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Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Matthew 20:20

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Then came to him the mother of Zebedee’s children with her sons, worshiping [him,] and desiring a certain thing of him.

20. the mother of Zebedee’s children ] Her name was Salome, as we learn by comparing Mat 27:56 with Mar 15:40.

“Among which was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of Zebedee’s children.” Mat 27:56.

“Among whom was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the less and of Joses, and Salome.” Mar 15:40.

worshipping him ] The act of prostration before an Eastern King though the word “crucify” might have suggested a slave’s death. The Kingdom of heaven introduces many such contrasts.

desiring a certain thing ] She dares not speak until her Lord addresses her.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

20 28. Salome’s Prayer for her sons, and the Answer of Jesus

Mar 10:35-41. St Mark begins “And James and John the sons of Zebedee came unto him, saying, &c.” For once St Matthew is more graphic and true to detail than St Mark.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Mat 20:20-28

Then came to Him the mother of Zebedees children with her sons.

Nearest to Christ

Christ does not put aside the granting of places at His right and left hand as not being within His province, but states the principles and conditions on which He does make such a grant. Again, our Lord does not put aside the prayer of His apostles as if they were seeking an impossible thing. He does not say, You are asking what cannot be. He does say, There are men for whom it is prepared of My Father. He does not condemn the prayer as indicating a wrong state of mind. He did not rebuke their passion for reward. They should have the reward if they fulfilled the conditions.

I. The principle, that some will be nearer Christ than others in that heavenly kingdom. Varied degrees of reward are prepared by God. They asked for earth; Christ answered for heaven. Heaven is a place the corporeality of our future life is essential to the perfection of it. Christ will wear for ever a human frame. That involves locality, circumstances, external occupations. But if we stop there we have no true idea of the glory that makes the blessedness. For what is heaven? Likeness to God! Love, purity, fellowship with Him; the condition of the soul. Hence heaven can be no dead level. All will be like Jesus; this does not exclude infinite variety. Perfect bliss belongs to each; but the capacity to receive may differ. Does not the idea of endless progress involve that variety in degree. There are those for whom it is prepared of His Father, that they shall sit in special nearness to Him.

II. These words rightly understood assert the truth, which, at first sight, our English rendering seems to make them contradict, viz., That Christ is the giver to each of these various degrees of glory and blessedness. It is not mine to give, save to them for whom it is prepared. Then it is thine to give it to them. To deny this is to destroy all the foundations upon which our hopes rest. There is nothing within the compass of Gods love to bestow of which Christ is not the Giver. We read that He is the Judge of the whole earth. He clothes in white robes. Christ is the bestower of the royalties of heaven.

III. These glorious places are not given to mere wishing, nor by here arbitrary will, but a piece of favouritism. There are conditions which must precede such elevation. Some people imagine the desire enough. Our wishes are meant to impel us to the appropriate forms of energy, by which they can be realized. When a pauper becomes a millionaire by wishing that he were rich, when ignorance becomes learning by standing in a library and wishing that all the contents of the books were in its head, there will be seine hope that the gates of heaven will fly open to your desire. Does your wish lead you to the conditions: Some of heavens characteristics attract you. You wish to escape punishment for sin; you would like rest after toil; do you wish to be pure? The happiness draws you? does the holiness? Would it be joyful to be near Christ?

IV. These glorious places are given as the result of a divine preparation. The Divine Father and Son have unity of will and work in this respect. There is a twofold preparation.

1. That is the eternal counsel of the Divine love prepared for you before the foundation of the world.

2. The realization of that counsel in time. His death and entrance into heaven made ready for us the eternal mansions. Faith in Christ alone, the measure of our faith, and growing Christ-likeness here will be the measure of our glory hereafter. (Dr. McLaren.)

Nearness to Christ in heaven

As in the heavens there be planets that roll nearer and nearer the central sun, and others that circle further out from its rays, yet each keeps its course, and makes music as it moves, as well as planets whose broader disc can receive and reflect more of the light than the smaller sister spheres, and yet each blazes over its whole surface, and is full to its very rim with white light; so round that throne the spirits of the just made perfect shall circle in order and peace-every one blessed, every one perfect, every one like Christ to begin with, and becoming like through every moment of the eternities. Each perfected soul looking in his brothers shall see there another phase of the one perfectness that blesses and adorns him too, and all taken together shall make up, in so far as finite creatures can make up, the reflection and manifestation of the fulness of Christ. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us is the law for the incompleteness of earth. Having then gifts differing according to the glory that is given to us will be the law for the perfection of the heavens. (Dr. McLaren.)

Nearness to Christ in heaven not mere favouritism

Nor can such a place be given by mere arbitrary will. Christ could not, if He would, take a man to His fight hand whose heart was not the home of simple trust and thankful love, whose nature and desires were unprepared for that blessed world. It would be like taking one of those creatures-if there be such-that live on the planet whose orbit is furthest from the sun, accustomed to cold, organized for darkness, and carrying it to that great central blaze, with all its fierce flames and tongues of fiery gas that shoot up a thousand miles in a moment. It would crumble and disappear before its blackness could be seen against the blaze. (Dr. McLaren.)

The Divine preparation of heaven for men

As one who precedes a mighty host, provides and prepares rest for their weariness, and food for their hunger, in some city on their line of march, and having made all things ready, is:. at the gates to welcome their travel-stained ranks when they arrive, and guide them to their repose; so He has gone before, our forerunner, to order all things for us there. It may be that unless Christ were in heaven, our brother as well as our Lord, it were no place for mortals. It may be that we need to Lave His glorified bodily presence in order that it should be possible for human spirits to bear the light, and be at home with God. Be that as it may, this we know, that the Father prepares a place for us by the eternal counsel of His love, and by the all-sufficient work of Christ, by whom we have access to the Father. And as His work is the Fathers preparation of the place for us by the Son, the issue of His work is the Fathers preparation of us for the place, through the Son by the Spirit. He that hath wrought us for the self-same thing is God. (Dr. McLaren.)

Divine rewards

Zebedees two sons are following Christ, but following half unconsciously for a personal reward. Christs answer is not for these seekers of office only, not for place-hunters in our day only, but for all men who would think of being Christians for a compensation, in whatever form we give that compensation shape. Christs answer introduces the doctrine of Divine rewards. Is not one of the main reasons why Christian faith exercises such an imperfect power among men that, they misapprehend the sort of advantage they may expect to get from it?

I. There appear to be three principal desires which direct attention to religious truth-

1. A want of personal comfort.

2. The want of moral guidance, or a rule to act by, and is of a much higher grade than the first.

3. The want of giving and loving-of giving to the Lord what the soul feels belongs to Him-affection and gratitude, etc. It is a spiritual aspiration. It does not stop to inquire about advantages. It is the desire of a harmonious and affectionate union with God in the reconciling and forgiving spirit of the Saviour.

II. These three different wants spring up from different places or faculties in our nature.

1. The first comes from a mixture of natural instinct and shrewdness-self-interest.

2. The second comes from the region of the conscience. It refers to a law, etc.

obedience as, obedience-duty as duty; second only to the life of love.

3. The third originates in the soul-its love, trust, gratitude. This is the Christian religion. Out of these three fountains flow three sorts of religious life, as distinct from one another as their sources are.

III. The rewards God promises to those that diligently seek him, depend, in each case, on the motive and spirit in which we serve him.

1. Religion will never yield its true rewards to those who seek it for the sake of its rewards.

2. If sought to obtain relief from sorrow, etc., God may lead the soul on, through this half-selfish state, into serving Him for some more disinterested affection. But such will fail of any glorious reward.

3. God will reward every man according to his works-in the-line of his works, in the kind of them-love for love, etc.

(1) In this honourable quality mans Christian service is not disconnected from his best acts in other lines of life. Legitimate in Christianity. Its universal sentiment is love. All its apparatus is to educate us to that mark. This is the distinctive ministry, which the Christian revelation brings: in Christ this is embodied.

(2) The same principle must be applied to die desire of going to heaven as a motive to religious endeavour.

(3) We come up at last to those acts of true religion which are done in the faith of the heart; and here we reach the highest view of the Divine rewards, simply because God has made these to be their own reward. They are rewards in kind. They are large just according to the spirituality of our lives, the zeal of our worship, the strength of our faith. They are interior, not visible. They are incidental, not sought. They are of nobleness rather than of happiness. He rewards us sometimes only by setting us to the performance of larger and harder tasks, etc. When he would give His greatest reward, He gives Himself, the Holy Spirit, in His Son. The brave and lofty hymn of Francis Xavier: My God, I love Thee, not because, etc. Of our Christian religion the badge is a cross-even as self-forgetfulness is the spirit, love is the motive, disinterestedness is the principle, faith is the inmost spring. (Bishop Huntingdon, D. D.)

Can ye drink of My cup?-

I. Christ had cup and a baptism.

1. Christ had a cup. This cup contained the death which, as our Redeemer, He had to die. Its ingredients were, all that He suffered. The time during which He drank it-His lifetime.

2. Christ had a baptism. The baptism of the text was alluded to, when He said, I have a baptism, etc. It anointed Him and set Him apart to His priestly and kingly offices.

II. Believers partake of the cup and the baptism of Christ.

1. In many particulars, the cup and baptism of Christ were His own-and peculiar.

2. Yet the experience of believers sufficiently exhausts these words. Scripture testimony. The events of Providence.

3. The sufferings of believers, a cup. Because, punishment by the world. Because, death to the flesh.

4. The sufferings of believers a baptism. Because, they are purigying. Because, they are qualifying.

5. The sufferings of believers are the cup and the baptism of Christ. In many particulars-the same. They are inflicted on Christ-in believers. They are acknowledged by Christ.

6. That, which to Christ and His people is but a cup, is to the wicked an exhaustless ocean.

III. The offices and honours of Christs kingdom are distributed by himself.

1. As the cup and baptism of Christ were succeeded by glory to Him, so they are to His people.

2. Some of the moral glory of heaven visible even amid the sufferings of earth.

3. The sufferings endured here prepare and fit for the high employments of heaven.

4. The fitness having been acquired, the dignities are given by Christ. He bestows that which He purchased.

5. This fulfils the promise, He shall see of the travail of His soul, etc.

IV. Christ gives the honours and dignities of his kingdom to those for whom they have been appointed of the father.

1. This brings out the place occupied by Christ in the arrangements of the plan of redemption.

2. It brings to light the original source of redemption.

3. It shows the perfect security of the believer.

4. It illustrates the order of Gods procedure.

5. It furnishes a proof of the unchangeableness of God.

Conclusion.

1. If you are believers, you shall drink of Christs cup, and be baptized with His baptism.

2. But you shall not suffer till prepared-fitness for suffering provokes persecution.

3. Your sufferings shall be-

(1) Limited-a cup.

(2) Purifying-a baptism.

(3) Joyous-Christs.

(4) Honourable-a crown. (J. Stewart.)

Elevation

Ambition is an instinct of our nature, and capable of good. The request of Zebedee was right, though no doubt mixed with ignorance. Jesus did not reprove her desire, but stated the stern conditions upon which such honours were to be attained. Court and pray for great things.

1. In your inner life and personal character.

2. Take a high estimate of the work you have to do for God in this world.

3. Do not think it wrong to strive for a high place in heaven. (J. Vaughan, M. A.)

Salomes petition for her two

sons:-

I. It had reference to a glorious temporal kingdom. This request showed some faith in Jesus, for He had announced His death. We must not indulge dreams of worldly honour.

II. The answer which Jesus gave to this unseasonable request-

1. Our Lord declared their ignorance.

2. As Jesus knew they meant the end without the means, He asked them about their fidelity.

3. They answered as men of courage without hesitation or delay.

4. The final answer Jesus gave to their ambitious prayer.

5. The highest place in heaven is most to love God. (B. W. Noel, M. A.)

Christs answer to Salomes petition

While admitting the potency of the prayer of faith, it is not to be supposed that every petition which may be presented will be complied with:-

1. God in His Providence ordinarily acts within fixed laws, and with these He rarely dispenses. A high place in the kingdom of the future will not be an arbitrary gift, but the result of the course pursued here.

2. The important thing for us is attention to our duty, and leave the rest to Providence.

3. No envious speculations can assist our progress heavenward. (H. B. Moffat, M. A.)

Ignorant requests

Ye know not

(1) of what sort My kingdom is-viz., a spiritual and heavenly one, not carnal and earthly;

(2) because ye are asking for the triumph before the victory;

(3) because ye suppose that this kingdom is given by right of blood to those who seek it, whereas it is given only to those who deserve and strive. (Lapide.)

Right and wrong prayers

A prayer for things not lawful begs nothing hut a denial. The saints have their prayers out, either in money or moneys worth, provided they bring lawful petitions and honest hearts. (John Trapp.)

Was there ever a more unseasonable request, than for them to be suitors for great places to Him, when He had but now told them He was going to be spit upon, scourged, condemned, crucified? Yet there was this good in it; they by it discovered a faith in Him, that notwithstanding all this He should be exalted and have a kingdom. But how carnal are our conceptions of spiritual and heavenly things, till we are taught by God a right notion of them! (Matthew Pool.)

Men sometimes know not what they ask

I. These two disciples sought the place of the two malefactors.

II. They requested, so to speak, something which had only existence in their own imagination (worldly honours in the kingdom of Christ).

III. They sought something which, in its higher import, had already been given away-perhaps to themselves, perhaps to others-viz., special degrees of election. (J. P. Lange, D. D.)

Like Master, like servant

Christ, like a good and wise physician, first drank the draught Himself which He was preparing for His own. He underwent His passion and death, and so He became immortal and impassible; thus teaching His own how they might confidently drink the draught which produces soundness and life. (St. Bernard.)

The Church sphere

It shall not be so among you. The Church and the world have different spheres. As every other association or body, so the Church has its appropriate organization, corresponding to its nature. The plant would die if it were subject to the conditions of the crystal; the animal, if to those of the plant; man, if to those of the animal; and the Church, if to those of the world. Or rather, the plant has burst through the conditions of the crystal, and passed beyond it, etc.; and the kingdom of heaven through the conditions and forms of this world. (J. P. Lange, D. D.)

Ye know not what ye ask

There is a heathen story which tells that once a man asked for this gift-not to die; and it was granted to him by the Fates. He was to live on for ever. But he had forgotten to ask that his youth and health and strength might last for ever also; and so he lived on till age and its infirmities and weakness were weighing him down, and his life grew to be a weariness and a burden to him. Existence (for it could hardly be called life)was one long torment to him; and then he wished to die. He wished to die, and could not. He had asked for a thing which he was totally unfit to enjoy, but he had to take the consequences of it when it was once given. It was a curse to him, not a blessing.

The law of rank and position in Gods kingdom

The notion of rank in the world is like a pyramid; the higher you go up, the fewer are there who have to serve those above them, and who are served more than these underneath them. All who are under serve those who are above, until you come to the apex, and there stands some one who has to do no service, but whom all the others have to serve. Something like that is the notion of position-of social standing and rank. And if it be so in an intellectual way, even-to say nothing of mere bodily service-if any man works to a position that others shall all look up to him and that he may have to look up to nobody, he has just put himself precisely into the same condition as the people of whom our Lord speaks-as those who exercise dominion and authority, and really he thinks it a fine thing to be served. But it is not so in the kingdom of heaven. The figure there is entirely reversed. As you may see a pyramid reflected in the water, just so, in a reversed way altogether, is the thing to be found in the kingdom of God. It is in this way: the Sen of Man lies at the inverted apex of the pyramid; He upholds, and serves, and ministers unto all, and they who would be high in His kingdom must go near to Him at the bottom, to uphold and minister to all that they may or can uphold and minister unto. There is no other law of precedence, no other law of rank and position in Gods kingdom. And, mind, that is the kingdom. The other kingdom passes away-it is a transitory, ephemeral, passing, bad thing, and away it must go. It is only there on sufferance, because in the mind of God even that which is bad ministers to that which is good; and when the new kingdom is built the old kingdom shall pass away. But the man who seeks this rank of which I have spoken, must be honest to follow it. It will not do to say, I want to be great, and therefore I will serve. A man will not get at it so. He may begin so, but he will soon find that that will not do. He must seek it for the truths sake, for the love of his fellows, for the worship of God, for the delight in what is good. (Geo. Macdonald, M. A.)

Place-seeking parents

Mothers should be cautious about seeking places of honour for their sons. Doing this, they seldom know what they ask. They may be seeking the ruin of their children. It is not posts of honour that secure happiness or salvation As the purest and loveliest streams often flow in the retired grove, far from the thundering cataract or the stormy ocean, so is the sweet peace of the soul; it dwells oftenest far from the bustle of public life, and the storms and tempests of ambition. (A. Barnes, D. D.)

Ambition insatiable

Ambition is like the sea which swallows a]l the rivers and is none the fuller; or like the grave whose insatiable maw for ever craves for the bodies of men. It is not like an amphora, which being full receives no more, but its fulness swells it till a still greater vacuum is formed. In all probability Napoleon never longed for a sceptre till he had gained a batton, nor dreamed of being Emperor of Europe till he had gained the crown of France. Caligula, with the world at his feet, was mad with a longing for the moon, and could he have gained it, the imperial lunatic would have coveted the sun. It is in vain to feed a fire which grows the more vivacious the more it is supplied with fuel; he who lives to satisfy his ambition has before him the labour of Sisyphus, who rolled up hill an ever rebounding stone, and the task of the daughters of Danaus, who are condemned for ever to attempt to till a bottomless vessel with buckets full of holes. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 20. The mother of Zebedee’s children] This was Salome.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

Mark saith, Mar 10:35, And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, come unto him, saying, Master, we would that thou shouldest do for us whatsoever we shall desire. And he said, What would ye that I should do for you? They said unto him, Grant unto us that we may sit, one on thy right hand, the other on thy left hand in thy glory. Matthews saying in thy kingdom, Mark, in thy glory, leaves us in some doubt whether these two disciples and their mother had here some carnal notion of the kingdom of heaven, because Christ had before spoken of some that should be first in it, and others last; or were in some expectation of some glorious secular kingdom, which Christ after his resurrection should exercise in the world; for that they had some such thoughts appears from Luk 22:24 Act 1:6. This mother of James and John was Salome, Mar 15:40, a constant follower of Christ, Mat 27:55,56. Matthew saith she spake. Mark saith her two sons spake. They would first have had a general grant from Christ of whatsoever they should ask, or a certain thing. But wise men use not to grant such requests. Our Lord asks them what they would desire. Then do they betray their ambition. Was there ever a more unseasonable request, than for them to be suitors for great places to him, when he had but now told them he was going to be spit upon, scourged, condemned, crucified? Yet there was this good in it; they by it discovered a faith in him, that notwithstanding all this he should be exalted, and have a kingdom. But how carnal are our conceptions of spiritual and heavenly things, till we be taught of God a right notion of them!

