Matthew 20-21

Click here to read Matthew 20-21

Power is something that Jesus talks a lot about in the gospels. There were 2 factors in Jesus' focus on this topic. One, as we've discussed before, is that a caste system had been created by the religious elite in Judaism-- you had their class, and the class of "sinners." The elites would lord over the non-elites in an oppressive way. Jesus came to free the oppressed, but in a different way than expected.

The second was that the Messiah was expected to be a powerful figure that would overthrow Rome and would then rule the Jewish people. Jesus definitely came with power, but it was different that what people expected.

In 20:20-28, the mother of James and John expected Jesus to have such an earthly rule, and she wanted her sons at his right hand and left hand, which of course would have been the 2 positions of the most power right after Jesus. Jesus tells them that they don't know what they are asking. Power in his kingdom is not about gaining authority, but it's about coming the least. Power does not involve elevating yourself, but elevating others above yourself.

He asks them, "can you drink from my cup," his cup meaning his death. They don't understand the question, but answer that they can. Jesus tells them that they will. And, they both did. James was the first of the apostles to be martyred, which is recorded in Acts. John is beleived to be the last of the apostles to die, and many beleive he is the only one not to be martyred. But, he did suffer for his faith. Revelation was written by him from the island of Patmos, which was a prison colony. The prisoners there were forced to work mining copper. Revelation was written around 90 ad, so John would have been very old to have been mining copper.

Today, Christians too often look for power among the traditional means. We should instead follow Jesus' example of becoming the least.