How not to be Great in the Kingdom

Published by Stanley Pouw in 2014 · 20 July 2014

Matthew 20:20-25, “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.”

We live in a very proud and egotistical generation. People promoting pride as a virtue. But society depends on relationships; meaningful, on-going, supportive relationships. So when people are all committed to themselves alone, built into that is the disintegration of all relationships. All social inter-relationship are at a stress point because everybody is screaming for their own rights, everybody is consumed with self-esteem, self-promotion and pride.

Some Christians now think that God's only design for us is to be healthy, wealthy, prosperous, happy, satisfied, fulfilled and so forth. We know very little about sacrifice. We know very little of the pain of suffering. All we want to do is eliminate all that so that we can get on to self-fulfillment. We are consumed with the creature comforts, pleasure, vacations, travel for the self-satisfying feeling that we get by fulfilling what we believe to be deep needs.

And we have forgotten the whole subject of humility. There was a time in the church where there were many who were teaching and preaching on humility and there was a certain brokenness in the church. At the time of the Reformation, or the time of the Puritans and you find there was a sense of brokenness, of contrition. There was a humility, a meekness within the church that gave it great power.

And the Bible is very clear about pride, "A proud heart is sin," says Proverbs 21:4. "Every one who is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord," says Proverbs 16:5. Proverbs 8:13 says, "And the fear of the Lord is to hate evil, pride and arrogance." In fact, pride in Romans 1:30 is the mark of man's fallenness into a reprobate mind. In 1 Timothy 3:6, it says "Pride comes from the devil." In 1 John 2:16, it says it is a part of the world. And in 1 Timothy 6:3 and 4 it says it belongs to false teachers. So, pride is an abomination.

In fact, the Bible in James 4:6 says that God resists the proud. In Isaiah 23:9 it says He brings the proud into contempt. In Psalm 31:23 it says the proud will be recompensed, that is judged. In Exodus 18:11, the proud will be subdued. Psalm 18:27, they will be brought low. They will be abased, Daniel 4:37. They will be scattered, Luke 1:51. They will be punished, it says in Malachi 4:1.

But on the other hand, humility is a virtue in the Bible and is exalted as a virtue. Micah 6:8 says, "What does the Lord desire of you? But to do justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God." In Psalm 138:6 it says, “Though the Lord is on high, yet He regards the lowly." In Psalm 10:17, "Lord, You have heard the desire of the humble." Over and over, and we can read dozens and dozens of Scriptures, God exalts humility.

One key verse we should remember, Proverbs 15:33, "Before honor is humility." The ones that the Lord lifts up are the humble. And that's why Colossians 3:12 says that we are to put on humility. 1 Peter 5:5 says we are to be clothed with humility. Ephesians 4:1-2, we are to walk in humility. If you ever desire honor and glory from God, it comes through humility. Now this is contrary to our earthly philosophy where pride is always exalted.

Now the lesson of honor through humility and glory through suffering, we all need to learn and the disciples needed to learn it too. And that is the essence of Matthew 20:20-28. The disciples were into self- promotion, self-glory, seeking to be somebody special, to be recognized and esteemed. And the Lord needed to correct that, and He does correct that in this passage. Unfortunately He taught it a lot better than they learned. And He has to reteach this lesson just a few days after teaching here on the way to Jerusalem.

Now remember that the disciples basically forsook all and followed Jesus. And they did so genuinely. But they followed Him knowing that whatever they gave up now would be more than replenished when He entered into His Kingdom. And so, there was this residual materialistic element in their thinking where they were awaiting the time when Jesus established His Kingdom and returned to them a hundred fold everything they had ever lost.

And He has just finished verses 17 to 19, in what is a clear description of His death. Now in Matthew 20 He reiterates for the third time that He is going to Jerusalem to die, to suffer. He's trying to balance their perspective. Yes, there is a Kingdom, but the way to the Kingdom is through suffering. Death then glory. Humility is before honor, as it says so in Proverbs 15:33.

And Jesus had emphasized humility in Matthew 18:3 when He said, "Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.” That's the mark of a true follower of Jesus Christ. And He tried to get that message across to the rich young ruler by saying, "Come into My Kingdom, abandon everything you have and come to Me with nothing."

And now 2000 years later, we still suffer from the same kind of selfishness that the disciples suffered from. Jesus talked about suffering and all they could think about was their own self- glory. It is the same today, beloved, Jesus is still talking about suffering. He is still saying, "Take up your cross." He is still saying that the path to glory is through humility.

Jesus is still saying give your life away in ministry, give up everything you have in this world to do what Christ wants no matter what the cost. And people are still missing that. We are still hearing the health and prosperity stuff that increases people's self-love. People also today look at grace like a free lunch, like a free ticket to the storehouse of divine goodies where they are supposed to check out anything and everything they want.

Later on, even after Jesus taught them this lesson in Matthew 20, they were in the upper room meeting and Judas was there betraying Him and Jesus said in Matthew 26, "One of you will betray Me," and they were asking who it would be. And in the middle of all of that they were still arguing about who was going to be the greatest in the Kingdom. At the very night of the Passover, at the Lord's Table as Jesus was telling them of His own death, betrayal, they still were debating about which of them was going to sit in the chief seats in the Kingdom.

That's not what God has called us to. He has called us to humility. In fact, in 2 Timothy 2:12 it says if we endure, we will reign with Him. And after we have suffered a while, says 1 Peter 5:10, the Lord will make us perfect. And the sufferings of this world are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be ours. As we suffer here, we are glorified there.

And John Calvin wrote, "For so blindly do we all rush in the direction of self-love that everyone thinks he has a good reason for exalting himself and despising all others in comparison. There is no other remedy than to pluck up by the roots those most noxious pests, self-love and love of victory, this the doctrine of Scripture does. For it teaches us to remember that the endowments which God has bestowed upon us are not our own but His free gifts and that those who plume themselves upon them betray their ingratitude," end quote.

