July 24, 2025 • 22 mins
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Matthew 10: 20-28 - 'Can you drink the cup that I am going to drink?'
Catechism of the Catholic Church Paragraphs:
- 2235 (in 'Duties of Civil Authorities') - Those who exercise authority should do so as a service. "Whoever would be great among you must be your servant." The exercise of authority is measured morally in terms of its divine origin, its reasonable nature and its specific object. No one can command or establish what is contrary to the dignity of persons and the natural law.
- 440 (in 'Christ') - He unveiled the authentic content of his messianic kingship both in the transcendent identity of the Son of Man "who came down from heaven", and in his redemptive mission as the suffering Servant: "The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many" (abbreviated)
- 601 (in 'He died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures') - The Scriptures had foretold this divine plan of salvation through the putting to death of "the righteous one, my Servant" as a mystery of universal redemption, that is, as the ransom that would free men from the slavery of sin. (abbreviated)
- 605 (in 'He died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures') - He affirms that he came "to give his life as a ransom for many"; this last term is not restrictive, but contrasts the whole of humanity with the unique person of the redeemer who hands himself over to save us.
- 622 (in 'Christ offered himself to his Father for our sins') - The redemption won by Christ consists in this, that he came "to give his life as a ransom for many" (Mt 20:28), that is, he "loved [his own] to the end" (Jn 13:1), so that they might be "ransomed from the futile ways inherited from [their] fathers" (I Pt 1:18).
- 786 (in 'A Priestly, prophetic and royal people') - Finally, the People of God shares in the royal office of Christ. He exercises his kingship by drawing all men to himself through his death and Resurrection. Christ, King and Lord of the universe, made himself the servant of all, for he came "not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." For the Christian, "to reign is to serve him," particularly when serving "the poor and the suffering, in whom the Church recognizes the image of her poor and suffering founder." The People of God fulfills its royal dignity by a life in keeping with its vocation to serve with Christ.
Got a Bible question? Send an email to logicalbiblestudy@gmail.com, and it will be answered in an upcoming episode!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:11):
Hi everyone. Welcome back to our podcast.
Thanks again for tuning in as welook at the gospel reading from
today's Mass. And as always, we'll start with
the reading and then we want to try and provide an analysis and
exegesis of the literal sense ofthe text, the face value of the
text. So our reading for today comes
(00:31):
from Matthew, chapter 20, verses20 to 28.
The mother of Zebedee's sons came with her sons to make a
request of him and bowed low. And he said to her, what is it
you want? She said to him, Promise that
these two sons of mine may sit one at your right hand and the
(00:52):
other at your left in your Kingdom.
You do not know what you are asking, Jesus answered.
Can you drink the cup that I am going to drink?
They replied. We can Very well, he said, You
shall drink my cup. But As for seats, my right hand
and my left, these are not mine to grant.
(01:13):
They belong to those to whom they have been allotted by my
father. When the other ten heard this,
they were indignant with the two, with the two brothers, But
Jesus called them to him and said.
You know that among the pagans, the rulers lauded over them, and
their great men make their authority felt.
(01:35):
This is not to happen among you.No, anyone who wants to be great
among you must be your servant, and anyone who wants to be first
among you must be your slave, just as the Son of Man came not
to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for
many. Verse 20 The scene changes the
(01:59):
mother of zebedees sons. So we're talking here about
James and John. These are zebedees sons and they
come here with their mother. So if you remember when Jesus
1st called James and John, they were fishermen and they were
from quite a wealthy fishing business before they gave it all
up to follow Jesus. So it's possible that their
(02:21):
mother was also quite a wealthy person.
Maybe even worldly, we might say.
But that's just an assumption. We're not sure.
So she comes with her sons. So in this case, it's not 100%
clear if it's her idea to bring this request or if it's the
son's idea. The context would seem to
(02:41):
suggest that it's the son's idea.
The sons have decided they want it, and they get their mother to
ask for them. So to make she comes to make a
request of him and bowed low. So other translations say she
knelt down. So she shows her reverence for
Jesus, much as a servant would do to a king, and it does appear
(03:02):
she's being genuine. She does genuinely believe that
Jesus is the Messiah and the King, although she probably is
trying to flatter him a little bit as well.
Verse 21, Jesus says straight away what is it that you want?
So Jesus detects that they want something from him.
The very first word she says next is promise.
Now already that's fairly audacious.
(03:23):
She's telling Jesus to make a promise, and other translations
have this as command. So she's asking Jesus to command
for a certain thing to come true.
She says command these two sons of mine that they may sit one at
your right hand and the other atyour left in your Kingdom.
So let's give the mother some credit first.
