Matthew 20:17-34
17 And as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside, and on the way he said to them, 18 “See, we are going up to Jerusalem. And the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death 19 and deliver him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day.”
20 Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came up to him with her sons, and kneeling before him she asked him for something. 21 And he said to her, “What do you want?” She said to him, “Say that these two sons of mine are to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom.” 22 Jesus answered, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink?” They said to him, “We are able.” 23 He said to them, “You will drink my cup, but to sit at my right hand and at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.” 24 And when the ten heard it, they were indignant at the two brothers. 25 But Jesus called them to him and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. 26 It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, 27 and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, 28 even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
29 And as they went out of Jericho, a great crowd followed him. 30 And behold, there were two blind men sitting by the roadside, and when they heard that Jesus was passing by, they cried out, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!” 31 The crowd rebuked them, telling them to be silent, but they cried out all the more, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!” 32 And stopping, Jesus called them and said, “What do you want me to do for you?” 33 They said to him, “Lord, let our eyes be opened.” 34 And Jesus in pity touched their eyes, and immediately they recovered their sight and followed him. [i]
I’ve pointed out that my references to contemporary culture are at least 30 to 40 years old. But I do believe there is a contemporary Irish “poet” who does a fairly good job summarizing what we have been learning in Matthew chapters 19 and 20. He goes by the name of Bono and hangs out with three other guys; they call themselves U2. The verse is this: “To touch is to heal, /to hurt is to steal, /If you want to kiss the sky, /better learn how to kneel /On your knees, boy.”[ii]
Our text this morning teaches us that, despite God’s demand that no one who is not small, not humble, not one of the last, the lost, the least, the little, and the dead, can get through the tiny narrow entrance to the Kingdom of heaven, which has clearly been a difficult concept for Jesus’ disciples. It would be downright remarkable, in the light of all that Jesus has already taught them, if there were still some of them seeking after personal greatness in the Kingdom of God! And yet, like us, their own fleshly nature constantly demands self-aggrandizement, props, and praise.
QUEST FOR SOMEBODYNESS
In 20:17-28, the quest for props and praise rears its ugly head from those who should now be the least likely candidates, the 12 apostles. We will especially see it in the sons of Zebedee with their mother acting as their publicist. Look with me first at verses 20, 21.
20 Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came up to him with her sons, and kneeling before him she asked him for something. 21 And he said to her, “What do you want?” She said to him, “Say that these two sons of mine are to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom.”
This request is cowardly, commendable, and condemnable. It’s cowardly in that this is not her question, but her sons’ question. Mama Zebedee is not the coward, her sons are. Notice that when Jesus replies in verse 22, he talks around her to them. The “you” in that verse means “y’all.” It is a second-person plural. Jesus is looking directly at her two power-grabbing sons. They are acting like bashful schoolboys on the playground who pushed their bravest friend over to the girls. “Go ask Rachel if she’ll go steady with me. If she hesitates, tell her I like-like her.”
Does Jesus roll his eyes in disgust? What he did with his eyes and thought in his mind, Matthew does not tell us. What we do know is that he brought these Sons of Thunder down to earth with his question about the cup he must drink (a topic we will shortly examine). The cup question is not so much about the bravery of these two young men. They have none. It is to remind them that before glory comes suffering.
Their question is cowardly. But it is also commendable. At least Mama Zebedee kneels before Jesus to humbly ask their less-than-humble question. She expresses some understanding of who Jesus is. And she expresses this out of faith in the Christ and his Kingdom. To ask this question shows they believe in the Kingdom of heaven, what Jesus has been teaching about his person, his coming reign as Messiah, and the community that will exist under his authority. They don’t perfectly understand the concept, but they believe Jesus’ vision will succeed.
There are two things for us to learn here. First, we should recognize true trust into Christ and real error can be mixed in the heart of the most sincere Jesus-followers. Can a high view of Jesus coexist with a higher view of self? Absolutely. Can great trust and great ignorance be married together in one brain? Yes. Our task is to persistently pray that the Holy Spirit will show us more of our sin and grant us greater and greater repentance.
Second, as much as we shake our heads in dismay and wag our fingers at these young men we ought to ask ourselves whether we think as much of our Lord as they did. Do we believe Jesus will reign? Do we give a passing thought to the eternal Kingdom? Do we really desire his Kingdom to come? Because when his Kingdom comes in its fullness and our sin no longer remains (because no sin remains in the new earth), our innate desire for self-promotion will be entirely wiped away. That fact ought to encourage each one of us to examine ourselves and ask the Holy Spirit to root out our self-centeredness in all of its forms and expressions.
