THE RULE OF GOD ADVANCES THROUGH SUFFERING SERVANTHOOD
Matthew 20: 17-34
INTRODUCTION
"God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life." This
is the first "law" in the Four Spiritual Laws, an evangelistic
tract written by Dr. Bill Bright that has over 2 billion copies in print.
I personally shared this booklet with well over 1000 college students
in my 20 years serving with Campus Crusade for Christ. This law quotes
John 10:10 which says, "I have come that they may have life and have
it to the full." Is it true that God has a "wonderful plan"
for the life of everyone who believes in Christ? Bruce Wilkinson in his
best-selling book, "The Prayer of Jabez—Breaking through into the
blessed life", says, "The little book you’re holding is about
what happens when ordinary Christians decide to reach for an extraordinary
life—which, as it turns out, is exactly the kind God promises." Is
it true that God promises every ordinary Christian an extraordinary life?
You will be hard pressed to pick up any piece of modern, American Christian
literature without running into this kind of claim. God wants to give
you a blessed and happy life. Each author will then describe what you
must do to obtain such a life. Is it true that God wants to give every
Christian a blessed and happy life? I hope you know that the answer to
that question is, "It depends upon what you mean by a blessed and
happy life." As we have been studying Matthew 13-20 it is quite clear
that the disciples are absolutely convinced that Jesus is the Messiah,
God’s chosen Savior for the nation Israel. They are also quite confident
that Jesus has a wonderful plan for their lives. There expectations of
the glorious future that awaits them as Jesus’ closest friends received
a powerful boost when Jesus answered Peter’s question about what reward
the disciples were going to receive for leaving all to follow him. In
Matthew 19: 28-29 Jesus told the twelve disciples, "I tell you the
truth, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious
throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging
the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers
or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake will
receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life." When
they heard that they were going to sit on twelve thrones, judging Israel,
and receive 100 times all they had left, all of their fondest dreams seemed
to them about to come true.
As this morning’s passage opens we find Jesus and his twelve apostles
traveling on the road up to Jerusalem. The road is full of Jewish men,
women and children going up to Jerusalem for the annual Passover feast.
The crowds are especially joyful this year because of Jesus. There is
a tide of expectation, due to Jesus’ powerful miracles, that he is the
long awaited King and that when he comes to Jerusalem, he is going to
set up his kingdom. While the crowds are buzzing with speculation
about Jesus’ ascension to the throne, the disciples are absolutely positive
that they are on the cusp of a whole new world of prosperity and power
in which they will be key players. They are sure that their ordinary lives
are about to become extraordinary. They are convinced that God’s wonderful
plan for their lives is about to come true. However, while Jesus is the
king and all the promises of glory and joy are true, the means by which
God’s wonderful plan comes true is radically different from what these
disciples and, if we are honest, we want. The salvation that our Lord
Christ achieves for his people is glorious beyond imagination, but it
is not merely a happy life on planet earth and we do not gain this salvation
through an act of coercive power but through an act of abject humiliation.
MAIN POINT
The only road to a glorious, happy future is chosen, suffering servanthood
for the good of others because...
I. Jesus lives only by dying
A cloud of dust hangs over the road that winds back and forth across
the ascending foothills from the plain of the Jordan River to Mt. Zion,
the hill of God, Jerusalem. It is crammed with people making their way
to the Passover feast. Family groups lead donkeys laden with provisions
for the weeklong party that is going to take place in Jerusalem. Many
of the families are accompanied by a year old male lamb that will be sacrificed
on the Friday evening of the coming week to remember the lambs that were
slain on that fateful night in Egypt thousands of years ago. The crowd
that accompanies Jesus along this way to David’s city is especially exuberant.
There is open conversation among those closest to Jesus about what is
going to happen this Passover. There is an air of confidence and expectation
that finally God’s plan to save Israel and destroy the pagan nations is
about to unfold.
At mid-day the crowds of people stop and seek refuge among the brush
and rocks lining the road to rest and refresh themselves with food and
drink. Jesus gathers his twelve apostles and takes them up one of the
hills that loom over the road in order to talk with them in private. They
gather around him in the shade of a cypress tree on the brow of the hill.
A cool breeze reaches them here as they sit around their master with eager
expressions. Jesus looks at each of them in turn and then down the hill
at the people scattered along the hillsides bordering the road. He says
to his disciples, "We are going up to Jerusalem, and the son of Man
will be betrayed to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They
will condemn him to death and will turn him over to the Gentiles to be
mocked and flogged and crucified. On the third day he will be raised to
life!"
