Matthew 20:17-34

Death in This Life Opens onto Life in the Kingdom

Matthew 20:17-19      Jesus Again Connects Death and Resurrection

(Mk 10:32-34; Lk 18:31-34)
 
17 As Jesus was going up to Jerusalem,
he took the twelve aside, and said to them as they were on the way,
18 “We are now going up to Jerusalem.  
There the Son of Man will be handed over
to the chief priests and scribes.  
They will condemn him to death,
19 and will hand him over to the Gentiles
to be ridiculed, scourged and crucified.  
And on the third day he will be raised.

Jesus continued to instruct his disciples, emphasising, yet again, the reality of his impending death.  To his earlier announcements [16:21; 17:22-23], he added the detail that he would be handed over to the Gentiles who would ridicule, scourge and crucify him.

Jesus would ask nothing of the disciples that he was not prepared to do himself.  He would give his life, not as heavy burden, but as free expression of his respect for and love of humanity.  When the community fully shared his love, there would be no competition.  However, Matthew would promptly reveal that competition was still well and truly alive among Jesus’ first disciples.  The disciples could not hear – embedded assumptions are questioned only with great difficulty.  Peter would not be the only one to go into denial about Jesus’ insistence on suffering [16:22].

True Greatness in the Kingdom

Matthew 20:20-28      The Request of the Mother of James and John

(Mk 10:35-45)
 
20 Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee approached him with her sons.
She knelt before him to ask him something.  
21 He said to her, “What  do you want?”  
She said to him, “Tell me that these my two sons may sit
one on your right and one on your left in your kingdom.”

Matthew wished to emphasise the danger of attitudes of relative honour and competition within the community of disciples.  In Mark’s Gospel, the sons of Zebedee themselves asked Jesus.  Matthew chose to lessen their blatant failure to hear what Jesus had been teaching by having their mother address Jesus on their behalf.  They wished to be seen as “the greatest”.

Matthew quickly returned to Mark’s storyline by directly dialoguing with the two disciples.

22 In answer to them, he said, “You do not know what you are asking for.  
Are you able to drink the cup that I shall drink?”  
They said, ‘We can.”  
23 He said to them “You shall indeed drink my cup;
but to sit at my right or my left, that is not mine to give you,
but is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.”

Not only had they not heard Jesus’ outlawing of competition, neither had they registered that Jesus’ glorious place in the Kingdom would follow his degradation on the cross.  When questioned, they hastily replied, without thinking, that they were prepared to suffer.  (Drinking the cup was an image common in the Hebrew Scriptures referring to suffering.)

Jesus, the Son of Man, would indeed be judge.  It appeared that Jesus’ role of judging did not refer to his sorting people out for judgment or glory.  It was Jesus’ integrity, perfected by his death on the cross, which would be the criterion of assessment.  People would be judged on love.  They would be judged in the sense that, confronted with the consuming love of Jesus, they would choose either to align themselves with Jesus and to respond to him with loving and open trust, or to turn towards self in the vain attempt to retain control.  Only my Father would know and, gladly or sadly, accept their choice.

24 The ten heard this and were indignant with the two brothers.

The competitiveness of the two brothers was matched equally in the hearts of the other ten disciples.  They were indignant, not at the brothers’ failure to respond appropriately to Jesus’ pending suffering (to which they also were oblivious), but at the fact that the two brothers wished to have prime places of honour.  If the two occupied those places, the other ten would have been excluded.

25 Jesus called them around him and said,
“You know that the rulers of the Gentiles dominate them,
and their great ones tyrannise them.  
26 It is not to be like that among you.  
Rather whoever among you want to be great, let them be your servants,
27 and those wanting to be in first place, your slaves.  
28 Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve,  

As had been the case with the question asked by the rich young man, and later by some Pharisees, the mother’s request became the occasion for Jesus to teach more about relationships in community.

The disciples were interested in greatness as understood in earthly institutions.  In the Christian community, greatness consisted in service.  The otherwise destructive energy behind the urge to be greater was to be channelled into relationships of service.  Their motivation would be drawn from the example of Jesus, whom they loved and whom they chose to follow, even if hesitatingly.  Jesus’ motivation for service came in turn from his profound sense of the dignity of everyone, loved as they were by God his Father (and their Father).  Mutual service would be the practical shape of love.  When undertaken in love, such service would never be perceived as heavy burden.

… and to give his life to redeem the many.”

The text can be misunderstood.  Within the idiom of the time, the many was understood simply as an open-ended plural.  It did not have a limiting sense, as though excluding “all”.  Effectively, the many meant “all”.  Nor is the word redeem/ransom to be stretched beyond what was intended.  The word had already become common parlance, and meant nothing more than a “means to acquire freedom”.

A Plea for Insight

Matthew 20:29-34     Jesus Heals Two Blind Men

(Mk 10:46-52; Lk 18:35-43)
 
29 On the way out of Jericho a large crowd was following him.  
30 Two blind people were sitting beside the way.  
As they heard him going past,
they shouted out, “Lord, have compassion on us, Son of David!”  
31 The crowd warned them to keep quiet;
but they just shouted out more loudly,
“Lord, have compassion on us, Son of David!”  
32 Jesus stopped, called them and said,  
“What do you want me to do for you?”  
33 They said, “Lord, we want our eyes to be opened.”  
34 Jesus was deeply moved.  He touched their eyes,
and straightway they could see once more;
and they followed him.

Matthew continued to follow the order of Mark’s Gospel, moderately modifying the story as told by Mark:

  • Bartimaeus, a single blind beggar, became two blind people (as happened before in Matthew’s Gospel).  Perhaps the two more easily suggested Matthew’s community of disciples than would one.
  • The blind men addressed Jesus as Lord – twice.  
  • Matthew wrote Jesus was deeply moved where Mark had said “Seeing their faith”.
  • Matthew omitted details that were significant to Mark: “throwing off his cloak”, he followed him “on the way”.

Matthew intended the story to be a lesson for his own community. In the light of Jesus’ resurrection, disciples were able to address Jesus as Lord.

  • They understood the sense of the title Son of David.  Though not the grand political king hoped for by many, Jesus still fulfilled Davidic prophecy in a deeper and purer sense.
  • They asked for compassion.  They were not interested in questions of merit.
  • Their eyes, already open enough to recognise Jesus as Lord, still prayed for clearer insight.
  • Graciously, Jesus responded to their plea.

Jesus had effectively finished his instructing of his disciples.  Their task now was to learn to see.

Next >> Matthew 21:1-11