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A Mother Asks Jesus a Favor

20 Then the wife of Zebedee came to Jesus. Her sons were with her. The mother bowed before Jesus and asked him to do something for her.

21 Jesus asked, “What do you want?”

She said, “Promise that one of my sons will sit at your right side in your kingdom. And promise that the other son will sit at your left side.”

22 But Jesus said, “You don’t understand what you are asking. Can you accept the kind of suffering that I must suffer?”[a]

The sons answered, “Yes, we can!”

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Footnotes

  1. 20:22 accept . . . suffer Literally, “drink the cup that I must drink.” Jesus used the idea of drinking from a cup to mean accepting the terrible things that would happen to him.

A Mother’s Request(A)

20 Then the mother of Zebedee’s sons(B) came to Jesus with her sons and, kneeling down,(C) asked a favor of him.

21 “What is it you want?” he asked.

She said, “Grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other at your left in your kingdom.”(D)

22 “You don’t know what you are asking,” Jesus said to them. “Can you drink the cup(E) I am going to drink?”

“We can,” they answered.

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