Learning to Serve - Matthew 20:17-34

Matthew 20:17-34

You hear people talk about it all the time: we live in an age of entitlement. In other words, as a society we, for some reason, believe the government, businesses, parents, schools, relationships and even churches, owe us. We believe they are there to serve us and we expect certain things. If we don’t get those things we protest or head out the door. The list is too long to get into here. My point is, we live in a society that is largely geared to take, rather than give.

This morning Jesus turns the tables. He addresses this entitlement mentality and commands the heart of a servant or giver.

There are three different accounts in our passage this morning but I believe they are all related. The first account and the last account are examples of the principle found in the middle, longer account. You could say the story of the man who paid everyone the same thing (last week’s message) sets up these accounts.

Service Personified

We read,

17As Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside privately and told them what was going to happen to him. 18“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. 19Then 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.”

Does this sound familiar? This is the third time it is recorded that he told the disciples what was going to happen. In each conversation, he has gotten a little more specific.

Matthew 16:21 – The leaders of the Jews would cause Jesus to suffer. He would be killed and rise again.

Matthew 17:22-23 - He would be betrayed into the hands of the Sanhedrin. He would be killed and rise again.

This passage - He would be sentenced by the Sanhedrin (The Jewish “Supreme Court”) who would then turn him over to the Gentiles (the Romans) to be tortured and then crucified. On the third day, He would rise.

Why is Jesus telling the disciples these things? I think there are two reasons. First, He wants to prepare them for what is coming. He must repeat it because they are having a very difficult time assimilating what He is saying. Wouldn’t you? Jesus was not only the Messiah they believed would be an earthly King. He was their friend.

But there is also a second reason: Jesus wanted them to know that He chose this route! He knows what is going to happen and He embraced it! When the Lord came back from the dead the disciples would remember that Jesus told them these things ahead of time. It was another sign of His divine nature.

This staggers us. Why would Jesus do this? If He knew what was going to happen couldn’t He have avoided it? He could have but then He wouldn’t have done what He came to do. In verse 28 Jesus said:

For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

There are some people who are horrified by this statement. They say it is barbaric. They view God as mean and punitive even calling Him an abusive Father. However, the Bible says Jesus CHOSE to give His life. This was the plan of God (which is the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit). Philippians 2 reminds us Jesus did not selfishly hold on to His rights as the Son of God . . . He made Himself a servant to save us. He willingly chose to become a man, come to earth, face the temptations and heartache of men, suffer, and die all because it was the only way to make us right with God.

We severely underestimate the wickedness of sin. God takes our rebellion against His rule seriously! God in His Holiness HAS to punish sin. The only way to save us was for God to take the punishment upon Himself after first becoming fully human. In Romans 3 we are told by doing this, God was just (in punishing sin), and the same time was the justifier (the One who redeemed us). The life of Jesus was given in exchange for ours. Rather than be angry, we should be grateful.

Note the contrast between the attitude of Jesus and the attitude that comes next.

Service Forgotten

20Then the mother of James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to Jesus with her sons. She knelt respectfully to ask a favor. 21“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.”

22But Jesus answered by saying to them, “You don’t know what you are asking! Are you able to drink from the bitter cup of suffering I am about to drink?”

“Oh yes,” they replied, “we are able!”

23Jesus 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.”

24When the ten other disciples heard what James and John had asked, they were indignant. 25But Jesus called them together and said, “You know that the rulers in this world lord it over their people, and officials flaunt their authority over those under them. 26But among you it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, 27and whoever wants to be first among you must become your slave. 28For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Do you remember when you were a child and the family would go someplace and you would call “dibs” on the seat by the window, or the front seat, or whatever else it was. We all know timing is everything. The first person to get “dibs” would win. The mother of James and John wanted to be the first to call “dibs” on the seats on the right and left of Jesus.

These seats were places of power and authority. It is like the people who are closest to the President. The person who is the Chief of Staff is a person with great power because they have the most immediate access to the President.

If we do a little detective work comparing Matthew, Mark and John and the accounts of what happened at the cross, we discover some interesting things about the mother of James and John. In these accounts, there are listed 3 or 4 woman. They are described in different ways in the different gospels. Mary Magdalene is always Mary Magdalene. Then there is Mary the Mother of James (or James the younger) and Joses. That woman, I believe, is also identified as the mother of Jesus. The third woman is the interesting one. She is called the mother of James and John the Sons of Zebedee (the woman in our text) in Matthew, she is called Salome in Mark and identified as Mary’s sister in John! So if we are correct in our conclusions, James and John were cousins of Jesus and the woman coming to Him with the request was aunt Salome! (This is beginning to sound a lot like La Harpe isn’t it?)

Matthew 25:56

Mark 15:40

John 19:25

Mary Magdalene

Mary Mother of James/Joses

Mary Mother of James the younger/Joses

His Mother

Mother of James and John, sons of Zebedee

Salome

Mary’s Sister

Mary, Wife of Clopas

Jesus must have been disappointed with Salome’s request. He had been trying to teach the disciples to be childlike in faith (19:14). He reminded them that kingdom greatness is measured by humility (18:1-4). He taught a true follow was one who denied themselves and focused on giving rather than getting. Now it seemed that his own disciples were maneuvering for an advantage. They were trying to elbow their way to a position of power.

Jesus said the decision of who is on the right and who is on the left had already been decided. He asked James and John (who apparently were there with mom) if they felt they could pay the price that would have to be paid to have such a position of honor. They felt they could.

When the other disciples heard about the power play of James, John and their mom, they were understandably resentful.

Jesus used this time to teach. He said, The Kingdom of God is not like the Kingdom of the world. In this world, it is all about power and authority. The people with power rule. In the Kingdom of God, the focus is on service to others. The truly great person is the One who serves others. He told them: if you guys want to be great, you must stop thinking about yourself. In other words, you have to stop trying to be great and instead give yourself away to those around you.

