The Carnegie Hero Award is given dozens of times each year to non-military people, just regular citizens, all throughout the United States and Canada, who do this one thing: they are in a situation where they risk their life, or give their life to save someone they don’t know. The Carnegie Hero Award gives a medal and recognition, but also a $5,000 grant. They’ve been giving this medal out for 125 years.
There are some incredible stories with the Carnegie Hero Award. I would recommend going to check some of them out. The most remarkable one I’ve heard or read about is the story of a man named Wesley Autrey. He’s a 50-year-old construction worker in Harlem, who one day in New York, at the subway, was standing on the platform with his six-year-old daughter on one hand and his four-year-old daughter on the other hand, on a normal commute.
A train was coming in the station not far away when all of a sudden a nearby pedestrian, a man, went into a convulsive state, had a seizure. It seemed to die down, and then came back with a fury, and the man having a seizure fell off the platform, onto the tracks as a train was approaching.
Everyone was horrified. Most people didn’t know what to do. Wesley Autrey let go of his daughters’ hands and jumped down off the platform to save the man before the train would kill him.
As he was down trying to pull the man off the tracks— This wasn’t a small guy. He was six feet, 180 pounds, and completely out of control of his limbs. His hands and arms were going crazy. Wesley couldn’t get a hold of his hands and his arms. He was trying with everything he had as the train was approaching 50 feet, 40 feet, 30 feet.
He had a decision in that moment to either say he gave it a good try, jump back on the platform, take care of his daughters (which would have been totally reasonable and understandable), but Wesley Autrey did something that I don’t know I would have done in that situation.
He decided to lie on top of the man who was having convulsions and bear hug him— hold in his arms, hold in is legs, and hold him down as far as possible so that when the train passed over, he would try to preserve his life. That’s exactly what he did.
Wesley said, as the first train car passed over him, he felt the train car graze his calf muscles. That’s how much room there was not under that train car. So the first train car passed, the second train car passed over the two men… It was a total of 45 train cars that passed over the two men.
While they were under there, the convulsion stopped, the man in a medical emergency came too, had an awareness of what was happening. It took a while for Wesley to convince him that he wasn’t dead and that Wesley wasn’t an angel. He said, “I don’t know you, and you don’t know me, but you just had a medical emergency, and I jumped down here to save your life.”
After the last train car passed, the man was okay. Wesley jumped back on the platform, hugged his little girls. They were terrified, as you could imagine, and so happy that their dad was okay. Wesley was awarded the Carnegie Medal.
The Carnegie Hero Medal is awarded not because of Wesley’s background, his ethnicity, how much money he made, or his knowledge. They measure a hero based on one thing: a person’s willingness to lay down their life for another person.
In a lot of ways, as we look at Matthew 20, Jesus measured greatness in his kingdom in a similar kind of way— not on background or how much we know, but on one thing Jesus mentions: true greatness is, in Jesus’s kingdom, laying down our lives for other people.
In Matthew 20, we’re going to look at the resolve of Jesus in the face of the cross, the rivalry of his disciples, and lastly, the reason why Jesus came. So look down with me at chapter 20, verse 17. It says,
“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’” (Matthew 20:17-18).
As Jesus and his disciples are making their way to Jerusalem — I actually showed a picture up here. We’ve been traveling through the book of Matthew together. They started up in Galilee, and the different stories we’ve been hearing are on their track down around Samaria as they cross over the Jordan, and now they’re getting to the end of the five to seven-day trip.
They’re nearing the last day of this journey. There’s about 15 miles left. They’re entering the area surrounding Jerusalem, so the elevation starts climbing. They’re down somewhere around Jericho, in the red circle at the bottom, and they’re heading towards the last leg of the journey, which is Jerusalem.
This is when Jesus kind of takes a break from the trek, because he draws their attention. When he says, “See, we’re going up to Jerusalem,” he’s not just talking about like, “Check out the view.” He’s saying take notice, pay attention, don’t let this moment just pass by.
Jesus knew that this was the last time he would be heading to Jerusalem. He knew this was coming, but now it was getting close. Now the cross wasn’t something off in the future. The cross was very close, and Jesus wanted his disciples to not miss it.
