Matthew 20: 17 – 28
Double Dealing
17 Now Jesus, going up to Jerusalem, took the twelve disciples aside on the road and said to them, 18 “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death, 19 and deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock and to scourge and to crucify. And the third day He will rise again.” 20 Then the mother of Zebedee’s sons came to Him with her sons, kneeling down and asking something from Him. 21 And He said to her, “What do you wish?” She said to Him, “Grant that these two sons of mine may sit, one on Your right hand and the other on the left, in Your kingdom.” 22 But Jesus answered and said, “You do not know what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” They said to Him, “We are able.” 23 So He said to them, “You will indeed drink My cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with; but to sit on My right hand and on My left is not Mine to give, but it is for those for whom it is prepared by My Father.” 24 And when the ten heard it, they were greatly displeased with the two brothers. 25 But Jesus called them to Himself and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them. 26 Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. 27 And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave— 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.”
Now for your personal biblical development regarding the Gospels I want to give you the same situation given in the other Gospels. When we put them together we get a fuller understanding of what went on.
Mark 10, “32 Now they were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was going before them; and they were amazed. And as they followed they were afraid. Then He took the twelve aside again and began to tell them the things that would happen to Him: 33 “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death and deliver Him to the Gentiles; 34 and they will mock Him, and scourge Him, and spit on Him, and kill Him. And the third day He will rise again. 35 Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to Him, saying, “Teacher, we want You to do for us whatever we ask.” 36 And He said to them, “What do you want Me to do for you?” 37 They said to Him, “Grant us that we may sit, one on Your right hand and the other on Your left, in Your glory.” 38 But Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” 39 They said to Him, “We are able.” So Jesus said to them, “You will indeed drink the cup that I drink, and with the baptism I am baptized with you will be baptized; 40 but to sit on My right hand and on My left is not Mine to give, but it is for those for whom it is prepared.” 41 And when the ten heard it, they began to be greatly displeased with James and John. 42 But Jesus called them to Himself and said to them, “You know that those who are considered rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. 43 Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant. 44 And whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of all. 45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”
Luke 18, “31 Then He took the twelve aside and said to them, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man will be accomplished. 32 For He will be delivered to the Gentiles and will be mocked and insulted and spit upon. 33 They will scourge Him and kill Him. And the third day He will rise again.” 34 But they understood none of these things; this saying was hidden from them, and they did not know the things which were spoken.
Today’s topic is ‘Double-Dealing.’ It means deception by pretending to entertain one set of intentions while acting under the influence of another. We are going to see our Lord Jesus’ cousins and his aunt try to pull a fast one over Him. (Can you imagine that they entertained the thought that they could?).
Had the disciples not been fully truthful in all that they wrote this story would have been passed over. Here are two of the greatest of the Apostles and they behave so abominably that we can only blush for them and hang our heads in shame. And it is not hidden in a footnote. Matthew in fact milks it for all he is worth, not out of a spirit of jealousy, but to bring out the great contrast at this point between the Apostles and the Holy Son of God Jesus Christ. As He was going forward to a cross of shame, these two cousins eyes were fixed on their own glory. They would let Him down to the end. But in truth so have we also been letting Him down in the same way ever since.
The account is to be read in the context of Jesus’ words about the twelve sitting on twelve thrones as we read back in chapter 19.28, which enflamed their imaginations so that they had to be put firmly right (20.25-27), and the parable of the laborer’s in the vineyard which they had blatantly ignored (19.30-20.16), accentuated by the fact that the Lord Jesus has set His face to go to Jerusalem (20.17) and has just informed His Apostles again of the terrible end that awaits Him there (20.18-19), something which has clearly passed them by. For us it is quite clear which words of Adoni Jesus were prominent in their minds, and which words should have been.
Their double-dealing is brought out even more by their use of their mother as their messenger.
But what the story does bring out most of all is the total contrast between their own self-seeking and what Yeshua God Adoni Jesus was calling on them to be. For He brings out that He does not want them to be thinking about prestigious thrones. He wants them to be thinking about true service, and that in terms of His own service as the Suffering Servant.
17 Now Jesus, going up to Jerusalem, took the twelve disciples aside on the road and said to them, 18 “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death,
‘As Jesus was going up to Jerusalem.’ Matthew does not want us to miss the context. What is to follow must be seen in the light of that fact that The Messiah Jesus Christ had His eyes fixed on a cross in Jerusalem.
Eager that His chosen twelve Apostles should be prepared for what was coming, He took them to one side on the journey and again emphasized what His fate was going to be. And He makes clear that it will happen to Him as ‘the Son of Man’. The picture of the Son of Man emerging from suffering and going on the clouds of Heaven to receive kingship and glory was by now well known to them (Daniel 7). But He stresses it again, and again reminds them that it will be at the hands of the Jewish leaders, the Chief Priests and the Scribes, those upstanding leaders of religion in Jerusalem.