(03:44):
So firstly, it's clear that she believes that Jesus is the
Messiah. And that he's come to bring in
the Kingdom because she's talking here about his Kingdom
and she believes that Jesus has the power to grant these
positions. So possibly her sons have been
talking to her and they've been saying Jesus is the Messiah and
she believes them. So the sons have been telling
her about him and she believes it too.
(04:08):
And also there's another aspect of this which is important.
The Jews believed that the Kingdom of God would be set up
immediately and they particularly believe that as
soon as the Messiah. Entered the city of Jerusalem,
then that would be it. The Kingdom of God would be set
up. It would be glorious.
And here they are now they're ontheir way to Jerusalem.
So probably her and a lot of thedisciples are getting really
(04:30):
excited. They think that as soon as Jesus
gets to Jerusalem, the Kingdom is going to arrive.
And that's why Jesus is constantly saying, look guys,
I'm actually going to die, but they just, they don't listen.
And we know that from Luke chapter 19, verse 11, it
specifically says the disciples expected.
The Kingdom of God to arrive immediately when Jesus entered
(04:50):
Jerusalem. So apparently the mum's thinking
that as well. And when she says to sit at your
right hand and your left hand, so we're conjuring up an image
of a throne room. And in the ancient near east,
sitting next to a monarch was quite a privilege, A tremendous
privilege. These will be the two most
important people in the Kingdom,so the mother probably wants the
(05:11):
best outcomes for her sons here.She, you know, she's just being
a loving mother. Maybe we don't really know her
motivation, but perhaps that's what's going on now.
We'd later learn that Jesus doesn't give them those
positions. Or rather, what he says later on
is I don't know who's going to get those positions.
So he doesn't deny that they exist.
(05:32):
He just says it's not mine to give them.
You could say in a sense that Peter actually has this role,
because Peter certainly is the. The Prime Minister of the
Kingdom of God, as we learn fromMatthew chapter 16.
So in a sense Peter actually ends up with this role.
But in another sense, Jesus doesn't know who has the role.
So Jesus now addresses his comments to James and John
(05:55):
specifically. He says you do not know what you
are asking. So Jesus says they don't
understand what sitting at his right and left hand would
actually entail. They don't know what the what
the Kingdom really is. Basically he says can you drink
the cup that I'm going to drink?So this is a drinking a cup was
a common Jewish metaphor in the Old Testament for experiencing
(06:17):
suffering, particularly experiencing God's wrath.
Often in the Old Testament, thatwill talk about drinking the cup
of God's wrath as experiencing suffering.
So Psalm 75 verse nine, Isaiah 51, verse 17, Jeremiah 25, verse
15. And there's some places in
Ezekiel as well, There's this Jewish metaphor of drinking the
(06:39):
cup of God's wrath. Notice what Jesus is saying here
about the Kingdom. He's saying that in order for
someone to have a high position in the Kingdom of God, they must
experience suffering. That's a pretty clear teaching
of Jesus here. We need to keep that in mind,
and that certainly applies to ustoday as well.
Those who are most honored in the Kingdom will be those who
(07:01):
have suffered the most for the Kingdom.
So they reply to Jesus we can. So they think they can undergo
that. So in all likelihood, James and
John probably do feel like they can experience some suffering,
that they're telling the truth here, but they just don't
realize the full extent of what they will have to suffer.
They just don't understand how it's going to go down in the
(07:23):
coming years. Verse 23, Jesus says very well,
so that's kind of scary, isn't it?
It's be careful what you ask Jesus for, because he might say
very well, he says you shall drink my cup.
So Jesus here affirms that Jamesand John will indeed experience
suffering for the Kingdom. This is a prophecy that Jesus
makes. We know that both James and John
(07:45):
were persecuted for the faith, and James was in fact the first
of the apostles to be martyred. That's recorded in Acts chapter
12, verse 2. James the James that's mentioned
here is killed by Herod Agrippa,the king.
So that's AD 44, about 10 years.After Jesus makes this comment,
James is killed for the faith. John.
(08:07):
It's not as as clear. Some traditions say that John,
son of zebity, was in fact killed as a martyr.
Others say that he lived a natural life, although certainly
he was persecuted. He was put in a VAT of hot oil
and all sorts of awful, awful stuff happened to him, so they
did experience suffering. But Jesus goes on, you shall
(08:28):
drink my cup. But As for seats at my right and
left hand? These are not mine to grant.
They belong to those to whom they have been allotted by my
Father. So this is interesting.
We learned here that rewards andpositions in the Kingdom of God,
particularly at the last judgment anyway will be allotted
allocated by the Father, not Jesus.
(08:49):
If you can imagine on the final judgment day, it'll be God the
Father making the decisions about who gets certain rewards
and positions. So we learned something
interesting about the Trinity. Although they're all Father,
Son, Holy Spirit, or God, they have different roles.