It’d be similar to you and me if we drive the same route all the time to work, or the same road all the time to school, we would not even be paying attention. These disciples would have made this trek many times, probably around three times a year, and Jesus wanted to get their full attention and say, “Pay attention to what I’m about to tell you, because this trip to Jerusalem is going to be different than all the other ones.” In verse 18, he says,
“See, we are going up to Jerusalem. And the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the 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” (Matthew 20:18-19).
Notice the details that Jesus is giving. Picture in your mind what he’s saying to his disciples, who may not be fully grasping what he is saying. He’s going to be delivered, condemned, mocked, flogged, and crucified.
They knew the term “crucified” was talking about a Roman crucifixion. The Roman crucifixion wasn’t a short death. It was very public. It was very humiliating. It was a very excruciating and designed to be excruciating torture. This, what Jesus is talking about, is not the picture they had in their minds of what the Messiah was going to be. They were thinking of victory, power, and Jesus was describing suffering and death.
Notice the lack of response from the disciples. It’s not there. There is no response from them.
This is the third time Jesus predicts his death in Matthew. The first time, they responded with anger. Like, “Lord, don’t even mention this. This is not going to happen to you. We’re not going to let it happen to you.” Then the second time, it says they were deeply distressed. They were sad to even think about it. Now we’re at the third time. Jerusalem is so close. The cross is just days away, and there’s no response from them.
What was going on in their minds that there was no response recorded? We get a glimpse of that in the next section in verse 20. We see the resolve of Jesus to continue steadfastly heading to the cross, knowing exactly what’s lying in wait for him.
Then we see a glimpse of what’s going on in the disciples’ minds in that moment. We’ll see four things in this section: an ambitious request, a revealing question from Jesus, a community reaction (all the disciples), and Jesus gives a kingdom reversal. So look at verse 20 and this ambitious request. It says,
“Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came up to him with her sons, and kneeling before him she asked him for something” (Matthew 20:20).
Hold on just a moment. We have all the followers of Jesus walking together to Jerusalem, he calls his disciples aside, and then all of a sudden, we have the picture of a woman at Jesus’s feet, kneeling down.
What just happened? Why is their mom—James and John, the sons of Zebedee—why is their mom making this request? Why aren’t they, if it’s on their mind? It sounds bizarre when you first glance at it, but consider this:
I have five kids, and the older kids, from time to time — This may never happen in your family, I’m sure. But in my family, sometimes, if the older kids have a request (and they know that it’s kind of probably going to get shot down by mom and dad), they’ve been known to send younger siblings to make the request. My guess is they’re right in the next room listening. They’re counting on the cuteness and the innocence of the younger sibling to win the hearts of Mom and Dad to get a yes.
I think that’s what’s going on here: they wanted to preserve their facade. They wanted to not look selfish and send their mom to ask the request.
Jesus knows what’s happening. We know he knows what is happening because, when he responds and gives the answer, he doesn’t even give it to the mom. He gives it directly to the source of the question, which is James and John. So let’s pick up in verse 21.
“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’” (Matthew 20:21).
In other words, she’s asking, “Promise me, Jesus, guarantee for me—we know there’s a kingdom coming, we know you’re going to be at the head of the kingdom—guarantee for me that my sons are going to be second and third in command in your kingdom.”
This is an ambitious request. This is a bold request. But remember who’s making the request. It’s James and John, the sons of thunder, right?
Remember Luke 9, when the Samaritan village rejected Jesus, it was these two brothers who said, “Jesus, do you want us to call down fire from heaven like Elijah and smite these evil Samaritans for rejecting you? Because we can do that. We can make that request right now.”
These guys were not shy. They were saying what all of the other disciples were thinking. We know that because of the revealing question that Jesus asked. They were thinking, “If there’s going to be thrones, we want the best seats in the house.”
They were thinking about a kingdom of honor and authority. But they were missing something, and Jesus gets right to the heart of that. In verse 22, he asks a revealing question.
“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 and at my left hand is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father” (Matthew 20:22-23).
When they said, “We are able,” they were thinking of the cup of honor and authority. But Jesus was referring to the cup of suffering and judgment. Jesus is showing them something that he showed all throughout the book of Matthew, that following him means going down before going up.
