Jesus takes the twelve aside on the road to Jerusalem and tells them what waits there. He has said something like it before (Matthew 16:21; 17:22-23), and this time he adds the detail that the Gentiles will do the work. The chief priests and scribes will condemn him, and he will be handed over 19"to be mocked and flogged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day." Nothing in the announcement is vague. The very next scene opens with a mother kneeling before him with her two sons, James and John. She asks that they sit one at his right hand and one at his left in his kingdom. She has heard the word kingdom and let the word crucified slide past her.
Any parent knows the impulse, wanting the best place for the children, and Jesus does not scold her for it. He tells her 22"You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink?" In the prophets a cup is what God's judgment tastes like (Isaiah 51:17). The brothers answer quickly, 22"We are able." Jesus tells them 23"You will drink my cup," and James would indeed die by the sword (Acts 12:2). The cup that carries the judgment itself, though, is one only Jesus can drink.
A detail waits further down the road. When this Gospel next places men one at his right and one at his left, they are two robbers on crosses (Matthew 27:38). The brothers asked for seats beside Jesus in glory, and Matthew shows where those seats are. The places beside Jesus in this Gospel are on Golgotha. They wanted proximity to him in triumph, and the Gospel shows what proximity to him costs.
The other ten hear about the request and are 24"indignant at the two brothers." Earlier the disciples argued over who was the greatest (Matthew 18:1), so the argument is an old one. Their anger says as much about the ten as about the two. A request that stirs that much resentment in a group has touched something every one of them wants.
Jesus calls them all together and describes the world they know, where the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over their people and the great ones exercise authority. Then he says 26"It shall not be so among you." Greatness in his kingdom runs in the other direction: 26"whoever would be great among you must be your servant." He asks them to practice servanthood, and he gives himself as the pattern. The Son of Man came to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.
A ransom is a price paid to free a captive, and the Greek word behind "for" means "in place of." The service Jesus describes reaches its limit in a payment made on behalf of people who could never buy their own freedom. That is why his example is worth following. The one who set it also covered the cost.
Ask yourself where you are still reaching for the seat instead of the cup. Today, choose one person you can serve without being thanked, and do it.
Prayer
Father, we have filtered out the cost of following you, as James and John's mother did, hearing the promise of glory and skipping past the road that leads to it. Show us where we are still asking for the seat. Thank you that the Son of Man came to serve and gave his life as a ransom for us. In Jesus' name, amen.