 |  |
Kingdom. He must suffer in order to reign. Still less did they understand that those who
were to reign with Him must be ready to suffer with Him. No wonder He replied:
"You don't know what you are asking. Can you drink the cup I am going to drink?"
"We can", they answered (20: 22, N.I.V.).
Little did they realize what this cup of suffering involved. They would certainly
drink of it, the Lord affirmed. In James's case it happened when he was put to death by
Herod Agrippa (Acts 12: 2). In John's it was fulfilled in various ways: imprisonment
(Acts 4: 3; 5: 18), beating (5: 40), and possibly exile (Rev. 1: 9). John evidently died a
natural death in his old age:
"There is no sufficient evidence to cast serious doubt on the universal tradition that
John died peacefully at Ephesus in extreme old age. The attribution of Papias of the
statement that John and James were killed by the Jews rests on very slender authority"
(The Historical Character of St. John's Gospel by J. Armitage Robinson).
The other disciples were indignant with James and John when they learned of their
ambitious request, and once more the Lord enforces His teaching concerning real
humility. Those who desire to rule must first learn to serve. This is a complete reversal
of the common idea concerning greatness and authority both then and now. The Lord
said:
". . . . . whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever
wants to be first must be your slave--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" (20: 26-28, N.I.V.).
As one studies the Word of God it is a constant wonderment to realize that He Who is
God almighty stoops to such humility. It is important to know that the word "ransom"
(lutron) was used in contemporary literature as the price paid for a slave who was then
set free by the one who bought him. The word "for" ("for many") is anti, which has the
meaning of exchange. The Lord Jesus gave His own life as the price of freedom for the
slaves of sin. There are those who seek to minimize the thought of a substitutionary
death for sinners by pointing out that the word ransom only occurs here and in the
corresponding passage in Mark 10: 45. But as Professor A. T. Robertson says, this is an
easy way of trying to get rid of passages that contradict one's theological opinions.
Christ knew the fullness of what He was saying and certainly meant what He said. The
central fact of redemption is that the penalty for sin has been paid, not by the believer
who is a sinner, but by the Lord Jesus in his place and stead (Isa. 53: 5, 6).
We do not know the total number of the redeemed, but it must be a large one
otherwise the word "many" would not have been used.
The final verses of chapter 20: deal with the healing of the two blind men which is
recorded in the three Synoptic Gospels. In some respects the accounts differ. Mark and
Luke have one blind man; Matthew has two. Matthew and Mark place the miracle when
Christ was leaving Jericho; Luke has it when the Lord was approaching the city. The
unbelieving mind loves to point out these seeming discrepancies, but when we know all