It's not like they all do the same jobs or functions as each
other, if that makes sense. So the Son is sent by the Father
(09:13):
to help bring the Father's Kingdom to earth.
That's the distinction in roles.It's God's Kingdom that the Son
is helping to build and Jesus asthe King.
Plays a key role in that. But there's other passages in
the New Testament which tell us that once the Kingdom is
finished and the final judgment day comes around, then the son
(09:35):
will actually hand the Kingdom back over to his father.
So that's really interesting howit's going to play out.
Verse 24, when the 10 heard us, they were indignant at the two
brothers. So the other apostles get really
annoyed at James and John, whichis understandable.
So either they're annoyed because they believe that James
and John were just being rude, or they wanted the positions
(09:58):
themselves. That might be why they're
annoyed. Verse 25, Jesus called them to
him. Whenever.
Whenever you hear that language in the gospels, Jesus called the
apostles to him. It's usually when he's
addressing a problem or a misunderstanding amongst the
apostles, he can see that they're not getting it.
So he calls them over and corrects them.
He says, you know that among thepagans.
(10:20):
The rulers lauded over them and their great men make their
authority felt. And if you know anything about
the Roman Empire, you would knowthat that's exactly what the
Roman rulers did. They were pretty brutal.
Verse 26, this is not to happen among you.
So Jesus, he uses what they've just been talking about, about
the greatest in the Kingdom on the right and left hand of the
(10:43):
king. He uses this as an opportunity
to describe what he wants the leadership in the Kingdom to
look like. In his Kingdom, the Kingdom of
God. Anyone who wants to be great
among you, so that's anyone who wants a position of authority in
the Kingdom of God, must be yourservant.
So that means serving others selflessly.
The apostles are expected to first and foremost be servants
(11:07):
of the people of God, and Jesus says that's how you gain merit
before God. It's by serving others.
Verse 27. Anyone who wants to be first
among you must be your slave. Same basic meaning.
So greatest and 1st same basic idea.
Servant and slave. Slightly different words, but
same basic meaning. So if you want to have a high
(11:29):
position in the Kingdom, you need to serve others.
That's Jesus. Clear teaching here and that
applies to us today as well. We need to keep that in mind.
If we're looking for amazing rewards on judgment day, then
clearly Jesus teaching and the Catholic teaching is the main
way. You can access those rewards is
by living a life of service and love to others.
(11:55):
Verse 28. But Jesus continues the thought.
That's not the end, he says. Even as so, Jesus is now going
to explain that the apostle should act like this should
serve others because the very king of the Kingdom acts like
this. So he's calling them to imitate
himself. He's the king and this is
exactly what he does. He serves others, so he wants.
His apostles as the leaders of the Kingdom to do the same
(12:17):
thing. So here's I'll read out the full
sentence and then we'll pull it apart a bit.
He says anyone who wants to be first among you must be your
slave. Just as the Son of Man came not
to be served but to serve and togive his life as a ransom for
many, so the Son of Man came. So the Son of Man is a title for
(12:40):
the Messiah. So Jesus here is saying.
The Messiah came from God to earth, not to be served like the
Romans or the earthly rulers they're familiar with instead,
but to serve. So Jesus came to heal people and
to deliver them from bondage. So he actually came to set
people free, not to make them slaves.
(13:00):
That's a key distinction, and probably not the idea of the
Messiah that the Jews had at thetime.
They thought the Messiah probably was going to be a king
that expected to be served. And to give his life.
So this is a reference. Jesus once again is predicting
that he's going to have his death on the cross to give his
(13:20):
life as a ransom for many. Now this is a key phrase in
Christian theology. Jesus came to give his life as a
ransom for many. A lot has been written about
this. It appears quite a few times in
the catechism. This is one of the key verses
that tells us about what Jesus death actually did on the cross.
(13:41):
So ransom, Ransom is a legal metaphor and in that culture it
carried, the idea to pay a ransom literally was to pay the
captor or the the guard overseeing the prison to pay the
captor a sum of money in order to set the captives free.
That's literally what a a ransomwas.
It was a a sum of money that youwould pay to the captor.
(14:04):
The captor would then release the captives.
So Jesus here is teaching that by his own death.
He will set people free. Now, what's he setting them free
from? Well, that the answer to that
one's pretty clear. Sin.
Jesus. Death on the cross frees people
from sin. And here we actually learned
that that's not an accident. Jesus deliberately planned to do
(14:26):
that. He wanted to.
Well, yeah, in a sense he planned to die because he wants
his death to pay the ransom thatneeds to be paid.
But who's he paying the ransom to?