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

Then came to him the mother of Zebedee’s children,…. Whose name was Salome, as may be concluded from Mt 27:56 compared with Mr 15:40. She is not called the wife of Zebedee, who might be now dead, but the mother of his children, his two sons, as the Arabic version renders it: James and John, and who were the disciples of Christ: it is not certain, that Zebedee was ever a follower of him; and therefore the woman is described by her relation to her children, and not her husband; and the rather, because it was in their name, and on their account, that she came to Jesus. She is said to be the sister of Joseph, the husband of Mary, the mother of our Lord; and if so, might hope to succeed in her request, on the foot of relation; as also, since she herself had been a constant follower of, and attendant on him; and especially, inasmuch as her sons were his favourite disciples;

with her sons; her two sons, James and John, whom Mark mentions by name:

worshipping him,

and desiring a certain thing of him; that is, she came in a very submissive manner to him, either bowed unto him, or kneeled down before him, or threw herself at his feet, and signified that she had a single favour, and a very considerable one, to ask of him. Mark represents the case thus, that her two sons, James and John, came to Christ, and that they themselves spoke to him, and addressed him in this manner: “Master, we would that thou shouldest do for us, whatsoever we shall desire”: which was a very odd request, both as to the matter and manner of it; that they should ask; and insist upon everything to be done for them, they desired; and suggest, that they expected that he would promise them this, before they declared the particular favour they had to ask of him. The matter may be reconciled thus. These two disciples, having observed what Christ had said concerning the twelve disciples sitting on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel, and what he had just related, concerning his rising again the third day, which they might understand of some display of his glory; and concluding from all this, that the setting up of his temporal monarchy was at hand, inform their mother of it, and move to her, to use her interest with Christ, in their favour: and which they did, partly to shun the envy and ill will of the rest of the disciples; and partly, to conceal their own pride and vanity; as also, they might think a request from her, on their behalf, would be more easily granted: accordingly, she agreeing to the motion, they all three came, as Matthew relates, and the mother is the mouth, and speaks for her sons; so that they may be said to make such a request by her, she representing them; or they joined in the petition with her; or as soon as she had made it, they seconded it, and made it their own.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Ambition Corrected.

20 Then came to him the mother of Zebedee’s children with her sons, worshipping him, and desiring a certain thing of him. 21 And he said unto her, What wilt thou? She saith unto him, Grant that these my two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand, and the other on the left, in thy kingdom. 22 But Jesus answered and said, Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? They say unto him, We are able. 23 And he saith unto them, Ye shall drink indeed of my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with: but to sit on my right hand, and on my left, is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father. 24 And when the ten heard it, they were moved with indignation against the two brethren. 25 But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. 26 But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; 27 And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant: 28 Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.

Here, is first, the request of the two disciples to Christ, and the rectifying of the mistake upon which that was grounded, v. 20-23. The sons of Zebedee were James and John, two of the first three of Christ’s disciples; Peter and they were his favourites; John was the disciple whom Jesus loved; yet none were so often reproved as they; whom Christ loves best he reproves most, Rev. iii. 19.

I. Here is the ambitious address they made to Christ–that they might sit, the one on his right hand, and the other on his left, in his kingdom, Mat 20:20; Mat 20:21. It was a great degree of faith, that they were confident of his kingdom, though now he appeared in meanness; but a great degree of ignorance, that they still expected a temporal kingdom, with worldly pomp and power, when Christ had so often told them of sufferings and self-denial. In this they expected to be grandees. They ask not for employment in this kingdom, but for honour only; and no place would serve them in this imaginary kingdom, but the highest, next to Christ, and above every body else. It is probable that the last word in Christ’s foregoing discourse gave occasion to this request, that the third day he should rise again. They concluded that his resurrection would be his entrance upon his kingdom, and therefore were resolved to put in betimes for the best place; nor would they lose it for want of speaking early. What Christ said to comfort them, they thus abused, and were puffed up with. Some cannot bear comforts, but they turn them to a wrong purpose; as sweetmeats in a foul stomach produce bile. Now observe,

1. There was policy in the management of this address, that they put their mother on to present it, that it might be looked upon as her request, and not theirs. Though proud people think well of themselves, they would not be thought to do so, and therefore affect nothing more than a show of humility (Col. ii. 18), and others must be put on to court that honour for them, which they are ashamed to court for themselves. The mother of James and John was Salome, as appears by comparing Mat 27:61; Mar 15:40. Some think she was daughter of Cleophas or Alpheus, and sister or cousin german to Mary the mother of our Lord. She was one of those women that attended Christ, and ministered to him; and they thought she had such an interest in him, that he could deny her nothing, and therefore they made her their advocate. Thus when Adonijah had reasonable request to make to Solomon, he put Bathsheba on to speak for him. It was their mother’s weakness thus to become that tool of their ambition, which she should have given a check to. Those that are wise and good, would not be seen in an ill-favoured thing. In gracious requests, we should learn this wisdom, to desire the prayers of those that have an interest at the throne of grace; we should beg of our praying friends to pray for us, and reckon it a real kindness.

It was likewise policy to ask first for a general grant, that he would do a certain thing for them, not in faith, but in presumption, upon that general promise; Ask, and it shall be given you; in which is implied this qualification of our request, that it be according to the revealed will of God, otherwise we ask and have not, if we ask to consume it upon our lusts, Jam. iv. 3.

2. There was pride at the bottom of it, a proud conceit of their own merit, a proud contempt of their brethren, and a proud desire of honour and preferment; pride is a sin that most easily besets us, and which it is hard to get clear of. It is a holy ambition to strive to excel others in grace and holiness; but it is a sinful ambition to covet to exceed others in pomp and grandeur. Seekest thou great things for thyself, when thou hast just now heard of thy Master’s being mocked, and scourged, and crucified? For shame! Seek them not, Jer. xlv. 5.

II. Christ’s answer to this address (Mat 20:22; Mat 20:23), directed not to the mother, but to the sons that set her on. Though others be our mouth in prayer, the answer will be given to us according as we stand effected. Christ’s answer is very mild; they were overtaken in the fault of ambition, but Christ restored them with the spirit of meekness. Observe,

1. How he reproved the ignorance and error of their petition; Ye know not what ye ask. (1.) They were much in the dark concerning the kingdom they had their eye upon; they dreamed of a temporal kingdom, whereas Christ’s kingdom is not of this world. They knew not what it was to sit on his right hand, and on his left; they talked of it as blind men do of colours. Our apprehensions of that glory which is yet to be revealed, are like the apprehensions which a child has of the preferments of grown men. If at length, through grace, we arrive at perfection, we shall then put away such childish fancies: when we come to see face to face, we shall know what we enjoy; but now, alas, we know not what we ask; we can but ask for the good as it lies in the promise, Tit. i. 2. What it will be in the performance, eye has not seen, nor ear heard. (2.) They were much in the dark concerning the way to that kingdom. They know not what they ask, who ask for the end, but overlook the means, and so put asunder what God has joined together. The disciples thought, when they had left what little all they had for Christ, and had gone about the country awhile preaching the gospel of the kingdom, all their service and sufferings were over, and it was now time to ask, What shall we have? As if nothing were now to be looked for but crowns and garlands; whereas there were far greater hardships and difficulties before them than they had yet met with. They imagined their warfare was accomplished when it was scarcely begun, and they had yet but run with the footmen. They dream of being in Canaan presently, and consider not what they shall do in the swellings of Jordan. Note, [1.] We are all apt, when we are but girding on the harness, to boast as though we had put it off. [2.] We know not what we ask, when we ask for the glory of wearing the crown, and ask not for grace to bear the cross in our way to it.

2. How he repressed the vanity and ambition of their request. They were pleasing themselves with the fancy of sitting on his right hand, and on his left, in great state; now, to check this, he leads them to the thoughts of their sufferings, and leaves them in the dark about their glory.

(1.) He leads them to the thoughts of their sufferings, which they were not so mindful of as they ought to have been. They looked so earnestly upon the crown, the prize, that they were ready to plunge headlong and unprepared into the foul way that led to it; and therefore he thinks it necessary to put them in mind of the hardships that were before them, that they might be no surprise or terror to them.

Observe, [1.] How fairly he puts the matter to them, concerning these difficulties (v. 22); “You would stand candidates for the first post of honour in the kingdom; but are you able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of? You talk of what great things you must have when you have done your work; but are you able to hold out to the end of it?” Put the matter seriously to yourselves. These same two disciples once knew not what manner of spirit they were of, when they were disturbed with anger, Luke ix. 55; and now they were not aware what was amiss in their spirits when they were lifted up with ambition. Christ sees that pride in us which we discern not in ourselves.

Note, First, That to suffer for Christ is to drink of a cup, and to be baptized with a baptism. In this description of sufferings, 1. It is true, that affliction doth abound. It is supposed to be a bitter cup, that is drunk of, wormwood and gall, those waters of a full cup, that are wrung out to God’s people (Ps. xliii. 10); a cup of trembling indeed, but not of fire and brimstone, the portion of the cup of wicked men, Ps. xi. 6. It is supposed to be a baptism, a washing with the waters of affliction; some are dipped in them; the waters compass them about even to the soul (Jonah ii. 5); others have but a sprinkling of them; both are baptism, some are overwhelmed in them, as in a deluge, others ill wet, as in a sharp shower. But, 2. Even in this, consolation doth more abound. It is but a cup, not an ocean; it is but a draught, bitter perhaps, but we shall see the bottom of it; it is a cup in the hand of a Father (John xviii. 11); and it is full of mixture, Ps. lxxv. 8. It is but a baptism; if dipped, that is the worst of it, not drowned; perplexed, but not in despair. Baptism is an ordinance by which we join ourselves to the Lord in covenant and communion; and so is suffering for Christ, Eze 20:37; Isa 48:10. Baptism is “an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace;” and so is suffering for Christ, for unto us it is given, Phil. i. 29.

Secondly, It is to drink of the same cup that Christ drank of, and to be baptized with the same baptism that he was baptized with. Christ is beforehand with us in suffering, and in that as in other things left us an example. 1. It bespeaks the condescension of a suffering Christ, that he would drink of such a cup (John xviii. 11), nay, and such a brook (Ps. cx. 7), and drink so deep, and yet so cheerfully; that he would be baptized with such a baptism, and was so forward to it, Luke xii. 50. It was much that he would be baptized with water as a common sinner, much more with blood as an uncommon malefactor. But in all this he was made in the likeness of sinful flesh, and was made sin for us. 2. It bespeaks the consolation of suffering Christians, that they do but pledge Christ in the bitter cup, are partakers of his sufferings, and fill up that which is behind of them; we must therefore arm ourselves with the same mind, and go to him without the camp.

Thirdly, It is good for us to be often putting it to ourselves, whether we are able to drink of this cup, and to be baptized with this baptism. We must expect suffering, and not look upon it as a hard thing to suffer well and as becomes us. Are we able to suffer cheerfully, and in the worst of times still to hold fast our integrity? What can we afford to part with for Christ? How far will we give him credit? Could I find in my heart to drink of a bitter cup, and to be baptized with a bloody baptism, rather than let go my hold of Christ? The truth is, Religion, if it be worth any thing, is worth every thing; but it is worth little, if it be not worth suffering for. Now let us sit down, and count the cost of dying for Christ rather than denying him, and ask, Can we take him upon these terms?

[2.] See how boldly they engage for themselves; they said, We are able, in hopes of sitting on his right hand, and on his left; but at the same time they fondly hoped that they should never be tried. As before they knew not what they asked, so now they knew not what they answered. We are able; they would have done well to put in, “Lord, by thy strength, and in thy grace, we are able, otherwise we are not.” But the same that was Peter’s temptation, to be confident of his own sufficiency, and presume upon his own strength, was here the temptation of James and John; and it is a sin we are all prone to. They knew not what Christ’s cup was, nor what his baptism, and therefore they were thus bold in promising for themselves. But those are commonly most confident, that are least acquainted with the cross.

[3.] See how plainly and positively their sufferings are here foretold (v. 23); Ye shall drink of my cup. Sufferings foreseen will be the more easily borne, especially if looked upon under a right notion, as drinking of his cup, and being baptized with his baptism. Christ began in suffering for us, and expects we should pledge him in suffering for him. Christ will have us know the worst, that we may make the best of our way to heaven; Ye shall drink; that is, ye shall suffer. James drank the bloody cup first of all the apostles, Acts xii. 2. John, though at last he died in his bed, if we may credit the ecclesiastical historians, yet often drank of this bitter cup, as when he was banished into the isle of Patmos (Rev. i. 9), and when (as they say) at Ephesus he was put into a caldron of boiling oil, but was miraculously preserved. He was, as the rest of the apostles, in deaths often. He took the cup, offered himself to the baptism, and it was accepted.

(2.) He leaves them in the dark about the degrees of their glory. To carry them cheerfully through their sufferings, it was enough to be assured that they should have a place in his kingdom. The lowest seat in heaven is an abundant recompence for the greatest sufferings on earth. But as to the preferments there, it was not fit there should be any intimation given for whom they were intended; for the infirmity of their present state could not bear such a discovery with any evenness; “To sit on my right hand and on my left is not mine to give, and therefore it is not for you to ask it or to know it; but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father.” Note, [1.] It is very probable that there are degrees of glory in heaven; for our Saviour seems to allow that there are some that shall sit on his right hand and on his left, in the highest places. [2.] As the future glory itself, so the degrees of it, are purposed and prepared in the eternal counsel of God; as the common salvation, so the more peculiar honours, are appointed, the whole affair is long since settled, and there is a certain measure of the stature, both in grace and glory, Eph. iv. 13. [3.] Christ, in dispensing the fruits of his own purchase, goes exactly by the measures of his Father’s purpose; It is not mine to give, save to them (so it may be read) for whom it is prepared. Christ has the sole power of giving eternal life, but then it is to as many as were given him, John xvii. 2. It is not mine to give, that is, to promise now; that matter is already settled and concerted, and the Father and Son understand one another perfectly well in this matter. “It is not mine to give to those that seek and are ambitious of it, but to those that by great humility and self-denial are prepared for it.”

III. Here are the reproof and instruction which Christ gave to the other ten disciples for their displeasure at the request of James and John. He had much to bear with in them all, they were so weak in knowledge and grace, yet he bore their manners.

1. The fret that the ten disciples were in (v. 24). They were moved with indignation against the two brethren; not because they were desirous to be preferred, which was their sin, and for which Christ was displeased with them, but because they were desirous to be preferred before them, which was a reflection upon them. Many seem to have indignation at sin; but it is not because it is sin, but because it touches them. They will inform against a man that swears; but it is only if he swear at them, and affront them, not because he dishonours God. These disciples were angry at their brethren’s ambition, though they themselves, bay because they themselves, were as ambitious. Note, It is common for people to be angry at those sins in others which they allow of and indulge in themselves. Those that are proud and covetous themselves do not care to see others so. Nothing makes more mischief among brethren, or is the cause of more indignation and contention, than ambition, and desire of greatness. We never find Christ’s disciples quarreling, but something of this was at the bottom of it.

2. The check that Christ gave them, which was very gentle, rather by way of instruction what they should be, than by way of reprehension for what they were. He had reproved this very sin before (ch. xviii. 3), and told them they must be humble as little children; yet they relapsed into it, and yet he reproved them for it thus mildly.

He called them unto him, which intimates great tenderness and familiarity. He did not, in anger, bid them get out of his presence, but called them, in love, to come into his presence: for therefore he is fit to teach, and we are invited to learn of him, because he is meek and lowly in heart. What he had to say concerned both the two disciples and the ten, and therefore he will have them all together. And he tells them, that, whereas they were asking which of them should have dominion a temporal kingdom, there was really no such dominion reserved for any of them. For,

(1.) They must not be like the princes of the Gentiles. Christ’s disciples must not be like Gentiles, no not like princes of the Gentiles. Principality doth no more become ministers than Gentilism doth Christians.

Observe, [1.] What is the way of the princes of the Gentiles (v. 25); to exercise dominion and authority over their subjects, and (if they can but win the upper hand with a strong hand) over one another too. That which bears them up in it is, that they are great, and great men think they may do any thing. Dominion and authority are the great things which the princes of the Gentiles pursue, and pride themselves in; they would bear sway, would carry all before them, have every body truckle to them, and every sheaf bow to theirs. They would have it cried before them, Bow the knee; like Nebuchadnezzar, who slew, and kept alive, at pleasure.

[2.] What is the will of Christ concerning his apostles and ministers, in this matter.

First, “It shall not be so among you. The constitution of the spiritual kingdom is quite different from this. You are to teach the subjects of this kingdom, to instruct and beseech them, to counsel and comfort them, to take pains with them, and suffer with them, not to exercise dominion or authority over them; you are not to lord it over God’s heritage (1 Pet. v. 3), but to labour in it.” This forbids not only tyranny, and abuse of power, but the claim or use of any such secular authority as the princes of the Gentiles lawfully exercise. So hard is it for vain men, even good men, to have such authority, and not to be puffed up with it, and do more hurt than good with it, that our Lord Jesus saw fit wholly to banish it out of his church. Paul himself disowns dominion over the faith of any, 2 Cor. i. 24. The pomp and grandeur of the princes of the Gentiles ill become Christ’s disciples. Now, if there were no such power and honour intended to be in the church, it was nonsense for them to be striving who should have it. They knew not what they asked.

Secondly, How then shall it be among the disciples of Christ? Something of greatness among them Christ himself had intimated, and here he explains it; “He that will be great among you, that will be chief, that would really be so, and would be found to be so at last, let him be your minister, your servant,” Mat 20:26; Mat 20:27. Here observe, 1. That it is the duty of Christ’s disciples to serve one another, for mutual edification. This includes both humility and usefulness. The followers of Christ must be ready to stoop to the meanest offices of love for the good one of another, must submit one to another (1Pe 5:5; Eph 5:21), and edify one another (Rom. xiv. 19), please one another for good, Rom. xv. 2. The great apostle made himself every one’s servant; see 1 Cor. ix. 19. 2. It is the dignity of Christ’s disciples faithfully to discharge this duty. The way to be great and chief is to be humble and serviceable. Those are to be best accounted of, and most respected, in the church, and will be so by all that understand things aright; not those that are dignified with high and mighty names, like the names of the great ones of the earth, that appear in pomp, and assume to themselves a power proportionable, but those that are most humble and self-denying, and lay out themselves most to do good, though to the diminishing of themselves. These honour God most, and those he will honour. As he must become a fool that would be wise, so he must become a servant that would be chief. St. Paul was a great example of this; he laboured more abundantly than they all, made himself (as some would call it) a drudge to his work; and is not he chief? Do we not by consent call him the great apostle, though he called himself less than the least? And perhaps our Lord Jesus had an eye to him, when he said, There were last that should be first; for Paul was one born out of due time (1 Cor. xv. 8); not only the youngest child of the family of the apostles, but a posthumous one, yet he became greatest. And perhaps he it was for whom the first post of honour in Christ’s kingdom was reserved and prepared of his Father, not for James who sought it; and therefore just before Paul began to be famous as an apostle, Providence ordered it so that James was cut off (Acts xii. 2), that in the college of the twelve Paul might be substituted in his room.

