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 theli 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} (\hmn 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. 1:1|. But it more frequently is applied to ministers of the Gospel (1Corinthians:3:5|). The way to be "first" (\prtos\), 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 polln\). 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 kjv@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.