MATTHEW 20:27 — KING JAMES VERSION 0
“And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant:”
And whoever would be first among you must be your slave. The slave — the lowest possible social position — is the position that the one who wants to be first must occupy. The escalation from servant (verse 26) to slave (verse 27) communicates the totality of the reversal: the kingdom's hierarchy is the complete inversion of the world's hierarchy.
Church Fathers on Matthew 20:27
So long as the judgment of Christ upon this request was in suspense, the other disciples were not indignant; but when they heard Him rebuke them, they were sorrowful; whence it is said, 'And when the ten heard it, they had indignation against the two brethren.'
They do not lay it upon the forwardness of the mother who spoke the request, but upon her sons, who, not knowing their measure, burned with so immoderate desires.
But as the two had asked carnally, so now the ten are grieved carnally. For as to seek to be above all is blameworthy, so to have another above us is mortifying to our vanity.
Read all 13 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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