(2.) They must be like the Master himself; and it is very fit that they should, that, while they were in the world, they should be as he was when he was in the world; for to both the present state is a state of humiliation, the crown and glory were reserved for both in the future state. Let them consider that the Son of Man came not to be ministered to, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many, v. 28. Our Lord Jesus here sets himself before his disciples as a pattern of those two things before recommended, humility, and usefulness.

[1.] Never was there such an example of humility and condescension as there was in the life of Christ, who came not to be ministered unto, but to minister. When the Son of God came into the world, his Ambassador to the children of men, one would think he should have been ministered to, should have appeared in an equipage agreeable to his person and character; but he did not so; he made no figure, had no pompous train of state-servants to attend him, nor was he clad in robes of honour, for he took upon him the form of a servant. He was indeed ministered to as a poor man, which was a part of his humiliation; there were those that ministered to him of their substance (Luk 8:2; Luk 8:3); but he was never ministered to as a great man; he never took state upon him, was not waited on at table; he once washed his disciples’ feet, but we never read that they washed his feet. He came to minister help to all that were in distress; he made himself a servant to the sick and diseased; was as ready to their requests as ever any servant was at the beck of his master, and took as much pains to serve them; he attended continually to this very thing, and denied himself both food and rest to attend to it.

[2.] Never was there such an example of beneficence and usefulness as there was in the death of Christ, who gave his life a ransom for many. He lived as a servant, and went about doing good; but he died as a sacrifice, and in that he did the greatest good of all. He came into the world on purpose to give his life a ransom; it was first in his intention. The aspiring princes of the Gentiles make the lives of many a ransom for their own honour, and perhaps a sacrifice to their own humour. Christ doth not do so; his subjects’ blood is precious to him, and he is not prodigal of it (Ps. lxxii. 14); but on the contrary, he gives his honour and life too ransom for his subjects. Note, First, Jesus Christ laid down his life for a ransom. Our lives were forfeited into the hands of divine justice by sin. Christ, by parting with his life, made atonement for sin, and so rescued ours; he was made sin, and a curse for us, and died, not only for our good, but in our stead,Act 20:28; 1Pe 1:18; 1Pe 1:19. Secondly, It was a ransom for many, sufficient for all, effectual for many; and, if for many, then, saith the poor doubting soul, “Why not for me?” It was for many, that by him many may be made righteous. These many were his seed, for which his soul travailed (Isa 53:10; Isa 53:11); for many, so they will be when they come all together, though now they appear but a little flock.

Now this is a good reason why we should not strive for precedency, because the cross is our banner, and our Master’s death is our life. It is a good reason why we should study to do good, and, in consideration of the love of Christ in dying for us, not hesitate to lay down our lives for the brethren, 1 John iii. 16. Ministers should be more forward than others to serve and suffer for the good of souls, as blessed Paul was, Act 20:24; Phi 2:17. The nearer we are all concerned in, and the more we are advantaged by, the humility and humiliation of Christ, the more ready and careful we should be to imitate it.

Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary

Then (). Surely an inopportune time for such a request just after the pointed prediction of Christ’s crucifixion. Perhaps their minds had been preoccupied with the words of Jesus (19:28) about their sitting on twelve thrones taking them in a literal sense. The mother of James and John, probably Salome, possibly a sister of the Master’s mother (Joh 19:25), apparently prompted her two sons because of the family relationship and now speaks for them.

Asking a certain thing ( ). “Asking something,” “plotting perhaps when their Master was predicting” (Bruce). The “something” put forward as a small matter was simply the choice of the two chief thrones promised by Jesus (19:28).

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

Mat 20:20

. Then came to him the mother of Zebedee’s children. This narrative contains a bright mirror of human vanity; for it shows that proper and holy zeal is often accompanied by ambition, or some other vice of the flesh, so that they who follow Christ have a different object in view from what they ought to have. They who are not satisfied with himself alone, but seek this or the other thing apart from him and his promises, wander egregiously from the right path. Nor is it enough that, at the commencement, we sincerely apply our minds to Christ, if we do not stead-lastly maintain the same purity; for frequently, in the midst of the course, there spring up sinful affections by which we are led astray. In this way it is probable that the two sons of Zebedee were, at first, sincere in their adherence to Christ; but when they see that they have no ordinary share of his favor, and hear his reign spoken of as near at hand, their minds are immediately led to wicked ambition, and they are greatly distressed at the thought of remaining in their present situation. If this happens to two excellent disciples, with what care ought we to walk, if we do not wish to turn aside from the right path! More especially, when any plausible occasion presents itself, we ought to be on our guard, lest the desire of honors corrupt the feeling of piety.

Though Matthew and Mark differ somewhat in the words, yet they agree as to the substance of the matter. Matthew says that the wife of Zebedee came, and asked for her sons that they might hold the highest places in the kingdom of Christ. Mark represents themselves as making the request. But it is probable that, being restrained by bashfulness, they had the dexterity to employ their mother, who would present the request with greater boldness. That the wish came originally from themselves may be inferred from this circumstance, that Christ replied to them, and not to their mother. Besides, when their mother, bowing down, states that she has something to ask, and when themselves, according to Mark, apply for a general engagement, that whatever they ask shall be granted to them, this timid insinuation proves that they were conscious of something wrong. (654)

(654) “ Monstre que leur conscience les redarguoit;” — “shows that their conscience was reproving them.”

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

Section 52
JESUS REFUSES TO ESTABLISH HIERARCHY

(Parallel: Mar. 10:35-45)

TEXT: 20:2028

20 Then came to him the mother of the sons of Zebedee with her sons, worshipping him, and asking a certain thing of him. 21 And he said unto her, What wouldest thou? She saith unto him, Command that these my two sons may sit, one on thy right hand, and one on thy left hand, in thy kingdom. 22 But Jesus answered and said, Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink the cup that I am about to drink? They say unto him, We are able. 23 He saith unto them, My cup indeed ye shall drink: but to sit on my right hand, and on my left hand, is not mine to give; but it is for them for whom it hath been prepared of my Father, 24 And when the ten heard it, they were moved with indignation concerning the two brethren, 25 But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Ye know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. 26 Not so shall it be among you: but whosoever would become great among you shall be your minister; 27 and whosoever would be first among you shall be your servant: 28 even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.

THOUGHT QUESTIONS

Why do you suppose James and John, two of Jesus closest intimates, would stoop to make this request so obviously selfish in its exclusion of others?

Why did they use their mother to promote their own purposes? Or do you believe that she herself pushed the question and the two brothers merely went along with it?

Why would they make this request rather than some other request?

On what basis do you suppose they replied so confidently: We are able to drink your cup and be baptized with your baptism?

Why could Jesus not grant their request? For whom are such honors destined? That is, to whom do you think God has already prepared the chief places?

How does the indignation of the remaining ten Apostles prove that they shared the very same spirit and understanding of the two brothers against which they were indignant?

Why did Jesus select the standard of humble service as the measure by which He judges greatness in the Kingdom?

How does Jesus teaching in this section address itself to the problem of hierarchy or power structures in the Kingdom of God?

Why mention His own death at precisely this time, right in the middle of His rebuke of the Apostles greedy ambitions?

Why would Jesus have to die? How does His suffering for others prove His point about true greatness?

How is humble service and suffering for others the only path to true greatness and real power over others?

Of what principles in Jesus sermon on personal relationships in Matthew 18 is this section an illustration?

PARAPHRASE AND HARMONY

At that time the mother of James and John, Zebedees sons, approached Jesus, with her sons. Bowing low before Him, she requested a favor of Him, Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we request.

But He responded, What do you wish me to do for you?

She answered, Promise to grant that, when you sit in state as King, these two sons of mine may sit with you, one at your right, the other at your left.
But Jesus answered them, You do not realize what you are asking for! Can you drink from the cup of sorrow that I am about to drink or pass through the waters of suffering I am passing through?

We can, they answered.

Then Jesus observed prophetically, You shall indeed share the cup from which I must drink and you will truly be immersed in suffering as will I. But the seating arrangements according to relative positions of honor is not something I can decide capriciously on my own. I must dispense them only to those for whom my Father has planned such honors.
The request aroused the indignation of the other ten disciples against the two brothers, James and John. So Jesus gathered them all around Him and began, You all know that the people who are considered rulers over the pagans dominate them with despotic harshness, and their superiors make them feel the weight of their authority. However, it must be different among you. If one of you wants to be great, he must be servant of all the others. If someone wants to be at the top in first position, he must be everyones slave, just like the Son of man is. In fact, He is not here to be served by others, but to serve everyone else, and to surrender His life as the price of freedom for many.

SUMMARY

James and John, in complicity with their mother, requested the highest posts of honor in the Kingdom. Jesus disapproved the request for its ignorance of the real issues, the suffering involved, but tested the two whether they could qualify. Although they responded with optimism and confidence, He prophesied their share in His sufferings. However, He must deny any right to dispense honors to favorites, since the rule of God decided those to whom such would eventually and rightly go.
The other ten Apostles became angry at the conniving of James and John, making it necessary for Jesus to bring this problem to a head and solve it. This He did by forever damning political power structures as a means of ego-feeding in the Kingdom of God, Greatness and importance to God in the Kingdom is determined exclusively on the basis of unselfish, self-giving service to others. Jesus own exampleeven to the point of laying down His life for othersis the standard.

NOTES
II. THE DISCIPLES AND THE QUESTION OF POWER STRUCTURES IN THE KINGDOM: JESUS REFUSES TO ESTABLISH A HIERARCHY OF POWER

(20:2028; Mar. 10:35-45)

A. JESUS AUNT SALOME AMBITIOUSLY SEEKS ARBITRARY FAVORITISM FOR HER SONS

Mat. 20:20 Then came to him the mother of the sons of Zebedee. An alternate newspaper headline for this title story might have been: JESUS REFUSES TO INDULGE IN NEPOTISM. Zebedees wife might be Jesus own Aunt Salome. (See notes on Mat. 10:2; Mat. 13:54; Mat. 13:58; Mat. 27:56 and the special study: The Brethren of the Lord after Mat. 13:54-58, esp. Chart 5) If so, her position as kinswoman would have weight that her sons were probably counting on. In this case, her sons, James and John, would naturally be His cousins. (Mar. 10:35)

The unusual expression, the mother of the sons of Zebedee (here and in Mat. 27:56), instead of the mother of James and John or the wife of Zebedee, has led to the hypothesis that, shortly after the call of his two sons (Mat. 4:21 f), the father, Zebedee, died. Is it possible that James or John was the disciple who sought permission to go bury his father? (Mat. 8:21) This will never be known. However, Mark (Mar. 10:35) describes the brothers as sons of Zebedee. Does this contradict the foregoing theories, or merely identify the two men by their well-known patronymic, whereas their father is not thereby proven to be dead or alive? (Cf. Mat. 4:21; Mat. 10:2; Mat. 26:37; Mar. 1:19; Mar. 3:17; Luk. 5:10; Joh. 21:2)

How should we harmonize Matthews assertion that the mother approached Jesus with this request, with Marks notice that the sons themselves asked the question? By the principle that what a man commissions another to do for him may be said to have been done by himself. In fact, the entire account proceeds as if only the sons had made the request (cf. Mat. 20:24), since everyoneJesus and the other Tenholds the two brothers as personally responsible for their unwarranted social climbing. In fact, once her request is stated, Jesus dealt directly with the sons themselves as if she were not even present.

Asking a certain thing of him sounds like a blank check request, and Mark confirms this suspicion by furnishing their actual words: Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you. Were they hoping to play upon His sympathy and good will, pushing Him into an unretractable blanket promise in their favor? At any rate, their deviousness is betrayed by their embarrassment about asking Him outright and by their felt need to use an intermediary to request what, if asked frankly and openly, their conscience knew they had no right to, and could not but arouse the jealousy of others. (Cf. 1Ki. 2:19 f)

Whether she is Jesus aunt or not, she is certainly not unaware that her own sons are at the very heart of the larger nucleus of intimate disciples most likely to be appointed to positions of importance. It is not unlikely that the two brothers let their mothers ambitions take the risks of censure by others. Had she learned about the underground power struggle going on among the Apostles? (Cf. on Mat. 18:1) Rather than repudiate it, she joined it to press for an advantage for her boys! And they stand complacently by, making no protest, perhaps even pleased to have her advance their interests.

Mat. 20:21 And he said unto her, What wouldest thou? He is not deceived either by His own love for them or by their fawning for His favors. He correctly requires that they commit themselves before He will commit Himself to sign any blank checks. Had Herod Antipas done this with His Salome, his outcome might have been different. (See notes on Mat. 14:7 ff.)

Command that these my two sons may sit, one on thy right hand, and one on thy left hand, in thy kingdom. Although these two disciples had been told of the absolutely essential humility required for honor in the Kingdom (Mat. 18:1-35), nevertheless, Jesus had indeed intimated that the Twelve would be honored over the rest of the twelve tribes of Israel by their being seated on thrones to judge them. (Mat. 19:28) Consequently, James and John perhaps envisioned a throneroom with Jesus enthroned at the center of the back wall, with the Twelve seated on lesser thrones, half on His right, half on His left, arranged in a semicircle around the room. If so, those enthroned closer to Him would be presumed as worthy of greater honor than those seated farther to the left or right. (Cf. Ant., VI, II, 9; 1Sa. 20:25; 1 Samuel 1 Kg. Mat. 2:19; Psa. 110:1) Those seated on His immediate left or right would be most honored as greatest. If this is their idea, their sin lies in boldly and stubbornly requesting the best of the seats for themselves alone, a request that necessarily excluded any consideration of the other, perhaps equally worthy, Apostles. Were they using this method to cut out Peter? Because of what Jesus had already committed to him, he would be a formidable rival. If James and John foresaw the indignant reaction of the others and yet plowed ahead, their heartless selfishness is the more inexcusable. The extent to which they did not foresee it only measures how much they were totally absorbed in their own self-centered planning. Bruce (Training, 274) eases our shock at the conduct of these intimate friends of the Lord, by noticing that

These were the two disciples who made themselves so prominent in resenting the rudeness of the Samaritan villagers. The greatest zealots among the twelve were thus also the most ambitious, a circumstance that will not surprise the student of human nature. On the former occasion they asked fire from heaven to consume their adversaries; on the present occasion they ask a favour from Heaven to the disadvantage of their friends. The two requests are not so very dissimilar.

They are asking to be the Messiahs most exalted, most influential counsellors.

The terrible incongruity between His predictions of death at Jerusalem (Mat. 20:17-19) and this expectation of glory, both of which were known to James and John, is explicable only if we see the intensity of their unwavering confidence that the outcome of His suffering (whatever THAT is supposed to mean!) must include a glorious Kingdom. Undoubtedly they judged His passion predictions as mere, unjustified pessimism, the result of fatigue and pressure of endless campaigning. Consequently, they express their confidence in His final victory by seeking those positions which could only come about because of that triumph. Is this an attempt to cheer Him up and push His gloomy talk of crosses into the background? This, sadly, measures how fervently they disbelieved His prophetic passion predictions. So, in thy kingdom means in your glory. (Mar. 10:37) Whatever else may be criticized about their request, it must be conceded that the plea is based on the unshaken certainty (= faith) that, despite the many stormclouds on the horizon, He and the Twelve would be enthroned in His Kingdom. (Mat. 19:28) Further, the urgency that stirs her to present her request now on the way up to Jerusalem, points to her assumption (not unshared by many others, see Luk. 19:11).that, upon arrival in the capital, Jesus intended to establish His glorious government and announce His cabinet and begin His reign.

The perverse incongruity of this scheming for power by these crude Christians, so utterly contrasting with Jesus approaching sufferings about which He had just spoken (Mat. 20:17-19), rather than confirm the judgment that it is apocryphal because of our shock at the audaciousness these disciples show, should convince us of the authenticity of the narrative that contains it. Not only do the Evangelists bare the disciples sordid presumption. but, in that act, convince the reader of the genuineness of its history. We are not in the presence of mythology created to glorify Christians heroes, but in the presence of an ugly fact too true to human nature to be denied. These disciples were yet rough-hewn Christians to whom the temptation to ambition was real.

B. JESUS PARRIES THEIR REQUEST (20:22, 23)
1. REBUKE: You do not understand what you are asking for! (20:22)

Mat. 20:22 But Jesus answered and said, Ye know not what ye ask. Their expectation that He would proclaim His Kingdom upon their arrival at Jerusalem, was a popular notion (cf. Luk. 19:11; Luk. 17:21; Luk. 9:27), not totally unfounded. What was completely misunderstood was the manner and kind of reign He intended to establish. James and John ask for these positions of honor from a King who would shortly be exalted to a cross with two thieves nailed at His right hand and at His left! You know not what you ask. Their wrong-headed, selfish prayer is instructive because it illustrates the principle that prayer, to be effective, must reflect ones sense of community as well as submission to Gods will, James and Johns prayer must be frustrated by the Lord, if the wishes of the other ten should be recognized, and vice versa. (See note on Mat. 18:19.) Further, it totally ignored Gods planning for the Kingdom. (See on Mat. 20:23 c.) Theirs was an appeal He could not admit without denying His own sense of fairness and being untrue to His instructions given in the Sermon on Personal Relations. (Mat. 18:1-35) Worse, the two brothers are vain in their certainty that the promotion they seek could only promote the true interests of the Kingdom of God. They anticipate no negative effects from this request, either from the other Apostles, or even later. They cannot foresee that disaster could be forecast for a Kingdom that honors men of their views. Listen again to Bruce (Training, 275f) sketch their position:

James and John not only thought of the kingdom that was coming as a kingdom of this world, but they thought meanly of it even under that view. For it is an unusually corrupt and unwholesome condition of matters, even in a secular state, when places of highest distinction can be obtained by solicitation and favour, and not on the sole ground of fitness for the duties of the position. When family influence or courtly arts are the pathway to power, every patriot has cause to mourn. How preposterous, then, the idea that promotion can take place in the divine, ideally-perfect kingdom by means that are inadmissible in any well-regulated secular kingdom! To cherish such an idea is in effect to degrade and dishonour the Divine King, by likening Him to an unprincipled despot, who has more favour for flatterers than for honest men; and to caricature the divine kingdom by assimilating it to the most misgoverned states on earth.

Indeed, they did NOT know what they were asking!

