Originally preached on September 14, 2006
Sterling C. Franklin
Chapel service, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School
"Not So With You"
Introduction
Context -- Jesus was going up to Jerusalem since it was about time for the feast of Passover. This is a literal ’going up’ since Jerusalem is a city with high elevation, the Temple being at the pinnacle. Directly before this passage, Jesus reiterates to His disciples that He will be betrayed and Crucified on the trip.
Text: Matthew 20:20-28
20:20 Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came to Him with her sons, bowing down, and making a request of Him.
20:21 And 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."
20:22 But Jesus answered and said, "You do not know what you are asking for. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink?" They said to Him, "We are able."
20:23 He 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."
20:24 And hearing this, the ten became indignant with the two brothers.
20:25 But Jesus called them to Himself, and said, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them.
20:26 "It is not so among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant,
20:27 and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave;
20:28 just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many."
A. Text Walkthrough:
(20)
Salome -- the mother of James and John -- kneeled before the Lord
- Sign of respect and deference, also worship
(21)
Jesus listened to her request.
Understandable zeal from Salome -- as a mother, she wants the best for her kids. Here, she asked for a position of prominence for her children.
Salome recognized that Jesus had ownership in His Kingdom -- "your kingdom" -- He could command whatever He wanted and it would be so.
(22)
You don’t know what you’re asking -- 2nd person plural - "You all"
Jesus understood that it was more of a family request
- Could have been James and John telling their mother to do this with the mentality, ’Maybe Jesus would consider this more if our mother asked Him.’
- Could have been that James and John would have felt embarrassed or wrong for asking Jesus as they were convicted by their own prideful request.
- Application: Sometimes we are convicted by our own sinful thought patterns, even before we act. We should be sensitive to how the Holy Spirit deals with our consciences, remembering that anything not done in faith is sin, as well as anything against God’s Word is definitely sin.
- Application: However, we should in one sense want to be as close to Jesus as possible.
□ This may or may not have been in the sons of Zebedee’s minds, but it is a very possible explanation since they weren’t the ones asking!
- Application: James and John could also have been embarrassed to ask since they respected Jesus so much that they were intimidated by His authority. This can be our natural reaction to an encounter with God. Daniel fell down as though dead when he saw an angel of God (Daniel 8:17-18). Isaiah was in misery for being ’completely undone’ as a man in Holy God’s presence (Isaiah 6).
(25) Gentiles – from ethnos, also can be translated ’pagans’
Jesus did not want us leading in the same manner as the world.
-- Matthew 19 fills us in on something Jesus previously said.
Peter asks Jesus what the disciples will get for following Him and leaving everything behind.
-- You will sit on twelve thrones and judge the twelve tribes of Israel! (cf. Matthew 19:28). However, even here Jesus mentions the major lesson – "But many that are first shall be last; and the last shall be first" (Matthew 19:30).
Natural reaction of James & John – WOW! Let’s tell mom about this!
Natural reaction of Salome – wanting the best for her sons.
She seems like a well-intentioned and righteous woman.
However, were James and John alone in their desire for grandeur? No – verse 24 – the rest of the disciples were filled with indignation. THEY wanted the best seats.
Jesus then calls them together and makes it clear that there is a wrong and right way to rule and lead.
First, Jesus mentions that we should not rule as the Gentile or pagan rulers...
B. Jesus’ Message:
1. Don’t be like the Gentile rulers
- They lord it over their subjects
We have an Augustinian City of God-like dichotomy here – those of the world and those of the Kingdom. The world’s priorities are a completely different set from those of Jesus’ Kingdom.
KJV: dominion, authority
Example 1: Herod in Acts 12 – "His voice is the voice of a god!" He didn’t give glory to God, and he was eaten from the inside out by worms! Yikes! That would be a lame party, but I’m sure many people took note of the God of Heaven that day.
Example 2: Xerxes/Ahasuerus in the book of Esther – ’Let’s have a festival to celebrate my greatness...a 180-day festival, with a 7-day banquet following...’
Example 3: Pharaoh in Exodus, who made the Israelites’ work of making bricks as hard as possible, and yet he wouldn’t let God’s people go.
-- Issue of pride: God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble (James 4:6).
With many of these rulers, their lives revolved around themselves. The center of their life wasn’t nearly God, but rather themselves and their legacy.
Jesus says, "Not so with you." We aren’t to be like these worldly rulers.
2. Be a servant-leader like Jesus
- Jesus of all people had the right to brag. He could have come and said, "I’m the Son of God by whom God created the world. I’m the King of Kings, so get me a castle, the best in food and servants, and I will live as the King that I am!"
- Jesus didn’t ask for a castle or a throne. He had no place to lay his head, even though He was the King of kings and Lord of lords. Instead of saying, "Wash my feet," he washed His disciples’ feet.
- Instead of saying, "Because I’m so great, give me the best," Jesus promoted the message, ’I am the Son of God, and I will give you the best and show you the way of humility.’ Yet Jesus is and will be exalted.
The contrast of dominion and authority is to that of ’minister’ and ’servant.’ Note that the latter are also part of a person’s identity. You can’t be "dominion," but you can be a "minister." You can’t be "authority," but you can be a "servant." Being great in God’s Kingdom requires that we are characterized by service, and it needs to be part of our identity.
- As James 4:10 states, "Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and He will lift you up!"
- This model of leadership is such a paradigm shift from what we’d normally think.
- 1 Corinthians 1 – God using the foolishness of the world to confound the wise.
Yet Jesus was our greatest servant, and He predicts the greatest act of love in history in this text (cf. Matthew 20:28).
And yet we, as current-day disciples of God, sometimes also miss the boat, just like the twelve disciples. We can so easily get wrapped up in selfish pride, keeping us from true service in love for our God. I want to especially encourage you, and if you want to close your eyes and/or meditate on these examples and passages, then that’s great. I want to take some time to really focus on our ultimate servant-leader, Jesus Christ. Let us be servants, just as Jesus commanded His followers, in gladness, obedience, and love.
C. Examples of Jesus’ Servant Leadership:
- Physical, yet Miraculous Provision
- The intro of Jesus’ ministry, the miracle at Cana of Galilee of turning water into wine, physically saving the wedding.
- The feeding of the 4000 and 5000, and the miraculous service, even with negligible resources, and the miracle involved in multiplying food.
- Jesus casting out demons from various people, healing the sick, raising the dead.
- Promised Service
- John 14:3 - And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.
- Humility
- Washing the disciples’ feet, and His statement to the disciples in John 13:14, "You should also wash one another’s feet."
- Jesus coming as a man, being so humble as to be made in the likeness of man.
- But mainly...
- His obedience to the Father in all things.
- His cry, It is Finished, laying His life down for His friends, even as an innocent Lamb Sacrifice, in obedience to the Father’s Will. Here, Jesus served us.
"Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." – John 15:13
Final Challenge: Jesus was our greatest servant, and let us obey in not ruling as the Gentiles, but rather being servants modeled after Him.