We are not told what the disciples said or did at Jesus’ announcement.
His words are the exact opposite of what they are expecting to happen.
Jesus has just told them that a crown does not await him in Jerusalem
but a crucifixion. Rather than being welcomed and applauded as the conquering
king of the Jews he is going to be betrayed into the hands of the Jewish
leaders and turned over to the Roman authorities. He is not going to destroy
the Romans, rather they are going to mock, flog and kill him. The only
ray of hope in all that Jesus says is a mysterious claim that he will
be raised to life on the third day.
This is the third time in the last 6 months that Jesus has said this.
Why is Jesus telling this to these men at this time? It is in part to
prepare them for what is about to happen. What is going to happen to Jesus
in about a week is so contrary to what they are expecting that Jesus tells
them now so that at least they will know that Jesus anticipated these
events. However, the main point Jesus is making is theological. God’s
kingdom is a glorious kingdom, full of life. It is a kingdom where the
dead receive life but only after they die. It is not a kingdom of this
world. The disciples are enthralled with the pleasures of earth and only
think of God’s blessings as an enhancement of this world’s pleasures.
Jesus’ kingdom is of an entirely different order. It is a kingdom that
comes through dying to this world and being raised into a new life. The
wonderful plan, the extraordinary life that Jesus gives is an eternal
life with God, enjoying eternal pleasures at his right hand. Jesus
is going to Jerusalem to be crowned king but the means of his coronation
is his crucifixion. This is the unbreakable way that God’s glorious life
comes to his people.
The life of God comes to us by Jesus’ crucifixion. As we are going to
see in a moment, this death is in behalf of his people. We gain resurrected,
eternal life by means of his suffering and death. But also, Jesus’ suffering,
death and resurrection are the pattern for how every child of God gains
that abundant life that Jesus promises. There is no resurrection without
a crucifixion. The apostle Paul says it this way, "May I never boast
except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world
has been crucified to me, and I to the world." It is through Christ’s
death that we died to the world and the world’s hold over us was broken.
We need this word from Jesus just as much as these obsessed men needed
it. When you dream of God’s wonderful plan, does your dream look beyond
the grave to the resurrection or do you dream of this world’s pleasures?
When you consider how God is going to deliver this extraordinary life,
do you think in terms of a crucified life or do you think in terms of
a "victorious" life?
The only road to a glorious, happy future is chosen, suffering servanthood
for the good of others because...
- Jesus lives only by dying
- And because…
II. God has prepared a place of glory by means of a path of suffering
Jesus and his disciples make their way back down the hill as the crowds
of people resume their journey up to Jerusalem. During the commotion of
packing up and continuing their travel, John and James and their mother
get Jesus by himself for a few moments. The wife of Zebedee kneels before
Jesus with her two sons just behind her. Jesus asks her what she wants
from him and she replies, "Grant that these two sons of mine may
sit at your right hand and at your left hand in your kingdom." If
we need incontrovertible evidence that the disciples are completely out
of touch with who Jesus is and what he has come to do, this is it. If
you harbor any thought that these twelve men follow Jesus because there
is something more spiritual or noble or insightful about them, then you
are grossly mistaken. James and John, with the full cooperation of their
mother are implementing a wicked, arrogant scheme. These men have been
unimpressed by Jesus’ talk that God alone has enabled them to grasp who
he is and to follow him. Jesus’ command that they must humble themselves
like little children is nonsense to these ambitious men and their mother.
Jesus’ pronouncement of his imminent betrayal, suffering and death has
fallen on deaf ears. They can only think of Jesus’ transfiguration, his
power over storms and demons and sickness and his promise that they will
sit on twelve thrones judging Israel. They are not amazed that they are
going to sit on thrones. That’s not enough; they have to sit on the best
thrones. They are consumed with fear that Peter or one of the other disciples
is going to get the primo job in the kingdom and so they act preemptively.
The fact that these men enlisted the help of their widowed mother is
an indication of how deep is their lust for power and prestige and how
far they are from God’s kingdom. This is pre-meditated manipulation, worthy
of the most seasoned and cynical politician. Their mom is not only a widow
and therefore more likely to gain a sympathetic hearing but she also is
one of the women who contributes money to the band of disciples. Therefore,
Jesus would be more likely to listen to this donor. The only positive
thing is that they know that Jesus is the king and is going to establish
his kingdom. They have a very clear idea of what God’s wonderful plan
looks like and what an extraordinary life consists of and so they ask
Jesus to use his kingly authority to give them what they want. I fear
that much of the praying in the American church is just like this. We
are not interested in what Jesus wants to give us. We want him to give
us what we want, not what he promises. "The Prayer of Jabez"
is a classic expression of this kind of praying. It panders to our desires
for a successful life. In it we are encouraged with biblical language
to pray just like John and James. Give me the highest seat is the prayer
in Wilkinson’s book.