And this is where theologians. Are divided a little bit, and
different schools of thought within Christianity will answer
this question differently. Some people, particularly
(14:47):
perhaps Calvinists or yes, certain evangelical Christians,
would probably answer this question by saying Jesus is
paying the debts to God the Father.
As in because of our sin we've accrued a death to God and.
We can't access God because of our sin, and so when Jesus dies
(15:08):
on the cross, he pays the debt to God the Father.
That's a possible interpretation, and I think that
makes sense in some ways. But there's another possibility,
which is that he's referring to Satan paying a debt to Satan.
Now this has some problems as well, but let's think about it.
(15:31):
Who the people in bondage to in Jesus time?
I think if we take the gospels and the New Testament as a
whole, it's pretty clearly clearthat what Jesus does on the
cross is he delivers people fromthe bondage of sin to the
bondage of sorry from the bondage of sin to the Kingdom of
God. And usually the bondage of sin
is described in terms of Satan'sKingdom.
(15:53):
So I think the best way to look at this is when Jesus died on
the cross he paid a debt. In a way, he paid a debt to
Satan and Satan. As a result, he earned the right
to redeem the captives from Satan and bring those people
into the Kingdom of God. So by Jesus obedient life and
obedient death, he wins the right to redeem people from
(16:15):
Satan. Some of Jesus parables bring
that out. Remember the parable of the
strongman. Jesus says you have to bind the
strongman before he can release,before he can plunder his goods.
That seems to be a reference to this idea.
On the cross, Jesus bound Satan and cause the captives to go
free. Now that's not entirely
(16:36):
satisfactory though, you might think, because why does Jesus?
You could say Jesus doesn't really owe Satan anything.
Jesus is more powerful than Satan, so why?
Why should he have to pay a debt?
Well, who knows? It's a metaphor, so maybe it's
not meant to be taken completelyliterally.
Certainly the most basic meaningof it is that Jesus has come to
deal with. The sin debt that humans have
(16:58):
accrued, that's the main meaningof the metaphor.
The church fathers were pretty unanimous that he's talking
about Satan paying a debt to Satan, although later Christian
theology started to wonder if maybe it's a reference to God
the Father. So I just put that out there for
you to think about because it does come up a lot in
discussions about atonement and the theories of the atonement.
(17:22):
And the last part of this phraseis for many, he came to give his
life as a ransom for many. Now that's again, that's another
phrase that's generated controversy, because why didn't
Jesus say for all? And it's certainly a Christian
teaching that Jesus died for all.
It's just that this is a Jewish way of saying lots of people for
many is a way of saying lots of people.
(17:43):
When we say many in our 21st century context, generally we do
mean many, but not all. But in Jesus time, to say the
word many just meant lots of people.
It's not meant to exclude. You know it doesn't have in mind
that there might not be some people that this applies to so
and as a result I believe the some of the prayers in the Mass
(18:06):
were revised at some point in the last decade the prayers in
the English Mass were revised tochange it from gave this one of
the prayers that says Jesus diedfor all and it's changed to
Jesus died for many and there was a lot of discussion about
that. And the Pope had a few words to
say about why we should make thechange.
(18:27):
And so that's well worth diving into as well.
But of course, for our purposes,we just want to understand that
in Jesus time, many did not restrict to people.
That didn't restrict people out of that.
It just meant lots of people. So we spent a lot of time on
that last phrase. But I think it's really
important in theology now, there's a whole lot of places
(18:48):
where this gets referenced in the catechism.
Interestingly, there's a referencing in paragraph 2235 in
the section about how authorities should rule.
It says those who exercise authority should do so as a
service. Whoever would be great among you
must be your servant. So it uses this quote from
Matthew, chapter 20, and says that all leaders should have
(19:10):
this attitude where possible. And then that last phrase about
he came to give his life as a ransom for many.
That's taken up quite a lot in the Catechism.
So I'll read out a couple of really interesting paragraphs.
So paragraph 440, he unveiled the authentic content of his
messianic kingship, both in the transcendent identity of the Son
(19:30):
of Man who came down from heaven, and in his redemptive
mission as the suffering servant.
The Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give
his life as a ransom for many. Paragraph 605 says Jesus affirms
that he came. To give his life as a ransom.
For many, this last term is not restrictive, but contrast the
(19:55):
whole of humanity with the unique person of the Redeemer
who hands himself over to save us.
So you'll hear here the Catholicteaching that the phrase many is
not restrictive as we talked about paragraph 622, which is
supposed to be a summary of a lot of Catholic teachings on
Jesus death says. The redemption won by Christ
(20:18):
consists in this that he came togive his life as a ransom for
many that he loved his own to the end, so that they might be
ransomed from the futile ways inherited from their fathers.