This is the third time He told them this fact. We learn of the other two in chapter 16 verse 21 and the second is mentioned in chapter 17 verses 22 – 23.
Please note the importance of His statement ‘Will be delivered’ This remark signifies that it is God Who will deliver Him up. All that is happening is within the will and purpose of God.
‘And they will condemn him to death.’ Jesus knew what His fate must be for He was walking in the way of the Suffering Servant (20.28; Isaiah 53). He is indicating that this will be an official sentence of the Sanhedrin. This is suggested both by the verb and by the Chief Priests and the Scribes sharing one definite article, demonstrating that despite their enmity towards each other they would be acting together. While they could not carry out the sentence, they could certainly pass such a sentence, and regularly did.
19 and deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock and to scourge and to crucify. And the third day He will rise again.”
The fact that He must die means that Jesus is aware from the beginning that it will be at the hands of the Romans, for they alone had the power to carry out the death sentence. But here it is spelled out for the first time, as is the fact that His death will be by crucifixion. This would come as no surprise to One who had constantly spoken of taking up the cross. Indeed, the whole process simply indicates the normal expectation for a condemned Jewish criminal, mockery, scourging and crucifixion. The only unusual feature, given that He Is to be executed, is that He will be raised on the third day. The resurrection of the Suffering Servant is assumed in Isaiah 53.10-12, and implied in Daniel 7.13-14.
Our Lord Jesus ‘death and resurrection should have come as no surprise to the disciples. Here He clearly again explained to them what would happen to Him. Unfortunately, they didn’t really what He was saying. Our Lord Jesus revealed to them that He Was the promised Messiah, but they thought the Messiah would be a conquering King.
He spoke to them about resurrection, but they heard only His words about death. Because the Lord Jesus often spoke to them in Parables the disciples may have thought that His words on death and resurrection were another Parable. They weren’t astute enough to understand.
20 Then the mother of Zebedee’s sons came to Him with her sons, kneeling down and asking something from 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 27.56) was Salome (Mark 15.40). She was Jesus’ aunt (John 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 honor. So, she seeks to ensure that they will have every opportunity. The act is typical of a strongminded mother, but Matthew makes quite clear that James and John are deeply involved, and it is with them that Jesus discusses the matter.
Salome gave the Lord Jesus worship but her real motive was to get something from Him. Too often we see this in operation in our churches. People play games in attempting to get something. For those Pastors’ who give into this type of double-dealing they often experience a lot of future problems.
21 And He said to her, “What do you wish?” She said to Him, “Grant that these two sons of mine may sit, one on Your right hand and the other on the left, in Your kingdom.”
When Jesus indicates His willingness to hear what she has to say she asks Him to ‘command’ that her two sons have the places of privilege when He takes up His kingship, one on the right hand and the other on the left. She assumes that He will have autonomous power and will be able to command what He wants. This suggestion fits well with Jesus having mentioned twelve thrones, for it indicates that she is not seeking a unique position for them, only one of special privilege among ‘equals’, which even now they appear partly to enjoy (John will have the favored place at the Last Supper). After all someone must have them, why not then her sons? Her very request brings out the growing sense that was permeating the wider group that Jesus was planning something special when He arrived at Jerusalem.
While possibly a little embarrassed they are standing by hoping for the best. And it is therefore to them that Jesus turns to dispose of the question once for all. For He knows that they have been very much involved in their mother coming to Him.
22 But Jesus answered and said, “You do not know what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” They said to Him, “We are able.”
Jesus then turns to the two young men who are standing there, possibly a little embarrassed, but certainly hopeful. They are totally involved with the request. And He points out to them that they do not know what they are asking. For if they did they would have recognized that they were now seeking places of intense and continual suffering.
Matthew intends for us to compare these words with his words in 27.38, where those who are on His right hand and His left may be sharing in His sufferings. No wonder The Holy Son of God Jesus our King says to James and John, ‘you do not know what you are asking’.
So He asks them whether they think that they really will be able to drink the cup that lies immediately ahead for Him (the ‘I’ is emphatic), the cup that He Is about to drink and of which He must drink (26.39, 42). This picture of the cup as a symbol of the drinking of suffering and of the undergoing of the wrath of God is a regular one in the Old Testament. The Psalmist declares, ‘In the hand of the Lord there is a cup and the wine is red’ and it is for all the wicked of the earth (Psalm 75.8). Isaiah tells us that Jerusalem had ‘drunk at the hand of the Lord the cup of His fury’ (Isaiah 51.17). God tells Jeremiah to ‘Take the cup of the wine of this fury at my hand and cause all the nations, to whom I send you, to drink it’ (Jeremiah 25.15). It is the cup that Jesus must drink to the full and it is to be given to Him by His Father (John 18.11). It is a cup the content of which we will never be able to appreciate despite all the information that we have been given and the passage of two thousand years of study.
