Bible In A Year | Read: Matthew 20
20 Then the mother of Zebedee’s sons came to Jesus with her sons and, kneeling down, asked a favor of him. 21 “What is it you want?” he asked. She said, “Grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other at your left in your kingdom.” 22 “You don’t know what you are asking,” Jesus said to them. “Can you drink the cup I am going to drink?” “We can,” they answered. 23 Jesus said to them, “You will indeed drink from my cup, but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared by my Father.” 24 When the ten heard about this, they were indignant with the two brothers. 25 Jesus called them together and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. 26 Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 27 and whoever wants to be first must be your slave— 28 just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Matthew 20:20-28
The stories in this chapter emphasize selfish ambition even when it comes to what we receive from God. The first is a parable. Jesus tells of people who receive equal wages even though some worked longer than others. It’s a picture of the fact that those who trust Jesus go to heaven even though some have followed Jesus all their lives and some only trust him at the end of their lives. The mother of James and John thinks they deserve a special place in heaven, but Jesus says it’s the least of his followers who receive that honor. The other disciples are angry at the request, so their desire for special treatment was not unique to James and John.
No one deserves heaven, yet somehow people can come to a place where they think they deserve more of heaven than someone else. God lavishes forgiveness and grace on us, and then we want more. It would be like me giving a beautiful, new home to a homeless person and having him complain that it doesn’t have a hot-tub. God must find our complaining pretty ungrateful, but still he loves us!
Two more things. First, be careful about asking God for great things for your life. They come with some great costs – in this case, they had to drink the cup that Jesus drank from. A cup of tremendous suffering, rejection, being abandoned by those you trust and misunderstood by everyone. That is not a cup most of us are willing to drink.
Second, the cost of greatness means serving others – all the time. Are you prepared to serve others when you have nothing left in your gas tank? A servant keeps serving. Are you prepared to be ignored and the things you do treated as insignificant and of little value? That is the life of a servant.
That, however, is what Jesus calls us to do – this kind of greatness. But the rewards are out of this world!
Prayer
Father, it is not the choice we would choose. We want greatness because there is great value in it. Your promise to me (all of us) is that greatness – and the great value with it – comes with the heart of a servant. Help me today to see the heart of a servant as the greatest thing I could seek. It may come with greatness in this world – or it may not. It may mean I am only a servant in this world. However, Your promise is that it will result in greatness in heaven. So teach me how to serve my world with joy and a desire only to serve. In Jesus’ name Amen.
Action Step
What is God showing me? What am I going to do about it?
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