Matthew 20:17-23
Now Jesus, going up to Jerusalem, took the twelve disciples aside on the road and said to them, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death, and deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock and to scourge and to crucify. And the third day He will rise again.” Then the mother of Zebedee’s sons came to Him with her sons, kneeling down and asking something from Him. And He said to her, “What do you wish?” She said to Him, “Grant that these two sons of mine may sit, one on Your right hand and the other on the left, in Your kingdom.” But Jesus answered and said, “You do not know what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” They said to Him, “We are able.” So He said to them, “You will indeed drink My cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with; but to sit on My right hand and on My left is not Mine to give, but it is for those for whom it is prepared by My Father.”
I never noticed that this request comes RIGHT after Jesus says He'll be betrayed, condemned, beaten and crucified. Zebedee's sons heard this, but their mother didn't. What must they have thought when she asked for this right after Jesus told them what would happen to Him! And then Jesus puts them on the spot with an oblique reference to what He just told them.
If you want to reign with Christ, you must die with Christ. Are you willing to let happen to you what happened to Him? Even if you are, you cannot expect the highest positions in His kingdom.
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