross check this with the other gospels) So I'm wondering, what about Peter and the other ten apostles? Matthew 26:56 says they all left Him and fled, but then goes on to tell of how Peter followed at a distance and ended up denying Christ three times.
So this is all just food for thought ... I wonder, they all left him and fled, as it says in both Matthew and Mark. But did they perhaps sneak back later and watch from a distance?
Thank you Moviegoer and Goodnews for your thoughts, which help God's Word to become more "alive" for us as we carefully interpret these things.