Do we know what we are asking for when we ask to be close to Jesus?

“What Do You Want Me to Do For You?”

(Matthew 20:17-34, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, February 17, 2008)

Matthew 20:17-34 ¹⁷ And as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside, and on the way he said to them, ¹⁸ "See, we are going up to Jerusalem. And the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death ¹⁹ and deliver him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day." ²⁰ Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came up to him with her sons, and kneeling before him she asked him for something. ²¹ And he said to her, "What do you want?" She said to him, "Say that these two sons of mine are to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom." ²² Jesus answered, "You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink?" They said to him, "We are able." ²³ He said to them, "You will drink my cup, but to sit at my right hand and at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father." ²⁴ And when the ten heard it, they were indignant at the two brothers. ²⁵ But Jesus called them to him and said, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. ²⁶ It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, ²⁷ and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, ²⁸ even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." ²⁹ And as they went out of Jericho, a great crowd followed him. ³⁰ And behold, there were two blind men sitting by the roadside, and when they heard that Jesus was passing by, they cried out, "Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!" ³¹ The crowd rebuked them, telling them to be silent, but they cried out all the more, "Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!" ³² And stopping, Jesus called them and said, "What do you want me to do for you?" ³³ They said to him, "Lord, let our eyes be opened." ³⁴ And Jesus in pity touched their eyes, and immediately they recovered their sight and followed him.

Introduction – Expectations, surprises, and disappointments

In his famous inaugural address, President John F. Kennedy told the nation, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” It was a call to service that has inspired many. As Christians you not only want to serve your country, but you are also told to “Seek first the Kingdom of God.” You are supposed to “Serve the Lord with gladness,” and to “Love your neighbor as you love yourself.” In these and hundreds of other passages you are called to sacrifice your own immediate preferences for the progress of the Lord’s Kingdom.

Yet as Christians, our faith is not in our ability to serve. Our faith is first a simple receiving of God’s amazing service of us. The service that must follow in our lives is important, but it is not the main point for us. The first thing is the love of God toward us, expressed supremely in the cross. It is as if God is saying to us, “Do not first ask what you can do for me, but what I have done for you.” That is a rather shocking truth about what we believe. In our passage this morning Jesus asks this: “What do you want me to do for you?” Since Christianity is first about God serving us, it should not surprise us that the Lord would ask this question. He came to serve.

What if He were asking that question to you this morning… “What do you want me to do for you?” What do you expect the Lord to do for you? Based on what you know about Christ, and what you truly want from Him, what are your expectations from Him this morning, or more broadly considered, what are your expectations from Him for your entire life on earth and in heaven? I cannot help but think that many of the things that we want are not the most important things to want, and that one day beyond all the disappointments of not getting what we want when we want it, we will be delightfully surprised when we experience fully what the Lord has actually done for us. On that day we will see with our own eyes what He has so graciously given to us.

We are going up to Jerusalem. (17-19)

Jesus said to His disciples, “We are going up to Jerusalem.” The Son of Man was going there to suffer and die for you and me. He would be betrayed by one of his friends, and handed over to the religious leaders, the chief priests and the scribes, who were plotting to kill Him. The chief priests were the leading men among a large group of the descendants of Aaron, the brother of Moses. They were in charge of the sacrificial system and were called to offer up the sacrifices of the people to God and to pronounce the blessing of God to the people. The scribes were experts in the system of religious laws that was an unfortunate combination of divine commandments and human traditions that informed the people concerning their religious duties.

These men wanted to see Jesus dead, but they did not have the power to safely execute that kind of sentence, so it was necessary for them, after convicting him in their own religious courts, to turn him over to the Roman authorities (the Gentiles) who would beat him, and ultimately put him to death through the punishment of the cross, a Roman penalty reserved for the worst criminals. The point of the cross was public exposure. A crucified criminal was to be seen by all as a warning to others not to follow in this way lest this happen to you. Jesus predicted all these things, but he also predicted that he would rise again from the dead on the third day.

Whatever rising from the dead might have reasonably meant to them, it certainly meant something better than crucifixion. Jesus knew that the way to glory would be through suffering, both for Him and for us.

