Dave's Diary

Daily Readings: Matthew 20 and Psalm 20

The chapters of Matthew we have read this week (16-20) are regularly punctuated by the refrain that in God’s Kingdom, the first will be last, the last will be first, and the greatest will be the one who takes the lowest place. Clearly, Jesus aimed to emphasize this truth during this season of His ministry.

In this season, Jesus also explained three times the ‘downward path’ He Himself was about to take. The third explanation, found in chapter 20, is the clearest and most detailed: ¹⁸ ‘We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death ¹⁹ and will hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. On the third day he will be raised to life!’ (Matthew 20:18-19)

It’s rather disappointing then to read in v.20-21 that James and John made a move for greatness by asking Jesus (through their mother) for the seats beside Him in the Kingdom. Had they not been listening?!

Jesus responded gently that this decision does not belong to Him. Instead it is made, on the first hand, by the Heavenly Father Who knows all things and is therefore already preparing those seats for those who will occupy them. On the other hand, the decision is also made by those who will occupy those seats when they decide to abandon all ambition other than the ambition to serve others and become the slave of all – as Jesus said, “²⁸ … just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.’”

One wonders, therefore, whether the similarity between Jesus’ questions to James and John’s mother and to the blind men (“What do you want me to do for you?”) is a subtle indication that James and John needed their spiritual eyesight healed as much as the two blind men needed their physical sight restored. In any event … the blind men had their eyesight restored.

Life application: Ask the Lord to restore your spiritual eyesight, to help you to see every opportunity presented to you today to serve the best interests of others, and to give you the grace to take each opportunity and serve them joyfully.