They were embracing legitimate prophecies about the Messiah. They were real prophecies, prophecies about the Messiah ruling and reigning, but in that moment, they were overlooking all of the prophecies having to do with the suffering Messiah, the Messiah that is taking on the sins of his people.
Paul Miller puts it like this in his book, J-Curve. He says,
“Following Jesus means stepping down into suffering with him so that God can bring resurrection life through us.”
The picture that Paul Miller points out is a “going down before going up.” I just drew in an arrow here. This is what the disciples were thinking in this moment. They wanted to skip right to the glory, right to victory, without following Jesus down in suffering before being glorified.
Jesus tells them straightforwardly, “You will share in my cup,” and we know that that’s true, specifically for James and John. James, in Acts 12, was the first apostle to be martyred. John wasn’t martyred, but he was exiled out of civilization on an island and lived out the rest of his days, persecuted, and died in exile.
Following Jesus doesn’t always mean martyrdom, but it does always mean suffering before glory. We’re not always going to give our lives in totality if we follow Jesus, but without exception, there will be suffering before we experience glory and resurrection life.
So we see Jesus’s revealing question, and then we also see in verse 24 the community reaction. Here’s the reaction of all the disciples.
“And when the ten heard it, they were indignant at the two brothers” (Matthew 20:24).
Do you think they were indignant that Jesus was being disrespected with that question? That’s not what’s happening here. The disciples were indignant because they saw James and John getting in front of them in the kingdom. They saw James and John asking the question that they would have asked themselves if they had thought of it first, and they were angry about it.
Jesus saw what was happening, and he called all of them together. He saw their moral outrage. He saw that they were upset, that James and John were getting in front and trying to get the best seats in the kingdom. He saw what was going to be coming in the future, even at the Last Supper, that they would—in that moment—be comparing who gets the best seat around Jesus. Their focus was comparison and rivalry.
One thing for you and me today, as we see this, we see the disciples weren’t some statues. They weren’t robots. They were just as human as you and I are. They experienced the same kinds of things that crop up in our hearts when our focus is off of Christ, the same kind of comparison and rivalry.
As Jesus calls everyone together, he gives them a teaching of what his kingdom is like. This is in verse 25. This is the kingdom reversal, flipping everything upside down, which Jesus does time and time again. It says in verse 25,
“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 first among you must be your slave.’” (Matthew 20:25).
Jesus says, “Look at the Roman Empire. Look at the way the world thinks greatness works. In the world, the higher you go, the more people there are to serve you. But it’s not going to be like that in my kingdom. In my kingdom, the higher you go, the more people there are for you to serve.” Completely upside down.
They would have heard nothing like that, both in the Roman world and in Jewish religious society. That’s not how it worked, yet Jesus was saying, “It’s not going to be like that among you, among my people.”
God isn’t measuring greatness based on your background, your Bible knowledge, your denomination, the position of leadership in your family or work, your position of leadership in the church… Jesus’s kingdom is different. Jesus is measuring on a different scale.
This is the main idea of this passage: true greatness in the kingdom is measured by a willingness to lay down your life for others. Jesus isn’t looking at all of those other things. He says true greatness is measured by a willingness to lay down your life for others.
So in the first section, we saw Jesus’s resolve in the face of the cross. In the second section, we see the rivalry of the disciples. Then, finally, verse 28, we see the reason why Jesus came. Jesus gives the main reason why he came. Verse 28, it says,
“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 20:28).
Jesus explains how his kingdom works, and then he gives them an example. Here is the ultimate example of what it looks like to be last, to have authority and power, and then to actually put other people ahead of yourself. He gives himself as that example. He calls himself a ransom for many.
Peter mentioned a couple of weeks ago: the word “ransom” means the price that’s paid to purchase someone out of slavery or bondage. Jesus is saying he’s giving his own life. The greatest act of sacrificial love is him giving his life for his people to purchase them out of the bondage of sin and slavery to sin.
Isaiah 53 is one of those passages that the disciples weren’t focusing on when they were thinking about the Messiah and the future kingdom. This is one of the ones they were probably familiar with, but overlooking. Isaiah 53:3 says,
“He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:3-6).
