Episode Transcript
[00:00:24] Speaker A: Hi, I'm Josh.
[00:00:24] Speaker B: And I'm Gabriel.
[00:00:26] Speaker A: And today on reading the gospel, we are studying the event, a mother's request.
This is found in the book of Matthew, chapter 20.
And we will be reading from verse 20 through verse 28. Follow along with us as we read.
[00:00:44] Speaker B: Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came up to Jesus with her sons, and kneeling before him, she asked him for something, and he said to her, what do you want?
She said to him, say that these two sons of mine are to sit one at your right hand and one at your left in your kingdom.
Jesus answered, you do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink? They said to him, we are able.
Jesus said to them, you will drink my cup. But to see that my right hand and my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my father.
[00:01:33] Speaker A: And when the ten heard it, they were indignant at the two brothers. But Jesus called them to him and said, you know that the rulers of the gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you, but whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the son of man came not to be served, but to serve, and again to give his life as a ransom for many.
I don't know if you've ever met someone, maybe in school, maybe in the workforce, someone who was, you knew that they were trying to get a promotion.
They're trying to get ahead. They're trying to get elected into politics or something.
The acts, sometimes they're very nice where it seems ingenuine. Sometimes they're very aggressive and they fight for positions. But you can get the sense of someone who's just trying to climb the ladder, that this is just one rung they need to overcome to move on to the next step.
I kind of get the sense that we have this rivalry with the disciples, that they want to get ahead of each other and be the one promoted.
[00:03:03] Speaker B: They felt that something is going to happen soon. They are going towards Jerusalem for this largest celebration of the year. And it was in the air. Everyone was talking about Jesus Christ. They expected him to establish the lost kingdom of David and Solomon, to bring the nation back to that golden years. And this is why they are staying close to him, to maybe get something, a position or a role of influence.
[00:03:35] Speaker A: I think of people as they age, as they're nearing death, especially if they're wealthy. All of a sudden they have people who want to be added into their will, add me in there. And so they'll hang around and do nice things and be there and take whatever advantage they can. And it seems, I don't know who started the conversation, whether it was the mother or the disciples, but they were in it together because they came together as a group to Jesus, to have this conversation with him.
[00:04:09] Speaker B: It's interesting that she's the spokesperson of this group of three, but Jesus Christ responds to both of them.
First, Jesus Christ asked her, hey, what do you really want? Maybe she had a nice introduction, and he said, just go straight to the point. What do you want? And she said, what she wants.
But Jesus answers not too much to her question.
Jesus says, you do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup? And they that means the two disciples primarily said, yes, we are able.
It is a very interesting interaction between Jesus and this group of three, mother and two sons.
[00:05:02] Speaker A: Yeah. So what cup is this that he's talking about? Is this the last supper cup that they share? You know, pass it around?
[00:05:10] Speaker B: It's that cup that he was talking with his father in the garden of Gethsemane.
It is the suffering. It is fulfilling the mission that he came for. That is to die for us. And that is exactly the end.
Verse 28. He came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom. For many, that was the cup.
The suffering, the separation from the father taking the sins upon himself and becoming the ransom, the payment to buy us back.
[00:05:47] Speaker A: Well, I think it's also to stand, you know, to not back down, to fight Satan and to push forward as well. So they're going to carry on the battle on this earth when Jesus leaves. And they're going to be the ones that Satan's going to go after and try to attack and try to persecute and kill.
[00:06:13] Speaker B: I'd like to say a couple of words about the context of this event.
In verse 17, it says that Jesus and the disciples was going up to Jerusalem.
And when they were marching toward Jerusalem or journeying toward Jerusalem, and especially in the last part, when they started to climb, they were supposed to sing some songs which are even today in the book of psalms, and they are called the psalms of ascent.
And these songs are about God, to bring God into their lives, the people that God has chosen and their mission. And of course, on top of that was the place, the holy place, Jerusalem.
And while they were singing those songs, their thoughts were disconnected from the lyrics.
And there are thoughts about who will be first. If Jesus will found his new kingdom, who will be the closest. Very interesting. Is it possible for us to go to church, to sing the songs of Zion and to even have words about God always on our lips, but our hearts to be in a different place, to be disconnected from the lyrics?
[00:07:38] Speaker A: I think that happens more than we would like, where we're there doing it and not even realizing what we're doing.