But now notice how gentle Jesus is with this mom and her two sons. We
have another example of the freedom of God’s grace. Why is Jesus so gentle
with these corrupt people but so harsh with the religious leaders? It
would be hard to imagine more sinister, self-serving, Christ dishonoring
behavior than this and yet Jesus deals with them gently. Rather than blasting
them for their irreverent request he simply tells them that they do not
know what they are asking. What is it that they are ignorant about? Jesus
tells us by the question he asks. "Are you able to drink the cup
I am going to drink?" What does the cup refer to? The cup is the
betrayal, suffering and death that he is about to undergo in Jerusalem.
What they were ignorant of was that to ask for glory in God’s kingdom
is to ask to suffer. This is quite clear in their hurried and glib answer
to Jesus’ question. They without hesitation declare that they are able
to drink the cup. A.B. Bruce says about their answer, "…in their
eagerness to obtain the object of their ambition, the two brothers were
ready to promise anything… they neither knew nor cared what they were
promising." They had their minds made up as to what God’s wonderful
plan for their life entailed and they could not hear anything different.
They could not hear the sober warning Jesus is giving them because their
hearts lusted for the power they sought.
Again, Jesus does not rebuke their arrogance and irreverence. Rather
he grants what they ask, they will suffer for his sake. Please note, Jesus
is giving them suffering as a king bestows his favor on his subjects.
While they are ignorant of what he is bestowing at the present moment,
when they suffer they will receive it as the gift that it is as we see
in Acts 5:41. (James was the second recorded Christian martyr, having
his head cut off by Herod. John was exiled to the island of Patmos and
lived out the end of his life in isolation on this island.) Then Jesus
informs them that he does not have the authority to decide who will sit
in the positions of power in his kingdom. Rather, God has sovereignly
decided who will sit where in his kingdom. God has prepared places for
particular people in heaven and he has prepared people for those places.
This is not just true for those who will sit at Jesus’ right hand and
his left but for all who will be in heaven. How does God prepare the place
we will have in heaven and how does he prepare us for that place? He does
it by sending suffering to us. As A.B. Bruce says, "…affliction is
education for heaven." Jesus tells John and James that God has appointed
them to suffer and that God has appointed their station in heaven. There
is a connection between the suffering and the experience of heaven.
Jesus is not here teaching that we should not ask God for his blessings.
What he is teaching is that when we ask we must have in view what his
blessings are and to realize that God sends his greatest blessings by
sending us suffering. As D.A. Carson says, "To ask to reign with
Jesus is to ask to suffer with him." Dear friends, when you say you
want to be a Christian you are asking to reign with Jesus and therefore
you are asking to suffer with him. When you ask for glory, when you are
asking for God’s salvation in Christ, you are volunteering to suffer,
just like your Savior. Don’t be fooled by the glib promises of happiness
on planet earth that accompanies so much of what passes for Christian
teaching in our day. When you claim Christ as a Savior, you are volunteering
to suffer with joy, just as your Savior did.
The only road to a glorious, happy future is chosen, suffering servanthood
for the good of others because...
- Jesus lives only by dying
- God has prepared a place of glory by means of a path of suffering
- And because…
III. Jesus became king after living and dying for others
The disciples are sitting around the fire that evening when Peter asks
John and James, "I saw you and your mom talking with Jesus. What
were you talking about? Is your mother OK?" John and James sheepishly
try to change the subject but their attempts at deflection only arouse
the curiosity of the other disciples who press them to divulge their secret.
Finally, unable to talk themselves out of the jam they are in and peeved
by the demanding attitudes of the other ten they retort, "Well if
you have to know, we asked Jesus to give us the thrones on his left hand
and on his right hand. After all, we’re the most capable and gifted leaders
here." The ensuing clamor would match the dispute in the loudest
family. Jesus finally is able to settle them down and gathers them around
himself. As they glare at one another, he explains to them the way that
people gain honor in his kingdom. He tells them how to get the best
seat in heaven.
