And he said to them, “What do you want me to do for you?”
Jesus had just told His twelve disciples what would happen to Him in Jerusalem. Two of them answered by asking for a blank promise, and His question here makes them say out loud what they want.
A question, not a blank promise
Instead of granting an unnamed favour, He asks them to state it. One writer sees here the difference between a prayer shaped by God's will and one shaped by our own.
J. N. DarbyWhere the asking flows from our own will, it cannot be the prayer of faith. It only bends God and His purposes to our fallen wills. So, "We know that whatever we ask according to His will, He hears us." … The "What do you want" is God's part. The "We will" comes wrongly from us. It marks a lack of trust, or a failure to own our need of mercy first. And then we often "do not know what" we ask.
Real faith with self mixed in
Their answer was not unbelief. They were sure the kingdom was coming. The problem lay in what they wanted from it.
Hamilton SmithThere was true faith that the kingdom would be set up. But, as so often with ourselves, a good deal of unjudged flesh pushed its way into the realm of faith. They saw the kingdom as a chance to advance themselves, not as the place where the glory of Christ would shine. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh," whether in unknown believers or leading apostles.
Ambition, or a fair desire
Commentators differ here. Some see nothing in it but ambition. The reaction of the other ten, they say, shows the rest wanted the same thing.
F. B. HoleThis shameless hunt for position by James and John might make us blame them more than the rest. But verse 41 shows that all of them held the same selfish desires. The ten objected not to what the two had asked, but to the fact that the two had got in ahead of them.
Another writer is slower to condemn, and turns the Lord's question back on the reader.
George DavisonWe might say at once — "presumption"! But do we not want a place in that glory? … The Lord tested these men, but He did not tell them they would not be in the place they sought. Equally, He did not tell them that they would. … 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. Did he think about this desire of his when he saw a criminal on the right hand and another on the left of the Lord?
The same question, a different heart
A few verses later a blind man cries to Him for mercy, and He puts the same question to him.
J. N. DarbyWhen the blind man cried, "Have mercy," Jesus stopped at once. To that cry of need He offered the very thing He had reproved and set aside in the two brothers: "What do you want me to do for you?" The same words mean one thing in the mouth of unbelief — a selfish, grasping claim of the flesh — and quite another in grace. This man knew what he asked for, and the sense of our need is true knowledge in asking.
Their claim and His grace
They claimed they were able for His cup. He did not accept the claim, but He did give them a promise.
J. N. DarbyThey put themselves on a level with Him and say: "We are able." The Lord, in His wondrous grace, puts them on a level with Himself by grace. He does not say: "You are indeed able," but "You shall indeed drink." As we might put it, "You shall indeed suffer with me." The reward of glory I leave to the Father to appoint. It is not mine to give, but belongs to those for whom it is prepared.
Why He would not hand out the seats
He could have settled the seating and did not. The reason lies in the place He had taken.
F. B. HolePlaces of honour in the coming kingdom will go to those who have served this wonderful Servant. Each will receive according to the measure in which he accepted suffering and death on His behalf. Yet even so, the Lord does not assign these places of distinction. That rests with the Father, for He remains true to the place of Servant which He has taken. We are set in the place of identification with our rejected Lord. Unless we stay true to it, we cannot expect any special recognition in the glory of the kingdom.
Summary
- Asked — The Lord will not act on a blank promise. His question makes the two men name what they want, and naming it exposes it.
- Exposed — Faith and flesh come out together. They believed the kingdom was coming, but saw it as room to advance themselves.
- Weighed — Commentators differ on the request itself. Some call it plain place-hunting shared by all twelve. Another says the wish for a place in glory was fair, and the Lord tested it.
- Granted — He gives them His cup instead of the seats they named: "You shall indeed drink" — not because they were able, but by grace.
- Deferred — The seats stay with the Father, because the Son keeps the Servant's place. Honour in the kingdom follows those who stay with a rejected Lord.