And then a paragraph 786 in the section about a priestly,
prophetic and royal people. I think this is quite a glorious
(20:39):
paragraph about how Jesus kingship can apply to.
Our role in serving the Kingdom today it says finally the people
of God shares in the royal office of Christ.
He exercises his kingship by drawing all men to himself.
Through his death and resurrection Christ, King and
Lord of the universe made himself the servant of all, for
(21:02):
he came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a
ransom. For many.
For the Christian, to reign is to serve him.
Particularly when serving the poor and the suffering in whom
the Church recognizes the image of her poor and suffering
founder, The people of God fulfills its royal dignity by a
life in keeping with its vocation to serve with Christ.
(21:28):
So that's an awesome paragraph to end on.
Thanks again for listening. If you enjoyed today's podcast,
please share it with with other people.
I'd love it if everyone who hears this podcast could tell
one other person about it. And so that we can get more and
more people accessing this really important information
about the literal sense of the scriptures.
(21:49):
I know that this is blessing lots of you who are getting to
hear this perspective, and I'm sure lots of other people would
benefit from it as well. Thanks, and we'll see you again
tomorrow.
Hi everyone. Welcome back to our podcast.
Thanks again for tuning in as welook at the gospel reading from
today's Mass. And as always, we'll start with
the reading and then we want to try and provide an analysis and
exegesis of the literal sense ofthe text, the face value of the
text. So our reading for today comes
(00:31):
from Matthew, chapter 20, verses20 to 28.
The mother of Zebedee's sons came with her sons to make a
request of him and bowed low. And he said to her, what is it
you want? She said to him, Promise that
these two sons of mine may sit one at your right hand and the
(00:52):
other at your left in your Kingdom.
You do not know what you are asking, Jesus answered.
Can you drink the cup that I am going to drink?
They replied. We can Very well, he said, You
shall drink my cup. But As for seats, my right hand
and my left, these are not mine to grant.
(01:13):
They belong to those to whom they have been allotted by my
father. When the other ten heard this,
they were indignant with the two, with the two brothers, But
Jesus called them to him and said.
You know that among the pagans, the rulers lauded over them, and
their great men make their authority felt.
(01:35):
This is not to happen among you.No, anyone who wants to be great
among you must be your servant, and anyone who wants to be first
among you must be your slave, just as the Son of Man came not
to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for
many. Verse 20 The scene changes the
(01:59):
mother of zebedees sons. So we're talking here about
James and John. These are zebedees sons and they
come here with their mother. So if you remember when Jesus
1st called James and John, they were fishermen and they were
from quite a wealthy fishing business before they gave it all
up to follow Jesus. So it's possible that their
(02:21):
mother was also quite a wealthy person.
Maybe even worldly, we might say.
But that's just an assumption. We're not sure.
So she comes with her sons. So in this case, it's not 100%
clear if it's her idea to bring this request or if it's the
son's idea. The context would seem to
(02:41):
suggest that it's the son's idea.
The sons have decided they want it, and they get their mother to
ask for them. So to make she comes to make a
request of him and bowed low. So other translations say she
knelt down. So she shows her reverence for
Jesus, much as a servant would do to a king, and it does appear
(03:02):
she's being genuine. She does genuinely believe that
Jesus is the Messiah and the King, although she probably is
trying to flatter him a little bit as well.
Verse 21, Jesus says straight away what is it that you want?
So Jesus detects that they want something from him.
The very first word she says next is promise.
Now already that's fairly audacious.
(03:23):
She's telling Jesus to make a promise, and other translations
have this as command. So she's asking Jesus to command
for a certain thing to come true.
She says command these two sons of mine that they may sit one at
your right hand and the other atyour left in your Kingdom.
So let's give the mother some credit first.
(03:44):
So firstly, it's clear that she believes that Jesus is the
Messiah. And that he's come to bring in
the Kingdom because she's talking here about his Kingdom
and she believes that Jesus has the power to grant these
positions. So possibly her sons have been
talking to her and they've been saying Jesus is the Messiah and
she believes them. So the sons have been telling
her about him and she believes it too.
(04:08):
And also there's another aspect of this which is important.
The Jews believed that the Kingdom of God would be set up
immediately and they particularly believe that as
soon as the Messiah. Entered the city of Jerusalem,
then that would be it. The Kingdom of God would be set
up. It would be glorious.
And here they are now they're ontheir way to Jerusalem.
So probably her and a lot of thedisciples are getting really
(04:30):
excited. They think that as soon as Jesus
gets to Jerusalem, the Kingdom is going to arrive.
And that's why Jesus is constantly saying, look guys,
I'm actually going to die, but they just, they don't listen.
And we know that from Luke chapter 19, verse 11, it
specifically says the disciples expected.
