24 And after hearing this, the other ten disciples became indignant with the two brothers. 25 But Jesus called them to Himself and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles domineer over them, and [ o ] those in high position exercise authority over them. 26 It [ p ] is not this way among you, but whoever wants to become [ q ] prominent among you shall be your servant, 27 and whoever desires to be first among you shall be your slave; 28 just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His [ r ] life as a ransom for many.”

Matthew 20:24-28 (NASB)

Crazier

What makes the request of the previous passage even more crazy is, it was made in the presence of all the other disciples! Of course the other 10 were more than a bit perturbed, they were indignant. They may have been thinking, “How could these two try to slip in to be first? And they even roped their mom into the scheme!” Don’t you love Jesus’ response? He doesn’t address their petty argument but uses it as another teaching opportunity.

First – the world’s way

Jesus got them all together to teach them about true leadership. He pointed out that in the world’s economy, it’s way of doing things, the leaders are domineering and exercise or flaunt (NLT version) their authority over others. 

True leadership

In God’s economy, true leadership is not like the world’s. It’s the opposite. Simply put, a leader must be a servant. And Jesus demonstrated it. Jesus tells them it is not this way among them, His disciples – those who follow and imitate Him. So rather than domineer and exercising authority, His disciples are servants, even slaves. Kind of sounds similar to (not the same as) what we just read in Matthew 19:30 about first being last.

Finally Jesus lays it out quite simply, by His own example. He did not come to be served but to serve. Even though He is God, we know from Philippians 2:5-11 that He emptied Himself and became man, even a servant. Then He emptied Himself to the fullest extent and died for those He came to save from the wrath of God, us – ransom for many. “That payment is a substitution. The preposition ‘for’ can be translated ‘in the place of.’” (thegospelcoalion.org)

RЯeflection

• Who among us can follow this example of Christ? We fight our human nature every day, every moment. It wants acclaim, acknowledgement, power. We are fed by pride. The best way to counter this is to humble ourselves. Follow the instructions of 1 Peter 5:6-7, “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, so that He may exalt you at the proper time, having cast all your anxiety on Him, because He cares about you.” One way to do this is to confess our sins to others and to God.