Then came to him the mother of the sons of Zebedee, with her sons, doing homage, and asking something of him.
The Lord has just told His twelve disciples plainly what waits for Him in Jerusalem: betrayal, condemnation, mockery, a cross. The next thing that happens is a mother kneeling before Him to ask for the best two seats in His kingdom for her sons.
Matthew names her only by her family. One commentator pieces together who she was, and why she was the one who spoke.
Comparing Mark 15:40 with John 19:25, we conclude that she was the sister of Mary, the Lord's mother. Her two sons, therefore, were first cousins to the Lord... Because she was the Lord's aunt, her request, seen in natural terms, was not as strange as it would otherwise seem, and it explains how she came to be the speaker. She certainly lacked spiritual insight in asking it; but a mother's desire for her children prompted it.
Mark records the same request coming from James and John themselves. One writer answers the charge that the two accounts clash.
The mother of Zebedee's sons leads here; from Mark's Gospel we learn that John and James made the request. This is no contradiction, though people who deny that the Bible is inspired word for word often call it one. Mother and sons came together, and they wanted the same thing... In Mark's Gospel the sons stand in front, and in Matthew the mother. We can see this, because the Lord does not answer the mother at all.
She bows before she speaks. What was that bow for?
She does worship Him (at least outwardly) before she makes her request. Do we think in the same way — that our worship will persuade Him to give us our own way? She asks that her two sons might sit, one on each side of Him, in His kingdom. May the Lord keep us from having any such aspirations for our children or for ourselves.
She had grasped something true about Him — but only half of it.
The Master her sons had followed had won her heart. She knew He was a King, and that one day He was coming into His kingdom. Perhaps she knew still more, for she worshipped Him. But she did not know that He was a rejected King, and that she was living in the time of His rejection. She did not know that Christ Jesus had made Himself nothing.
The request did not come from nowhere. It grew out of a promise the Lord made one chapter earlier, and out of how royal courts worked.
Most likely our Lord's answer to Peter in chapter 19 prompted this desire. He had said that those who followed Him would sit on twelve thrones and judge the twelve tribes of Israel, when all things are made new... Kings in the East used to have one person sit at their right hand and one on the left; and so came this wish for places of honour in His Kingdom.
The people asking loved Him. That is what makes this moment so searching.
That is what these hearts would value — hearts that truly loved Him and wanted to be near Him in the Kingdom... What hearts we have!... What a contrast to our self-seeking, and how self-seeking can mix with real love for the Lord.
He answered by offering something other than seats.
The humiliation of Christ is so perfect, His self-abandonment so complete — and He alone, by His personal glory, had full knowledge of everything and a right to everything — that He says: I have no place to give in My kingdom. It is not Mine to give, except as My Father may desire. But I have something to give you now: it is suffering... The highest honour we can have here is suffering with and for Christ.
Notice what she asked for her sons, and what she did not ask for.
Their mother's request was not about their rescue or their blessing, in body or in spirit. It was about their advancement and honour in the coming kingdom of displayed glory. A mother's natural pride and pleasure in her son looked to Him to satisfy it — and He refused!
The Lord would not let a family claim decide anything.
Nature is clearly leading here. The mother of Zebedee's sons shows us that we must watch our natural relationships and not let them push into the things of God. We see in the Lord's case how He refuses all control of this kind.
- Timing. He announces the cross; at once they ask for thrones. Self-seeking arrives at the worst moment.
- Knees. She really did worship Him, yet she bowed to get her own way. Worship is not leverage.
- Half-knowledge. She believed He was King but missed that He was a rejected King, so she asked for glory in the season of shame.
- Motive. A mother's natural pride drove the request. Family feeling must not steer what belongs to God.
- Exchange. He had no seats to hand out; those rest with the Father. He gave what He could give now: a share in His suffering — the highest honour open to us here.
And he said to her, What wilt thou? She says to him, Speak [the word] that these my two sons may sit, one on thy right hand and one on thy left in thy kingdom.
Jesus has just told His twelve disciples that men in Jerusalem will condemn Him, mock Him, whip Him and crucify Him. Then a mother kneels and asks for the two best seats in His kingdom for her sons, James and John.
The disciples' minds moved straight from His death to their own promotion.
Even after this, the mother of Zebedee's children comes to Him with her sons, who were among the apostles themselves. So selfish is the heart of man! She bows before Him in worship, and asks something of Him.
The two seats had a recognised meaning, and the idea did not come from nowhere.
Most likely the words of our Lord in answer to Peter's words in chapter 19 prompted this desire. He had spoken of those who followed Him: when all things are made new, they would sit on twelve thrones and judge the twelve tribes of Israel. Eastern kings used to have one person sit at their right hand and one on their left. So the wish here is for places of honour in His Kingdom. The mother of Zebedee's sons here leads; from the Gospel of Mark we learn that John and James made the request. This is no discrepancy... Both mother and sons came together, having both the same wish. In Mark's Gospel the sons are in the foreground, and in Matthew the mother. You can see this from the fact that the Lord does not answer the mother at all.
The mother's part in this carries a warning about family ties.