2. QUESTION: Are you able to suffer with me?

Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink? Because they steadily refused to see Him as a suffering King, they cannot see that a prayer for glory beside Him must be a request for suffering. They should have imagined that, on the principle that anything worthwhile requires renunciation, greatness in the Kingdom would demand sacrifice too. But they cannot imagine that only the way of the cross leads to the throne. In other words, the path to promotion in the Kingdom does not take the route of self-indulgent clamor for position nor that of political prizes handed out to favorites. It must pass through the bloody baptism of suffering. To drink a cup is to experience its contents, whether good or bad. Biblical allusions are plentiful to illustrate positive experiences (cf. Psa. 16:5; Psa. 23:5; Psa. 116:13) and negative ones (Psa. 11:6; Psa. 75:8; Isa. 51:17; Isa. 51:22; Jer. 25:15 f; Jer. 49:12; Lam. 4:21; Eze. 23:32-34; Hab. 2:16; Rev. 14:10; Rev. 16:19; Rev. 17:4; Rev. 18:6) From the point of view of the host who pours it out for others, the cup would mean the portion assigned, i.e. what God pours out for the individual. (cf. Joh. 18:11) So Jesus, later would speak of His cup of suffering (Mat. 26:39; Mat. 26:41 = Mar. 14:36 =,Luk. 22:42). Mark (Mar. 10:38 b) adds: and to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized? Since baptism is nothing but an immersion, that to which He alludes here is an overwhelming suffering in which one is immersed, (Cf. Psa. 69:1 f; Psa. 124:3-5; Lam. 3:54) In the case of James and John, He refers to the painful experience of martyrdom and exile in His cause. Suffering for His sake is a theme underlined many times before. (Mat. 5:10-12; Mat. 10:16-39; Mat. 13:21; Mat. 16:24-27) It would become one of the main themes in Peters first epistle. (1Pe. 1:6 f; 1Pe. 2:20-25; 1Pe. 3:13-18; 1Pe. 4:12-19; 1Pe. 5:9 f) His own Passion Predictions had been so many, so precise and recently so frequent, that His suffering, theoretically, should have been no mystery to any of them. They could not have been ignorant to what cup or to what baptism He so often, so honestly and so realistically had made allusion. (Cf. Luk. 12:50) They had come to Him with their request for a blanket promise of honor. Now He hands them HIS blank cheek of suffering, asking them if they are willing to sign it without knowing precisely what lay in their own future.

They say unto him, We are able. They still do not know what they are saying! These two men have a curious mental block that permits them to picture their own suffering for His cause, that yet contemporaneously and totally blocks out every concept of His death suffered for them, even though He talks about their suffering in figurative form and discussed His own in literal language!

We are able. With what mixed emotions do they answer this way? THEY are signing the blank check now. They had expected honors, wealth and glory, but He handed them a mysterious, sinister cup to drink. How much of their certainty partakes of the bravado of Peter who just as confidently asserted, Though they all fall away, I will not deny you . . . I am ready to go with you to prison and death . . . even if I must die with you, I will not deny you? (Cf. Mat. 26:33; Luk. 22:33; Joh. 13:37; Mat. 26:35) Is this readiness to promise anything a brave front put on to cover an unexpected turn in the conversation, a stubborn continuation of their selfish request for positions of honor, as if His brutally frank question were but part of the necessary preliminaries? No, these fiercely loyal disciples cannot be charged with insincerity here. It is rather their over-confidence that believers themselves capable in their own strength of meeting anything that might come, that is blameworthy. If they envision His cup and baptism as suffering or difficulty in connection with some great battle or struggle surrounding the inauguration of the Kingdom, these fearless Galileans answer sincerely and perfectly in the character of their people. (Cf. Wars, III, 3, 3) It is unfair at least to John to claim that, in Jesus last tragic hours of His rejection, all the disciples including these two were unfaithful to Jesus, deserting Him rather than share His cup of pain. The (traditionally) youngest of them proved to be the most intrepid. John, no doubt often dreadfully scared, courageously stayed on the scene through the trials and crucifixion. Their devotion expressed here is honestly meant even if wrongly understood.

This strange mixture of character traits in these two disciples is not intended as a passing curiosity, but rather for our instruction, The thoughtful reader must ask himself what it is, in this clashing combination of the Christ like and the diabolical, that makes the case of Zebedees sons sound so familiar. Honesty compels us to confess the same zeal for the Lord and the same selfish ambition; the same high courage and the same cruel disregard for brethren; the same readiness to suffer and the same readiness to make others suffer; the same concern for the Lords honor and the same disregard for the disaster that must come to the Lords work if our own ambitions were to be realized. Only this kind of honest identification of ourselves in these disciples in this moment of weakness will help us feel the need for the teaching Jesus will give us to convert our thinking to His.

3. PROPHECY: You will truly suffer with me.

Mat. 20:23 He saith unto them, My cup indeed ye shall drink: and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized. (Mar. 10:39 b) With what a grave manner He must have pronounced these words as, in the Spirit, He peered into the future to pronounce their fate. Yes, their present commitment would be fully carried out. Rather than angrily expose their short-sightedness and self-seeking devotion by giving them an impatient scolding which they certainly deserved, He shared His cup with them. This is the fellowship of Christs sufferings in which so many others would share. (Cf. Php. 3:10; Rom. 8:17; 2Co. 1:5-7; 2Co. 4:10; 1Co. 15:31; 2Ti. 2:3; 2Ti. 2:11-13; 1Pe. 4:13) In so saying, He generously gave them a word and a motive that would hold them steady in the years to come. The mere observation that John was not beheaded with James, his brother, by Herod Agrippa I in A.D. 44 (Act. 12:2), but permitted to live to suffer imprisonment (Act. 4:3; Act. 5:18); and beating (Mat. 5:40) and at last the persecution of exile on Patmos island at an extremely old age (Rev. 1:9), cannot be interpreted to mean that he did not also experience the suffering the Lord predicted for both dauntless brothers. True, the circumstances of their suffering differed, but their undying devotion to the Lord was identical.

It may be doubted that, at this point, the brothers would have considered beheading or exile to be such precious honors, had they known to what He referred, since it would have meant being stripped of earthly glory and freedom, and being hurled into the grave or miles and years distant from the center of the action. And yet, despite the blunt promise of suffering ahead for these men, it did not even occur to them to back down. They fully intended to maintain their loyal commitment to Him, cost what it might. Only later would they agree that to suffer for the name of Jesus is the source of true joy and privilege. (Mat. 5:10-12; Act. 5:41; Act. 16:25; 1Pe. 4:13)

For us, sharing in Christs suffering may mean the limited cruelty of martyrdom or the long-suffering of daily Christian living, living out a lifetime of self-giving service. This latter discipline, so constant and so full of struggle, is as fully to follow Christ as is the other. We must dedicate ourselves daily to be ready for either.

4. REFUSAL: Gods rules decide places of honor.

But to sit on my right hand, and on my left hand is not mine to give; but . . . for whom it hath been prepared of my Father. What, if anything, should be inserted in the space represented by the dots in this elliptical phrase?

Does Jesus mean that the right to assign such honor is not in His own hands at all, but is the exclusive right of the Father? Arndt-Gingrich (37) believe that the phrase in question has been shortened from it is not mine . . . but the Father, who will give to those for whom it is prepared by Him, as if the Greek phrase ran: ouk emn . . . all to patrs, hs dsei hos hetomastai hup-auto. This invention of missing words, however, could misunderstand how Jesus will reward His followers. (Mat. 16:27; Mat. 25:31-46; Joh. 5:22-30; Act. 10:42; Act. 17:31; Rom. 2:16; 2Ti. 4:1; 2Ti. 4:8; 1Co. 4:4 f; 2Co. 5:10; Rev. 22:12; cf. Isa. 62:11)

Or does Jesus mean He can give the places of honor only to those for whom they were planned by God? If so, He is saying, To sit . . . is not mine to grant except to those for whom it has been prepared by my Father. Evidence that but (all) can mean except comes from Rocci (73) who, among other uses of all, affirms that in the sense of a restrictive adversative after a negative proposition . . . expression with ou, o tis, oudes, ts, etc., all can be translated: except, unless, apart from, but. To state Jesus proposition positively, we have: I can grant such honors only to those for whom my Father has prepared them.

It really makes little difference, because the fact that Jesus limits His distribution of honors to follow the Fathers ordaining means that God has already decided, even if Jesus Himself will make the actual distribution.

The meaning, then, is: I cannot assign such honors on the basis of patronage and favoritism, or on any basis other than Gods principles of perfect fairness. Not caprice, then, or personal preferences, but the eternal will and counsel of God is the standard upon which such judgments are made. Precedence and preference will proceed on this basis established by God, and Jesus has no intention of changing it by nepotism, favoritism or patronage. So Jesus does not, indeed cannot, deny that differences of rank in the Kingdom exist. (See on Mat. 18:4.) Rather, He specifies in whose hands rightly rests the judgment about their proper distribution. His principle of precedence is the Fathers choice that only those who perform the greatest service for others shall be most highly awarded. This is no esoteric doctrine, but the common principle of loving service that He will repeat in Mat. 20:25-28 and which constituted the fundamental basis of the entire message on personal relations. (Matthew 18) So, the only predestination here is the Fathers choice of what kind of character would be judged worthy of honor. It is then up to men to take Him at His word and qualify for the honors by rendering the most useful service in Jesus name. This is the same kind of predestination seen in our own salvation, i.e. God determined what class of people are going to be saved, and we determine to be in that class. (Eph. 1:3-14; 1Pe. 1:2; 2Pe. 1:3-11)

This means that, although man must commit himself in total devotion, everything depends upon God whose will determines the distribution of the honors. (Cf. Mat. 19:30 to Mat. 20:16) Thus, Jesus stresses His own faithfulness to Gods will. God is in total control, hence no man can take this control out of His hands by putting God in debt to him on the basis of supposed worthiness or merits, good deeds or fleshly relationship to Jesus, or anything else. This theme of the total Lordship of God is an important, security-building concept intended to strengthen disciples tempted to throw everything overboard and return to Judaism or the world and make shipwreck of their souls. (See on Mat. 10:26-31; Mat. 10:40-42; Mat. 11:25-27; Mat. 17:5; Mat. 20:1-16; Cf. Heb. 10:26-39; Heb. 12:25-29; Heb. 13:10-16; 1Ti. 1:18-20; 1Ti. 6:13-16; 2Ti. 4:10)

So the right to preregister for chief places in the Kingdom is a claim made by human pride, hence unworthy of anyone who understands that his own position in the Kingdom is itself only possible because of the grace of the King and the essential humility of the servant.

C. THE OTHER APOSTLES ARE JEALOUS OF JAMES AND JOHN (20:24; Mar. 10:41)

Mat. 20:24 And when the ten heard it, they were moved with indignation concerning the two brethren. Is not this sulking, small-minded jealousy typical of us all? Their own self-pride moved them to resent the opportunistic pride of James and John who had merely taken unfair advantage to seize what they all coveted! The two brothers had only shown shrewd initiative in expressing the identical desire that motivated the ambition of every one of them! They all wanted to be at the top of the hierarchical pyramid, but James and John had outmaneuvered them. (See on Mat. 18:1.) And yet, little did the Ten dream that so far as earthly prizes were concerned, the honors that would fall to the sons of Zebedee would be James honor of being the first apostolic martyr and Johns distinction of having his suffering prolonged.

This unedifying spectacle of Jesus band of disciples is surprisingly edifying just because of its being true to life, This is not the sort of fanciful saint-forging that a fiction writer would produce in those days. (Check out the apocryphal hack writing being published as Gospels in the first century!) Whereas the ancient pagans did depict the sordid lives of even the greatest heroes and their gods, they were not objectively employed in the service of a true living God whose stern standards of truth and righteousness had been drilled into His people for centuries. Such inappropriate pride and selfishness as we witness here must disqualify the disciples for sainthood in the eyes of the creators of fiction. Nevertheless, for the Gospel writers who tell it like it is, this spectacle traces a real situation that actually occurred in the lives of men who later developed into the spiritual giants we so highly respect now.

D. JESUS REPEATS HIS PRINCIPLE OF TRUE GREATNESS

(20:2528; Mar. 10:42-45)

1. Worldly greatness consists in the power wielded over the most people.

Mat. 20:25 But Jesus called them unto him, almost like a father would gather his quarrelling children around him to admonish them. He must stop this incipient fracture in His group at once. Yet His tone is the quiet solemnity of a Man who first controls His own emotions in order to cool the flames of others. Rather than enter into greater detail about the martyrdom and suffering of James and John about which they probably would have longed to know more, Jesus turns the conversation to what must inevitably involve the self-sacrifice of every other disciple. Rather than prophesy the gruesome details of every Apostles future destiny, and so crush them with information they could not bear, Jesus repeated the concepts that would mature them to face something perhaps more difficult than heroic martyrdom: to face and conquer the daily humdrum of life. Learning to give ones life without reservation to Christ and others in the ordinary service of life is the only way to be mature enough to gain the honors in the Kingdom.

Ye know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. Does He intend a parallelism here, or is He describing a hierarchical pyramid?

In form, Jesus words have the sound of a typical Hebrew parallelism which in the second member repeats a concept stated in the first. This explanation has the advantage of finding itself in the company of another parallelism in w. 26, 27, which begins with Not so shall it be among you, and the shorter parallelism of v. 28 after even as the Son of man came . . . If so, He may intend to indicate nothing more than the picture of any governmental system where people issue orders and expect others to serve them.

Or does He mean to describe a hierarchical pyramid? If so, the Gentiles at the bottom are ruled by their rulers who are themselves subject to the authority of their great ones. By an interesting ambiguity involved in their and them (the third time), it is left unclear whether the tyranny of the subordinates is directed at their own subordinates or at their own superiors. In the first case, He is saying that the abusive treatment shown the people by their kings or emperors is bad enough, but tyrannizing by the royal representatives and time-serving bureaucrats is intolerably worse. In the second, if them refers to the rulers, then He means that kings and emperors may be masters over the people, but the rulers lieutenants actually manage those on the throne as the power behind the throne. In an absolutist oriental monarchy the first sort of despotism would be the case; in a more democratic type of government the latter would be the case. Either way, however, the people are always under the heel of their superiors who repress and oppress them wherever they can.

What is Jesus fundamental emphasis: power struggle or power structure? Both, because the nouns picture the structure, while the verbs picture the struggle: lord it over them(katakurieo, cf. Act. 19:16 : to master; 1Pe. 5:3 : to domineer) and exercise authority over them (katexousizo, used only here in NT and apparently unknown elsewhere.)

It is highly significant that Jesus contrasted His own messianic community with the civil government of pagan nations. Since this pyramid of power had been the basis of the disciples thinking, by reflection He quietly exposed the disciples spirit as pagan, unrepresentative of the theocratic ideal of Israel, and not at all in harmony with His own thinking. The characteristic most typical of those societies rulers is that same spirit which motivated His own Apostles in their own power struggle: the lording it over their subordinates and the exercising authority over them, Jesus is not merely attacking abuse of power, but the concept of power structures itself, even when the individual rulers themselves are relatively benign benefactors of their people. (Cf. Luk. 22:25) While He is perfectly open to civil government as such (Mat. 22:21; cf. Rom. 13:1-7; 1Pe. 2:13-17), His messianic community is not to be structured along the lines of the secular state.

Greatness in the Kingdom is measured by the number of people you are able to serve, (20:26, 27)

Mat. 20:26 Not so shall it be among you. This is the Lords final word on the question of hierarchy and power structures in the Church. If everything said earlier (Mat. 18:1-35) had seemed unclear and noncommittal on the question of ecclesiastical hierarchyalthough in fact it was notthis sentence cannot be so interpreted. In fact, the servants attitude is the very antithesis to the type of tyrannical structure typical of pagan rulers, a concept that stresses everything Jesus taught in that discourse on personal relations in the Kingdom. (For fuller notes see on Matthew 18.) If the Church is to be different from the struggle and structure of civil government, the Christian who is the moral opposite of those who tyrannize others, then, is a person who serves them. He follows a policy diametrically opposed to that so characteristic of the unbelieving world. In the Christian community, the duty of serving, paradoxically, falls to those who are its great ones. In fact, if they do not serve, they are simply not great ones! As Gonzles-Ruiz (Marco, 187) said it;

Therefore any Church that is not the image of the State completely turned upside down does not correspond at all to the original plan of its Founder. This is why the worst sin of the Church is that of organizing itself along lines that reflect the image and likeness of the State, or of inserting itself into its structure to become an integral part of it.

Nothing could be clearer, or as little respected, as the Lords intolerance toward the priestly despotism shown in all versions of Christendom, whether it be the Catholic (Latin or Greek) or Protestant systems, or whether it be the virtual dictatorships exercised over their constituencies by local preachers, editors, elders of churches of Christ who, despite their proclaimed aversion to hierarchical systems and monarchical bishoprics as practiced by others, nonetheless crack the whip to maintain the purity of the faith (meaning: keep things under my control).

Whosoever would become great among you shall be your minister; 27 and whosoever would be first among you shall be your servant. (For fuller notes, see on Mat. 18:1 where comment is made on Mar. 9:35.) Are minister (dikonos, v. 26) and servant (dolos, v. 27) synonyms, or do they represent a descending scale at which the ministry and death of the Son of man is the very bottom? (v. 28) If this latter is the case, then, according to Jesus, the lower we go on the scale of human values, the higher we rise in Gods judgment!

Whereas the minister (dikonos) might be thought of as a servant free or slave, the slave (dolos, from do, to bind and holos, wholly) would have been considered as anyone bound to his owner to serve in whatever capacity he could. His lot was as varied as his masters, from the very best to the unspeakably bad, with all shades and grades in between. It is not clear whether the Lord intended these words in their denotative or connotative sense, i.e. the legal and social status of these persons or their resultant attitude and character.

Hendriksen (Matthew, 749, note 713) balks at translating these two words servant and slave, because of the connotative ideas of lack of freedom, unwilling service, cruel treatment, etc. so closely attached especially to the word slave. He opts for servant for dikonos and humble attendant for dolos.

However, as Bartchy (First-Century Slavery and 1Co. 7:21; 1Co. 7:37-40) has shown we are the ones who must revise their concept of slavery in the Greco-Roman world of the centuries preceding and immediately following the Christian revelations.

In addition to what has already been written on Mat. 18:1-35, we must ask what would the first century Christians have understood Jesus to mean by urging that the only proper attitude in His Kingdom was to identity themselves with the position and character of a dikonos or a dolos? To appreciate the position of slaves and freedmen (who were little better than slaves and often crippled by contracts yet to fulfil toward their former master), one must have a clear picture of the Mediterranean world of that century. Scott Bartchys First-Century Slavery is especially helpful in this regard, not only because he furnishes a wide-ranging historical survey of both law and customs in this field, but especially because of the necessary corrective he brings to our common preconceptions about what it meant to be a slave or a freedman in the times of Jesus and Paul.

So, if we sincerely intend to identify ourselves with the slave class and take Jesus seriously, making ourselves the voluntary slaves of others, it would be very worthwhile to examine what Christian exhortations were addressed to those who were legally slaves as part of a definite, wide-spread social structure in the first-century world, (Study Eph. 6:5-8; Col. 3:22-25; 1Ti. 6:1-2; Ti. Mat. 2:9-10; 1Pe. 2:18 ff in harmony with Mat. 2:16!)