The Kingdom of God to arrive immediately when Jesus entered
(04:50):
Jerusalem. So apparently the mum's thinking
that as well. And when she says to sit at your
right hand and your left hand, so we're conjuring up an image
of a throne room. And in the ancient near east,
sitting next to a monarch was quite a privilege, A tremendous
privilege. These will be the two most
important people in the Kingdom,so the mother probably wants the
(05:11):
best outcomes for her sons here.She, you know, she's just being
a loving mother. Maybe we don't really know her
motivation, but perhaps that's what's going on now.
We'd later learn that Jesus doesn't give them those
positions. Or rather, what he says later on
is I don't know who's going to get those positions.
So he doesn't deny that they exist.
(05:32):
He just says it's not mine to give them.
You could say in a sense that Peter actually has this role,
because Peter certainly is the. The Prime Minister of the
Kingdom of God, as we learn fromMatthew chapter 16.
So in a sense Peter actually ends up with this role.
But in another sense, Jesus doesn't know who has the role.
So Jesus now addresses his comments to James and John
(05:55):
specifically. He says you do not know what you
are asking. So Jesus says they don't
understand what sitting at his right and left hand would
actually entail. They don't know what the what
the Kingdom really is. Basically he says can you drink
the cup that I'm going to drink?So this is a drinking a cup was
a common Jewish metaphor in the Old Testament for experiencing
(06:17):
suffering, particularly experiencing God's wrath.
Often in the Old Testament, thatwill talk about drinking the cup
of God's wrath as experiencing suffering.
So Psalm 75 verse nine, Isaiah 51, verse 17, Jeremiah 25, verse
15. And there's some places in
Ezekiel as well, There's this Jewish metaphor of drinking the
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cup of God's wrath. Notice what Jesus is saying here
about the Kingdom. He's saying that in order for
someone to have a high position in the Kingdom of God, they must
experience suffering. That's a pretty clear teaching
of Jesus here. We need to keep that in mind,
and that certainly applies to ustoday as well.
Those who are most honored in the Kingdom will be those who
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have suffered the most for the Kingdom.
So they reply to Jesus we can. So they think they can undergo
that. So in all likelihood, James and
John probably do feel like they can experience some suffering,
that they're telling the truth here, but they just don't
realize the full extent of what they will have to suffer.
They just don't understand how it's going to go down in the
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coming years. Verse 23, Jesus says very well,
so that's kind of scary, isn't it?
It's be careful what you ask Jesus for, because he might say
very well, he says you shall drink my cup.
So Jesus here affirms that Jamesand John will indeed experience
suffering for the Kingdom. This is a prophecy that Jesus
makes. We know that both James and John
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were persecuted for the faith, and James was in fact the first
of the apostles to be martyred. That's recorded in Acts chapter
12, verse 2. James the James that's mentioned
here is killed by Herod Agrippa,the king.
So that's AD 44, about 10 years.After Jesus makes this comment,
James is killed for the faith. John.
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It's not as as clear. Some traditions say that John,
son of zebity, was in fact killed as a martyr.
Others say that he lived a natural life, although certainly
he was persecuted. He was put in a VAT of hot oil
and all sorts of awful, awful stuff happened to him, so they
did experience suffering. But Jesus goes on, you shall
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drink my cup. But As for seats at my right and
left hand? These are not mine to grant.
They belong to those to whom they have been allotted by my
Father. So this is interesting.
We learned here that rewards andpositions in the Kingdom of God,
particularly at the last judgment anyway will be allotted
allocated by the Father, not Jesus.
(08:49):
If you can imagine on the final judgment day, it'll be God the
Father making the decisions about who gets certain rewards
and positions. So we learned something
interesting about the Trinity. Although they're all Father,
Son, Holy Spirit, or God, they have different roles.
It's not like they all do the same jobs or functions as each
other, if that makes sense. So the Son is sent by the Father
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to help bring the Father's Kingdom to earth.
That's the distinction in roles.It's God's Kingdom that the Son
is helping to build and Jesus asthe King.
Plays a key role in that. But there's other passages in
the New Testament which tell us that once the Kingdom is
finished and the final judgment day comes around, then the son
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will actually hand the Kingdom back over to his father.
So that's really interesting howit's going to play out.
Verse 24, when the 10 heard us, they were indignant at the two
brothers. So the other apostles get really
annoyed at James and John, whichis understandable.
So either they're annoyed because they believe that James
and John were just being rude, or they wanted the positions
(09:58):
themselves. That might be why they're
annoyed. Verse 25, Jesus called them to
him. Whenever.
Whenever you hear that language in the gospels, Jesus called the
apostles to him. It's usually when he's
addressing a problem or a misunderstanding amongst the
apostles, he can see that they're not getting it.