A man known as Brother Lawrence was a monk who lived in the 17th century. In the monastery in which he worked he was in the kitchen, in charge of the utensils. He hated the work at first. However, he then decided he would use this time to walk in God’s presence and worship and serve the Lord and others in this humble service. In time, he found he could worship the Lord more in the kitchen than in the sanctuary. He would pray, “Lord of pots and pans and things, . . . make me a saint by getting meals and washing dishes.” His small book “Practicing the Presence of God” is still being read today. He chose to serve humbly.

In this “age of entitlement” Jesus calls us to live our lives swimming (if you will) against the stream of contemporary culture. Instead of looking for what we can GET, He wants us to focus on what we can GIVE. He wants us to be servants of the Lord more than we want to be served by men.

Service Illustrated

In the final scenario Jesus models the servant heart.

29As Jesus and the disciples left the town of Jericho, a large crowd followed behind. 30Two blind men were sitting beside the road. When they heard that Jesus was coming that way, they began shouting, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!”

31“Be quiet!” the crowd yelled at them.

But they only shouted louder, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!”

32When Jesus heard them, he stopped and called, “What do you want me to do for you?”

33“Lord,” they said, “we want to see!” 34Jesus felt sorry for them and touched their eyes. Instantly they could see! Then they followed him.

Jesus was walking through Jericho when he heard two blind men crying for help. Others were telling the men to be quiet. They dismissed them as a nuisance. Jesus could have easily ignored them. Jesus saw them as people in need and He turned toward them rather than away from them. He saw them and cared for them.

Jesus asked the men what they wanted. The men asked for mercy. Their request was simple: “We want to see.” Because of the compassion of the Lord, He healed them. It was an encounter that took just a few minutes but the power and love of Jesus changed their lives forever.

We spend way too much time trying to be significant. We work hard to keep the spotlight on us. Have you ever been in a spotlight? It makes it very hard to see the people in the audience or the crowd.

As believers, we know we are loved by God. We are His children. We are blessed. But as His children, He calls us to go and serve each other. We are to stop trying to impress others, and start caring about each other.

The problem with the entitlement mentality is that it is selfish. It looks at what is best for me . . . and you can’t see beyond that. That leaves us with a very shallow life in a very small world.

Steps to Servanthood

The people who have made the greatest positive impact for the gospel are those who have given of themselves sacrificially. They lived to honor the Lord in all they did. They were not concerned about accolades, or fame, they didn’t clamor for their “rights,” they understood it wasn’t all about them.

In the book of Hebrews, we read this stirring account of what faithfulness looks like,

32How much more do I need to say? It would take too long to recount the stories of the faith of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and all the prophets. 33By faith these people overthrew kingdoms, ruled with justice, and received what God had promised them. They shut the mouths of lions, 34quenched the flames of fire, and escaped death by the edge of the sword. Their weakness was turned to strength. They became strong in battle and put whole armies to flight. 35Women received their loved ones back again from death.

But others were tortured, refusing to turn from God in order to be set free. They placed their hope in a better life after the resurrection. 36Some were jeered at, and their backs were cut open with whips. Others were chained in prisons. 37Some died by stoning, some were sawed in half, and others were killed with the sword. Some went about wearing skins of sheep and goats, destitute and oppressed and mistreated. 38They were too good for this world, wandering over deserts and mountains, hiding in caves and holes in the ground.

39All these people earned a good reputation because of their faith, yet none of them received all that God had promised. 40For God had something better in mind for us, so that they would not reach perfection without us.

These are powerful words. These were all people who “refused to turn from God in order to be set free. They looked beyond this world and focused on what is to come. They did not see their service to the Lord as a means to an end (greater blessing) but as the end itself.

So the question for us is: How do we work toward servanthood?

First, we start by serving the Lord. This begins by recognizing that He is Lord and we are not. We are sinful, He is the Savior. We cannot trust our own judgment because it is faulty. We must learn to trust His Word over our instincts and feelings. It is getting into the habit of saying yes to God’s way, and trusting His wisdom over the advice of men and the instincts of our emotions.

Second, we must study and emulate the life of Christ. If we truly want to be followers of Jesus we must study what He does and do likewise. Jesus is our example. When we watch Him we see: He made time for others. He continued to show compassion even when He was exceedingly tired. He served and taught others whenever He had opportunity. He was a giver, not a taker.

Third, we need to look for ways to meet the needs of others rather than always looking for opportunities we can exploit. We need a change of mindset. Instead of looking at what we can BUY with our money, we should be looking at how we can give and invest in the lives of others. Instead of worrying about how much time we have for ourselves we should be looking for ways to invest deeply in the lives of others. We must constantly remind ourselves that the only thing we can take with us to Heaven are those who come to know Christ as Savior and Lord.

This involves learning to think differently.

Instead of dwelling on the hurt we experienced, we should try asking what need would lead a person to hurt others in such a way.

Instead of defaulting to the question: “What’s in it for me?” We should ask, “what can I contribute?”

Instead of leading with our feelings we instead must determine to do what God says and trust that feelings may follow.

Instead of avoiding those who are in need, we need to learn to seek them out and look for ways to meet the need.

Instead of diminishing the experience or contribution of another, we should celebrate and cheer for their good fortune.

I hope we all know from experience that when we have dared to trust the Lord, His way has proved to be the best. We live in a world where people feel entitled, but that doesn’t mean that we have to be that way! It isn’t easy to live like Jesus. It never has been. We can only do so by walking as close to Him as possible. It helps to remember that those who have done so in the past are the very people who have changed the world.