Now we need to reexamine then this whole idea of humility as a path to glory. Let's look at our text. Two teachings are given, how not to be great in verses 20 through 25; and how to be great in verses 26 to 28. Let us study the first one tonight. Four wrong worldly ways to seek greatness are given in this; two by example and two by instruction of our Lord. And men pursue greatness through those means but they are not adaptable to God's Kingdom.

Number one, is political power play. Now the world will tell us if you want to get ahead it all depends on who you know, right? And so you manipulate people and circumstances to find your way in with those you want to get in with and they will pull you to the top. Let's look at this political power play in verse 20, "Then the mother of Zebedee’s sons came to Him with her sons, kneeling down and asking something from Him." Now it amazes me that this happens upon the heels of Jesus' explanation of His coming death.

By the way, Mark 10 is a comparative text, tells of the same incident in verses 35 to 41 and there the mother is not even mentioned. There it's James and John who are asking. So we don't want to get the idea that she was on her own, or that they were tagging along. They came as a trio. Matthew seems to focus on her. Mark definitely focuses on James and John. The request was from all three of them.

And so, they come. And Jesus says in verse 21, "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.” They want the chief place in the Kingdom. They are seeking self-glory, honor and esteem. If you don't think James and John were bold, read Mark 3:17, their names were "Sons of thunder."

And they came to Jesus using a family relationship. When Mark describes the crucifixion of Jesus he mentions the name of the mother of the sons of Zebedee. Matthew just calls her the mother of the sons of Zebedee. But Mark gives us her name, Salome. And John says that she was Jesus’ mother’s sister. So the mother of the sons of Zebedee is the sister of Mary the mother of Jesus. Now you understand the politics?

And they want to use the fact that they were His cousins as a special impetus. You see, this is manipulation. And Mark 10 says she wouldn't tell Jesus what she wanted. She wanted Him to promise to give it before she told Him what it was. That's very childish, it also betrays a tremendous ambition. They wanted this so badly that they actually wanted to corner Christ into promising something that they thought if He knew He wouldn't do. They still did not realize that He is all-knowing.

There's always that self-seeking, even in Christianity. But our Lord rejects political power play. That is not how you reach the place of blessing and honor in the Kingdom. In verse 22, "But Jesus answered and said, “You do not know what you ask." The highest places of glory are reserved for those who went through the deepest places of suffering. When we are afflicted and persecuted for the cause of the gospel, we are building up a greater inheritance of glory in eternity.

So we learned in the early part of Matthew 20, that all of us equally receive eternal life. And yet, somehow, mysteriously so, though we all inherit the perfection of Christ's likeness in eternity, all of us who believe no matter what our lives were like, there still is beyond that a glory reserved for those who suffered the most for the cause of Christ in this life. I don't know how God harmonizes those, but that is God’s business.

Verse 22 continued, "Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink?" Now the cup is an Old Testament symbol that means to take everything in, to drink it to the last drop. Our Lord is saying, are you able to suffer to the degree that I am, to drink the whole cup? Isaiah talks about the cup of God's fury. Christ calls it in Matthew 26:59, really the bitter cup of suffering.

That's how God balances it. And because Christ suffered most, He is glorified most. And whoever suffers next most to Him will be glorified next to Him. And so eternal weight of glory is predicated on suffering. So if you seek then that place of eternal glory where you can exalt the Lord Jesus Christ forever in His presence, uniquely seated beside Him in some sense, you will find it not by political power play and not by audacious ambition, but by humility and suffering and a total self-denial and self-sacrifice for His sake.

Now these two disciples did not understand. At the end of verse 22, they said to Him, "We are able." That is excessive confidence. There are a lot of people who charge into a task and think they can do it. And that is also true in a lot of ways in the spiritual dimension. It's like Peter, who said in Matthew 26:33, "Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will.” And we all know what happened. Before the cock crowed, he was denying the Lord.

Well, in verse 23, the gentle Savior responds to them in a tender way. He says, " 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.” You will taste it. You will never drink the whole thing but you will taste it. And Jesus was telling them the truth.

James was faithful, wasn't he? Acts 12 says he was the first dying martyr. And John was faithful, too, and he was the first living martyr, exiled to the Isle of Patmos to spend out his life. They did drink of the cup. They couldn't have drunk it all as Jesus did, but they tasted that same cup. They knew the fellowship of His sufferings, if not the fullness of them. They came around by the power of the Holy Spirit. See, they never were able to handle this until after the Spirit came and infused them with internal spiritual strength.

Jesus is emphasizing His submissiveness to the Father. He is the one passing out the rewards. He is the one who gives the ultimate glory and it is His decision to whomever He has prepared that. Verse 24 is an interesting insight, "And when the ten heard it, they were greatly displeased with the two brothers." No, they weren't spiritual, they were mad because they got in there before they did. Read Luke 22:24 to 27, they were all arguing about who's going to be the greatest.

And so, the Lord teaches them another lesson. Look at verse 25, "Jesus called them unto Him and said, you know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them.” This is the world's way. We've seen them all. They have been and gone and they keep coming.

They lord it over people. And that's how they get their greatness. That's a style of leadership you find in a lot of places. This happens in the church, too. But if you would like to be great before the Lord, He is saying, don't use your natural capabilities, your natural personality characteristics to manipulate and move people around. Don't do that.

If you would be great, learn the lesson that Jesus teaches in verse 22. That before honor is humility, that before you ever know the crown, you drink the cup. And for us to be exalted we have to use the way of humility. It's not seeking those things. But it's seeking to know God and to humbly walk with Him that allows God to lift you up. That's His way. Let us pray.