Servant Leadership – Matthew 20:17-28

Robert K. Greenleaf coined a phrase, ‘servant leadership,’ in a 1970 essay called The Servant as Leader, and described the servant-leader as a “servant first… It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. That person is sharply different from one who is leader first, perhaps because of the need to assuage an unusual power drive or to acquire material possessions…The leader-first and the servant-first are two extreme types. Between them there are shadings and blends that are part of the infinite variety of human nature. The difference manifests itself in the care taken by the servant-first to make sure that other people’s highest priority needs are being served. The best test, and difficult to administer, is: Do those served grow as persons? Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants?”

Jesus is the author of this concept and the original servant-leader.

And as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside, and on the way he said to them, “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 and deliver him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day.”

Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came up to him with her sons, and kneeling before him she asked him for something. 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.” 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.” 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.” And when the ten heard it, they were indignant at the two brothers. 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. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:17-28 ESV)

This is the third time Jesus has told his disciples, specifically the twelve, that he is going to be crucified but rise the third day.  This time there is no record of their response, whether dismayed or confused or otherwise.  But there is the self-serving request by James and John via their mother that they be given positions of power next to Jesus in his kingdom. Jesus has just told the disciples that they will sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel (ch. 19). But apparently that is not enough for James and John. They want the highest possible position.

We might commend them that they believe the kingdom is coming and that Jesus is the king and they have a vivid picture of it in their minds.  But why should they have the highest positions above the other disciples?  What they don’t seem to have the picture of is the necessity of suffering before ruling.

Jesus tells them they don’t know what they are asking for and that they will suffer as he will, but they arrogantly and foolishly believe they can drink the cup of suffering.  Jesus does not promise them anything but suffering and leaves it to the Father to determine their place in the kingdom. 

The other disciples are naturally indignant with James and John, so Jesus exposes all their ambitions with his principle of servant leadership.  The leader must serve those he leads, not make them serve him.  And Jesus uses himself as the model, now, for the first time, explaining his death as a ransom, a payment made for (literally “in the place of”) the many.  His death will be substitutionary, like Isaiah 53 describes.  He will be stricken for our sins, not his own, so that we may be set free from God’s righteous wrath due our rebellion.