Note: This transcript is AI-generated and may contain errors. Please refer to the original audio for the most accurate information and meaning.
Introduction
Thank you, Jesse. Turn to Matthew chapter 20. We’re going to look again at—in this season as we approach the cross, as we approach Easter—we’re looking at the “Jesus approach” in His earthly ministry. What was on His mind as He came closer and closer to the time of His own death and resurrection?
The season of Lent is often a time when we set aside time to contemplate the coming season of resurrection. Part of what we’re doing this year is to think—and we’ve had various different themes—but this year we’re looking at, okay, what was on Jesus’ mind? And there was a lot. We’re not going to get to cover it all, but we’re going to get to cover pieces of what was on His mind prior to His death.
I mentioned the first week we did this that wouldn’t it have been great if the disciples could have lived now following Jesus? Because then they could rewind the tape and listen to it again. You and I get to rewind the tape every day. We get to go back and go, “What did He say? What was it again? I forget what He said.” You know, you’re doing that with the reels that you watch; you keep watching it over and over again, and that’s how you get those “thirst traps” coming in because you didn’t hear it the first time, or you didn’t see it the first time.
The Scripture Reading
We’re going to look at Matthew chapter 20. I’m going to go back a little bit further than what you have printed in the bulletin; the section is printed shorter than what I’m going to read. I’m just going to add a little section which I’ll allude to as we go through, starting at verse 17:
“Now Jesus was going up to Jerusalem. On the way, He took the twelve aside and said to them, ‘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 and will hand Him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. On the third day, He will be raised to new life.’
Then the mother of Zebedee’s sons came to Jesus with her sons and, kneeling down, asked a favor of Him. ‘What is it you want?’ He asked. She said, ‘Grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right hand and the other on the left in your kingdom.’
‘You don’t know what you’re asking,’ Jesus said to them. ‘Can you drink the cup I am drinking that I am going to drink?’ ‘We can,’ they answered. Jesus said to them, ‘You will indeed drink from the cup, but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared by my Father.’
When the ten heard this, they were indignant with the two brothers. Jesus called them together and said, ‘You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, 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 a ransom for many.'”
This is God’s word. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of God will stand forever.
Opening Prayer
Let’s pray. Father, be with us this morning. Be in our thinking and in our feeling, be in our acting, be in our motivation, be in our sense of captivation. Lord, I pray that you would let your word wash in us, that it would have rooted impact on the way that we think and perceive the world, the way that we feel and understand our desires, and that it would have impact on the way that we decide and move forward with actions of faith. I pray that you would do that for your glory and for the transformation of your kingdom. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
The Stubborn Blind Spot
I grew up with a grandfather and a father who would always tell the same jokes over and over again. I don’t know if you had a father like that. I thought some of these jokes were just… you know. And as old men get older, they just keep telling the same thing. I swore I wasn’t going to be that guy.
But sadly, I asked Becky this week, “Are there jokes that I tell all the time?” She rolled her eyes first, and then she said, “Every time I tell you I just got back from the horse farm and I’m going to jump in the shower real quick, you always say, ‘Be careful, don’t slip jumping in the shower!'”
As I can hear from your laughter, it’s not that funny. But I do it all the time. Why do I do it? Why did my father do it? It’s exactly the problem that Jesus is dealing with in this passage: they’re doing it again, and they don’t know they’re doing it again.
What are they doing again? They’re coming to Jesus trying to hoist themselves on Him and trying to make themselves greater than they are. James and John, the sons of Zebedee, come to Jesus and say, “Can I be the one on your right and can I be the one on your left?” And Jesus is like, “Dude, weren’t you here last week? Last week we talked about the parable of the sower in the field who brought workers in, and at the last minute, the last workers got the same wage as the first workers? The last shall be first, and the first shall be last?”
They were there listening to that, and it’s almost as if He wants to say to them, “Weren’t you here when I just said it’s about being last? And now here you are with your mother!”
Now, Mark’s telling of this story was that they went. Matthew’s story tells us that the mother went and the boys came along. I’m not sure it matters. I have a mother who is probably more like Zebedee’s wife. My mother loves me; to this very day, if I tell my mother I’m in a show, she’ll say, “Are you the lead?” I go, “No, Mom, I’m the father of the daughter of the person…” “Well, you should be the lead! Is there some reason they didn’t put you in that position?” That’s Zebedee’s mom.
But going up to Jesus and saying, “Hey Jesus, you want to do me a favor and could James be on one side and John on the other?” Jesus rolls His eyes. I love the idea that Jesus rolls His eyes. I don’t think there’s any sin in that; I think He’s just acknowledging the irony of the situation. I just preached a sermon about being last, and I just finished telling you, “I’m going up to Jerusalem where I’m going to be flogged and beaten and crucified.” Which sermon did you miss? Because the first one was a metaphor about being last, and then the second sermon was an actual history lesson about being last.
There are three avenues I want us to look at in here: the stubborn blind spot, the call to anonymity, and the only power for change.
1. The Stubborn Blind Spot
This stubborn blind spot—pride and self-aggrandizement—is so blind. C.S. Lewis, in Mere Christianity, has a chapter on pride and he calls it “The Great Sin.” You and I are so self-driven, so wrapped up in ourselves, we don’t even know when we’re telling the same joke. We don’t feel it when we’re exerting ourselves in a situation.