In short, there are no ring-side seats for honored spectators in Gods Kingdom, just places of service down beside the King Himself who is busy washing feet, mediating for others and dying for sinners. (Joh. 13:12-17; Rom. 8:29; 1Pe. 2:21 ff)

3. My own life of service and death for others is the standard! (20:28)

Mat. 20:28 even as the Son of man means that His marvelous self-sacrifice is the standard whereby greatness is to be measured. (See all notes on Mat. 18:1-14, studying specifically how everything Jesus affirmed in that section so aptly applied to Himself.) And yet His own supreme example is not set forth here as a mere model of humility. His sentence structure reveals another emphasis: Whoever would be great . . . and . . . first among you must be . . . even as the Son of man. Although the disciples refused at that time to accept His uncomfortable, pessimistic talk about crosses, they must learn that the cross lay not only squarely across His path to the crown, but was also at the heart of His great mission to earth. They had interrupted His talk about death, in order to talk about position and power. He must now interrupt their pursuit of power, to make them see that self-denial and serviceEVEN TO DEATHis the shortest route to real power, to being first and great. He expected the disciples to learn that His own case furnishes illustration of His personal method of gaining the mastery over men. They must learn the connection between self-giving service and arriving at power in the spiritual world. They must see that, however strange or original it may have seemed to them. His own method for earning His crown is superior to all other methods of receiving thrones, whether it be by inheriting them respectably, or by seizing them in battle, or by base bribery. This is because these latter methods either left the will of the governed completely out of the account, or, worse, forced or tricked them into compliance against their will. But the uniqueness of Jesus method lay in His mission to place Himself at the service of mankind, so that men would love Him and willingly submit to Him as their King, and thus He would become Ruler over a people eager to please Him, swept to the throne by their sense of grateful devotion. Even more striking than the originality of Jesus method, when contrasted with the usual routes to glory, is its unquestionable success. Let us add our Amen to the voices of millions of Christians who with all their hearts have echoed the doxology of the Apostle John: To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. (Rev. 1:5-6) Nothing could be clearer than the way Jesus connected self-giving service and the right to rule. Love that sacrifices itself for others has power to conquer and rule over others hearts, and thus guarantee the kind of sway over others that can be attained in no other way than by girding oneself with the towel of humility and placing oneself at the disposition of others as their servant. The expression, even as the Son of man, demonstrates for all time how this King proved the effectiveness of His method by taking upon Himself the form of a servant, and by winning for Himself the sort of sovereignty that we willingly confess today. In short, Jesus applies the pragmatic test to His method and, by His results, demonstrates that it will work for us as it did for Him! This is the reason for His paradoxical ecclesiology and the motivation of His unusual government policy: loving ministry to others is the secret of success and the road to true greatness. So, if greatness in the Kingdom and usefulness to God depends upon being like the King, and sharing His viewpoints and mission, then the greatest distinctions and highest titles will obviously fall to those who are most like Him in sacrificial service even to the point of death for others.

The Son of man came to give his life a ransom for many. Whether or not the disciples fully appreciated what it meant to be the son of man come from glory (see notes on Mat. 8:20), however, now, after His triumph, this sentence measures the full height and depth of His love. (2Co. 8:9; Eph. 5:25; 1Jn. 4:10; Joh. 15:13; Rom. 5:6-11) But even before, the disciples had witnessed nothing but generous ministering to the needs of others on the part of Him whom they had come to recognize as their Messianic King. Had they yet no basis for understanding the King or His Kingdom? He will give his life: His self-sacrifice will be voluntary. (Cf. Joh. 10:11; Joh. 10:15; Joh. 10:18) He was not only sent by the Father, but of His own accord He came to give His life a ransom. Whereas we cannot choose to be born nor do we normally choose our own death, Jesus claimed these as acts born of His own free choice.

Give his life a ransom for many. (Cf. Isa. 53:4-8; Isa. 53:10-12) Here is the foundation for the expiation for our sins and for our justification: Jesus will lay down His own innocent life in payment for (ant polln) the lives of many who cannot ransom themselves. (Cf. Psa. 49:7-9; Psa. 49:15) Literally, a ransom (ltron) is the price paid to free a slave or someone held prisoner for redemption. It may also be an expiation for wrong-doing. (Rocci, 1167; Arndt-Gingrich, 483f) It is the agreed legal equivalent for the persons redeemed. Many has two emphases:

Potential: Many, does not mean not all, as if we ought to think Jesus did not intend to die potentially for every man. (1Ti. 2:6; 1Jn. 2:2) Many is the antithesis of a privileged few or perhaps the antithesis of the one Human Being who can accomplish this for many, not merely dying for Himself alone. Many, here, has the same meaning as that of many (pollo) in Paul. (Rom. 5:15; Rom. 5:19) Contextually, it is clear that Paul meant all (pntas anthrpous). (Rom. 5:18)

Actual: and yet, sadly, this word many, considered, not as the potential of Jesus sacrifice but as describing the real number of people who will finally avail themselves of it, in the end, really does mean not all, (Mat. 7:14)

An interesting question for further investigation involves Jesus unusual demand in this text that those for whom He would give His life as a ransom should consider themselves, not primarily as free men, but as servants and slaves. The modern reader might ask, But if He ransomed them, surely they would not thereafter consider themselves slaves in any sense. But it does not work that way. The person who is dearly purchased out of bitter slavery owes his happiness, fruitful employment and present security to his new Master. For a person who owns nothing and owes everything, to repay such a debt of gratitude is only possible through willing personal service. In fact, the decision to ransom this slave may have been based on a contract made with the new Master. Therefore, the ransomed do not move into the insecurity and uncertainty of absolute freedom with its attendant dangers for which the former slave is unprepared to cope, but into the good service of a kind Master whose slavery is pure joy compared with the alternatives. (Study Rom. 6:15-23, esp. Rom. 6:18; 1Co. 6:19 f; 1Co. 7:22 f; 1Pe. 1:18 f; Eph. 6:5-9; Col. 3:22 to Col. 4:1; Phm. 1:16; cf. Bartchy, First-Century Slavery.) In fact, the slavery to Jesus Christ is so radically different from that to self, sin and Satan, that paradoxically there is a sense in which the redeemed can be thought of as the only truly free men. (Study Peters interesting paradox: as free men . . . as slaves of God (hos eletheroi . . . allhos theo doloi, 1Pe. 2:16). This fresh understanding of slavery to Christ should turn on new lights in texts where Paul and others willingly declare themselves bondslaves of Jesus Christ (e.g. Rom. 1:1) and your slaves for Jesus sake. (e.g. 2Co. 4:5)

What is the picture, then? The world into which Jesus Christ came is a world full of slaves, a world characterized by oppression and abuse of power, a world where might makes right, and back of it all is the devil. But to purchase these slaves from their just condemnation, Jesus did not come to be, together with His Church, merely a new king or emperor or benefactor, but armed with the same sort of structured imperial might as that encountered in the world systems. Rather, to defeat the cruel world power that leaves men its slaves and bring them out of their bondage, paradoxically, He too became a slave to minister and to turn His own life over to suffer the righteous verdict of death for sin, in exchange for the freedom of sins victims. (Mat. 26:28; Romans; Php. 2:5-9; 1Ti. 2:6; Heb. 2:9; Heb. 2:14-18; Heb. 9:27; 1Pe. 1:18 f; 1Pe. 2:24; 1Pe. 3:18; 1Jn. 2:2; 2Co. 5:14 f, 2Co. 5:21) To free the victims He Himself became a Victim to end the victimizing. The point? His Church must not present itself as a Christian Government as a political alternative to the demonic world or state governments of the present age. Jesus categorically refused to fight fire with fire. And His Church must live and function and conquer as a community in whose heart the cancer of powerwhether ecclesiastical or politicaldoes not exist. It is rather as a fellowship of servants that it will be able, without political ambitions or power structures, to help free humanity from the forces that enslave it. (Cf. Gonzlez-Ruiz, Marco, 189)

NOTE: This concept does not speak directly to the problem of Christians participation in civil government and the execution of its laws. The Lord is, rather, discussing what His disciple as a private citizen must be in relation to other private citizens and what His Kingdom must be in relation to other world kingdoms. Ministering in the service of God as a sword-bearing magistrate is already assumed as a valid option. (Rom. 13:1-7) So also is the disciples responsibility to pay the bills of civil government. (Mat. 22:21) So, Jesus discussion of pagan rulers does not intend to reject the proper authority of civil government.

What does this magnificent declaration reveal to us about Jesus?

Plummer (Matthew, 281) asks:

Is not the combination of humility and majesty which is found in this saying a guarantee for its genuineness? Could it have been invented? Who is this, who in the same utterance, and in the most simple and natural way, declares that He is the servant of everybody, and that His single life is able to ransom many? There is no boasting and no manifest exaggeration in either declaration; nothing but a calm statement of fact, made by One who is confident that He is saying the simple truth.

Bruce (Training, 288) sees it too:

Then this saying, while breathing the spirit of utter lowliness, at the same time betrays the consciousness of superhuman dignity. Had Jesus not been more than man, His language would not have been humble, but presumptuous. Why should the son of a carpenter say of himself. I came not to be ministered unto? Servile position and occupation was a matter of course for such a one. The statement before us is rational and humble only as coming from one who, being in the form of God, freely assumed the form of a servant, and became obedient unto death for our salvation.

FACT QUESTIONS

How did Jesus answer the request for chief seats in the Kingdom? What did He mean by His cup and baptism?

In whose hands and on what basis rightly rests the distribution of the highest honors in the Kingdom?

Who is the greatest in the Kingdom? How did Jesus illustrate His own answer to this question? Where else is this same question discussed in Matthew?

Who asked such a boon? Who aided their request? Why was this particular person enlisted to word their desire? From what point of view did the request arise?

In what respect did Jesus say emphatically that His Kingdom would be different from that of the rulers of the nations of the world?

Quote Mat. 20:28 and Luk. 19:10. What else did Jesus say at any time about the cause and purpose for which He came into the world?

Did James and John prove true to their confident assertion of readiness to drink of Jesus cup and be baptized with His baptism? If so, how or when? If not, why not?

According to Jesus, are there really any chief places in the Kingdom to grant? If so, how are they to be distributed?

According to Jesus, what kind of ambition must a Christian have?

10.

What does this section have to say to the larger question of power structures and hierarchical control among Jesus disciples today?

11.

List the texts in Matthew 18 which find their practical application in this section.

Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

(20) Then came to him the mother of Zebedees children.The state of feeling described in the previous Note supplies the only explanation of a request so strange. The mother of James and John (we find on comparing Mat. 27:56 and Mar. 15:40, that her name was Salome) was among those who thought that the kingdom of God should immediately appear (Luk. 19:11); and probably the words so recently spoken, which promised that the Twelve should sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel (Mat. 19:28) had fastened on her thoughts, as on those of her sons, to the exclusion of those which spoke of suffering and death. And so, little mindful of the teaching of the parable they had just heard, they too expected that they should receive more than others, and sought (not, it may be, without some jealousy of Peter) that they might be nearest to their Lord in that regeneration which seemed to them so near. The mother came to ask for her sons what they shrank from asking for themselves, and did so with the act of homage (worshipping Him) which implied that she was speaking to a King.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

107. AMBITIOUS REQUEST OF SALOME FOR HER SONS, Mat 20:20-28 .

20. Mother of Zebedee’s children The mother of Zebedee’s children was Salome; and the children were James and John, the beloved disciple. Their residence was at Bethsaida, on the shore of Lake Gennesaret. The father, though named, never appears in Gospel history after their discipleship; from which it is inferred that he was either dead or of an insignificant character. From the silent agreement of all the evangelists in thus leaving Zebedee in the background, Mr. Blunt, in his book on the Undesigned Coincidences of the Gospels, draws a very ingenious and forcible proof of the truth of Gospel history. The tacit consent that there was a Zebedee, who did indeed exist, but was of no sort of consequence to the history, except as the husband of Salome and the father of James and John, can be explained only on the ground of its actual truth.

However faulty the conduct of Salome appears on this occasion, she manifested a true, undying love for the Saviour in the most trying times of his subsequent sufferings. She was not solely attracted to him by the ties of self-interest or hopes of royal bounty. She was among those who stood by him to the last at the cross, and among the earliest to embalm him at the grave. She listened to the testimony of the angel that he had risen, and was one of the women that saw the risen Saviour by the way, and bore the message to the disciples.

Came with her sons Both mother and sons were inspired with a common ambition. Worshipping him Doing him reverence as already a divine King, the Messiah. Her reverence is none the less profound from the fact that she comes to desire a royal favour.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

‘Then came to him the mother of the sons of Zebedee with her sons, worshipping him, and asking a certain thing of him.”

In the context of His speaking of His death the mother of two of His disciples, James and John, seeks Him out, accompanied by her two sons. She bows humbly before Him and indicates that she has a request to make. The mother of the two sons of Zebedee (see Mat 27:56) was probably called Salome (Mar 15:40). She may well have been Jesus’ aunt (Joh 19:25). This last would explain why she feels that she can intervene here, and why Jesus commits His mother to his cousin’s care at the cross.

Matthew has no motive for introducing their mother here (Mark does not mention it) and it therefore suggests an eyewitness testimony by one who was there. ‘Asking a certain thing of Him’ indicates that he had noticed the delicacy of her approach. She had probably learned of Jesus’ comment about the Apostles as soon to sit on twelve thrones overseeing Israel, and like all mothers she no doubt felt that no one could be more suitable than her boys for a place of honour. So she seeks to ensure that they will have every opportunity. The act is typical of a strongminded mother and she may well have been Mary’s elder sister (I could visualise my mother doing the same). But Matthew makes quite clear that James and John are deeply involved, and it is with them that Jesus discusses the matter.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

The Mother’s Request ( Mar 10:35-45 ) Mat 20:20-23 records the request of the mother of James and John for Jesus to exalt her sons in His Kingdom. Jesus did not deny her request; rather He explained how this request can only be fulfilled as God’s children yield themselves in divine sacrifice so that God the Father can exalt His faithful servants in due season. Jesus then explained that these two sons must offer themselves as a living sacrifice in order to qualify for such a reward, a reward that only God the Father could measure.

Illustration God always hears our prayers just as Jesus heard the request of the mother of James and John. However, in order for God to answer our prayers, we have to place our lives and our confessions in agreement with His Word and His divine plan of redemption. Many times in our prayers we ask for future events to take place towards our favour. Above all of our petitions and desires, God the Father is continually working out His divine plan of redemption for mankind. Therefore, some prayers simply conflict with this plan of redemption in violation of God’s will and His Word, or they are based upon the divine principles of sowing and reaping that must work towards such answers to prayers. We must not think that God did not hear our prayers; for He certain hears everything we ask of Him. If we will then listen to Him, He will guide us through a plan so that our prayers can be fulfilled in accordance to His Word. James says, “yet ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.” (Jas 4:2-3) God wants us to pray and ask Him; and if we will humble ourselves before Him, He will guide us when our prayers are amiss so that we can pray with maturity and self-sacrifice rather than self-centered. The mother of James and John along with her sons were taught by Jesus that there would be many things they had to do in order for such a prayer to come to pass.

Mat 20:20 Then came to him the mother of Zebedee’s children with her sons, worshipping him, and desiring a certain thing of him.

Mat 20:20 “Then came to him the mother of Zebedee’s children with her sons” – Comments – Although Mar 10:35 records James and John coming to Jesus, Matthew records their mother coming with them as she makes the request. These two parallel passages obviously record the same event. James and John were the sons of Zebedee according to Mat 27:56.

Mat 27:56, “Among which was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of Zebedee’s children .”

If we compare the list of names in Mar 15:40-41 to those in Mat 27:56, it is most likely that Salome was John’s mother, though there is no direct mention of this in Scripture.

Mar 15:40-41, “There were also women looking on afar off: among whom was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the less and of Joses, and Salome ; (Who also, when he was in Galilee, followed him, and ministered unto him;) and many other women which came up with him unto Jerusalem.”

If we now compare the parallel verse in Joh 19:25, we may conclude that Salome, the mother of Zebedee’s children, is also referred to by John as “the sister of Jesus’ mother.”

Joh 19:25, “Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother’s sister , Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene.”

Therefore, many scholars go so far as to suggest that John was related to Jesus Christ through his mother Salome. In his Gospel, John neither mentions his own name, nor the name of Mary, the mother of Jesus, nor the name of his own mother Salome. Thus, if John is deliberately avoiding the use of these names, he may very well be referring to his mother as “the sister to the mother of Jesus.” Thus, the fact that John avoids using these particular names is an indication to his relationship to them.

Upon this premise, the mother of James and John would feel that her two sons would have preference to become rulers with Jesus, seeing that they were blood kin.

“worshipping him, and desiring a certain thing of him” Comments – In worshipping Jesus, the mother acknowledges that He is the Son of God. She understood how to approach God with her petitions. Thus, we do not see Jesus denying her request, but rather doing what was within His power to grant her request. He led these two disciples into an acceptance of the cup and the baptism that He Himself was partaking of, which type of sacrifice was the only way to receive such glory. Yet, He left the final decision as to who sits at His right and left hand up to the Heavenly Father, who is the only one that can made such a decision.

Mat 20:20 Comments – Mat 20:20 begins with the Greek is an adverb of time and means, “at that time,” or “that which follows in timethen, thereupon.” ( BDAG) This adverb places two events together, the revelation of Jesus’ passion (Mat 20:17-19) and the request of a mother for Jesus to exalt her two sons in the kingdom (Mat 20:20-20).

Mat 20:21 And he said unto her, What wilt thou? She saith unto him, Grant that these my two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand, and the other on the left, in thy kingdom.

Mat 20:21 “And he said unto her, What wilt thou” Comments – Jesus’ response of “What wilt thou?” reveals His willingness to answer this request. God always wants to bless His children. However, He is often limited by a believer’s carnality in doing so. Although we can pray amiss, God is willing to do whatever He can within the boundaries of His will and purpose and plan to redeem humanity. The epistle of James tells us that we do not receive from God when we pray amiss.

Jas 4:3, “Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.”

“She saith unto him, Grant that these my two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand, and the other on the left, in thy kingdom” – Comments – Their mother, as well as many other disciples, believed that Jesus was going to set up an earthly kingdom at this time. In fact, Jesus had recently said to His disciples, “Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” (Mat 19:28) Jesus was not headed to Jerusalem for His triumphant entry (Mat 20:17). In addition, the disciples again asked Jesus after His resurrection if He were going to immediately set up His kingdom on earth (Act 1:6). This mother wanted her two sons to be given positions of great authority in this new kingdom. After all, James and John were a part of the inner circle of three disciples that Jesus favored, and she had observed the Lord’s intimacy with her sons above the others. At this point, as a mother trying to instinctively care for her children, she just could not hold back this request.

Act 1:6, “When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?”

Mat 20:21 Comments In Mat 20:21; Mat 20:32 Jesus asks the persons addressing Him to make their request. While the mother’s request is not quickly answered, the two blind men find God’s immediate grace and healing. While the mother depended upon the good works of her two sons James and John as Jesus’ close inner circle of disciples, the two blind men had nothing to offer Jesus except their devotion to follow Him after being healed.

Mat 20:22 But Jesus answered and said, Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? They say unto him, We are able.

Mat 20:22 “Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of” Word Study on “I shall drink of” – In the Greek, the verb “I shall drink of” is inflected in the tendential future tense. This tense means that this event of His suffering is in the impending, or immediate, future. In other words, it is about to take place soon. Therefore, it could be translated, I am about to drink.”

