Matthew 20:20-28
Contemporary English Version
A Mother's Request
(Mark 10.35-45)
20 The mother of James and John[a] came to Jesus with her two sons. She knelt down and started begging him to do something for her. 21 Jesus asked her what she wanted, and she said, “When you come into your kingdom, please let one of my sons sit at your right side and the other at your left.”[b]
22 Jesus answered, “Not one of you knows what you are asking. Are you able to drink from the cup[c] that I must soon drink from?”
James and John said, “Yes, we are!”
23 Jesus replied, “You certainly will drink from my cup! But it isn't for me to say who will sit at my right side and at my left. This is for my Father to say.”
24 When the ten other disciples heard this, they were angry with the two brothers. 25 (A) But Jesus called the disciples together and said:
You know foreign rulers like to order their people around. And their great leaders have full power over everyone they rule. 26 (B) But don't act like them. If you want to be great, you must be the servant of all the others. 27 And if you want to be first, you must be the slave of the rest. 28 The Son of Man did not come to be a slave master, but a slave who will give his life to rescue[d] many people.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- 20.20 mother of James and John: The Greek text has “mother of the sons of Zebedee” (see 26.37).
- 20.21 right side … left: The most powerful people in a kingdom sat at the right and left side of the king.
- 20.22 drink from the cup: In the Scriptures a cup is sometimes used as a symbol of suffering. To “drink from the cup” is to suffer.
- 20.28 rescue: The Greek word often, though not always, means the payment of a price to free a slave or a prisoner.
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