Nature is clearly leading here. The mother of Zebedee's sons shows us that our natural relationships need watching. We must not let them push into the things of God. We see in the Lord's case how He refuses all control of this kind.
Set this beside the other parents who came to Jesus for their children.
In this case the "children" were no longer young, but full-grown men. They were no strangers to the Lord Jesus either. They were His acknowledged disciples, His chosen apostles, near the end of their training under Him in person. Their mother did not ask for their rescue or blessing, in body or in spirit. She asked for their advancement and honour in the coming kingdom of displayed glory. A mother's natural pride and pleasure in her son looked to Him for satisfaction, and He refused!
This was not unbelief. They were sure He would reign, even with danger ahead.
James and John had faith. Despite the dangers they saw on the road to Jerusalem, they believed that Jesus would have the glory and the kingdom. So they said, In any case, give us a good place. But about whom were they thinking? About James and John.
They could not take in heaven. Their hopes rested on a throne here on earth.
Although the blessed Lord sought to turn their minds from earth to heaven... their poor dull hearts clung tightly to the old order. So Zebedee's two sons made their request in Matt. 20:21. Neither the mother nor the sons were thinking of heaven. They were thinking of a visible Kingdom set up in glory on earth.
His answer changes what honour means.
He alone, by His personal glory, had perfect knowledge of everything and a right to everything. Yet so perfect is His humiliation, so complete His self-abandonment, that He says: I have no place to give in My kingdom. It is not Mine to give, except as My Father may desire. But I have something to give you now: it is suffering. Yes, suffering for and with Him is what Christ gives His servants now — a high privilege.
Commentators differ on how blameworthy the asking was. Some call it plain self-seeking. Another writer holds that wanting a place in the glory is not wrong in itself, and that the Lord answered it with a test.
Their request was quite all right in itself, but the Lord applied the test. John was one of the few who stood by the cross. There he saw one criminal on the Lord's right hand and another on His left. Did he think then about this desire of his? This is what I asked for — a place on His right hand, a place on His left. Is this what it means for me to get that place in glory?
- Timing. They asked for thrones just after He told them He would be betrayed, whipped and crucified. The cross was never in their thoughts.
- Nature. A mother's pride pressed a family claim into the things of God, and the Lord refused to let it steer Him.
- Faith. They believed He would reign. The flaw was not doubt, but self at the centre of the hope.
- Exchange. He had no seats to hand out; that rests with His Father. But He did have His cup, and suffering with Him is the honour He gives now.
- Answer. At the cross two criminals filled the places at His right and left. That shows how little they understood what they asked for.
And Jesus answering said, Ye know not what ye ask. Can ye drink the cup which *I* am about to drink? They say to him, We are able.
A mother and her two sons asked Jesus for the top places in His kingdom, just after He had spoken of the suffering and cross ahead. He answered with a question about a cup: could they drink what He was about to drink?
They were thinking about rank. He was giving Himself up to do His Father's will. One writer sets the two side by side:
What unabashed self-seeking, in the presence of His complete surrender of self to do His Father's will! How terrible that our sinful nature should show itself in such a scene! And what was their desire? To be nearest to Christ in His kingdom. This was what suited man — not the cross, but the ease and peace and prosperity of the kingdom. Yet the cross was the necessary path to it.
His question shows how little they knew of what lay ahead of Him:
How lovingly and with what patience He reproves her. There is no harshness about it; it is all tenderness and grace. They did indeed not know what they were asking. He asks them if they could drink the cup He was about to drink. A cup was to be drunk by Him, and this cup stands for all the agony He was about to suffer. They knew nothing of that cup He was about to drink; nothing of the suffering and the cross which was before Him.
So commentators draw a line between what they could share and what He bore alone:
There was a cup He alone could drink; when it is a question of atonement He is all alone in that. His cup was beyond the power of all created intelligences to share. One only, Himself alone, could drink it. He suffered for sins at the hands of God. He suffered for righteousness at the hands of man. The atoning sufferings of Christ must always be kept distinct.
Some copies of this verse add a second picture to His question: a baptism He was about to go through. Commentators differ on whether those words belong here in Matthew. Either way, they explain the cup the same way:
The word is used as a picture of the overwhelming sufferings the Lord Jesus went through, so that He could carry out the purpose He came to earth for... The sons of Zebedee asked to sit on the right and on the left of the Lord in His glory. He pointed at once to the cup He had to drink, and asked if they could drink that cup, and be baptized with the baptism He was to be baptized with. They, ignorant of the depths of suffering involved in the question, said they could. In one sense they should share in His sufferings — the non-atoning sufferings, from the hand of man.
Kelly separates the two pictures in the question:
He took in two different kinds of suffering: the cup, which is inward suffering; and the baptism, which stands for what we are plunged into on the outside. The two cover every kind of trial, inward and outward.
They answered without knowing what they were agreeing to:
They answered as they did out of their own selfishness and presumption. They think they are able without knowing what the cup was.