Comments – The phrase “to drink of the cup” is used figuratively in Mat 20:22 to refer to the cup of the suffering and death of the Lord Jesus Christ for all the sins of mankind. Jesus will use this figurative phrase at other times in His ministry to refer to His Passion.

Mat 26:39, “And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.”

Joh 18:11, “Then said Jesus unto Peter, Put up thy sword into the sheath: the cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?”

The cup of wrath and vengeance and suffering is used throughout the Old and New Testaments as well.

Job 21:20, “His eyes shall see his destruction, and he shall drink of the wrath of the Almighty.”

Psa 11:6, “Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup.”

Psa 16:5, “The LORD is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup: thou maintainest my lot.”

Psa 75:8, “For in the hand of the LORD there is a cup, and the wine is red; it is full of mixture; and he poureth out of the same: but the dregs thereof, all the wicked of the earth shall wring them out, and drink them.”

Isa 51:17, “Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, which hast drunk at the hand of the LORD the cup of his fury; thou hast drunken the dregs of the cup of trembling, and wrung them out.”

Isa 51:22, “Thus saith thy Lord the LORD, and thy God that pleadeth the cause of his people, Behold, I have taken out of thine hand the cup of trembling, even the dregs of the cup of my fury; thou shalt no more drink it again:”

Jer 25:15, “For thus saith the LORD God of Israel unto me; Take the wine cup of this fury at my hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send thee, to drink it.”

Jer 49:12, “For thus saith the LORD; Behold, they whose judgment was not to drink of the cup have assuredly drunken; and art thou he that shall altogether go unpunished? thou shalt not go unpunished, but thou shalt surely drink of it.”

Rev 14:10, “The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:”

Rev 16:19, “And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath.”

Mat 20:22 “and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with” – Comments – The word baptism is also used to describe our identification with Christ (Rom 6:3-5). However, that is not the case in this passage. Here, Jesus is referring to a baptism of suffering.

Rom 6:3-5, “Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:”

Mat 20:22 “They say unto him, We are able” – Comments – The sons of Zebedee were talking about reigning with Jesus. However, Jesus knew that for someone to reign with Jesus, he must share in His sufferings.

Mat 20:23 And he saith unto them, Ye shall drink indeed of my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with: but to sit on my right hand, and on my left, is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father.

Mat 20:23 “And he saith unto them, Ye shall drink indeed of my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with” – Comments – In Mathew Mat 20:23 Jesus grants His disciples their request as far as it was within His dominion and authority. He uses the phrases of drinking of a cup and being baptized figuratively to refer to their future physical suffering and martyrdom as apostles. These two disciples did in fact enter into his sufferings. James was the first of the twelve apostles to become a martyr. John was the last of the twelve apostles to die. Both were faithful. Greatness is bestowed upon those who are faithful.

Act 12:2, “And he killed James the brother of John with the sword.”

Rev 1:9, “I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.”

This divine truth applies to us as well as we identify with Jesus on the Cross like Rom 6:3-4.

Rom 6:3-4, “Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.”

We, too, must suffer with Him if we are to share in His glory. Suffering precedes glory.

1Pe 1:11, “Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow .”

We begin this identification with Jesus at salvation and continue to grow more and more like Jesus Christ.

Rom 8:17, “And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.”

Php 3:10, “That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;”

2Ti 2:12, “If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us:”

Paul experience the “fellowship of His sufferings” (Php 3:10).

Php 3:10, “That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;”

“but to sit on my right hand, and on my left, is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father” Comments The New Testament records a number of distinctions between God the Father and Jesus Christ His Son. In Mat 20:23 Jesus tells us that the Father has prepared positions of leadership and enthronement beyond the office and ministry of Jesus. In Mat 24:36 Jesus tells us that only God the Father knows the day and hour of the Second Coming of Jesus; for neither the angels nor Jesus Himself know the time of this event.

Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures

The Requests of the Sons of Zebedee.

v. 20. Then came to Him the mother of Zebedee’s children with her sons, worshiping Him, and desiring a certain thing of Him.

v. 21. And He said unto her, What wilt thou? She saith unto Him, Grant that these my two sons may sit, the one on Thy right hand, and the other on the left, in Thy kingdom.

The two sons of Zebedee, James and John, were among the first disciples of Jesus, Mat 4:21-22. In the early days of their discipleship they were not characterized by the same patience and kindness that was the most prominent attribute of John in later years. They were both impulsive in speech and rash in action. Mar 3:17. Their mother’s name was Maria Salome, a sister of Mary, the mother of Jesus, Joh 19:25; Luk 8:2-3; Luk 23:55. She belonged to that small band of woman disciples that had ministered to the Lord. She probably had heard the promise that Jesus had made to the Twelve, chapter 19:28, and had drawn the conclusion that the cousinship of her sons, and the fact that they had been singled out by the Lord for special attentions, warranted her bold request. And her sons, as yet hardly conscious of the meaning of true discipleship, eagerly took up the idea, seconding their mother’s plea. She was very importunate about her request; she knelt down at Jesus’ feet and begged earnestly, womanlike seeking fulfillment of her wish before stating it. Being asked by Jesus what her desire was, she stated that she wished her sons to occupy the highest places of honor in the Messianic kingdom, for thus the seats on the right hand and on the left hand of the rulers were regarded. As Luther says: “The flesh ever seeks to be glorified before it is crucified; exalted before it is abased.”

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

Mat 20:20-21. Then came to him, &c. Our Saviour’s predictions respecting his sufferings were either not understood by his disciples, or at least they apprehended that, whatever difficulties lay in the way, those sufferings certainly would end in his temporaltriumphandglory.Uponthispresumption,themotherofZebedee’schildren, with her sons James and John, and at their instigation, came to Jesus with a peculiar request, which discovered in the clearest manner the temper of mindthey were in: see Mar 10:35. It seems Salome, for that was her name, (compare ch. Mat 27:56 with Mar 15:40.) was now in our Lord’s train, having followed him from Galilee with other pious women, who attended him in his journey, and ministered unto him; that is, supplied him with money, and took care to have him accommodated with lodging and other necessaries. Salome could the more easily give this attendance, as her husband seems now to have been dead, and to have left her in good circumstances, according to his station; for we learn from the Gospels that he had a vessel of his own, and hired servants. Salome, therefore being particularlyacquainted with our Lord, and having always shewn him great respect, thought herself entitled to distinguished favour, and on that account readily undertook, at the desire of her sons, to intercede with him in their behalf. Ever since Christ’s transfiguration the two brothers had conceived very high notions of the glory of his kingdom, and, it may be, of their own merit also, because they had been admitted to behold that miracle. They formed the project, therefore, of securing to themselves the chief places by his particular promise, and embraced this as a fit opportunityof accomplishing their purpose. There is probably an allusion in the words of their request to a circumstance which the Talmudical writers relate concerning the Sanhedrim,that there were two officers of distinction, who sat on each side of the Nasi, or president of the court;the one called Ab-bethdin, or, “the father of the justiciary,” who sat on the right hand of the president; the other Chacham, or the sage, who sat on the left. See Witsius. Miscel. Sacra, vol. 1: lib. 2: diss. 3 and Bishop Bull’s works, vol. 1: p. 286.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Mat 20:20 . ] after the announcement in Mat 20:17-19 . Salome , His mother’s sister (see note on Joh 19:25 ), was one of those women who were in the habit of accompanying Jesus, Mat 27:56 ; Mar 15:40 ; Mar 16:1 . She may have heard from her sons what He, Mat 19:28 , had promised the apostles.

] making a request . It is to anticipate to suppose to imply aliquid magni (Maldonatus, Fritzsche). Comp. Mat 20:21 , . On the present participle, see Khner, II. 2, p. 622 f.; Dissen, ad Pind. Ol . vii. 14; Bornem. ad Xen. Anal . vii. 7. 17.

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

SECOND SECTION

THE PLACES AT THE RIGHT AND AT THE LEFT HAND OF HIS THRONEAND OF HIS CROSS

Mat 20:20-28

(Mar 10:35-45)

20Then came to him the mother of Zebedees children [of the sons of Z., Z.] with her sons, worshipping him, and desiring [asking, , comp. Mat 20:22] a certain thing [something]16 of him. 21And he said unto her, What wilt thou? She saith unto him, Grant [Command]17 that these my two sons may [shall] sit, the one on thy right hand, and the other on the left, in thy kingdom. 22But Jesus answered and said, Ye know not what ye ask []. Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?18 They say unto him, We are able. 23And he saith unto them, Ye shall drink indeed of my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with:3 but to sit on my right hand, and on my left, is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them [but it is for those] for whom it is prepared of [by] my Father. 24And when the ten heard it, they were moved with indignation19 against the two brethren [brothers]. 25But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Ye know that the princes [rulers, ] of the Gentiles [nations] exercise dominion [lordship, ] over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. 26But it shall not be so [But not so is it, ]20 among you: but whosoever will be [would become, ] great among you, let him be your minister []; 27And whosoever will be chief [would be first, ] among you, let him be your servant []: 28Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for [] many.21

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Mat 20:20. Then came to Him the mother of the sons of Zebedee.Salome (comp. Mar 15:40; Mar 16:1; Mat 27:56), who must accordingly be regarded as the wife of Zebedee. Most of the ancient traditions assume that she was the daughter of Joseph by a previous marriage; while others suggest that she had been the wife of Joseph, by whom he was the father of two daughters; lastly, some regarded her as a niece of Zachariah the priest, the father of John the Baptist. But a correct interpretation of Joh 19:25 (see Wieseler, Studien und Kritiken, 1840, iii.) shows that she was the sister of Mary the mother of Jesus. Accordingly, James the Elder and John were cousins of Jesus, and Salome His aunt. The relationship subsisting between them might seem to lend additional support to the claims of Salome, based as they were open the friendship subsisting between the Lord and John, and on the general position occupied by the sons of Zebedee. A twofold meaning attaches to the word , then. It refers, in the first place, to the moment when, in company with His disciples, Jesus came forth from the wilderness of Ephraim, and joined the first caravan of festive pilgrims. Probably this band consisted of the more intimate friends and followers of Jesus, who had journeyed directly from Galilee to Ephraim through Samaria, and from thence passed with the Lord to Jericho, where they met the larger caravan coming from Galilee, which had travelled through Pera. In that company was the ardent and daring mother of the sons of Zebedee. Evidently she had not been with them in the wilderness of Ephraim. Her sons had probably communicated what had passed, and she now advanced the request mentioned in the text. Meyer suggests that she may have heard from her sons what Jesus had promised to the Apostles in Mat 19:28. No doubt she had been informed of the announcement of His impending sufferings; and this circumstance enables us to appreciate the deeper import of the word . It was immediately after that fearful declaration on the part of Jesus, concerning His impending crucifixion, that she came forward with the request, that her sons should occupy the most prominent positions in His kingdom. The circumstances under which this prayer was urged, go to a certain extent to excuse its boldness, and to deprive it of the unfavorable impression which it would otherwise produce, as if Salome had wished to advance her sons at the expense of Peter. Viewed in this light, there is even something sublime and heroic in what she says. In the midst of such gloomy prospects she seems to raise the standard of highest hope, while she expresses her confident anticipation that in the approaching contest her children would be found by the side of Jesus, and sharing in the greatest dangers. But while admitting all that is noble, there is a sad want of humble surrender to the word of the Lord.

Worshipping Him, and asking a certain thing of Him.While Matthew represents Salome as interceding for her sons, Mark puts the request into the mouth of the sons themselves. The two accounts supplement each other. Mark lays stress or the fact, that the request of the mother was prompted by her children,a circumstance which is implied in the indignation of die other Apostles against the two brothers, mentioned by Matthew in Mat 20:24. On the other hand, our Gospel alludes more particularly to the form in which the request was actually made, the noble aspirations of the mother leading her to sympathize with the desire of her sons. The manner in which this prayer is urged is very significant. Salome seems the first to acknowledge the Lord as Messiah the King. Falling down before Him, she worships Him. At the same time she requests a certain thing of Him; i e., according to a frequent custom in Eastern courts, she entreats His unconditional consent to what she is about to ask (see 1Ki 2:20). The comment of Meyer that means, as one that made a request, is flat. But while it may be somewhat anticipating, with Scultetus, Maldonatus, and Fritzsche to regard as implying aliquid magni, it certainly conveys that she was about to urge a petition which she would fain have accorded before actually uttering it. But the reply of the Lord obliged her to express her wish in distinct language.

Mat 20:21. Command that, or, Say that: .This form of her address tends to present it in a more favorable light. She seems to imply that in point of fact the matter was already decided, and that it now only required a formal declaration on the part of Jesus to have it legally established. What she requested was, that her sons might occupy the two highest places in the kingdom of the Messiah. In the East, the highest place of honor was at the right hand of the king; and next to it, that on the left (Joseph. Antiq. vi. 11, 9. Thus Jonathan and Abner are seated beside Saul, and the Talmud represents the Messiah and Abraham as placed beside God). According to human views of the matter, it needs no special apology, that even the gentle and meek John should have cherished such a desire (Meyer). If an arrangement like this had been made, John would, personally, not have gained much; for, considering that James was the elder brother, his could only have been the place at the left hand,a distinction which would not have been withheld, even if the first place had been accorded to Peter. In fact, as matters actually were, John already occupied a higher place than this. But it is scarcely necessary to say that the views and hopes of John had still to be purified and cleared by the cross, and spiritually elevated at Pentecost.

[Luther: The flesh ever seeks to be glorified before it is crucified; exalted before it is abased.P. S.]

Mat 20:22. Ye know not what ye ask.Different views are entertained of this reply. De Wette explains it: Your request arises from an incorrect view of the character of My kingdom, which is spiritual. Meyer paraphrases: Ye know not that the highest posts in My kingdom cannot be obtained without sufferings such as I have to endure. We explain it (comp. Leben Jesu, ii. 3, 1150): They had no idea what fearful honors they would have obtained if their desire had been granted. They would have occupied the place of the two malefactors who were crucified with Jesus. Truly, ye know not what ye ask! The Lord thus replied, in mercy and compassion toward that ignorance, in consequence of which His beloved disciples too frequently seek for themselves what would be dangerous, and even destructiveand, perhaps still more frequently, what is unbecoming. The rebuke of Christ was not merely directed against the ignorance which led them to covet the place of the two malefactors, but also against the presumptuous selfishness which made them forget the other disciples. Still, the answer of the Lord shows that He also had regard to that noble feeling which prompted them to desire a share in His impending sufferings.

Are ye able to drink of the cup? .A metaphorical designation for fate in general, and more especially for sufferings; Gesenius on Isa 51:17; Knobel on Isa. p. 355. Meyer. But the term is here purposely chosen, with an allusion, on the one hand, to the cup on the royal table, and, on the other, to the cup of sufferings (Mat 26:39). The same twofold import attaches to the expression in the parallel passage in the Gospel of Mark. It may signify a festive bath, but also the baptism of blood which awaited the Lord. Hence the term at the same time expressed the views of the Apostles, and those of the Lord Himself.

We are able, .The sons of Zebedee now come forward in their own names. As from the first they had intended to express their readiness to undergo the deepest sufferings for the sake of the kingdom of heaven, in which they coveted the first places, they now declare their assent to the view set before them by the Lord, that the royal cup must, in the first place, be a cup of sufferingHis kingly bath a baptism of blood. Accordingly they express their willingness to suffer with Christ But this statement implied an over-estimate of their own strength, or rather a want of knowledge of their weakness and impotence which afterward became manifest during the night of Christs betrayal. Still it cannot be questioned that they were the most courageous among the disciples, as appears from Johns going into the high priests palace without denying His master, and from the fact that James was the first martyr of Christ.

Mat 20:23. Ye shall drink indeed of My cup.Our Lord does not discuss the question, how far they were capable of bearing suffering. The great question connected with the sufferings of the cross was not one of human heroism, or of the capability of endurance, but of inward, divine, and holy preparation. As yet the two disciples were incapable of making this distinction. Hence the Lord declined their sharing His sufferings in the former sense; while at the same time He pointed forward to the period when they should have part in them, in the higher and only true sense (the future tense is here used by way of antithesis to the present moment). The reply of Christ must therefore be regarded in the light of a correction implying an admission of their calling to suffer with Him; the fact of their being at present unable, in the spiritual sense, to share in His sufferings, being graciously presented in the form of an affirmation that the time for this should arrive. The admission to which we refer is all the more fully made, that the Lord has to add, But to sit on My right hand, and on My left, etc. This fellowship of suffering with Christ appeared more distinctly in the case of James than in that of any other of the Apostles. And although John died a natural death, at a very advanced age (see the article in the different Encyclops.; the Histories of the Apostolic Age, and the Fathers, Irenus, Mat 2:22; Mat 2:5; Eusebius, 3:23, etc.), yet in a spiritual sense his was the longest and deepest martyrdom among the Apostles,not to speak of the fact, that for the sake of Christ he underwent many and severe outward sufferings. Meyer correctly observes, that the apocryphal legend, to the effect that John had emptied a cup of poison without sustaining any harm, may probably have been derived from a misinterpretation of this passage.

[Wordsworth: Our Lord here describes the two kinds of Christian martyrdom; and all Christians must be prepared for one or the other of them. Every one must be a James or a John. Similarly Pope Gregory, who distinguishes the martyrium in mente, and the martyrium in mente et actione, so that we may become martyrs, and yet, like St. John, die a natural death.P. S.]

But to sit on My right hand, etc.Different views have been taken of this difficult passage: 1. Chrysostom, Castellio, Grotius, and others, regard the word as used instead of , except,i.e., it does not become Me to bestow it upon others than those to whom it is granted.22 To this de Wette objects(a) that this is incompatible with the real meaning of ; (b) that the word implies an antithesis. At any rate the meaning would be unsuitable. 2. Augustine interprets: It is not Mine, in My capacity as man. 3. Bengel paraphrases: Before My exaltation by suffering. 4. Fritzsche remarks: The Father has prepared the kingdom ( Mat 25:34); to which de Wette replies, that Christ was certainly the Founder and Ruler of the kingdom. 5. De Wette attempts to combine the views of Augustine and Bengel, and holds that Jesus here speaks of Himself as the human individual who was destined to be the Messiah, but had not yet been perfected as such. But in that case Christ would have expressed it: It is not yet Mine, but will be so at a future period. 6. Meyer holds that the Messianic administration of Christ was not strictly absolute, but limited by His relationship toward the Father. 7. My own view is thus expressed in the Leben Jesu, iii. 2, Matt 1151: The statement refers not merely to the dispensation of an earthly fate, which cometh from the Father, and according to which two malefactors were to be crucified with Christ, but also especially to the eternal predestination of eternal positions in the kingdom of God. In other words, Christ here distinguishes between the economy of the Fathercreation, and its ideal basis, election to different degrees of gloryand the economy of the Son, or redemption, and an official call to labor in the vineyard. The prominent positions in the kingdom of God depend on certain relationships connected with original creation, and are not bestowed in consequence of office. This explanation is not inconsistent with the fact of a correspondence between chosen spirits and their official position in the kingdom, far less does it imply that the Sons of Thunder did not occupy a high place in the kingdom of Christ. But it conveyed the truth, that this position was not a part of the work of redemption (which was designed only to realize and to manifest the mystery of election)far less that it depended on official position in the kingdom of Christ. The statement of the Lord thus serves as an introduction to what immediately follows. Spiritual aristocracy must prove its claims by humility, greatness by littleness, and the highest exaltation by the deepest self-abasement. The place which each of us is to hold in the eternal kingdom, is the result of our eternal destination, and intimately connected with the state of our minds and hearts.For whom it is prepared, .That question has been decided before the foundation of the world.

