Mark 10:35-45

³⁵ Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to Him, saying, “Teacher, we want You to do for us whatever we ask.”

³⁶ And He said to them, “What do you want Me to do for you?”

³⁷ They said to Him, “Grant us that we may sit, one on Your right hand and the other on Your left, in Your glory.”

³⁸ But Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?”

³⁹ They said to Him, “We are able.” So Jesus said to them, “You will indeed drink the cup that I drink, and with the baptism I am baptized with you will be baptized;

⁴⁰ 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.”

⁴¹ And when the ten heard it, they began to be greatly displeased with James and John.

⁴² But Jesus called them to Himself and said to them, “You know that those who are considered rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them.

⁴³ Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant.

⁴⁴ And whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of all.

⁴⁵ For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”

Also found in Matthew 20:20-28.

Matthew agrees with Mark in the dialogue, but represents the mother of James and John (i.e., Salome) as the actual petitioner; she was in the company, and though the sons were certainly to some extent, responsible (Matthew 20:20, 22), it is more than probably that maternal ambition, prompted their application to our Lord. According to Matthew, Salome approaches with her sons, prostrates herself, and intimates that she has a request to make. Mark, who for once lost the pictorial details, preserves the words, putting them however, into the lips of the sons. Both the homage offered and the terms of the petition, suggest that the Lord is approached in the character of a King who can gratify the desires of His subjects without limitation, as in another sense He afterwards declared Himself able to do.

The mother spoke for the sons. But they try to commit Jesus to their desires before they tell what they are, just like spoiled children. The contrast between the self-0abnegation and self-sacrificial heroism of our Lord, and the utter absence of any ambition self-ambition, stands out vividly with the petty self-interest and ambition of the disciples. … He was going to the Cross. They had their thoughts centered on self-advancement in the Kingdom. — Wuest, pages 209-210.

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Our Lord asks, “Are ye able to be drinking the cup which I am drinking?” The personal pronoun occurs with the verb, showing emphasis. It particularizes the cup which our Lord is drinking, from all other cups, and makes it stand out as a special one, an unusual one. … The cup is the one to which our Lord refers in His Gethsemane prayer (Matthew 26:39), its ingredients, our Lord being made sin (2 Corinthians 5:21), and being abandoned for the time being by God the Father and the Spirit (Matthew 27:46). As to the use of the figure of baptism here to speak of our Lord’s sufferings, we might say that the metaphorical use of the word is common in Greek, and is found in the Old Testament (Psalm 18:16, 42:7, 59:1). … Our Lord is referring to the sufferings into which He will be plunged at the Cross and which will overwhelm His soul, wringing from His broken hear that desolate cry, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” — Wuest, page 210.

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We are able (v.39) — A lighthearted and eager reply, which reveals the absence even in a disciple like John of any clear understanding of the Master’s repeated warnings, and at the same time the loyalty of the men who were ready to share the Master’s lot, whatever that might be. The “we can” of the disciples, is a mere profession of moral courage, not a claim to spiritual power. The words of our Lord came true in the case of these two disciples. James died by the sword of Herod Agrippa (Acts 12:2), and John was exiled to Patmos, where, tradition says, he died at hard labor. [Tradition, in other words, means that we don’t know.] — Wuest, page 211.

displeased (v.41) = felt pain, grieved, were indignant

The sons of Zebedee wanted to be first and the Ten were unwilling to be last! Such was the energy of the carnal nature in all Twelve. Jesus as the Servant of Jehovah came to be the Servant of all and to give His life to save “many.” — Williams, page 738.

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It was pomp and circumstance, privilege and power, position and authority in the Gentile world, which was esteemed great, and the greatness of the individual came from his place in the system. But in the kingdom of God, the greatness of the individual comes from the lowly place he takes as a servant of all. Even the resplendent beauty of the Son of Man came from the fact, that He as Very God of Very God, became incarnate in human flesh and a servant to mankind. — Wuest, page 212.

servant (v.44) = a servant seen in his activity of serving

slave (v.44) = the most servile term for a slave (2 Corinthians 4:5).

The word “ransom” (v.45) [means] “the price for redeeming, the ransom paid for slaves.” The word “for” [means] “instead of.” It is the preposition of substitution. Our Lord paid the ransom money for slaves of sin who could not pay it themselves, namely, His own precious blood (1 Peter 1:18-19). — Wuest, page 212.