A Roadside Reminder and Reproof, Part 1

Near the end of His ministry on earth, Jesus pulled His disciples aside for a private chat. Matthew recorded this conversation in the 20th chapter of The Gospel That Bears His Name.

While in this huddle, Jesus began to describe what His future would hold, and in particular the suffering He would endure at the hands of His adversaries. Today on Insight for Living, we'll attempt to relive this moment in such a way that we fathom the disciples' confusion and despair. To begin, Chuck invites us to follow along in Matthew chapter 20 as the dramatic story unfolds. In our journey through the book of Matthew, we are right in the middle of the 20th chapter. I'd like to have you turn in your Bible or New Testament, Matthew chapter 20, and always remember when we read from the Word of God, it is reading from a book that is like no other book in the world. No other book is alive, and no other book has truth that is active and sharp, sharper than a double-edged sword. I've often illustrated it by saying you could tear out a page of scripture and put it in the, in a bottle and plug it up and toss it out in the middle of the sea, and if that bottle finally floats to a shoreline somewhere and it's found and opened, that page of scripture is alive and active and able to change a life, just the truth on that page. And we have the privilege of having all the pages, all the chapters of all the books. All the books.

What a, what a unique privilege is ours. Reading from Matthew 20 verse 17 down through 28, I'll be reading from the New Living translation, Matthew 20 17. As Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the 12 disciples aside privately and told them what was going to happen to him. Listen, he said, we're going up to Jerusalem where the Son of Man will be betrayed to the leading priests and the teachers of religious law. They will sentence him to die. Then they will hand him over to the Romans to be mocked, flogged with a whip, and crucified.

But on the third day he will be raised from the dead. Then the mother of James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to Jesus with her sons. She knelt respectfully to ask a favor.

What is your request? He asked. She replied, in your kingdom please let my two sons sit in places of honor next to you, one on your right and the other on your left. But Jesus answered by saying to them, you don't know what you were asking. Are you able to drink from the bitter cup of suffering I am about to drink?

Oh yes, they replied, we're able. Jesus told them, you will indeed drink from my bitter cup. But I have no right to say who will sit on my right or my left. My father has prepared those places for the ones he has chosen. When the 10 other disciples heard what James and John had told them, when the 10 other disciples heard what James and John had asked, they were indignant. But Jesus called them together and said, you know that the rulers of this world lord it over their people and officials flaunt their authority over those under them. But among you it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must become your slave. For even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve others and to give his life and to give his life as a ransom for many. You're listening to Insight for Living.

To study the book of Matthew with Chuck Swindoll, be sure to download his Searching the Scripture studies by going to insightworld.org slash studies. And now the message from Chuck that he titled A Roadside Reminder and Reproof. We have a saying that goes like this. I don't think we're on the same page. And by that we mean you're saying something, but I am clueless. I'm not getting it. You know what you're talking about, and I know where I am, and I know the setting that surrounds me, but I can't connect with your words.

We aren't on the same page. The summer before my second year at Dallas Seminary, I made a decision that I later questioned. Understand back then, everyone who was at the school took a four-year course in the master's program, and each year it became measurably more difficult. And we who were in the second-year class, entering the second-year class, realized that the second-year class realized that we were facing a number of real academic hurdles. For example, we were beginning our second year of four years of New Testament Greek. We would be starting the first year of three years of Hebrew. We also would be advancing in our study of the eras of church history. As I recall, we would enter the Reformation era in our study. Our theology class would now really get down to business, and we were going to study Christology and pneumatology and soteriology and hamartiology that entire second year. And along with that, we would be continuing several Old Testament books in Bible exposition, not to mention a couple of other mind-stretching courses that we would be taking.

So the one that was the most feared was Hebrew. So we learned that there was going to be a course offered that summer between my first and second year in Hebrew, and we knew that it was a dreaded course, and we thought if we could get a jump on it, we'd be at least ahead in that. The course was taught by a young professor who had just returned from his second doctoral program at Harvard, where they offered him a position to stay, I understand, and some of us wished he had stayed there, but he didn't. He chose to come back to seminary and work for really less than half what they would have paid him at Harvard to build into the lives of young theologues.