He explains that the Gentiles gain their positions of authority through
the use of power. They gain their authority and they exercise their authority
by putting down those around them. They are not interested in the good
of others but only in gaining and then protecting their own position in
the pecking order. Then Jesus tells them that this is not how you gain
or exercise authority in God’s kingdom. Those who have the highest stations
in God’s eternal kingdom are those who serve the most, who cheerfully
and willingly lay aside their needs and rights and act like a slave to
others. This is the same thing Jesus said back in chapter 16 that whoever
wants to save his life will lose it but whoever loses his life for Jesus
will gain it. It’s the same thing he said in chapters 18 and 19 about
the kingdom belonging to those who humble themselves like little children.
Jesus isn’t talking about being first in the church on planet earth. He
isn’t primarily teaching about leadership in the church. He is saying
the way to be warmly welcomed and treated with esteem by God the Father
on the Day of Judgment is to be a slave while on planet earth. The way
to be great among God’s people in God’s eternal kingdom is to be a slave
while here on earth. He isn’t creating two kinds of Christians, those
who act like slaves and those who don’t. There is only one kind of person
going to heaven and it is those who choose suffering servanthood. Why
does he say this?
The reason that the only people who are going to be great in God’s kingdom
are those who are servants and slaves on planet earth is because that’s
how Jesus lived. Verse 28 is one of the most powerful statements in the
Bible. It does not only contain the pattern we are to emulate but also
promises power to do so. I want us to see what Jesus is saying about himself,
what he is saying about us and what he is saying that his death accomplishes
for us. First, when Jesus says the Son of Man did not come he is
pointing to his pre-existence as the eternal Son of God. Where did he
come from? Did he simply come from the carpenter shop in Nazareth? No,
He came from heaven. The eternal, majestic Son of God took on human flesh
and became the despised, suffering Son of Man. The one who alone deserves
to be served, honored, adored and worshipped volunteered to be a slave.
He alone has the right to lord it over every creature in heaven and earth
but he chose to be lorded over by men. He alone deserves to be served
with absolute loyalty. But he did not demand to be served, rather he voluntarily
chose to be a slave for the sake of others. Christ deserves our devotion
for his majestic power and authority but it is his self-forgetfulness,
his voluntary humiliation that should provokes our love and faith. How
can you not love him? How can you not trust him?
Now notice how he serves us. He gives his life as a ransom for many.
This is where you have to start thinking with me. If Jesus came to you
right now and asked you, "How may I serve you?"—what would you
reply? What would be the greatest thing Jesus could do for you? What Jesus
says is that the most useful thing he could do for you is to give his
life as a ransom for you. What does that tell us about our greatest need—about
who we are? The word ransom or redemption is an OT word. It is used in
two ways. It signifies the price that is paid to release a slave from
his or her bondage and the price that is paid to rescue a person who is
deserving of death under the Jewish ceremonial law. In using this word
Jesus is telling us that we are slaves to sin and Satan, dominated by
evil and that we are going to die for our slavery to sin. As you’ve heard
me say repeatedly, my greatest problem, your greatest problem is our sin
and the judgment of God against our sin. Your greatest need is to be delivered
from, not only the penalty of sin, which is hell, but from the power and
dominion of sin. If you do not believe that, feel that, know that, then
Christ has nothing he can do for you. Jesus is our servant, but he did
not come to meet our sin dominated lusts but to free us from our bondage
to sin and to deliver us from death and hell.
Jesus came to redeem us from the dominion of sin and from the curse of
sin. He did not come just to pay the penalty of sin, so you can go to
heaven. He also came to free you from sin’s power so that you can live
a new life now. If you don’t want to be delivered from sin’s power
in your life now, then you really do not want to be freed from sins’ curse,
which is hell. How can you expect heaven to pleasurable to you when
you don’t take pleasure in what makes heaven, heaven? Listen to how Paul
uses this same word in Titus 2: 13-14, "…while we wait for the blessed
hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ,
who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify
for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good."
So you see, Christ gives his life a ransom for the many, his people,
all those who trust in him, to set them free from the power of sin so
that they now want to do good. To do good is to be a slave to others.
In addition, he gives his life to pay the death penalty that every believer
faces for his or her sin. This verse then gives us not only the pattern
of our life—chosen, suffering servanthood for the good of others; but
it also secures the desire and power to live like this through the death
of Jesus. If you don’t want to be a slave to others, then you don’t want
to go to heaven, because all those for whom Christ died, for whom his
death is a ransom, have been delivered not only from the curse of sin
which is hell, but also from the power of sin now. This doesn’t mean you
don’t sin anymore, it means that your idea of a happy life is not the
same. Success is not your goal any longer, however you define it, but
service to Christ and to his people. Christ’s death is the most powerful
force in the universe because it is by this death that the greatest miracles
in the universe are accomplished. Hardened sinners, who delight to promote
themselves and to put others down are transformed into men and women who
delight to give up their rights to a happy life on planet earth in order
to serve others.
