Those Who Follow Jesus Are Not To Be Self-seeking But Selflessly Seeking To Serve All, In The Same Way As He As The Servant Is Doing Among Them, Something Especially Revealed In His Giving Of His Life As A Ransom For Many (20:17-28)..
Had the evangelists not been fully truthful in all that they wrote this story would have been passed over. Here are two of the greatest of the Apostles and they behave so abominably that we can only blush for them and hang our heads in shame. And it is not hidden in a footnote. Matthew in fact milks it for all he is worth, not out of a spirit of jealousy, but in order to bring out the great contrast at this point between the Apostles and Jesus. As He was going forward to a cross of shame, their eyes were fixed on their own glory. They would let Him down to the end. And we have been letting Him down in the same way ever since.
The account is to be read in the context of Jesus' words about the twelve sitting on twelve thrones (Matthew 19:28), which enflamed their imaginations so that they had to be put sharply right (Matthew 20:25-27), and the parable of the labourers in the vineyard which they blatantly ignored (Matthew 19:30 to Matthew 20:16), accentuated by the fact that Jesus has set His face to go to Jerusalem (Matthew 20:17) and has just informed His Apostles again of the terrible end that awaits Him there (Matthew 20:18-19), something which has clearly passed them by. For us the readers it is quite clear which words of Jesus were prominent in their minds, and which words should have been.
Indeed their perfidy is brought out even more by their use of their mother as their messenger. She was well known to Jesus (and would later behave much more nobly) and they probably hoped that her influence would sway things their way. So little were they aware of the momentous things that they were dealing with.
But what the story does bring out most of all is the total contrast between their own self-seeking and what Jesus was calling on them to be. For He brings out that He does not want them to be thinking about prestigious thrones. He wants them to be thinking about true service, and that in terms of His own service as the Suffering Servant. If this does not indicate that His words about twelve thrones have at this point been totally misinterpreted we do not know what could. (After all if they were to be taken literally there is some excuse for the behaviour of the two, they were after all two of the chosen three. All they would then be doing was pre-empting Peter. But this was not what Jesus had meant at all).
Analysis.
a As Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, He took the twelve disciples apart, and on the way He said to them, “Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and the Son of man will be delivered to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death” (Matthew 20:17-18).
b “And will deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify, and the third day He will be raised up” (Matthew 20:19).
c Then came to him the mother of the sons of Zebedee with her sons, worshipping him, and asking a certain thing of him (Matthew 20:20).
d And He said to her, ‘What is your wish?' She says to him, ‘Command that these my two sons may sit, one on your right hand, and one on your left hand, in your kingly rule' (Matthew 20:21).
e But Jesus answered and said, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink?” (Matthew 20:22 a).
f They say to Him, “We are able” (Matthew 20:22 b).
e He says to them, “You will indeed drink my cup” (Matthew 20:23 a).
d “But to sit on my right hand, and on my left hand, is not mine to give, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared of my Father” (Matthew 20:23 b).
c And when the ten heard it, they were moved with indignation concerning the two brothers (Matthew 20:24).
b 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. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would become great among you shall be your servant, and whoever would be first among you shall be your slave (Matthew 20:25-27).
· “Even as the Son of man came, not to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28).
Note that in ‘a' we are told that Jesus was voluntarily going up to Jerusalem to be condemned to death and in the parallel that he has come to give His life as a ransom for many. In ‘b' we learn of the behaviour and ways of the Gentiles, and in the parallel the disciples are to be the very opposite of that. In ‘c' the mother of ‘my two sons', the sons of Zebedee exposes her self-seeking, and in the parallel the Apostle reveal their self-seeking (they were not angry at the request, they were angry at its implications for them) and their anger at ‘the two brothers'. In ‘d' she pleads that they may sit on His right hand and His left, and in the parallel He says that to sit on His right hand and His left is not His to give. In ‘e' He points out that they do not know what they are asking. They are asking to share His cup. And in the parallel He declares that they will indeed share His cup. And in ‘f' the writer brings out emphatically the total unawareness of the Apostles of what they are asking, for they boldly declare that they ‘are able', when we all know that they will actually forsake Him and flee (Matthew 26:56). Although, of course, in the end they did come through triumphantly and serve Him nobly regardless of the cost.