What do you want? (20-23)

Suffering is not what we want, and it is not what mothers ask for their children. They ask for Kingdom honor and blessing, but Jesus’ Kingdom would require suffering of them. No one seems to understand what they are asking for when they ask to be able to stay close to Jesus. When the mother of James and John knelt before the Lord, He asked her a simple question, the same question I asked you a moment ago: “What do you want?” She knew what she wanted. She wanted the best for her boys. When Jesus came into His Kingdom she did not want Him to forget Her sons. She wanted them to be important officials in the Kingdom, one on his right hand and the other on His left.

The root confusion here is that they do not understand what the Kingdom is like and they do not understand what it means to be the Messianic King. They are operating from their own frame of reference. They have seen people in positions of power and authority. Things seem to go pretty well for such people and for those who are around them. They are the distributors of patronage – good things for their family and friends. This is what everyone expects from big men who have power. They don’t expect that the King will soon be on a cross, though He did warn them this. They don’t understand that the Messiah is called first to suffer for us by atoning for our sins through His death. They don’t understand that they will also suffer when the day comes for them to serve Him. Herod will have one of these two young men put to death with the sword, and that wicked king will be happy when he says that this murder pleased the Jews. The other brother will suffer through a long life of service and will be an old man in exile on a lonely island because of his dedication to the Word of God. This was not what their mother was asking for. She did not understand the Kingdom, and she did not understand the Messiah.

They were indignant. (24-28)

The other disciples were not happy with James and John, and of course they also did not understand the Kingdom or the Messiah. Jesus tells them clearly that this Kingdom is not like the ones they are used to, where rulers use their authority to get what they want and to give it to others as they choose. Theirs is not a pathway of worldly privilege, but of unusual humble service. We are not talking here about the kind of service where people get their pictures in the paper next to a larger-then-life check with smiling faces all around. We are not talking about the service of prestige as you win the title, “Good guy of the year.” Service in God’s kingdom will bring you lower than others. The Word of the Kingdom will go forward at the cost of your lives. People will be hated, and even killed for the message of life that they bring. At the center of that message will be the Lord, who has come to give us life, to pay the ransom payment to His Father in order to free His people from the bondage of sin, guilt, and death.

Lord, let our eyes be opened. (29-34)

The words of Jesus Christ here were clear, but the disciples could not see it yet. As they went out of that area they encountered two blind men that call Jesus by the royal title “Son of David” as well as the word “Lord” that is used for God throughout the Old Testament. People wanted them to stop shouting these things, but they yelled all the more. Then Jesus stopped and asked them that key question: “What do you want me to do for you?” They knew exactly what they wanted. Without a moment’s hesitation they said to him, “Lord, let our eyes be opened.”

They had an eager desire. We can have eager desires for all kinds of thing. The poor man Lazarus was said to have an eager desire. He was so hungry that he longed for the food that fell from the rich man’s table. Some people have an eager desire for companionship, for a certain kind of life, for wealth, for pleasure, for prestige, to prove themselves right, for things to go faster, for things to slow down, for a longer life, or for a shorter life. Have I covered just about everybody? If not, the question is there for you. What do you want Jesus to do for you?

I want your eyes to be opened. I want you to see the Lord as the first and most eager desire in your life, so far above your other wants, that you could say that He is your only desire. “As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?” (Psalm 42) “One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple.… You have said, "Seek my face." My heart says to you, "Your face, LORD, do I seek." …Teach me your way, O LORD, and lead me on a level path.” (Psalm 27) Do you see enough yet that your eager desire is for the One who made the blind see?

We want all kinds of things, and the Lord gives us things because of His compassion, but it is most important that we would have Him, and for that to be your eager desire, you need spiritual sight. The Psalmist says, “I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living!” He then instructs us: “Wait for the LORD; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the LORD!” (Psalm 27) Open your eyes by faith this morning, look at the King and desire Him. Measure His Kingdom rightly, and follow Him, for He has done great things for us.

Questions for meditation and discussion:

1. Is there some significance to the fact that Jesus is heading toward Jerusalem as he again warns of His death.

2. What parts of his prophecy do they seem to understand, and what parts do they still not appreciate?

3. The disciples believe that they are able to face suffering for their Lord. What do you make of their statement?

4. Identify the three episodes in this passage. What is the connection between them?