Matthew:20:20-28

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Seeker Overlay ON

rwp @Matthew:20:20 @{Then } (\tote \). Surely an inopportune time for such a request just after the pointed prediction of Christ 's crucifixion . Perhaps their minds had been preoccupied with the words of Jesus (19:28 |) about their sitting on twelve thrones taking them in a literal sense . The mother of James and John , probably Salome , possibly a sister of the Master 's mother (John:19:25 |), apparently prompted her two sons because of the family relationship and now speaks for them . {Asking a certain thing } (\aitousa ti \). "Asking something ," "plotting perhaps when their Master was predicting " (Bruce ). The "something " put forward as a small matter was simply the choice of the two chief thrones promised by Jesus (19:28 |). rwp @Matthew:20:22 @{Ye know not what ye ask } (\ouk oidate ti aiteisthe \). How often that is true . \Aiteisthe \ is indirect middle voice , "ask for yourselves ," "a selfish request ." {We are able } (\dunametha \). Amazing proof of their ignorance and self-confidence . Ambition had blinded their eyes . They had not caught the martyr spirit . rwp @Matthew:20:23 @{Ye shall drink } (\piesthe \). Future middle from \pin “\. Christ 's cup was martyrdom . James was the first of the Twelve to meet the martyr 's death (Acts:12:2 |) and John the last if reports are true about him . How little they knew what they were saying . rwp @Matthew:20:24 @{Moved with indignation } (\ˆganakt ˆsan \). A strong word for angry resentment . In the papyri . The ten felt that James and John had taken advantage of their relation to Jesus . rwp @Matthew:20:25 @{Called them unto him } (\proskalesamenos autous \). Indirect middle again , calling to him . rwp @Matthew:20:26 @{Would become great } (\hos an thel ˆi megas genesthai \). Jesus does not condemn the desire to become great . It is a laudable ambition . There are "great ones " (\megaloi \) among Christians as among pagans , but they do not "lord it over " one another (\katakurieuousin \), a LXX word and very expressive , or "play the tyrant " (\katexousiazousin \), another suggestive word . {Your minister } (\h –m “n diakonos \). This word may come from \dia \ and \konis \ (dust ), to raise a dust by one 's hurry , and so to minister . It is a general word for servant and is used in a variety of ways including the technical sense of our "deacon " in Php . strkjv @1:1 |. But it more frequently is applied to ministers of the Gospel (1Corinthians:3:5 |). The way to be "first " (\pr “tos \), says Jesus , is to be your "servant " (\doulos \), "bond-servant " (verse 27 |). This is a complete reversal of popular opinion then and now . rwp @Matthew:20:28 @{A ransom for many } (\lutron anti poll “n \). The Son of man is the outstanding illustration of this principle of self-abnegation in direct contrast to the self-seeking of James and John . The word translated "ransom " is the one commonly employed in the papyri as the price paid for a slave who is then set free by the one who bought him , the purchase money for manumitting slaves . See examples in Moulton and Milligan 's _Vocabulary_ and Deissmann 's _Light from the Ancient East_ , pp . 328f . There is the notion of exchange also in the use of \anti \. Jesus gave his own life as the price of freedom for the slaves of sin . There are those who refuse to admit that Jesus held this notion of a substitutionary death because the word in the N .T . occurs only here and the corresponding passage in strkjv @Mark:10:45 |. But that is an easy way to get rid of passages that contradict one 's theological opinions . Jesus here rises to the full consciousness of the significance of his death for men .

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