Scripture Daily

Context No. 1715 of 4322 · Matthew

Context · Reflection

Matthew 20:20-24: in context

20Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came to him with her sons, kneeling and asking a certain thing of him. 21He said to her, “What do you want?” She said to him, “Command that these, my two sons, may sit, one on your right hand and one on your left hand, in your Kingdom.” 22But Jesus answered, “You don’t know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” They said to him, “We are able.” 23He said to them, “You will indeed drink my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with; but to sit on my right hand and on my left hand is not mine to give, but it is for whom it has been prepared by my Father.” 24When the ten heard it, they were indignant with the two brothers.

The mother of James and John comes to Jesus with a request: command that my two sons may sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom. It is a bid for the top places, the seats of honor and power. Jesus answers that she does not know what she is asking; can her sons drink the cup he is about to drink? They say they can. He tells them they will indeed drink his cup, but the seats of honor are not his to assign; they belong to those for whom the Father has prepared them. And when the other ten hear of it, they are indignant.

The request is for status, position, the top seats in the kingdom, and it exposes a way of thinking about greatness that Jesus gently overturns. James and John, or their mother on their behalf, imagine that to be great in the kingdom is to occupy the highest places, to sit at the right and left of the King. And Jesus does not simply deny the request; he redirects their whole idea of greatness. The path to his throne, he says, runs through a cup, the cup of suffering he was about to drink; greatness in his kingdom is not seized by claiming the top seat but is bound up with drinking that cup, walking the way of the cross, the way of service and self-giving. He would soon tell them plainly that whoever wants to be great among them must be their servant. The ambition for position, for honor and status even in spiritual things, is a persistent one, and this passage meets it directly. We want the recognition, the higher place, the seat of honor; and Jesus points us instead to the cup, to the way of service and suffering, as the real path of greatness in his kingdom. And notice the fruit of such ambition among the disciples: when the ten heard it, they were indignant, for the grasping for position breeds rivalry and resentment among those who see themselves passed over. The way of the cup does not; it seeks not the higher seat but the lower place of service. Greatness, Jesus teaches, is not in the seat we claim but in the cup we are willing to drink.

Do I seek greatness in the top seats, the recognition and position and honor I can claim, breeding rivalry with those who might be preferred over me, or can I hear Jesus redirect my ambition to the cup, to the way of service and self-giving, where true greatness in his kingdom is found?

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