So he calls them over and corrects them.
He says, you know that among thepagans.
(10:20):
The rulers lauded over them and their great men make their
authority felt. And if you know anything about
the Roman Empire, you would knowthat that's exactly what the
Roman rulers did. They were pretty brutal.
Verse 26, this is not to happen among you.
So Jesus, he uses what they've just been talking about, about
the greatest in the Kingdom on the right and left hand of the
(10:43):
king. He uses this as an opportunity
to describe what he wants the leadership in the Kingdom to
look like. In his Kingdom, the Kingdom of
God. Anyone who wants to be great
among you, so that's anyone who wants a position of authority in
the Kingdom of God, must be yourservant.
So that means serving others selflessly.
The apostles are expected to first and foremost be servants
(11:07):
of the people of God, and Jesus says that's how you gain merit
before God. It's by serving others.
Verse 27. Anyone who wants to be first
among you must be your slave. Same basic meaning.
So greatest and 1st same basic idea.
Servant and slave. Slightly different words, but
same basic meaning. So if you want to have a high
(11:29):
position in the Kingdom, you need to serve others.
That's Jesus. Clear teaching here and that
applies to us today as well. We need to keep that in mind.
If we're looking for amazing rewards on judgment day, then
clearly Jesus teaching and the Catholic teaching is the main
way. You can access those rewards is
by living a life of service and love to others.
(11:55):
Verse 28. But Jesus continues the thought.
That's not the end, he says. Even as so, Jesus is now going
to explain that the apostle should act like this should
serve others because the very king of the Kingdom acts like
this. So he's calling them to imitate
himself. He's the king and this is
exactly what he does. He serves others, so he wants.
His apostles as the leaders of the Kingdom to do the same
(12:17):
thing. So here's I'll read out the full
sentence and then we'll pull it apart a bit.
He says anyone who wants to be first among you must be your
slave. Just as the Son of Man came not
to be served but to serve and togive his life as a ransom for
many, so the Son of Man came. So the Son of Man is a title for
(12:40):
the Messiah. So Jesus here is saying.
The Messiah came from God to earth, not to be served like the
Romans or the earthly rulers they're familiar with instead,
but to serve. So Jesus came to heal people and
to deliver them from bondage. So he actually came to set
people free, not to make them slaves.
(13:00):
That's a key distinction, and probably not the idea of the
Messiah that the Jews had at thetime.
They thought the Messiah probably was going to be a king
that expected to be served. And to give his life.
So this is a reference. Jesus once again is predicting
that he's going to have his death on the cross to give his
(13:20):
life as a ransom for many. Now this is a key phrase in
Christian theology. Jesus came to give his life as a
ransom for many. A lot has been written about
this. It appears quite a few times in
the catechism. This is one of the key verses
that tells us about what Jesus death actually did on the cross.
(13:41):
So ransom, Ransom is a legal metaphor and in that culture it
carried, the idea to pay a ransom literally was to pay the
captor or the the guard overseeing the prison to pay the
captor a sum of money in order to set the captives free.
That's literally what a a ransomwas.
It was a a sum of money that youwould pay to the captor.
(14:04):
The captor would then release the captives.
So Jesus here is teaching that by his own death.
He will set people free. Now, what's he setting them free
from? Well, that the answer to that
one's pretty clear. Sin.
Jesus. Death on the cross frees people
from sin. And here we actually learned
that that's not an accident. Jesus deliberately planned to do
(14:26):
that. He wanted to.
Well, yeah, in a sense he planned to die because he wants
his death to pay the ransom thatneeds to be paid.
But who's he paying the ransom to?
And this is where theologians. Are divided a little bit, and
different schools of thought within Christianity will answer
this question differently. Some people, particularly
(14:47):
perhaps Calvinists or yes, certain evangelical Christians,
would probably answer this question by saying Jesus is
paying the debts to God the Father.
As in because of our sin we've accrued a death to God and.
We can't access God because of our sin, and so when Jesus dies
(15:08):
on the cross, he pays the debt to God the Father.
That's a possible interpretation, and I think that
makes sense in some ways. But there's another possibility,
which is that he's referring to Satan paying a debt to Satan.
Now this has some problems as well, but let's think about it.
(15:31):
Who the people in bondage to in Jesus time?
I think if we take the gospels and the New Testament as a
whole, it's pretty clearly clearthat what Jesus does on the
cross is he delivers people fromthe bondage of sin to the
bondage of sorry from the bondage of sin to the Kingdom of
God. And usually the bondage of sin
is described in terms of Satan'sKingdom.