Mat 20:24. And when the ten heard it, , they became indignant, or, were much displeased.Not in the sense of holy indignation, but as partaking of the same spirit of ambition which had prompted the request. It deserves notice that on this occasion Peter does not seem to have prominently come forward. Of course, we do not mean that he formed on exception to the others. They all shared the same jealousy and indignation, as appears from the general tenor of the rebuke of the Lord. [The ten, including St. Matthew , 23 who here records his own weakness together with that of his colleagues, as St. Peter recommends the epistles of his brother Paul (2Pe 3:15-16), in one of which his own inconsistency is severely censured (Gal 2:11). A proof of humility and truthfulness.P. S.]

Mat 20:25. The rulers of the nations.The expression in this passage does not refer exclusively to the Gentiles. Luther: Secular princes. , . In this instance the two verbs have the additional meaning of pride and violence, which . has in 1Pe 5:3; Psa 10:5 (Sept.); al hough the word may also simply mean to bear rule. But from the addition of the , ., we infer that it bears the meaning above indicated (similarly m Diod. Sicul. 14, 66).De Wette suggests that refers to the kings, their substitutes and officers (in the Gospel of Mark the expression of is used with special allusion to the symbolical import and the legal validity of the secular power), and that applies merely to the officers of state. Bengel explains the employment of the stronger verb in connection with , because the latter are: ipsis spe dominis imperiosiores. As the term primarily refers to persons great or powerful in themselves, perhaps the expression princes may allude to the legitimate rulers, and the term great to illegitimate usurpers and conquerors. Hence also the use of the stronger verb in the second clause.

Mat 20:26. But not so is it among you.The reading is very significant. Christ had already prepared them for this order of things, which was so different from that prevailing in the world. The order and succession in His kingdom was not to be settled according to any legal determination. Jesus had introduced a new and spiritual life, in direct opposition to secular monarchies and hierarchies. Hence also the reading of the future tense (), instead of the imperative (), is more suitable in the sentence next following.

Mat 20:26-27. Whoever would become great.De Wette observes that =, and in the next clause. Meyer questions the correctness of this view, on the ground of the corresponding antithesis. Evidently, corresponds to , and to . Comp. Mat 18:1. In this instance, then, the minister and the servant, or slave, are intended as emblems of the greatness which the disciples should covet, even as formerly the little child set in the midst of them. In other words, deep humility appearing in service of love was to be the measure of their greatness.

Mat 20:28. Even as the Son of Man came not to he ministered to.In Matthew 18 greatness was spoken of in the sense of dignity. Accordingly, Christ placed a little child in the midst of them, and ultimately appealed to His own example: The Son of Man has come to seek that which was lost. But the greatness referred to in this passage refers to rule or dominion. Hence the Lord points His disciples to ministers or slaves; while He once more referred to His own work and mission, who had come, not to be ministered to, but to minister. The expression, not to be ministered to, refers to all merely outward rule, whether in the shape of monarchy or hierarchy; in other words, to exercise authority over others for His own interest, for His own glory, or even by external means. Accordingly, the expression, to minister, applies to His submission or obedience. Viewing it in connection with its blessed motive, the passage implies: In His infinite love toward men, the Saviour has come to serve them; and He does so in obedience to the demands of the law and to the will of God, in order thus to redeem them. Hence the addition, and to give His life; which must be regarded as a further explanation, and indicates the climax of the service in which He was engaged. Comp. Php 2:6 : obedientobedient unto death on the cross. The term ministering expresses the spirit of the life of Christ. His sufferings and death illustrated and displayed the submission of His whole course; they shed the fullest light on the object of His life. The Holy Servant of God surrendered His life; and that unto death (the ). He gave His life a ransom of life, =; Exo 30:12; Num 35:31; Pro 13:8. This price of redemption He gave , and not merely , in the wider sense, i.e., instead of, in exchange of, or as a substitute; Mat 17:27; Heb 12:16. This redemption at the price of His life was made The expression many is not intended to indicate a exclusive minority, or a smaller number as compared with all,for the latter expression occurs in Rom 5:18; 1Ti 2:4. The term is intended rather by way of antithesis to the one whose life was the ransom of the many. At the same time, it undoubtedly indicates not only the objective bearing, but also the subjective efficacy of this ransom, by which many (a great multitude) are in reality redeemed. Comp. Rom 5:15; Mat 26:28.The state from which these many are redeemed may readily be inferred from the figure employed. De Wette suppliesfrom death or from the misery of sin; Meyerfrom eternal . Both commentators are right; but we would express their meaning more definitely. The death or the is here referred to as spiritual bondage or slavery. Comp. Joh 8:34-36; Heb 2:14.

[Similarly Alford: is a plain declaration of the sacrificial and vicarious nature of the death of our LordIt is here= , 1Ti 2:6. No stress should be laid on this word as not being here; it is placed in opposition to the one life which is giventhe one for manyand not with any distinction from . is the objective, the subjective designation of those for whom Christ died. He died for all, objectively; subjectively, the great multitude whom no man could number, , will be saved by Him in the end.P. S.]

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. The Evangelists record three distinct instances in which the disciples seem to have contended for rank and position. (1) In Mat 18:1, their dispute referred to the highest dignity. Then our Lord placed among them a little child, and taught them that He Himself watched over the little ones, and was the Shepherd of the lost. (2) In the passage under consideration, the reference seems more particularly to supreme rule. The Lord now directs them to the office of minister, and to the position of a slave; He Himself being that Holy Servant of God who had given Himself for the service of man, and redeemed them from the bondage of destruction, at the price of His own life. (3) According to Luk 22:24, another similar discussion took place during the celebration of the Eucharist. The Evangelist records, indeed, but few traits connected with this event. Still, even the circumstance that our Lord washed the feet of the disciples (John 13), shows that some occurrence of this kind must have taken place. Properly speaking, this service of love should have been performed by the master of the house. In this case he was not present; nor does any of the disciples seem to have been disposed to do it for the others. Contrary to the common custom, they were already seated at the table with unwashed feet, when the Lord Himself girt the linen towel about Him. From the words of Jesus, as recorded in Luk 22:27, we infer that this formed the commencement of another dispute. But, if the first discussion referred to pre-eminence of dignity, the second to pre-eminence of office and rule,the third and last dispute probably referred to personal pre-eminence, or a higher place among those who were officially placed on the same level. But even this pre-eminence of personal (in opposition to official) position should give place to voluntary and mutual subordination, prompted by love.

2. So long as this world shall, for its training, require secular authority and power, the Lord will, in His providence, raise up princes and great ones to administer rule and government. But the Apostles of the Lord were neither to imitate this rule, which was only intended for a preparatory state of things, nor to substitute their own domination in its stead, nor to attempt supplementing it. Comp. the remarks of James at the council in Act 15:21 : Moses has of old time in every city them that preach him; in other words, the servants of Christ in the Church are not called upon to attend to the legal administration of the law: this is the business of the servants of Moses in the synagogue. Let us beware of confounding Moses and Christ, or the secular government and the ministry of the Church.

3. The statement of Christ, Whoever among you would be great, etc., conveys, that the only superiority of authority in His kingdom is that which springs from the service of love, and the only superiority of power is that which appears in ministering to the Church. This, however, does not imply that there is to be no order of office in His Church. But it does convey that anything like difference of rank or tyranny over the Church is incompatible with the will of Christ, and that all ecclesiastical offices are to lead to spiritual services of love. They are intended to subserve and advance the liberty, not the bondage, of the Church. In other words, their tendency is to be toward freedom. It is otherwise with the rule of this world, whether it appear in the form of monarchy or of hierarchy. Every hierarchy requires, more or less, the aid of despotism, and in fact contains the germ of it; while despotism always relies on the support of a hierarchy, or else itself attempts to exercise hierarchical domination over the conscience. Hence also these powers will at last become the instruments of the kingdom of darkness (see the corresponding passages in Dan. and Rev.; also 1Pe 1:18-19). From all such powers of the world, Christ has redeemed the souls of His people. Hence it were the grossest self-contradiction to attempt introducing the forms of this bondage into the administration of the kingdom of grace.

[Origen: As all carnal things are done by compulsion, but spiritual things by free-will, so those rulers who are spiritual ought to rest their power in the love of their subjects, not in their fears.Chrysostom: High place courts him who flies from it, and shuns him who courts it. Men become masters in this world that they may exercise domination over their inferiors, and reduce them to slavery, and rob them, and employ them even to death for their own profit and glory. But men become governors in the Church that they may serve those who are under them, and minister to them whatever they have received of Christ, that they may postpone their own convenience, and mind that of others, and not refuse even to die for those beneath them. To seek therefore a command in the Church is neither righteous nor profitable.How much soever you humble yourself, you cannot descend so far as did your Lord. Translation taken from the Oxford edition of Thomas Aquinas Catena Aurea, 1841, vol. 1 part. 2 pp 696, 697).P. S.]

4. It admits of no question that the word in the text implies a vicarious atonement or redemption by a substitute. Still, viewed in its connection, the passage primarily refers to redemption in the narrower sense, and not to the atonement itself. The following three elements may be distinguished in the work of redemption: 1. The , which may be called the prophetic element in redemption; or, the announcement of the grace of God, and its sealing by the death of Christ, 2Co 5:18-19. Klaiber, Stier, and others, even in our own day, do not go beyond this. 2. The , 1Jn 2:2; 1Jn 4:10 : the atonement or propitiation; or, the high-priestly act of redemption, wrought out when Christ gave Himself a sacrifice to the judgment of God pronounced upon the ancient world, thereby converting that judgment into salvation. Anselm has developed this idea, although not with sufficient clearness in the distinction of terms. 3. The , Rom 3:24; 1Co 1:30; Eph 1:14 : the redemption of man from the bondage of destruction by the of the blood of Christ; or, the royal act of redemption, which Christ accomplished when He surrendered His life to the powers of the world and to the power of darkness, thereby redeeming Himself and His people from the rulers of darkness, 1Pe 1:18-19; Act 10:38; Act 26:18. The older Fathers chiefly dwelt on the last-mentioned element, as constituting redemption. During the Middle Ages exclusive stress was laid on the priestly element (to which Athanasius and Gregory of Naz. were the first prominently to call attention); while of late, theologians have chiefly insisted on the prophetical element in redemption. The defect of all these systems consists in their not distinguishing, and at the same time combining, all the three elements in the work of redemption. In Scripture they are generally presented more or less combined under one aspect (see the authors Positive Dogmatik, pp. 858 and 893). Still, one or other of these elements is generally referred to in a more peculiar manner. Thus, in the passage under consideration, there is special reference to the royal office of Christ in redemption which He accomplished in the form of a servant. He gave His life as a ransom to redeem mankind from the power of darkness and to make us His own property. Hence the office of publishing this work of redemption was not to be transformed into a rule over His free Church, 1Co 7:23. (Least of all by cruel despotism and the shedding of the blood of His members.)

5. If there were any truth in the Romish doctrine of the primacy of Peter, our Lord would have given a very different reply to the sons of Zebedee. He would have said in effect: You know that in Csarea Philippi I have already accorded the first place unto Peter. But how different was the answer of Jesus!

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

Salome and her sons; or, the difference between the noblest aspirations of mere natural enthusiasm and the spiritual courage of holy humility.The projects of parents with reference to their children must be tried and purified in the light of the Lord.Salome and her sons as compared with Mary and her sons, Mat 12:46.Christ proving Himself the heavenly King at His first public recognition in that character: 1. By His grace; 2. by His impartiality; 3. by the exercise of His prerogative (both in granting and in withholding); 4. by His holiness and justice (guarding and preserving the rights of the Father).How the thoughts of the Lord are infinitely high above the thoughts even of His people.Christ both correcting and offering up our petitions.Ye know not what ye ask; or, the ignorance and the dangers connected with many of our dearest earthly wishes, as illustrated by the request of the sons of Zebedee: 1. They sought the place of the two malefactors; 2. they requested, so to speak, something which had only existence in their imagination (worldly honors in the kingdom of Christ); 3. they sought something which, in its higher import, had already been given awayperhaps to themselves, perhaps to othersviz., special degrees of election.The threefold administration in the economy of God.How Christ in His administration always shed a glorious light on that of the Father.The work of redemption completing that of creation.When the ten heard it; or, how ambition24 and jealousy frequently evoke each other even in the Church of Christ.The second dispute about pre-eminence among the disciples.Its relation to the first and the third disputes.Jesus called them unto Himself; or, the teaching of Christ concerning the character of hierarchy, as addressed to the first council of His disciples.Secular government in its relation to ecclesiastical order: 1. It is recognized without being approved in every particular; 2. it cannot serve as a model for the Church of Christ, or be adopted in the form of a hierarchy; 3. far less may it exercise rule over the Church itself (Csaropapacy).How the government of the Church of Christ must be a ministry in the strictest sense: 1. He that is not willing to be a minister has no place in it; 2. every genuine minister will be great in proportion as he serves; 3. if we are willing to be servants or slaves in this house, i.e., to devote ourselves, body and soul, to its interests, we shall be first.Only that arrangement has the approbation of the Lord which combines order with liberty in the Church.The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, etc.; or, the Church is to be formed according to the model which Christ set before us in His life and death.How Christs humiliation condemns the ambition of those who call themselves His servants.No tyranny over the conscience may interpose between Christ, the kingly Redeemer, and His royal bride, the Church.Christ has redeemed His people with His precious blood from, not to, the bondage of this world.Ye are bought with a price; be ye not the servants of men.As every other association or body, so the Church has its appropriate organization, corresponding to its nature. Thus the plant would die if it were subject to the conditions of the crystal; the animal, if it were subject to those of the plant; man, if he were subject to those of the animal; and the kingdom of heaven, if subject to those of the world. Or rather, the plant has burst through the conditions of the crystal, and passed beyond it, etc.; and the kingdom of heaven through the conditions and forms of this world.They would fain have established an order in the Church, by which the forms of an unredeemed world would have been forced upon the redeemed: 1. They would have attempted to present spiritual life under shadows and in emblems; 2. knowledge and spiritual power under law and tradition; 3. redemption or liberty under constraint; 4. spiritual blessedness under force and restraint.How the sufferings of Christ on the cross have given a right form and order to His kingdom: 1. They have converted the lowest depth into the most glorious height (reproach into honor, sorrow into well-being, service into dignity, apparent weakness into power). 2. They have subjected to His sway all the powers of the world (banished secular authority from the Church, and exalted Him to be the King of kings, and Lord of lords, Rev 1:5).

On the two preceding sections combined.The difference between the Lords prospect and that of His disciples: He sees the cross where they see thrones of honor; He sees the resurrection and eternal life, where they see only night and darkness.The human nobility in the aspiration of the sons of Zebedee: the good in it (they express an unlimited hope in the Lords cause, and would forever unite their destiny with His); the evil in it (they over-estimate their enthusiasm, and approach too nearly a violation of the obedience due to the Lord, and the love due to their fellow-disciples).The glance at the Lords cross sanctifies the wish of the disciples.

Starke:Cramer: Christian parents! seek not too lofty things for your children.Zeisius: It is not only vain, but also most foolish, to seek from Christ temporal honor and glory.It seems as if Christ here (by the cup and the baptism) had referred to the two great sacraments of the New Testament, which bind us to the imitation of Christ.Quesnel: The weakness of man betrays itself even in his prayers, Rom 8:26.First the suffering, then the crown, 1Pe 4:13.Osiander: Every Christian has his portion of tribulation assigned: let him take it as a salutary cup and healthy medicine.The best men may make great mistakes as to the extent of their ability.Lord Jesus! make me worthy to drink of Thy cup, and then place me where Thou wilt.Canstein: One offence soon draws others after it (then were the ten displeased).In the kingdom of Christ there are only ministers, servants, and brethren.O how far is the external Church fallen from this purity!Langii Opus: This declaration throws the whole papistical hierarchy to the ground.Quesnel: Preachers must serve after the example of Christ.

Gerlach:A warning to all in the Church who are higher than others, that they should remember the foundation of their power; lest it should be mere empty form, ruinous to themselves and the Church.

Heubner:The sons of Adam gladly bow down when worldly honor is to be attained.Vain maternal love often leads greatly astray.To sit on Thy right hand: how much disposed the heart is to make religion the means of furthering worldly interests.The higher a man looks, the greater the danger.To partake of the highest honor with Jesus is to suffer with Him.He who knows nothing of the cup of Christs passion will have no part in the cup of joy.Hence we see how ambition exasperates others against us.Wouldest thou rule, learn first to serve.

Footnotes:

[16] Mat 20:20.[Dr. Lange adds in small type and in parenthesis: a royal favor, following Maldonatus and Fritzsche who and in aliquid magni, by way of anticipation. See his Exeg. Notes.]

[17] Mat 20:2.[So Conant, who correctly observes that has here the sense of authoritative direction, as in Mat 4:8 : Command that these stones be made bread, and in Luk 10:40 : Bid her therefore that she help me. Lunge: Sprichs aus.P. S.]

[18] Mat 20:22-23.The words: , , in Mat 20:22. and the corresponding addition: . in Mat 20:23, are wanting in Codd. B., D., L., Z. [and i Cod. Sinait., which belongs to the same class of MSS.], and in many ancient versions [and in all critical editions]. They were in all probability inserted from the parallel passages in Mar 10:38-39.

[19] Mat 20:24.[Or: were much displeased, , as the verb is rendered Mar 10:14; Mar 10:41, and by Conant in this place.P. S.]

[20] Mat 20:26.Lachmann, with B., D., L., Z., and other authorities, reads: . So also Meyer: The Recepta is a change with the view to conform it to Mat 20:26-27. where occurs twice (instead of , Fritzsche), according to Lachmann and the preponderance of authorities. [Tischendorf reads in Mat 20:26, and afterward twice: . God Sinait. twice: .P. S.]

[21] Mat 20:28.[Codd. D., Z., al., have a lengthy apocryphal addition to this verse. which resembles Luk 14:8 sqq. See the critical apparatus in Lachmann, Tischendorf, Tregelles, Alford; also the Com. of Meyer, p. 875.P. S.]

[22][So also Alford, who translates : except to those for whomWordsworth explains: It is not for Me to give, but it is for Me to adjudge; it is not a boon to be gained by solicitation, but it will be assigned to those for whom it is prepared, according to certain laws prescribed by God.P. S.]

[23][Bengel: Decem. In his ingenuus evangelista.P. S.]

[24] [Not: reverence, as the Edinb. translator has it, who thoughtlessly read: Ehrfurcht for Ehrsucht (und Eifersucht), and thus made Lange responsible for the nonsense that a fundamental virtue begets an evil passion and vice verse.P. S.]

Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange

“Then came to him the mother of Zebedee’s children with her sons, worshipping him, and desiring a certain thing of him. (21) And he said unto her, What wilt thou? She saith unto him, Grant that these my two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand, and the other on the left, in thy kingdom.”

It is probable that this mother of Zebedee’s children was Salome. Mat 27:46 ; Mar 15:40 . Both the mother and sons had no views at this time of any kingdom but a kingdom of this world. It is remarkable that the poor woman asked nothing for herself, but for her sons. Oh! how the feelings of nature exceed those of grace! How much more anxious parents are, to see their children rise to the enjoyment of the things of this world, than they are to see them made wise unto salvation for those to come.

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

20 Then came to him the mother of Zebedee’s children with her sons, worshipping him , and desiring a certain thing of him.

Ver. 20. Then came to him, &c. ] Then, most unseasonably, when Christ had by the parable been teaching them humility, and now was discoursing of his death and passion, then came these sons of Zebedee to beg a principality in Christ’s imaginary earthly monarchy. And this is not the first time of their so foul mistake, so unseasonable a suit to him, or strife among themselves. The leprosy was cured at once in Naaman; so is not corruption in the saints, but by degrees, and at times.

The mother of Zebedee’s children ] Set on by her two sons, who were ashamed to make the motion themselves (but as good they might, for Christ knew all, and therefore directs his answer to them, Mar 10:35 ), and she also was not well assured of the fitness of her request, and therefore came courtesying and craving a certain thing; not telling him what at first, as going somewhat against her conscience. And surely her request had been impudent, but that she presumed upon her near alliance to Christ; for she is thought to have been sister to Joseph, who was Pater Christi politicus; the legal father of Christ, and thence her boldness, by reason of her right of kindred by the father’s side. And this is some kind of carnal excuse; yet not for her and her sons’ folly and vanity, in dreaming of an earthly kingdom, and therein a distribution of honours and offices, as in David and Solomon’s days.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

20 28. ] AMBITIOUS REQUEST OF THE MOTHER OF THE SONS OF ZEBEDEE; OUR LORD’S REPLY. Mar 10:35-45 . Not related by Luke. This request seems to have arisen from the promise made to the twelve in ch. Mat 19:28 . In Mark’s account, the two brethren themselves make the request. But the narration in the text is the more detailed and exact; and the two immediately coincide, by our Lord addressing His answer to the two Apostles ( Mat 20:22 ). The difference is no greater than is perpetually to be found in narrations of the same fact, persons being often related to have done per se what, accurately speaking, they did per alterum . The mother’s name was Salome ; she had followed our Lord from Galilee, and afterwards witnessed the crucifixion, see Mar 15:40 . Probably the two brethren had directed this request through their mother , because they remembered the rebuke which had followed their former contention about precedence.

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

Mat 20:20-28 . The two sons of Zebedee (Mar 10:35-45 ).

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

Mat 20:20 . (in Mk. the vaguer ), then ; let us hope not quite immediately after, but it need not have been long after. How soon children forget doleful news and return to their play; a beneficent provision of nature in their case, that grief should be but a summer shower. Or did James and John with their mother not hear the sad announcement, plotting perhaps when the Master was predicting? : in Mk. the two brothers speak for themselves, but this representation is true to life. Mothers can be very bold in their children’s interest. , begging; the petitioner a woman and a near relative, not easy to resist. : vague; no verbal indication as yet what is wanted; her attitude showed she had a request to make, the manner revealing that it is something important, and also perhaps that it is something that should not be asked.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Mat 20:20-23

20Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came to Jesus with her sons, bowing down and making a request of Him. 21And He said to her, “What do you wish?” She said to Him, “Command that in Your kingdom these two sons of mine may sit one on Your right and one on Your left.” 22But Jesus answered, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink?” They said to Him, “We are able.” 23He said to them, “My cup you shall drink; but to sit on My right and on My left, this is not Mine to give, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by My Father.”

Mat 20:20 “the mother of the sons of Zebedee” From Mar 10:35 we learn that James and John were also active in this request. When one compares Mat 27:56 with Mar 15:40 and Joh 19:25 it is quite possible that Salome, Zebedee’s wife, was the sister of Jesus’ mother.

“bowing down” This was not an act of worship but an act of selfish family ambition. How often do Christians kneel before God just to get what they want? They try to trade faith for favors (cf. Job 1:9-11)!

“making a request of Him” Mark records “do for us whatever we ask of you.” This sounds like the request of an immature child.

Mat 20:21 “Command that in Your kingdom these two sons of mine may sit one on Your right and one on Your left” Every time Jesus tried to discuss His death, the disciples began to argue over who was greatest. This shows a fundamental misunderstanding not only of the person and work of Christ, but of the Messianic kingdom (cf. Luk 18:34).

Mat 20:22 “but Jesus answered, ‘You'” The “you” of Mat 20:21 is singular, addressing the mother, but in Mat 20:22 it is plural, addressing James and John.

“Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink” The term “cup” was used in Ugaritic literature to mean destiny. In the Bible, however, it seems to mean the experiences of life whether good or evil. It was usually used in the sense of judgment (cf. Psa 75:8; Isa 51:17-23; Jer 25:15-28; Jer 49:12; Jer 51:7; Lam 4:21-22; Eze 22:31-31; Hab 2:16; Zec 12:2; Rev 14:10; Rev 16:19; Rev 17:4; Rev 18:6). However, it was also mentioned in a few passages as blessings (cf. Psa 16:5; Psa 23:5; Psa 116:13; Jer 16:7).

The added phrase found in the King James Version (KJV) referring to Jesus’ baptism is simply not a part of the original Greek text of Matthew, nor the ancient Latin, Syriac, or Coptic translations. It came from Mar 10:38 and Luk 12:50, which was later inserted into Matthew by copyists as is the same addition in Mat 20:23. The UBS4 rates their exclusion as “A” (certain).

Mat 20:23 “My cup you shall drink” James was the first martyr of the apostolic band (cf. Act 12:2). John lived long enough to be exiled by the Roman government to Patmos (Rev 1:9) and died of old age in Ephesus (according to church tradition).

The KJV adds a phrase, “and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with,” but it is an addition from Mar 10:39. Scribes tended to make the Gospels parallel!

“for whom it has been prepared by My Father” This is perfect passive indicative. Here is another example of Jesus’ submission to the Father’s will and purpose. The Father is in control of all things (cf. 1Co 15:27-28).

Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley

came. With her sons. Mar 10:35 “came [with their mother]”.

the mother. Salome. Compare Mat 27:56 with Mar 15:40.

Zebedee’s. See note on Mat 4:21.

children = sons. App-108. The two sons (James and John) acted with their mother (prompting her). Compare “Ye” (Mat 20:22, and Mar 10:35). Mark’s account is supplementary.

sons. Implies what Mark says. All three came together. worshipping = prostrating herself. Greek. proskuneo. App-137.

desiring = asking.

of = from. Greek. para. App-104.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

20-28.] AMBITIOUS REQUEST OF THE MOTHER OF THE SONS OF ZEBEDEE; OUR LORDS REPLY. Mar 10:35-45. Not related by Luke. This request seems to have arisen from the promise made to the twelve in ch. Mat 19:28. In Marks account, the two brethren themselves make the request. But the narration in the text is the more detailed and exact; and the two immediately coincide, by our Lord addressing His answer to the two Apostles (Mat 20:22). The difference is no greater than is perpetually to be found in narrations of the same fact, persons being often related to have done per se what, accurately speaking, they did per alterum. The mothers name was Salome;-she had followed our Lord from Galilee,-and afterwards witnessed the crucifixion, see Mar 15:40. Probably the two brethren had directed this request through their mother, because they remembered the rebuke which had followed their former contention about precedence.

Fuente: The Greek Testament

Mat 20:20. , then) at a most inappropriate time.[886]-, worshipping) Him. From the adoration and discourse of this woman, it is evident that she entertained a high idea of our Lords majesty, but possessed very little knowledge.-, something) She asked for something, indefinitely, as they do who knew that a refusal would not be unjust; see 1Ki 2:20.

[886] ) This thought seems to have entered the mind of the anxious mother altogether sooner than it did that of her sons: and even in her very supplication she acted the part of an intermediate agent or intercessor.-Harm., p. 433.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

came: Mar 10:35

the mother: Mat 4:21, Mat 27:56, Mar 15:40, Salome

worshipping: Mat 2:11, Mat 8:2, Mat 14:33, Mat 15:25, Mat 28:17

Reciprocal: 1Ki 2:20 – I desire Est 5:3 – What Mat 9:18 – worshipped Mat 10:2 – James Mat 18:1 – Who Mat 26:37 – Peter Luk 5:10 – James Luk 9:46 – General Luk 22:24 – General Heb 12:2 – endured 3Jo 1:9 – who loveth

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

0:20

In Mar 10:35 these brethren are identified simply as the sons of Zebedee as they would also be recognized to be in our verse. The reason for the seemingly unnecessary phrase mother of Zebedee’s children is that she spoke for her sons, whereas the account in Mark tells us only of their desire. The woman first worshiped Jesus before asking her favor. (See the long definition of “worship” at chapter 2:2.)

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Mat 20:20. The mother of the sons of Zebedee. Salome, according to an ancient tradition, the daughter of Joseph by a previous marriage; more probably the sister of Mary the mother of Jesus. Comp. Joh 19:25, and notes on chap. Mat 4:21; Mat 10:2; Mat 13:55. The request was suggested by her sons (comp. Mar 10:35), James and John, who were called Boanerges (Mar 3:17) and had been with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration (chap. Mat 17:1).

Worshipping him, i.e., saluting Him with reverence, as was usual in asking favor of a king.

Asking somewhat. She asked a favor but did not at once tell what it was, probably because doubtful of the propriety of the request.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

To sit on the right hand, and on the left, is to have the most eminent places of dignity and honour after Christ. This the mother might be encouraged to ask for James and John, because of their alliance to Christ, and because Christ had admitted them with Peter to be with him at his transfiguration. However, the rest of the disciples hearing of this ambitious request of the two brethren; and being as desirous and in their own opinions as deserving of the same honour, they had indignation against them.

Whence note, That none of the disciples did imagine that Christ had promised the supremacy to Peter, by these words, Tu es Petrus, Thou art Peter; for then neither James nor John had desired it, nor would the rest have contended for it.

Observe here, 1. The persons making this request to Christ, Zebedee’s children, that is, James and John, by the mouth of their mother. They spake by her lips, and made use of her tongue to usher in a request which they were ashamed to make themselves.

Observe, 2. The request itself, Grant that these two may sit, the one on thy right hand, and the other on thy left hand.

Where note, How these disciples did still dream of Christ’s temporal kingdom, (although he had so often told them, That his kingdom was not of this world) and ambitiously seek to have preference and pre-eminence in the kingdom. See here how these poor fishermen had already learnt craftily to fish for preferment. Who can wonder in seeing some sparks of ambition and worldly desires in the highest ministers of Christ, when the apostles themselves were not free from aspiring thoughts, even when they lay in the bosom of their Saviour? Ambition has all along infested churchmen, and troubled the church, even from the very first original and foundation of it.

Observe, 3. Both the unseasonableness and unreasonableness of this request made by his disciples. Christ speaks of his sufferings to them and they sue for dignity and great places from him, in optimis nonnihil est pessimi; the holiest, the wisest, and the best of men, in their imperfect state, are not wholly free from passionate infirmities. Who would have expected that when our Saviour had been preaching the doctrine of the cross to his disciples, telling them that he must be mocked, scourged, spit upon, and crucified for them, that they should be seeking and suing to him for secular dignity and honour, pre-eminence and power? But we plainly see, the best of men are but men, and the none are in a state of perfection on this side of heaven.

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

Mat 20:20-23. Then came to him the mother of Zebedees children Instigated, it seems, by them. See Mar 10:35. With her sons James and John; worshipping him That is, falling down before him; and desiring a certain thing of him, &c. Considering what he had just been speaking, was ever any thing more unseasonable? See also chap. Mat 18:1; Mar 9:34; where a similar spirit of ambition manifested itself among the disciples on a similar occasion, Christ having then also just foretold his sufferings. Grant that these my two sons may sit, &c., in thy kingdom Still they expected a temporal kingdom. Jesus answered, Ye know not what ye ask Ye are not aware what is implied in being advanced in my kingdom, and what is necessarily prerequired in order thereto. All who share in my kingdom must first share in my sufferings. Are you able and willing to do this? Both the expressions here used, the cup and the baptism, are to be understood of his sufferings and death. The like expressions were common among the Jews. They say unto him, We are able Not knowing, it appears, what they said. And he saith unto them, Ye shall drink indeed of my cup Accordingly it is observable, that this James was the first of all the apostates who suffered martyrdom for Christ, Act 12:2; and John was scourged by the Jews, Act 5:40; and afterward banished by Domitian into the isle of Patmos, where he speaks of himself as a companion in Christs tribulation: (Rev 1:9 🙂 not to mention Tertullians tradition, that at Rome he was plunged into boiling oil; by which, it is said, instead of being destroyed, he was sensibly refreshed; nor what the pretended Prochorus says of the attempts made by some heretics to poison him, which is generally referred to in the pictures of this apostle, where the venom is ridiculously represented as coming out of the cup, in the form of a serpent, to signify, that the poison did not take effect. Doddridge. To sit on my right hand, &c., is not mine to give; but it shall be given, &c. These words, but it shall be given, are not in the original, but are supplied, and that unnecessarily, by our translators. The original words, , , should be rendered, It is not mine to give, unless to them for whom it is prepared of my Father; being here put for , as it is also Mar 9:8. That is, I can give the chief places in my kingdom to none but to those who, according to the immutable laws of my Father, are capable of occupying them. He applies to the glories of heaven what his disciples were so stupid as to understand of the glories of earth: but he does not deny that these are his to give. They are his to give in the strictest propriety, both as God, and as the Son of man. See Joh 10:28; Luk 22:29. He only asserts, that he gives them to none but those for whom they are originally prepared, namely, these glories, to those who endure to the end in the faith that worketh by love, and the chief places to them who are most eminent for their graces, according to the unalterable laws of the divine administration.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

AMBITION OF JAMES AND JOHN

Mat 20:20-28; Mar 1:35-45. James and John, the sons of Zebedee, come to Him, saying, Teacher, we wish that You may do to us whatsoever we may ask. And He said to them, What do you wish Me to do for you? And they said to Him, Grant unto us that we may sit, the one on Thy right hand, and one on Thy left hand, in Thy glory. Matthew says their mother, Salome, made the request for them. There is no disharmony between Matthew and Mark in this matter, as Qui facit per alium, facit per se, that old Roman law, transferred to England and then to America What any one does by another, he does by himself is not only recognized among all nations, but was so recognized by the inspired writers. At that time none of the disciples had any idea that Jesus was going to die and leave the world, but were on the constant lookout for Him to ascend the throne of Judea, and establish a kingdom, in glory eclipsing that of David and Solomon. The mother and the young men had considerable reason to believe that they would stand a good chance for the prime ministry in the coming kingdom, as He had repeatedly shown them and Peter extraordinary courtesy, permitting them to be present when He raised the daughter of Jairus from the dead, and in the glorious scene of the transfiguration. They all, however, in this matter abundantly evince their need of entire sanctification, which they all received about two months from that date, when the Pentecostal baptism fell on them, consuming all their ambition.

Jesus said to them, You know not what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup which I drink, and to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized? And they said to Him, We are able. And Jesus said to them, You shall drink of the cup which I drink, and be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized; but to sit on My right hand and on My left hand is not Mine to give, but theirs for whom it has been prepared. Jesus here alludes to the baptism of bloody martyrdom, which then awaited Him in about eight days. Baptizo means to purify. (Joh 3:26, and Luk 11:38.) Jesus took on Himself the sins of the whole world, an awful mountain of dark pollution. This was all purified away when He died on the cross, thus perfecting the vicarious atonement. It is quite significant that James was the first one of the Twelve to seal his faith with his blood, John outliving all, but suffering so much toil and persecution, even miraculously delivered from the caldron of boiling oil in Rome, that he would justly rank along with his brother, pre-eminent in martyrdom.

And the ten, hearing, began to be displeased about James and John. Jesus calling them, says to them, You know that those seeming competent to rule the Gentiles, have the dominion over them, and their great men exercise power over them. But it shall not be so among you. But whosoever shall wish to be great among you, shall be your minister; and whosoever shall wish to be first among you, shall be the servant of all. For the Son of man did not come to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many. Our Savior here elucidates the difference between His kingdom and the secular governments, as in the latter there is such a thing as official emolument, remuneration, aggrandizement, and honor; whereas in the former the whole trend of the matter is diametrically opposite, the officer being a waiter, administering to the interest of others; and the chief officer actually being the servant of all the members of the kingdom, having the most laborious place, constantly encumbered with toil and labor in the interest of others, a grand spiritual truth, so little understood and realized by the people, and even Church officials, who are prone to look upon ecclesiastical offices in the light of the secular. Here we have a deep and comprehensive signification in our Saviors statement, To give His life a ransom for many. Did He not die for all? He certainly did. Then why did He not in this passage say, Give His life a ransom for all, instead of many? N. B. All has an objective signification, while many is used subjectively. Now what is the difference? All means the whole human race, for whom Jesus died objectively; while many means the elect, in the broad sense, including every human being, of all ages and nations, who, in the infinite mercy and goodness of God, may, in some way, effect an entrance into heaven at last.

Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament

Mat 20:20-28. The Request of the Sons of Zebedee. The Christian Standard of Greatness (Mar 10:35-45*, Luk 22:24-27).Mt. makes the mother of James and John ask the boon, but Jesus replies to them, not to her. For Mk.s glory (Mat 20:37) he has kingdom; the meaning is the same. The references to baptism are omitted, and my Father is said to have prepared the places.

Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible

Verse 20

The mother of Zebedee’s children; Salome, the mother of James and John.

Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament

20:20 {5} Then came to him the mother of Zebedee’s children with her sons, worshipping [him], and desiring a certain thing of him.

(5) The manner of the heavenly kingdom is quite contrary to the earthly kingdom.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

5. Instruction about serving 20:20-28 (cf. Mar 10:35-45)

This pericope shows that the disciples did not understand what Jesus had said (cf. Luk 18:34).

"Despite Jesus’ repeated predictions of his passion, two disciples and their mother are still thinking about privilege, status, and power." [Note: Carson, "Matthew," p. 430.]

"The natural human concern with status and importance is clearly one of the most fundamental instincts which must be unlearned by those who belong to God’s kingdom." [Note: France, The Gospel . . ., p. 755.]

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

Evidently James and John approached Jesus with their mother who voiced the request for them (cf. Mar 10:35). The reason they took this approach was not significant to the Gospel writers, though it suggests some reticence on the part of James and John. Evidently they believed Jesus would be more favorable to their mother’s request than to theirs perhaps because Jesus had been teaching them to be humble. Their kneeling implied respect but not necessarily worship.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

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