Matthew 20

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.”

Howard Foshee writes:

Years ago, I read a newspaper feature written by a man who told of his student days in New York City. He related how he used to visit the magnificent Cathedral of St. John the Divine. Once a guide called his attention to a series of niches around the cathedral chancel. In each niche was carved the figure of a man who had been chosen as the greatest of his century. The first century was represented by St. Paul. Columbus represented the fifteenth; Washington, the eighteenth. The nineteenth had been awarded to Lincoln. It was the last niche that really caught his attention. This block of unshaped stone had not yet been carved. Still in rough hewn form, it represented the greatest man of the twentieth century. That name was yet to be chosen—for that person could well be in the process of becoming.[1]

It is a moving story, and it is intended to inspire. It leaves the reader with this question: Might you be the next great person? Even so, it does buy into a particular understanding of greatness, no? After all, Paul, Columbus, Washington, and Lincoln were all men of fame and great accomplishment. So there is a bit of despair that comes with the whole exercise as it raises the question of the likelihood of us doing what these great men did. But what if greatness is not really defined by accomplishment but rather by faith, hope, love, and obedience? Further still, what if true greatness in the Kingdom actually looks like failure in the terms of the world?

Jesus had something to say about greatness, and what He said went against all common sense. But Jesus—may we thank God—was anything but common, and so we will allow Him to define what great really means.

Through the cross, Jesus redefines what greatness means.

Our text begins with a shocking announcement.

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.”

This blunt revelation of Jesus’ coming passion must have stunned the disciples and cut them to the quick. This is the third of three such pronouncements in Matthew. In this pronouncement, we find that:

• The events of the passion will begin in Jerusalem.
• Jesus will be handed over to the religious elites.
• Jesus will be condemned by the religious elites.
• Jesus will be delivered to the Romans by the Jewish religious elites.
• Jesus will suffer mocking and flogging.
• Jesus will be crucified.
• Jesus will “be raised.”

Let us recall that when Jesus announced this earlier, in Matthew 16, it led to a defiant denial and renunciation by Peter that, in turn, gave rise to a staggering rebuke from Jesus.

²¹ From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. ²² And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.” ²³ But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

It is obvious, then, that the disciples did not know what to do with these announcements of suffering and crucifixion. But, unlike Matthew 16, one really is surprised to find in Matthew 20 that this announcement is immediately followed by a request for exaltation and greatness from the mother of James and John and, ostensibly, from James and John themselves.

The word “then” in verse 20 will highlight the connection between this announcement and the misguided human understanding of and desire for greatness. But this connection between a crucifixion announcement and a plea for human greatness (coupled with the fact that Jesus will allude to the cross again in verse 28) shows us that, through the cross, Jesus was also redefining the very notion of “greatness.” That the coming conversation come in the shadow of a crucifixion announcement is deeply important, in other words, because, as we will see, it is the cross itself that defines what it means to be great.

Jesus’ redefinition of greatness clashes head-on with our natural understanding of greatness.

So Jesus announces that He will suffer and die and rise again. In light of this, verse 20–21 hits like a thunderbolt.

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.”

We might be tempted to laugh this off as an example of charming maternal excess, but clearly it is more than this. Jesus will use this request to point to approaching suffering not only for Himself but also for the disciples and He will use it to highlight the significance of His own suffering and death. What is more, the mother of James and John does not come without her sons’ own desires for greatness. We can tell this by the fact that in verse 22 Jesus will answer them (i.e, James and John, not their mother). What is more, in Mark’s version of this (in Mark 10), it is James and John who ask this and not their mother:

³⁵ And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to him and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” ³⁶ And he said to them, “What do you want me to do for you?” ³⁷ And they said to him, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.”

So, no, James and John are not distanced from this request. Their mother is most likely expressing her own desires, to be sure, but they are desires shared by and undoubtedly discussed with her sons.

See here the natural human desire for greatness! This is how we think! The flow of our text is quite unsettling. Think of it: (1) Jesus: I am going to suffer and die and (2) James, John, and their mother: We would like to have positions of special greatness in the Kingdom!

In our text, there is no concern expressed over the fact that Jesus will suffer, there is simply an immediate desire expressed for James and John to be exalted. Jesus, in other words, speaks of His own humility. The Zebedee’s want exaltation.

It has been pointed out that the mother’s request does indeed contain faith. This is true. She recognizes (a) that Jesus is King, (b) that in Jesus the Kingdom is coming, and (c) that Jesus has authority. Even so, her focus is the exaltation of her sons. The conversation continues.

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.”