(15:53):
So I think the best way to look at this is when Jesus died on
the cross he paid a debt. In a way, he paid a debt to
Satan and Satan. As a result, he earned the right
to redeem the captives from Satan and bring those people
into the Kingdom of God. So by Jesus obedient life and
obedient death, he wins the right to redeem people from
(16:15):
Satan. Some of Jesus parables bring
that out. Remember the parable of the
strongman. Jesus says you have to bind the
strongman before he can release,before he can plunder his goods.
That seems to be a reference to this idea.
On the cross, Jesus bound Satan and cause the captives to go
free. Now that's not entirely
(16:36):
satisfactory though, you might think, because why does Jesus?
You could say Jesus doesn't really owe Satan anything.
Jesus is more powerful than Satan, so why?
Why should he have to pay a debt?
Well, who knows? It's a metaphor, so maybe it's
not meant to be taken completelyliterally.
Certainly the most basic meaningof it is that Jesus has come to
deal with. The sin debt that humans have
(16:58):
accrued, that's the main meaningof the metaphor.
The church fathers were pretty unanimous that he's talking
about Satan paying a debt to Satan, although later Christian
theology started to wonder if maybe it's a reference to God
the Father. So I just put that out there for
you to think about because it does come up a lot in
discussions about atonement and the theories of the atonement.
(17:22):
And the last part of this phraseis for many, he came to give his
life as a ransom for many. Now that's again, that's another
phrase that's generated controversy, because why didn't
Jesus say for all? And it's certainly a Christian
teaching that Jesus died for all.
It's just that this is a Jewish way of saying lots of people for
many is a way of saying lots of people.
(17:43):
When we say many in our 21st century context, generally we do
mean many, but not all. But in Jesus time, to say the
word many just meant lots of people.
It's not meant to exclude. You know it doesn't have in mind
that there might not be some people that this applies to so
and as a result I believe the some of the prayers in the Mass
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were revised at some point in the last decade the prayers in
the English Mass were revised tochange it from gave this one of
the prayers that says Jesus diedfor all and it's changed to
Jesus died for many and there was a lot of discussion about
that. And the Pope had a few words to
say about why we should make thechange.
(18:27):
And so that's well worth diving into as well.
But of course, for our purposes,we just want to understand that
in Jesus time, many did not restrict to people.
That didn't restrict people out of that.
It just meant lots of people. So we spent a lot of time on
that last phrase. But I think it's really
important in theology now, there's a whole lot of places
(18:48):
where this gets referenced in the catechism.
Interestingly, there's a referencing in paragraph 2235 in
the section about how authorities should rule.
It says those who exercise authority should do so as a
service. Whoever would be great among you
must be your servant. So it uses this quote from
Matthew, chapter 20, and says that all leaders should have
(19:10):
this attitude where possible. And then that last phrase about
he came to give his life as a ransom for many.
That's taken up quite a lot in the Catechism.
So I'll read out a couple of really interesting paragraphs.
So paragraph 440, he unveiled the authentic content of his
messianic kingship, both in the transcendent identity of the Son
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of Man who came down from heaven, and in his redemptive
mission as the suffering servant.
The Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give
his life as a ransom for many. Paragraph 605 says Jesus affirms
that he came. To give his life as a ransom.
For many, this last term is not restrictive, but contrast the
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whole of humanity with the unique person of the Redeemer
who hands himself over to save us.
So you'll hear here the Catholicteaching that the phrase many is
not restrictive as we talked about paragraph 622, which is
supposed to be a summary of a lot of Catholic teachings on
Jesus death says. The redemption won by Christ
(20:18):
consists in this that he came togive his life as a ransom for
many that he loved his own to the end, so that they might be
ransomed from the futile ways inherited from their fathers.
And then a paragraph 786 in the section about a priestly,
prophetic and royal people. I think this is quite a glorious
(20:39):
paragraph about how Jesus kingship can apply to.
Our role in serving the Kingdom today it says finally the people
of God shares in the royal office of Christ.
He exercises his kingship by drawing all men to himself.
Through his death and resurrection Christ, King and
Lord of the universe made himself the servant of all, for
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he came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a
ransom. For many.
For the Christian, to reign is to serve him.
Particularly when serving the poor and the suffering in whom
the Church recognizes the image of her poor and suffering
founder, The people of God fulfills its royal dignity by a
life in keeping with its vocation to serve with Christ.
(21:28):
So that's an awesome paragraph to end on.
Thanks again for listening. If you enjoyed today's podcast,
please share it with with other people.
I'd love it if everyone who hears this podcast could tell
one other person about it. And so that we can get more and
more people accessing this really important information
about the literal sense of the scriptures.
(21:49):
I know that this is blessing lots of you who are getting to
hear this perspective, and I'm sure lots of other people would
benefit from it as well. Thanks, and we'll see you again
tomorrow.
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