And so he was our, his name is Bruce Waltke, and a brilliant man who's teaching this course that he was so familiar with, teaching it to 20 or so of us that summer who are totally unfamiliar with it. And if you're not at all familiar with Hebrew, you know, you may not know that English we read from left to right. Hebrew you read from right to left.

In English, we have vowels that are actual letters, but there are no lettered vowels. In Hebrew, they're all little dots and dashes that get tucked away underneath the consonants, and they all sort of run together. In fact, the very first time I looked at a page of Hebrew, I thought I was looking at a small rag rug that had been put into print. And here in front of me was Dr. Waltke, who would cradle his kiddel, his Hebrew Bible, in his arms and kind of rock on the stool that he was sitting on as he would read ... and tears would come to his eyes. I had tears in my eyes for other reasons, but he was so moved by what he was reading.

It helped me to realize, secondly, I had it upside down, so I turned my Bible back like it should have been, and that helped. But to give you an idea of Dr. Waltke's speed with which he wanted to teach us as much as he possibly could, the very first assignment for that night was that we were to memorize the Hebrew alphabet. And we were to not only learn it so we could give it back verbally, we were to be able to write it. ... 22 characters and not a soul in our class did it, was able to do it, not one. So we all flunked.

As a matter of fact, our average grade that summer was 17. ... Real class of scholars. I mean, it was a study in humility. We didn't know a whole while from Sarah, and he knew all of this knowledge that he wanted to pump into us, and we spent most of the time staring as he talked, and we would regularly say under our breath words like, you have got to be kidding. We were not on the same page.

We weren't even in the same universe with Dr. Waltke. ... What a summer course that was. And by the way, going to that same course with me, were some very bright young men. One was a Rice graduate and another already had his master's from LSU. These were bright young men, but the course was totally outside the realm of anything familiar. Interesting is the longer we stayed at it and the more we study the language and the more faithful we were to learn, memorize verb charts and all the stuff, vocabulary that goes with it, the more comfortable.

In fact, by my fourth year, I had Dr. Waltke again, and I was on the same page. Not fully, but two or three lines on the same page, and it felt great. That is exactly where we find the disciples in Matthew 20. Exactly. They're on their way to Jerusalem on the east side of the Jordan in an area called Perea. They're making their way south, and the crowd is large. And Jesus, knowing there will not be another journey back to Galilee because his death is imminent, pulls the 12 away from the crowd. We read he took them aside privately and he told them of what was ahead for him. What you don't know about reading Matthew 20 is that he's already told them this twice. In Matthew 16, he told them. In Matthew 17, he told them. In Matthew 20 now, he tells them yet again, and he will tell them again before he is arrested and put on trial.

But look at what he says. Look at the seriousness of his talk with them. Listen, we're going up to Jerusalem where the Son of Man will be betrayed to the leading priests and the teachers of religious law. They will sentence him to die. They will hand him over to the Romans to be mocked, flogged with a whip, and crucified. It was as if he was talking another language to them.

They weren't even on the same page. His whole focus in the return to Jerusalem was what he faced, and he also mentions at the end, the third day, he will be raised from the dead. Remember, it took the resurrection and not even that for them to realize what had happened. They were the ones who wondered where in the world is his body, who took the body from the tomb, though they had been told time and time and time and time again, I will die, I will be raised, I will be crucified, I will come back from the dead, not on the same page. They didn't understand the significance of his word. It was all hidden from them.

Why? You study this, you read over it as I've done, and I'm a number of you have I'm sure, and you scratch your head wondering what's the reason for their not getting it. They're not thinking about him, they're thinking about themselves. I mean, stop and imagine.

Stop and imagine. They've been following Jesus now for three plus years. They've given up their careers, some have walked away from lucrative businesses and financial security. They've spent more time with Jesus than they have with their own wives and children, so there's been sacrifice. They've heard Jesus talk about a kingdom a number of different times and in different ways where he would rule, and if he rules they would help in the reign of that kingdom, and they were on their way to Jerusalem, which is the seat of power among the Jews. So they're thinking about their position in that kingdom, and that's the change of subject when you get to verse 20. I mean, you're reading along and it is really in the depths of seriousness when you read the verses that I just read 17 to 19. You get to verse 20 and suddenly the attention turns. It's like the camera moves to a mother, a mother of two of the disciples.

