Read Matthew 20:20–28
Questions from the Scripture text: Who came in v20? With whom? Doing what? Speaking how? How does He answer in v21? For whom does she request? That hey would sit where? In what place? What does Jesus tell James and John (the answer is in the plural, v22)? What two things does He ask them? How do they answer? What does He tell them will happen to them (v23)? But what does He tell them about siting on His right hand or left? Who have heard it in v24? How do they respond? Whom does Jesus call in v25? Unto Whom? What does He say that they know about whom else? Whom does He say must be different (v26)? What might one of them desire, and what must that person be? What else might one of them desire, and what must he be (v27)? For what purpose didn’t Who come (v28)? Why did He come? Which great service in particular?
How do saints come to glory? Matthew 20:20–28 prepares us for the sermon in the morning public worship on the coming Lord’s Day. In these nine verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that saints come to glory through service and suffering with Christ.
The wisdom of Jesus. We immediately see how needful it had been for Him to take them aside in v17–19 to emphasize to them His humiliation, suffering, and death. Even after His doing so, they are focused entirely upon the glory prophesied in 19:28.
There is much to be commended in the desire of these brothers and their praying mother. They have faith to believe that Jesus will be glorified, to trust that His Word is effectual, and to make request of Him. They have humility to bow low and to wait to be bidden to ask. They have love to desire to be near Him in the next life, as they have been in this one.
But they are not counting the cost, and in His wisdom, Jesus now prompts them to do so. He reminds them of the portion (cup) that He has been assigned in this life, and the means by which He will be initiated (baptism) into His glory. There will be no crown without a cross.
The gentleness of Jesus. Jesus doesn’t chide them for asserting their ability. He simply affirms that they will come to glory through suffering, while managing their expectations by instructing them that one’s rank in the kingdom is not achieved or brokered, but prepared by the Father. Even the response of the ten does not move Jesus off of His gentleness.
Rather than responding in exasperation to the fact that they all seem to have missed the lessons that we have learned in the last two chapters, He kindly calls them to Himself. And He points out to them the difference between those raging kingdoms of the Gentiles (v25, cf. Ps 2:1–2) and His own kingdom as the suffering Servant (v28, cf. Isa 53:10–11).
In His kingdom, the way to the top is down (v26). The humblest slave receives the highest position (v27), in which none can outdo Christ (v28). Here is the theme of the entire book of Matthew, and in some ways, of the whole Bible: the glorious God humbled Himself in order to ransom those unto whom He was determined to give a place in His kingdom.
Behold your wise, gentle Savior. Not only did He submit Himself to the cross for your sake, but He knows exactly your need for Him to apply its lessons to you. And, He patiently and gently keeps teaching you by pointing you to Himself.
What position or praise does your flesh crave? By what sort of path are you expecting to go to glory? Whom can you trust with your place in the kingdom? How does this change the way you think and act in/about the church? Of whom have you made yourself servant and slave?
Sample prayer: Lord, thank You for determining to give each of us our own particular place in Your kingdom. Forgive us for desiring any other place but the one that You have intended. Please give us the wisdom to expect that we will only come to glory through service and suffering. And, graciously carry us through that service and suffering until You have brought us all the way home to our place in Your kingdom, we ask in the Name of Jesus, AMEN!
Suggested songs: ARP15 “Within Your Tent, Who Will Abide” or TPH539“Am I a Soldier of the Cross”
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