That “You do not know what you are asking” is deeply moving. Quite literally they do not! In the Kingdom, greatness means reaching the end of yourself and laying down your life in love, faith, and obedience to the Father’s will. They want exaltation but their very notions of this have no room for a cross. Jesus alludes to suffering when He speaks of “the cup that I am to drink,” but their response to Jesus’ query about their ability to drink it reveals how little they understand: “We are able.”

Would they have answered thus if they knew what was about to happen? Jesus Himself, after all, will ask the Father if the cup might not pass from Him, if there might not be another way: “And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, ‘My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.’” (Matthew 26:39). Jesus understood what the cup of suffering would mean. His earthly followers at this point did not. But He does not turn on them with stinging rebuke. Rather, we read:

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.”

Indeed, they will drink the cup. They will suffer. And this is followed by a statement of divine “self-limitation,” of the incarnate Jesus’ relationship with the Father, a relationship that speaks not of an inequality of divine essence or substance but rather of the self-agreement within God that the Father and Son will indeed be a Father and Son relationally. It is the Father’s prerogative to place at the right and left hand, Jesus tells them.

Then, another very human moment:

²⁴ And when the ten heard it, they were indignant at the two brothers.

But let us be careful here as well. The disciples, it would appear, are not indignant at the inappropriateness of the request. They are not thinking, “How could you ask such a thing fast on the heels of our Master’s announcement that He will die? How can you think of greatness at such a time as this?” No, it is more likely that they are indignant because they themselves harbored hopes for greatness!

One thinks of that Tears for Fears song from the 80s, “Everybody Wants to Rule the World.” That is so. The desire to be great, to be better, to have authority is in the bloodstream of fallen humanity. It manifests itself in many ways, but it is there. The disciples were “indignant.” The resented not the desire of James and John but the effrontery of their open maneuvering. Jesus’ redefinition of greatness clashes head-on with our natural understanding of greatness.

To follow Jesus is to embrace His new definition for greatness.

Then Jesus moves in for His rebuke of them all.

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.

A few powerful things are happening here. First, Jesus, in a moment that must have stung, likens their desire for prominence and position and power to the Romans: “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them.” For a first-century Jew this must have been quite upsetting to hear. “You are acting like pagan Romans, the very people oppressing you! They think about such things! They think of pomp and circumstance and power and applause! But you should not!”

Here is a challenge for all of us: listen closely to yourself and ask yourself whether or not you sound like Jesus or like Caesar. We can see this dynamic in church life as well. Every now and then we see Evangelical leaders speak of “prominent pastors” or “prominent churches” or “significant ministries.” But when we look at these, they often appear simply to be famous pastors and big churches. We, like the Romans, love for our dashing heroes to appear in the parade.

Jesus then brings the discussion full circle back to the cross.

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

And here we see finally just how the cross redefines greatness. The cross shows us that the “first” is the one who is willing to lay down His life in love and obedience to the Father. Greatness means, then, a willingness to lose position, to lose power, to lose prominence and, indeed, actively to set these things aside in order to love the least and the lost. To be first in the Kingdom is to be willing to be last in the world, for there was nothing more “last” than to be crucified as a common criminal in an act of public torture and shaming.

But this is what Jesus came to do!

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.”

And there it is. It is as if Jesus is saying, “If you really do believe I am great, then follow me to this new understanding of true greatness: lay down your life and give everything for love of God and your fellow man. Take up a cross and follow Me! This is what greatness looks like. The path to greatness is not making a strategic move for a throne, it is rather making a deliberate move to the cross. Come, follow me.”

In an April 2015 interview with historian Justo González in Christianity Today, Gary Burge asked an interesting question and received a poignant answer:

When a Latin American theologian reads Luke, what themes get noticed that others might underplay?

When you read Luke with poor people who have no hope, or with people hiding from dictators and death patrols, you see things you might not see otherwise. The most important underappreciated theme is what’s often called “the great reversal.” This is the idea, from Luke 13, that when the kingdom of God arrives, the last shall be first and the first shall be last.[2]

“The great reversal.” That is what Jesus is doing here. That is what we need. That is what humility and resurrection both look like. Here is the counterintuitive Kingdom that looks so upside-down from our fallen perspective. Yet it is life.

Would you be first? Be last.

Would you be last? Be first.

Would you lose your life? Try to save it.

Would you save your life? Be willing to lose it.

The great reversal.

Such is the Kingdom.

Such is our King.

Take up your cross and follow.

 

[1] Foshee, Howard B. Now That You’re a Deacon (pp. 45-46). B&H Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

[2] https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2015/april/reading-luke-through-latin-american-eyes.html