The only road to a glorious, happy future is chosen, suffering servanthood
for the good of others because...
- Jesus lives only by dying
- God has prepared a place of glory by means of a path of suffering
- Jesus became king after living and dying for others
- And because…
IV. King Jesus bestows his favor on the despised and weak, not the
popular and strong
The next day Jesus and the disciples follow the jostling crowds through
the village of Jericho on the road to Jerusalem. The crowds are buzzing
with anticipation of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem and overthrow of the
corrupt religious leaders and the Roman dogs. Their minds are filled with
thoughts of the freedom from tyranny they will soon experience and the
joy of wielding power over their oppressors. Their minds are full of thoughts
of the sweetness of seeing the brutal Romans and then all the nations
of the world groveling at their feet. They are daydreaming about the new
world that Jesus will create for them where they will be able to eat their
favorite foods, enjoy their favorite people, participate in their favorite
activities without fear from enemy or disease.
As this energized crowd leaves the city, two blind men sit by the road,
begging. The crowds have been streaming past them for several days. However,
they can hear a change in the excitement of the crowd as Jesus approaches.
They grab someone’s cloak and ask him who is passing by? When they find
out it is Jesus they begin shouting, at the top of the their voices, "Lord,
Son of David, have mercy on us." The crowd, with their heads full
of glory, treat these two men the same way the disciples treated those
who wanted to bring the little children to Jesus. They command the blind
men to shut up. They tell them the King has no time for blind beggars,
he is on a mission to bring in the glorious kingdom of God. The crowds,
like the disciples before them, are looking for strong recruits to help
in the war for righteousness, not weak, helpless people who will be a
burden. The blind men are not deterred by the rude, blind crowd but scream
all the louder, "Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us."
Jesus stops and calls them to come to him. The men scramble to their
feet and follow their ears through the parting crowd to Jesus. As they
stand before him, he asks them, "What do you want me to do for you?"
"Lord", they answered, "that our eyes might be opened."
Jesus, full of compassion for their helpless and powerless condition,
does for them what they cannot do for themselves. He touches their eyes
and they can see. Then, seeing, they follow Jesus.
Why does Matthew record this event from this day in the life of Jesus?
When you read the gospel accounts, you must continually remember that
the authors did not record everything Jesus said and did. They are not
simply writing a biography, an historical account. They are recording
these stories and sayings of Jesus in order to convince us of our need
for Christ, to show us how it is that God saves his people. This simple
account points out three things. First, right now Christ is building
the kingdom of God not through coercive power but through compassionate
service. His most powerful act is his willing death on the cross as a
ransom in behalf of his people. So, he shows us that self-forgetting service
is the means appointed for the growth of his kingdom, not through force.
Second, the recipients of God’s favor are not the strong. God is
not looking for men to serve him; he is looking for men and women who
will let him serve them. God is not like the U.S. government, looking
for a few good men. The church is not first an army but a hospital. Everyone
in it is sick and in need of a doctor. Third, is it not clear from
this story that the great need in the lives of the disciples and in the
crowd is to be able to see what is happening right before their eyes?
There are not just two blind men here. Have not the disciples proven time
and again that they are blind to their own condition and to who Jesus
is and what he is doing? Should we not be shouting to our Lord Christ
to have mercy on us and when he responds to ask him that our eyes should
be opened? Then, when eyes are opened to the glory of Christ, we follow
him. This is the Christian life: to see the glory of Christ as our suffering
Savior and then out of joy in him we follow him into a life of chosen,
suffering servanthood.
God does have a wonderful plan for your life; but it is his plan, not
yours. His plan is, by the death of Jesus, to awaken you to his glory
and the eternal pleasures that await all his people. His plan is to make
heaven glorious in your vision through a life of chosen suffering. He
intends to use your suffering love to reveal the greatness of Christ’s
salvation in the world and to prepare a place of eternal happiness for
you.
The only road to a glorious, happy future is chosen, suffering servanthood
for the good of others because...
- Jesus lives only by dying
- God has prepared a place of glory by means of a path of suffering
- Jesus became king after living and dying for others
- King Jesus bestows his favor on the despised and weak, not the
popular and strong
© Copyright 2002
John Swanson.
You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material
in any format provided that:
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If you would like to post this material to the web, or if your intended
use is other than outlined above, please contact River Hills Community
Church, 2843 West Court Street, Janesville, WI 53545. (608) 758-0943.
mail@riverhillsonline.org
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