The danger soon tested that confidence:
They did not know what they were saying, any more than what they were asking. For when our Lord was only in danger of death, we find that they all forsook Him and fled. When Peter followed on his own ground, it was only to show his utter weakness. In the presence of such a cup and such a baptism, the Lord says, "You shall indeed drink of My cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with." He does not say, you are able.
They asked for thrones; He offered them something He could give straight away:
The humiliation of Christ is complete, and His self-abandonment is complete too. He alone had perfect knowledge of everything, and a right to everything, by His personal glory. Yet He says, I have no place to give in My kingdom — it is not Mine to give, except as My Father may desire. But I have something to give you now: it is suffering. Yes, suffering for and with Him is what Christ gives His servants now — a high privilege... The highest honour we can have here is suffering with and for Christ.
- Asking blind. They wanted the throne while He was speaking of the cross. What suited man was the kingdom's ease, not the path that leads to it.
- The cup. The cup stands for all the agony just ahead of Him: the suffering and the cross.
- Alone. Part of that cup no created being could share: when it is a question of atonement, He drinks it by Himself.
- Shared. What they could share was the non-atoning suffering, at the hands of men — and the Lord promised it to them.
- Given. The places in glory rest with the Father. What He held out that day was suffering with Him — the highest honour we can have here.
[And] he says to them, Ye shall drink indeed my cup, but to sit on my right hand and on [my] left, is not mine to give, but to those for whom it is prepared of my Father.
Two brothers asked for the top two seats in the kingdom. The Lord's answer split their question in two. One part He grants. The other, He says, is not His to grant. His reply raises two hard questions. What cup are they promised? And how can the Son of God say that something is outside His giving?
The disciples claimed they were able. The Lord's reply corrects the claim while keeping the promise:
They did not know what they said, any more than what they asked. For, when our Lord was only in danger of death, we find that they all forsook Him and fled... Faced with such a cup and such a baptism, the Lord says, "You will indeed drink of My cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with." He does not say, you are able.
The words about baptism come from the older text Kelly used. The ESV does not carry them in this verse.
The Lord kept His word. James was the first of the two to die for it:
You remember that this martyr's mother, Salome, had once prayed that her two sons might sit, one on His right hand and the other on His left, in His kingdom. The moment had come here for one of the two brothers to drink of the cup — the other drank his many years later. Probably John was the latest of all the apostles to suffer martyrdom, but James was the first.
He grants them His cup. Yet it has a depth no one else has ever entered:
There was a cup He alone could drink; when it is a question of atonement He is all alone in that. His cup was beyond the power of all created intelligences to share. One only, Himself alone, could drink it. He suffered for sins at the hands of God. He suffered for righteousness at the hands of man. We must always keep the atoning sufferings of Christ distinct.
Believers can share the suffering that comes from men. They cannot share the bearing of sin.
The reason lies in the place He had taken:
He insists that the path to the glory of the kingdom is through suffering. He alone could carry out redemption by the sufferings of the cross when God forsook Him. But the disciples should have the privilege of drinking the cup of suffering from the hands of men. He could promise them the privilege of suffering for His Name's sake. But He could not give them a place at His right hand in the kingdom. He had taken the place of the Servant. He leaves it to the Father to say who will have a place of special privilege in the day of glory.
Darby points out how much the Lord left in His Father's hands:
He answers that He can indeed lead them to suffering. But He could not give the first places in His kingdom to anyone except those for whom the Father had prepared them, according to the Father's purposes. Wonderful self-renunciation! It is for the Father, for us, that He works. He disposes of nothing.
Saying it is not His to give does not remove Him from the giving. Older English versions add the phrase "it shall be given to them" here. Kelly explains what those added words cost:
The words which are put in italics (and inserted without warrant) spoil the sense very much. Without them the sense is better. It was His to give to those only to whom the Father destined it. Christ is the administrator of the rewards of the kingdom. As He was the Servant in suffering, He also shall dispense the rewards and glories of the kingdom.
"Prepared" works in two directions at once:
He leaves the right of choosing to the Father. He gives the special glory that belongs to special work to those for whom it is prepared, and whom grace has prepared for this glory. His portion is the cross; and the cross can give the glory, if anyone will follow Him as His disciple.
Writing on John's Gospel, F. B. Hole sets this saying beside two others where the Lord accepted a limit:
In Matthew 20:23, Jesus said the actual words, "Not mine to give." In Mark 13:32, He said in effect, "Not mine to know." Here He says in effect, "Not mine to do." He made all three statements from the lowly place of dependence He took, for the glory of the Godhead and for our salvation. They do not in the least argue against His supreme place in the unity of the Godhead.
- Asked wrongly. They wanted the thrones and thought themselves able. The Lord gave them the promise, but not the boast — "not, you are able."
- Given the cup. What He does grant is fellowship in His suffering, and He kept His word: James died first, John last.
- Kept the depths. The atoning part of the cup no created being could touch; He suffered for sins at God's hand, alone.
- Gave up the giving. As Servant He disposes of nothing. He leaves the seating to the Father. He gave up the right, not the power.
- Still the Administrator. The Father prepares the place, and prepares the person for it. The Son who suffered as Servant hands out the kingdom's rewards.