But the two eager young men who stand before Him have no inkling of this. They think rather, either of the cup of the exertions and trials that will be involved in establishing the Messianic Rule, or the cup of authority and power which they will drink at the King’s table. And they feel capable of drinking both. So, they boldly declare, ‘we are able’. The one thing that they had no thought of was an inglorious cup. However, these words will soon catch up with them, when they will be given the opportunity to prove them, for in a few days’ time, at the first whiff of His cup, they will forsake Him and flee along with the others. That at least the twelve were united about. But this must be said for them, that they remained together and did not flee from Jerusalem.
23 So He said to them, “You will indeed drink My cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with; but to sit on My right hand and on My left is not Mine to give, but it is for those for whom it is prepared by My Father.”
All this Jesus knows. But as He looks at them, He loves them, and He is indeed aware of what they must suffer for His Name’s sake. So instead of pointing out that they are mistaken and have no idea what they are promising, He descends to a certain extent to their level and acknowledges that they will indeed drink of His cup, at least to some extent. For both will in future be called on to suffer in the cause of Christ. Both will shortly endure regular imprisonment and beatings (Acts 4.3; 5.18, 40), and James will later be beheaded by Herod Agrippa 1 (Acts 12.2), while John will suffer in other ways, as will all the disciples.
This kind of enigmatic reply by our Master Lord Jesus is His regular way of avoiding going into detail over things about which the disciples are mistaken but concerning which there is no point in giving an immediate explanation. He knew that there was much that they still had to learn and appreciate before they could be taught more fully.
But then He points out that, whatever they may feel themselves capable of, the privilege of being those closest to Him in authority is not within His gift.
24 And when the ten heard it, they were greatly displeased with the two brothers.
When news reached the ears of the ten about this attempt to pre-empt the allocation of the most important positions, they were furious. Each of them felt that they had a right to stake a claim and felt that this was an underhand way of going about it. But it was merely in each case an act of selfishness. All wanted to be equal, if they were among those who were more equal than others. For each wanted the most important ‘throne’ for themselves. And it is then that our Lord Jesus makes clear what is involved in occupying one of the thrones that He is offering.
25 But Jesus called them to Himself and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them.
Our Lord Jesus didn’t ridicule them for asking, but He denied them their request. We can feel free to ask God for anything, but our request may be denied. God wants to give us what is best for us, not merely what we want. He denies some requests for our good.
He points out to them that it is the way of the world, and especially of the Gentiles who are the very ones who will exercise their power against Him (verse 19), that rulers lord it over people, and great ones vaunt their authority over people. This is what sitting on a ‘throne’ means to them, and it is true even of the most benevolent. Thus, anyone who seeks for such a position is behaving like the Gentiles and behaving like the Gentiles is synonymous with the worst possible type of irreligious behavior. It is to behave as one not involved in the Kingly Rule of Heaven.
26 Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. 27 And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave—
But it is to be very different among the Apostles. That is why this seeking after positions is so unseemly. For the one who would be great among them must seek rather how they can serve, and the one who would be first among them (sitting at His right hand or His left) must recognize that it involves acting like a slave. This is what ‘sitting on a throne’ involves under the Kingly Rule of Heaven. And this attitude of heart, unnoticed by them, has been, and will continue to be, His constant theme.
It is evidence of the sinfulness of men’s hearts that religious people who want to emulate the Gentiles take such terms as ‘servant’ (diakonos) and turn them into titles of honor, and eagerly court them that they might be had in honor. But that is not our Lord Jesus’ intent here. The idea of our God Jesus is of genuine service, lowliness and humility (11.28-30). The man who seeks to be a minister or a deacon to be had in honor, is not worthy of the position. And the one who thinks himself to be ‘something’ when he is such simply demonstrates his unsuitability for ministry. For those who truly serve Him see themselves as the slaves of Christ and the slaves of others (verse 27). They have no sense of superiority at all.
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.”
The Lord Jesus subscribed leadership from a new perspective- instead of using people to enrich your own life we are to serve them to enrich their lives.
And they must take as their supreme example the Son of Man. He Who was destined to come out of suffering to receive the throne and the glory, had not come to exercise lordship and vaunted authority, nor to look to men to serve Him and cringe be humble before Him, nor to sit on a throne of pride. Rather He had come to serve, and His future throne would be a throne of service (Luke 12.37; 22.27). And in the last analysis His service on earth would in His case involve Him in total humiliation and in giving His life a ransom for many. He would fulfil the sacrificial ministry of the Servant.
That the Suffering Servant of Isaiah 50, 53 was in mind here can hardly be doubted. Our Master and Lord Jesus was declared to be the Servant after His baptism (3.17) and at His Transfiguration (17.5), while the context here is one in which the idea of lowly service is emphasized, and it comes at the end of Matthew’s ‘section’, the section in which he cites Isaiah by name.
A ransom was the price paid to release a slave from bondage. The Lord Jesus often told His disciples that He must die, but here He told them why – to redeem all people from the bondage of sin and death. The disciples thought that as long as Jesus was alive, He could save them, but His truth was that only in dying for all of us we are saved.