The context of their question makes it especially condemnable. Right after Jesus speaks of his brutal death in Jerusalem (20:18, 19), verse 20 begins with the word “then”. That conjunction introduces a great contrast between Christ’s humility and their ambition. Jesus will be lifted up on a tree, a symbol of a curse to the Jews and the statement of ultimate insult from the State of Rome. Do you see the contrast? Jesus will be lifted up on a tree, and these boys want to be lifted up to the thrones on either side of him.
Surprisingly, with such a striking contrast in mind, Jesus is gentle with them. I think he strikes a sad but sympathetic tone with this answer, “You do not know what you are asking” (20:22a). It has the same feel as, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). Here, it is not the doing but the asking that Jesus gently and tenderly forgives. What is condemnable to Jesus is not that they are asking questions (he loves them) put the attitudes and desires behind their question.
I think we can safely add that these two disciples are not alone in their pride. Joining them are 10 angry men. We can toss them into the pride pool as well. In verse 24 we read, “And when the ten heard it, they were indignant at the two brothers.” Matthew, obviously, is one of the 10 indignant listeners. Were they indignant because these brothers asked such an inappropriate question? Were they angry because those two got to Jesus first? Knowing the human condition as scripture reveals it, their indignation comes from their own desire for preference and promotion, props, and praise. We can safely say that because Jesus responds to all of “them” in versus 25 through 28. He tells not just the two brothers but also the ten brothers just how grim a quest of Gentile greatness is.
It’s safe to say that all 12 disciples stand before Jesus condemned – guilty of the sin of pride and vain ambition. What’s more, at times we all stand shoulder to shoulder with them. The quest of one upmanship is in us all. This story fits well with Jesus’ prediction of his cross work and resurrection. It screams at us that this is why Jesus had to die.
CORRECTION OF THE CROSS
Jesus doesn’t condemn them, even though their attitudes and actions are condemnable. Instead he corrects them. And he will correct them by holding out to all of us his cross. In the last two sections of Matthew, Jesus has given us his upside-down view of Kingdom greatness. Here he relates that teaching to his own person and work. Jesus is offering them a lesson on Kingdom greatness by heading resolutely to his own death in Jerusalem.
First, the cross of Christ is great because it shows that humble servanthood and sacrificial suffering are exalted actions in the upside-down Kingdom. Second, the cross of Christ is so great because the two-day death of one man gave eternal life to many.
The first reason the cross of Christ is great because it shows that humble servanthood and sacrificial suffering are exalted actions. We see that in verses 22b through 28a. None of our merely-human suffering can ever be redemptive in the way that the cross of Christ was redemptive. We cannot offer ourselves up as the wages of sin on behalf of another. Only the perfectly-lived life of Christ made him alone sufficient as a perfect sin offering.
But as Christ is our only example of a perfect, God-honoring life, he instructs his disciples thusly: “25 You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. 26 It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, 27 and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, 28 even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve….”
Pagan rulers rule this way because that is their view of greatness. You are to rule another way because for you greatness comes in the opposite way. That way is the way of the cross. And the way of the cross is humble servanthood. Jesus explains it further in verses 26, 27 with the parallelism: Kingdom greatness is servitude; Kingdom primacy is slavery. In Hebrew poetry this would be called synonymous or “focusing” parallelism. The first term is nearly the same as the second, but it’s slight difference focuses on the point.
Hopefully, all of us are rightly repulsed by the idea of American antebellum slavery. But very few of us would mind a maid or butler around the house 24 hours a day, seven days a week. There is no need to sacrifice your brain, but there is much need to sacrifice yourself in order to serve others first and even consider others more significant than yourself (Philippians 2:3). Jesus is teaching this new community a new paradigm where the only valid ambition is the desire to serve others. God has absolutely no need of your good works, but your neighbor has every need of them.
The Greeks and Romans assumed the ideal life was to be great enough to be served by others. And yet Jesus asks how anyone in his Kingdom can be happy with God, others, and self unless one is the slave of everyone else. Like so much of what Jesus teaches, his Kingdom is entirely upside-down from the way the world works. I don’t need to tell you that this paradigm shift was radically countercultural then and now. Our culture never stops demanding that we go up, up, up. But the Christian life is a limbo that demands we go down, down, down. How low can you go?