Pride and the sense of self-aggrandizement isn’t a thing that’s hiding; it’s a cancer that’s contaminating every other aspect. It’s got tentacles and a molecular structure that goes into every aspect of our lives. You’ll find it surprisingly in everything.
Think about conversations at a party. You’re out with friends, and someone says, “Hey, we just went to the Grand Canyon.” What’s your next comment? “Oh my gosh, I love going to the Grand Canyon,” or “I’d love to go.” What’s the common denominator? “You” and “I”.
I did this as a young pastor in Bible studies. Somebody would say something, and then I’d have to say something. Somebody else would say something, and I’d have to repeat it or make a comment on every single person because I’m the pastor. But it’s also because I’m Drew. Drew has things to say. And I would say, “Well, I’m an extroverted processor, I don’t really process my mind until I put it out there on the table.” Extroversion is a temperament, but sometimes the extrovert needs to be told, “Dude, just think about it. Nobody has to hear what you’re thinking all the time. Your thoughts aren’t the most valuable thing on the table right now”.
What pride says is: “My clay is more important than your clay.” That’s where my pride and my self-centeredness come out. It’s so stubborn; it doesn’t want to die. It takes the “chemotherapy of the Gospel” pounding on us every day to kill the cancer that is pride within us.
Pride is an attempt to control, to bring power, to find identity. In those moments, I want to be known for something. I want to be powerful over confusion. I want to be known as “in” rather than “out,” a part rather than alone. Pride whispers, “If you don’t say something, you’re going to be anonymous. You’re going to get lost. If you don’t do this thing, you’re not going to get what you deserve.”
I told Becky a number of years ago that I believed what we needed most in our marriage was “words”—my words. I thought the power to change and benefit our marriage was my words. I didn’t realize the utter cancer of that. Who ever gave me the idea that what I had to say was the thing that was going to bring beauty and power? Me. The lie of pride.
2. The Call to Anonymity
Jesus says, “Not so with you.” When religious leaders or people who aren’t following Christ feel things loosening, they lord it over others and exert themselves. But not so with my people. It’s okay if the spotlight moves away. Actually, the way of the Kingdom is that the spotlight can move away.
Turn to Philippians chapter 2, verse 5:
“Your attitude should be the same as that of Jesus Christ: Who, being in the very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped.”
He was equal with God, but He surrendered that grasping. When the spotlight of Godness was moving away from Jesus at His death and in His humanity, He didn’t grasp at it. He made Himself nothing, took on the very nature of a servant. That’s the trajectory of a life with Him: the call to anonymity. The last thing anybody wants to be is anonymous. We want followers; we need somebody to notice us. We don’t want to be forgotten.
Jesus was the most unknown person. His whole life, there were less and less and less people until finally everyone leaves Him—then three left in the garden, then only John at the foot of the cross, then only the women. Even at the cross: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” God forgot Him.
Jesus took that road of anonymity not just to present an example, but to save you from utter anonymity. Because Jesus went all the way down that road where everyone left Him, if you trust in Christ, you will never have to walk that road. God will never forget you. You are like the child at the breast of God. He says, “I will always remember you. I will sing about you.”
That’s why Jesus promises: don’t follow the path of human pride because you don’t need it. The spotlight needs to move away so that you can revel in the fact that God remembers you. My sense of identity comes from His remembering, not my exerting.
3. The Only Power for Change
The reason He calls us to this path is because it’s the only powerful path to change. Change doesn’t occur any other way—not good change. When His people are out of the spotlight, when they are the disenfranchised, the servants, and the slaves rather than the lords, it expresses the beauty of the image of Jesus.
I love the story of Les Misérables. It’s the story of Jean Valjean’s redemption. He was a man put in prison for stealing bread, broke rocks for years, and was finally released with nothing. He was taken in by a priest, and while there, he stole silver candlesticks. When he was caught by the prison guard, Javert, the priest said, “Oh, you forgot the silver cups I gave you!” By that act of grace, Valjean was saved. He became a new man, eventually becoming the mayor of a town.
Years later, a heavy cart is about to run over a man in the town. Valjean runs to the cart and lifts it off the man, saving his life. Javert, who is still looking for Valjean, says, “I’ve never seen such strength in a man except for a man named Jean Valjean.” Later, when another man is wrongly accused of being Valjean, the real Valjean goes to court and reveals himself to save an anonymous man.
During the French Revolution, Valjean has the chance to kill Javert, who has been hunting him. He has the power to end his woes, but he surrenders his power to be gracious to a man who didn’t deserve grace. He was willing to become anonymous to save others. Javert couldn’t bear to be saved because to be saved, he had to admit he needed saving. He couldn’t get out of his own spotlight, so he ended it all.
When the Savior who is willing to surrender it all for you deeply impacts your thinking, you’re able and willing to say, “I don’t have to hold on to any of me.” You live a life where you’re constantly discovering ways you can surrender yourself. The only way you have the power to do that is by Jesus lifting the “cart” off of your life.
Closing Prayer
Thank you, Father, for the work you’ve done on our behalf. Thank you for teaching us not just by example but by giving us tangible power—the power of yourself—to surrender ourselves and to be on the lookout for that cancer of pride. May a regular dose of your grace transform us and transform the world. Your people don’t need to be powerful to change the world; we need your power. Do that for our homes, our community, and our world. In Jesus’ name, Amen.