Yeah. As you were talking about going up to Jerusalem, I thought of that road from the Dead Sea, from Jericho up. It's a climb. And singing those songs of ascent, it would take away the drudgery of, I got to keep climbing, keep climbing, keep climbing.
I remember when we climbed Long's peak, we kept going and we would look at targets like, we got to get here or we got to get there. And this is the next stop. We didn't just say, we're getting to the top. It was go to this point, to this point. So, yeah, it just took me back to that climb and how amazing it would have been. I remember the first time coming up over the hill and seeing Jerusalem and just the feeling that. That he gives, seeing the city and so picturing the disciples, that they must have been filled with pride and excitement, with all the events going on around them. In verse 23, after Jesus says, you will drink my cup, he says, but to sit at my right hand and my left hand is not mine to grant, but for those whom it has been prepared by my father doesn't Jesus. Why couldn't Jesus say, who gets to sit at his right hand and left hand? You know, isn't he God?
Isn't he part, an equal part of the godhead?
[00:09:15] Speaker B: You told me a very nice story about you and wife making decisions for your kids. Would you like to repeat that story, please?
[00:09:21] Speaker A: Yeah. So we were talking about this earlier, and I said, you know, my wife and I, when my kids come and ask me something, I'll confer with my wife to find out if she has other plans. Like, if they come and say, hey, can we stay up later tonight?
I won't just say, yes, you can stay up later, because there might be a reason mom wants them to go to bed early. And so I'll check with her. Even if the past ten nights, she said, yes, you can stay up later. We still talk together because we're raising the kids together, and there might be reasons one of us would want the kids in bed.
[00:10:01] Speaker B: And this unity between husband and wife or mother and father is an illustration of unity between Jesus Christ and the father. In fact, Jesus said, my father and I are one and they are united into one entity that in the Bible called Godhead, and they make the decision together. It's a very nice illustration.
[00:10:25] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:10:26] Speaker B: Jesus Christ does not make this decision by himself.
I've seen another explanation as referring to Jesus time of incarnation, when he decided to not make some decisions as he used to make before incarnation, because he wanted to be a hundred percent complete example for us human beings, example of dependence on God and receiving the wisdom from above and the power to overcome.
[00:10:58] Speaker A: And we also see in the Bible, we've talked about this in the past, different errors tend to focus on a different figure in the Godhead, and they're working with the others. So the Old Testament is generally looking at God the Father, but then we see Jesus and the Holy Spirit also being part of that. The gospels generally talks about Jesus, but we have Jesus submitting to the Father and to the Holy Spirit. Then in the rest of the New Testament we have the Holy Spirit working and submitting to the Father and to Jesus. So they all, there's sections where we see that this is a submissive relationship amongst the Godhead, that they submit to each other at different points and they.
[00:11:51] Speaker B: Cooperate in different ways based on that specific stage of the plan of redemption.
[00:11:57] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:11:58] Speaker B: I like to emphasize verse 27, when Jesus Christ describes serving as greatness.
Sometimes for us human beings, greatness is power. It is political power, it is military power.
[00:12:15] Speaker A: Your name on a building.
[00:12:16] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. Money power and literary power.
Here is, for Jesus Christ, greatness is serving. And Jesus said on the way to Jerusalem, the son of man came not to be served, but to serve. And the same idea with the same words, even in a practical way, will be demonstrated just days later in the upper room when Jesus Christ looked at the disciples and nobody wanted to wash someone's feet, and Jesus took the basin and the towel and started washing their disciples. And at the end he explained what he did and he used a similar expression. And I like about Jesus the greatest teacher who repeats over and over, how many times do we have to tell our kids to do something?
And how many times do we have to demonstrate it?
[00:13:17] Speaker A: Yeah, we continue to demonstrate and wonder, why are we having to go over this again?
And the good news is God does. He does it again and again.
He serves us again and again. He might have thought once was enough, but he's willing to do it so that we can have an everlasting life.
And that's the beauty there that Jesus came to serve us so that we can live eternally with him. Let's pray. Father God, I pray that you humble us.
[00:13:50] Speaker B: Amen.
[00:13:51] Speaker A: I pray that we realize that you are God and we're not, that we'll be satisfied with the role in life that you've given us.
And that, Father, instead of trying to stand on others shoulders so we can get ahead, we will lift others up so that they can see Jesus.
I pray, Father, that we will be servants to those around us.
And that even if in heaven, we're in the very back corner of the city, that we'll be satisfied. I just pray that you will work in our lives and draw us closer to you. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen.