Jesus descended down, down, down into greatness. In his life and death Jesus served the world. He came to the table and said to all, “My name is Jesus, and I am at your service.” To prove that point he washed his disciples’ filthy feet (John 13)! To prove that point he died for unclean sinners. That is humble service, and that is also sacrificial suffering. Gentle greatness equals no serving and no suffering. It is our natural (think sinful) way we think about the good life. Jesus greatness equals the opposite.
FOAMING CUP OF WRATH
Now let’s go back to verses 22b, 23. Here Jesus replies to the two self-aggrandizing Sons of Thunder: “Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink?” They said to him, ‘We are able.’ 23 He said to them, ‘You will drink my cup, but to sit at my right hand and at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.’”
Jesus does not deny that those who trust into him have glory coming to them. He simply says the Father has not delegated that office to him. Each member of the Godhead has a designated role in the plan of salvation: the Father elects those who will be his children; the Son redeems those children out of the marketplace of sin; the Holy Spirit changes the affections of those whom the Father has called, drawing them willingly to the person and work of the Son and stoking that new affection through worship, prayer, the Word, and fellowship with the saints.
The one clear office delegated to Jesus that we can draw from this text is that of Suffering Servant. Jesus says in essence, “if you want to follow me, let’s talk servanthood and suffering. I will drink my cup of suffering, shame, and death, and you all will sip from it.” Of course they would. James drank the cup of martyrdom with shocking suddenness as he was beheaded by Herod (Acts 12:2). The apostle John drank the cup of exile and tribulation on the island of Patmos (Revelation 1:9).
These twelve men would drink deeply from the cup of suffering because they took up their cross and followed Christ. In Paul’s words, Christians will share in the sufferings of Christ (Colossians 1:24). In Christ’s passion, we see what we ought to suffer.[iii] This party of unimpressive men is headed to Jerusalem. There Jesus will be mockingly but truly enthroned as King, as he dies between two crucified criminals, one on his right hand, the other on his left (27:38). That is the picture of Christ’s greatness. The disciples missed it, and Mama Zebedee missed it. But she will ultimately see it as one of the witnesses to the crucifixion (27:50, 55, 56).
So in our church era of celebrity Christianity, ecclesiastical self-aggrandizement, presumptuous power plays, dumbed down worship, and shriveled evangelistic witness (the removal of servanthood and suffering to make the gospel more attractive), let us attach the cross of Christ to our shoulders, let us consider ourselves one another’s servants without any interest in self-gain or recognition.
We have glimpsed something of the greatness of the cross for showing that humble servanthood and sacrificial sufferings are exalted actions. Now we come to the second point of greatness: the cross of Christ is great because the three-day death of one man gave eternal life to many.
The second reason focuses our attention on the top (20:17-19) and the tail (20:28) of the passage. The top and the tail form an inclusio because they share similar themes and language and can be summarized this way: the Son of Man came to die. In 20:18, 28 Jesus calls himself “the Son of Man.” He speaks of “death” and being “crucified,” and then in verse 28 he speaks of dying as “to give his life.”
In 20:17-19, Jesus gives his third Passion Week prediction (16:21; 17:22, 23). What is new here is the specific reference to gentiles and the nature of Jesus’ torment and execution (mocking, flogging, and crucifixion), facts that would become the heart of Apostolic preaching. This is Christ’s assurance that his violent death was not a meaningless accident of history but part of God’s predetermined plan and that he was not a hapless victim but a willing partner in the divine strategy.
Every possible kind of suffering the world could inflict upon a man (mental, emotional, and physical) flashed before him like a picture and still he knowingly, willingly, and lovingly headed toward Calvary to gain victory. He gained victory through the complete surrender of his life to his earthly enemies by submitting to the Heavenly Father.
That is the top of the passage. Now here is the tail. The “Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve, and give his life as a ransom for many” (20:28). Every word in that sentence is a theological gold mine. It tells us Jesus will die. Jesus occupied the office of prophet, predicting the future that always came to pass. What he predicted happened. He entered Jerusalem (chapter 21). He was charged and condemned by the Jewish and then by gentile authorities (chapters 26, 27). He was mocked, whipped, and crucified (chapter 27). He rose from the dead (chapter 28). Whoever this man is, he is at least a true prophet (21:11).
Yes, we know that he is more than a prophet. He tells us that with his self-designation, “the Son of Man.” The title refers to the heavenly figure Daniel saw in his vision (Daniel 7), the one coming on the clouds and receiving dominion and glory and an everlasting Kingdom. We would expect this enigmatic but powerful figure Daniel saw would come to rule. And yet Jesus says the Son of Man came to serve. We don’t expect to read that he came to give his life. But to Jesus, the Son of Man, and the Suffering Servant (Isaiah 53) who’s suffering and death “bore the sin of many” (Isa. 53:12) are one person. Who could have imagined that the Son of Man would come into his glory by becoming the Suffering Servant? Only the great triune God!
