Servant’s Greatness

The ancient near East had its own pecking order. Masters were above their slaves, and Rabbis above their disciples, and some of Jesus’ followers thought they could take to old order of things and fit them into God’s kingdom. Matthew tells us about a time when the mother of James and John, the sons of Zebedee asked, “Command that in Your kingdom these two sons of mine may sit one on Your right and one on Your left” (Matt. 20:21).* The request to sit at the right and left of Christ in glory would be places of honor and authority in a royal court. They wanted to be viceroys in the kingdom come.

The way to greatness in the kingdom of heaven is paved by its King. The Lord taught His earthly ministry would end with death and resurrection. In fact, just prior to the awkward request, He told the disciples, “Behold we are going up to Jerusalem; and the Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priest and scribes, and they will condemn Him to death, and will hand Him over to the Gentiles to mock and scourge and crucify Him, and on the third day He will be raised up” (Matt. 20:18-19). This was Jesus’ cup. But when they were asked, “Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink?” the two said, “We are able” (Matt. 20:22). When the time came for Jesus to drink they fled.

Jesus’ response to James and John still left the rest of the disciples indignant. The Lord then explains to them something very important about how one becomes great in the kingdom of heaven. Greatness in the kingdom of heaven is not the way of the Gentile lords (Matt. 20:25). Men would become great by rallying together the support of others, and either by political intrigue or violent revolt he would remove the existing ruler from power and become the first king of a new dynasty. Those who sided with the new king would receive places of status in the new royal court. Yet, the emergence of God’s kingdom comes differently.

The very same pattern of Christ’s humiliation and exaltation is applied to the Christian. James writes, “Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you” (Jas. 4:10). Both James and Peter taught God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble (cf. Jas. 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5), and their minds were illumined by meditation upon the Scriptures. David proclaimed, “For though the Lord is exalted, yet He regards the lowly, but the haughty He knows from afar” (Psa. 138:6). Likewise, Solomon declared “Though He scoffs at the scoffers, Yet He gives grace the afflicted” (Prov. 3:34). It is the humble in heart that ultimately attain greatness in God’s kingdom.

* As a side note… Matthew tells us that it was the mother of James and John that approached Jesus with the request to have her sons sit at His side, whereas Mark tells us that James and John approached Jesus with the request (Mark 10:37). What gives? There is no real problem. Keep in mind that Matthew and Mark provide two independent witnesses to the same event, and while there are nuances between the two, their continuities and discontinuities offer a better composite image of what happened. One can also point out that if there were a one-to-one correspondence between the two Gospels, then skeptics would simply cry “collusion!” (As if the two of them got together in some backroom to get their “stories” straight before going public.) There is then no conflict. Matthew identifies the one who spoke, whereas Mark focuses upon the parties benefitting from the request. The mother was actually speaking on behalf of her boys, and the two lads were in agreement with her. Perhaps the two put their mother up to the task, which would have been a strategic move as the mother would have had the social currency to make such a request. In this case, the mother spoke the request, but the two boys gave her the script, so it was as if they were making the request in person.