Sermons on Matthew 20:22

I had never thought about the fact that earlier in the passage it says Jesus was teaching and talking to his disciples about his death. So he was talking to the 12. And then when he talks about these 10, here's what is happening. What had happened was the 12, he was talking to the 12 disciples and up pops one of their mamas. Amen. Amen. Make it plain. Something is to be said about a man that can't speak for himself. He needs his mama to speak for him. In fact, it's not one of them. It's two. It's two brothers, James and John. These two brothers. Their mama said, can you let my boys be your right hand and on your left hand? That's what's happening. And when the other ten heard it, verse 24, they were greatly displeased with the two brothers. 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 yet listen to verse 26 yet it shall not be so among you let me break that down for you this is how this is supposed to be in people who are going to be a part of my kingdom yet it shall not be so among you but whoever desires to be great among you, if you want to be great in my kingdom, is what he's saying, let him be your servant. …

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2. The manner in which this bitter cup was now set in Christ’s view. (1.) He had a lively apprehension of it impressed at that time on his mind. He had an apprehension of the cup that he was to drink before. His principal errand into the world was to drink that cup, and he therefore was never unthoughtful of it, but always bore it in his mind, and often spoke of it to his disciples. Thus Matt. xvi. 21. “From that time forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders, and chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day.” Again ch. xx. 17, 18, 19. “And Jesus going up to Jerusalem, took the twelve disciples apart in the way, and said unto them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests, and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn him to death. And shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify him: and the third day he shall rise again.” The same thing was the subject of conversation on the mount with Moses and Elias when he was transfigured. So he speaks of his bloody baptism, Luke xii. 50. “But I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!” He speaks of it again to Zebedee’s children. Matt. xx. 22. “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.” He spake of his being lifted up. John viii. 28. “Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things.” John xii. 34. “The people answered him, We have heard out of the law that Christ abideth for ever: and how sayest thou, The Son of man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of man?” So he spake of destroying the temple of his body, John ii. 19. ” Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” And he was very much in speaking of it a little before his agony, in his dying counsels to his disciples in the 12th and 13th ch. of John. Thus this was not the first time that Christ had this bitter cup in his view. On the contrary, he seems always to have had it in view. But it seems that at this time God gave him an extraordinary view of it. A sense of that wrath that was to be poured out upon him, and of those amazing sufferings that he was to undergo, was strongly impressed on his mind by the immediate power of God; so that he had far more full and lively apprehensions of the bitterness of the cup which he was to drink than he ever had before, and these apprehensions were so terrible, that his feeble human nature shrunk at the sight, and was ready to sink. …

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35. And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, come unto Him, saying, Master, we would that You should do for us whatever we shall desire. Strange request! First of all, read those words, "We would that You should do for us." Now the genuine spirit of a Christian is not to ask that something should be done for him, but to ask his Master, especially in such a time as that, what they could do for Him! Christ was all unselfishness, but His disciples had not yet learned the lesson. "We would that You should do for us." And then see how much they indulged their ambition. "We would that You should do for us whatever we desire." And yet I question whether we are, any of us, free from this spirit! For when the Lord reproves us a little and we have not everything our own way, how apt we are to rebel! The fact is, we have got this tincture—this gall already in us—we would that He should do for us whatever we desire! Should it be according to your mind? Should the disciple dictate to his Master? Should the child be lord of the family? 36-39. And He said unto them, What do you want Me to do for you? They said unto Him, Grant unto us that we may sit, one at Your right hand, and the other at Your left hand, in Your Glory. But Jesus said unto them, You know not what you ask can you drink of the cup that I drink of and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? And they said unto Him, We can. Again, He might have said, "You know not what you say." …

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