September 22

Then came the mother of Zebedee’s children, with her sons, worshipping him, and desiring a certain thing of him. And he said unto her, What wilt thou? She saith unto him, Grant that these my two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand and the other on the left, in thy Kingdom. - Matthew 20:20-21.

NOTHING is said on this occasion of the father or husband. He might have been dead, he might have been absent, he might have been otherwise minded. Without indulging in illiberal reflections or in invidious comparisons, it is well known that the maternal heart is too easily accessible to the emotions of children, and a female heart too much alive to the distinctions of rank. Here we have a mother soliciting for her two sons places of trust and power.

And these two sons were James and John. We have reason to fear the motion originated with them, though it was proposed by the mother; and if so, it is humiliating in the extreme, that after all the instruction he had given them, his disciples should have been such dull scholars as yet to think his kingdom was of this world, that he was come to deliver them from the Roman yoke, to place them at the head of nations, and to lead them forth conquering and to conquer. In thus requesting precedence in this secular empire, as in all other places, for themselves, they betrayed not only their ignorance but their carnality, their pride, and their ambition.

The best of men are but men at the best. But Jesus answered and said, “Ye know not what he ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? And they said, We are able. And he saith unto them, Ye shall drink indeed of my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with; but to sit on my right hand and on my left is not mine to give; but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father. And when the ten heard it, they were moved with indignation against the two brethren. But Jesus called them unto him and said, Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them; but it shall not be so among you. But whosoever will be great among you let him be your minister; and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant. Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto,but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.”

Thus our Saviour not only rejects their motion, but seizes an opportunity to inform them concerning the end for which he came into our world, and by which they were to regulate their expectations and their lives. It regards three things: his character, his life, and his death. It shows us his condescension in life, his grace in death. In the one he was a servant, in the other, a sacrifice and a Saviour. May we ponder these thoughts and these reflections this morning, and say with Watts,

“Be thou my pattern. Make me bear

More of thy gracious image here,

Then God, the Judge, shall own my name

Among the followers of the Lamb.”