Then the mother of James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to Jesus with her sons. She knelt respectfully to ask a favor. What's your request? He asked. Remember what he's just told him?

You remember. He's just talked about his own death, his own suffering, his own resurrection. It's been all about that, and he said, well what is it your request? It's that kind of response, and she replied, in your kingdom, see what they're thinking about?

See what she's thinking about? Not on the same page. In your kingdom, please let my two sons sit in places of honor next to you, one on your right and the other on your left.

Hmm. A lot of mothers are listening right now, and we all have one. We understand mothers. Nothing you want more than to see your children do well, so let's not be too harsh with the mother of James and John, but let's get to know a little better who she is. Who is this woman? She isn't even named here. I'll save you the time of looking by telling you that if you go to the lists of the people, the women who were at the cross where Jesus was crucified, if you go to the lists in the Gospels, different Gospel accounts, you will notice several Marys. There is Mary Magdalene, who's listed every time as being there where he's crucified. Mary, the mother of Jesus, of course is there, and there's a third woman who is identified as the mother of the sons of Zebedee. She is called by John, get this, Jesus's mother's sister, which would make her Jesus's earthly aunt, right? Mary, who bore Jesus, had a sister who is the woman who gave birth to James and John. She's the wife of Zebedee and the mother of the sons of Zebedee, which means they were his cousins, right? Think.

Think. This, the mother of James and John, is called by John Jesus's mother's sister, so she's Jesus's aunt. He knew her well. She knew him well.

Maybe that helps explain a little bit why she would feel the freedom to ask a favor like this. We're family. We're, you've known us longer, you've known any of these other men. You grew up with us.

You know my sons, good boys. They ought to be one on your left and and one on your right. Stop. What in the world are we doing thinking about who sits on the right or What in the world are we doing thinking about who sits on the right or left of Jesus in the midst of a conversation about his death and resurrection? You do that when you are focused not on what is being said, but on what is on your mind.

And let me go a little further and tell you that they set her up. I say that because of what appears in verse 22. Jesus said, you do not know what you are asking. The you is plural.

She's singular. So he says, as he looks at the boys and the men, James and John, you guys don't know what you're asking. Y'all don't know what you're asking for.

And then he goes a step further to bring them back to the subject. Are you able to drink from the bitter cup of suffering that I'm about to drink? Do you realize what is ahead? You know what following me will include?

You have any idea the heaviness of what I'm facing? They not only had missed his point, they misunderstood the whole issue of kingdom promotion in his kingdom lifestyle, in kingdom greatness in Jesus lifestyle. It's not about who sits on the right and who sits on the left. It's not about title.

It's not about on who's on top. What they didn't get is there must be suffering before there can be significance. There must be brokenness before there is usefulness. There must be humility before there is authority granted.

There must be the bitter cup of pain to endure before there's promotion. Well, we're in the middle of this lively exchange between Jesus and his disciples, and there's much more Chuck Swindoll wants to show us. He's titled today's message, A Roadside Reminder and Reproof, and this is Insight for Living. To discover a variety of resources that are available for today's topic, please visit us online at insightworld.org. And then as we head into the weekend, perhaps you'll have some extra time to browse through the variety of free Bible study resources at your disposal. For instance, you've likely heard me mention the Searching the Scriptures studies online. Feel free to print out the PDF and use the notes in your personal quiet times. And pastors and leaders can use these notes for teaching a class or preparing a message. To access the Searching the Scriptures guide for Chuck's daily teaching, go to insight.org slash studies. In addition, Chuck is recommending an insightful book by pastor and author Vody Baucom. In Fault Lines, Vody helps Christians understand the nuances of the social justice movement, and in particular, the dangerous implications of critical race theory. Now, this isn't an academic book. Fault Lines is written for anyone who truly wants to understand how to engage in conversations about social justice from a biblical perspective.

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