Notice Jesus says the Son of Man came. This begs the question: From whence did he come? The apostle John answers that question for us in John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”[iv] Jesus claimed, “before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:58). Jesus is Immanuel, God with us (1:23). He is the divine, preexistent, self-existing Son of the living God who came from heaven to earth to die for us. He returned to his divine preexisting glory, the glory he shared with the Father and the Spirit before even one sub-atomic particle of the universe was spoken into existence. That is the Jesus we are to worship.
Why did Jesus die? There are three key words in verse 28 that tell the whole story: “cup,” “ransom,” and “for.” Jesus gave “his life as a ransom for many.” That is, he gave his life “in the place of” those facing death. This is a preposition of substitution defining the gift of substitution. In other words, he died in our place. The second the keyword is “ransom.” We still use the word today talking about kidnappers and hostage situations. In the 1st century it simply referred to the price paid for the release of slaves. It could also refer to money paid in the place of capital punishment. Jesus paid for our zillion-dollar debt, the price for our sins, releasing us from the servitude of and punishment due to sin.
The final keyword is “cup.” Jesus speaks of “my cup” (v. 23), “the cup that I am to drink” (v. 22). What is Jesus’ cup? Part of the drink is the hostilities that arise from faithful gospel proclamation and living—what James and John experienced. But the other part, the part Jesus alone will drink (did drink), is the foaming cup of God’s wrathful judgment upon wickedness. Jesus did not make up this imagery, it comes from the Old Testament prophets. And it is significant.
In the Old Testament the cup is the frequent, graphic expression of God’s wrath that rebellious sinners must and shall drink. The original drink from this true Holy Grail is a fiery, foaming, bitter liquid. It is nothing for which any knight would want to quest. It would kill you to dip your finger in it. It is the chalice of all God’s wrath against sinners (Ps. 75:8; Isa. 51; Jer. 25). It describes that radical, explosive “chemical reaction” when God’s pure holiness comes into contact with the total corruption of human sin.
I want to launch into an entire sermon on the cups of God, but I’m going to save that for when we get to the Passover supper and the garden of Gethsemane (26:39). Difficult as it is for me to do so, right now we’re simply going to have to summarize and move along. Jesus knows he is to drink this and asks God in Gethsemane to take it from him— “let this cup pass from me” (26:39), and then with arms stretched out on Calvary— “My God, my God, why have you for forsaken me” (27:46)—he drinks the cup dry. This cup is more than the cup of bitter suffering; it is Jesus in his body and soul bearing God’s judgment due to us upon himself. Why did Jesus die? He died to appease God’s wrath—to drink the cup—and thereby to ransom many: “the Son of Man came . . . to give his life as a ransom for many” (v. 28).[v]
One highly-esteemed Bible scholar says, “the many” is not a “fixed number” but rather is a term that “embraces the whole human race” (cf. 1 Timothy 2:6). Do you know who said that? John Calvin. Others are more Calvinistic than Calvin on this term, and they say “the many” refers to the elect or God’s people. I belong in the more Calvinistic than Calvin camp because I think Jesus here is borrowing language from Isaiah 53. In Isaiah 53:12 we read that the Servant “bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors,” and before that in 53:8 we read that the Servant was “stricken for the transgression of my people.” So I think in 20:28 the “many” are “God’s people,” or here and now “the church,” those “who accept Jesus’ offer of forgiveness, made possible by his death, and who commit their lives to him in discipleship.”
The picture here is one that shows we are slaves to sin. Through his death, Jesus paid to set you free. You are free from sin and made a slave to righteousness. You have been freed to serve others first. You have been freed to sacrificially live out the gospel. You no longer belong to the kingdom of the devil. You have been granted citizenship in God’s Kingdom. More than that, you have been made God’s child.
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. …7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. 8 Those, who are in the flesh, cannot please God.
9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. [vi]
[i] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Mt 20:17–34.
[ii] U2, Mysterious Ways,” Auchtung Baby (Island Records, 1991).
[iii] Augustine, City of God, 18:49).
[iv] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Jn 1:1.
[v] O’Donnell, 575-576. Kindle Edition. Emphasis added.
[vi] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Ro 8:1–11.