In the beginning of January, I got to sit down with a Muslim friend who explained his view of Christianity, and it made an impact on me.
He said, “The Christian explanation of Jesus being our substitute cannot be from God,” because God is a God of justice and he’s a God of fairness. How fair is it that if you sin, I kill my son? He said God would never send us that message. That’s not fair whatsoever.
In one sense, he’s right. Humanly speaking, that’s not true. We should be the ones who receive the penalty for our sin. But that is exactly what the Gospel teaches. In 2 Corinthians 5:21—I added parentheses for clarity—it says,
“For our sake he (God the Father) made him (Jesus) to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him (Jesus) we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).
Christianity is even more scandalous than that. Not only was Jesus killed for our sin, but we actually receive all of his righteousness. The gospels go way further than just someone dying for their sin. The most righteous person in the universe transfers all of his righteousness to people who are the least deserving. This is the Gospel. This is the good news that without this happening, we have absolutely no hope whatsoever.
Think back to the story in the beginning about Wesley Autrey. For a moment, use your imagination and envision yourself in that story. You have Wesley on the platform. The man with the seizure falls onto the tracks, totally helpless, unable to save himself.
Put yourself in that story, not as the good Samaritan, but as the person who falls onto the tracks completely helpless to save yourself. Imagine Jesus in this scenario as the person coming off the platform onto the tracks to save you. That’s pretty remarkable.
But the reality of our spiritual condition is much bigger than that. It’s much more dire. We’re in a much worse spot than a man on a track for a few minutes. Ephesians 2 says we’re not just sick or in a medical emergency. Ephesians 2 says we’re dead in our trespasses and dead in our sins.
Romans 5 makes it really clear that we’re not like an innocent victim having a medical emergency. We are enemies of a holy and righteous God. We are traitors in his kingdom, giving him no loyalty and worthy of treason, worthy of complete death and judgment.
The train in this scenario isn’t just the train that’s going to damage us or kill us. The train that is coming for each and every human is God’s judgment for all eternity.
Jesus stepped in front of that train for us. Jesus laid himself down between us and God’s judgment. He took it upon himself so that we could be forgiven and brought into God’s family. This is grace, and this is why Jesus came.
What do we do with this? Jesus didn’t just teach good stories. He lived it out. He gave up his life for us, and he’s calling all of his followers to do the same. In Jesus’s kingdom, true greatness isn’t measured by other things that we look at. It’s measured by one thing, our willingness to lay down our life for others, like him.
As we consider this call from Jesus, I don’t want to miss the main reason why Jesus came and kind of move on to other things. In this room this morning, Jesus would say there are two groups of people: there are people who are in his kingdom and people outside of his kingdom.
For us to cover Matthew 20:28 and not give the invitation that Jesus gave would be a tragedy. Jesus came to ransom his people from the bondage of their sin, and we can’t miss that this morning.
The invitation to you this morning, if you’ve never done that with your life, is to confess your sin. Tell the truth to God about who you are. Tell God the truth about “I’m the helpless one. I’m the one who needs a Savior.” Admit that to God. Hand over your life to Him and allow Him to be the Lord of your life.
Jesus stepped off of the platform onto the tracks. He laid down his life for you. Don’t miss that invitation. Romans 10:9 says,
“…because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9).
If you’re feeling that tug, if you’re on the fence this morning, I want to let you know that that tug, that compulsion, is from the Holy Spirit. That’s a gift from the Holy Spirit. Isaiah 55:6 says,
“Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near.”
Even right now, cry out, pray to the Lord for salvation. And afterwards, after we have our teaching time, there are going to be people up here who would love to pray with you, show you more from scripture, to celebrate with you, and point you in the right direction on what is your best next step.
If you’re following Jesus, God’s calling for you from Matthew 20 is clear. He’s calling for you to come down off the platform onto the tracks and lay down your life as you follow Him.
He’s not saying it’s going to be safe all the time. He’s not saying it is going to be comfortable. Some of you in following Jesus’s call for your life may even lose your life. He would say he’s worth it, and you’re not going to regret that for a moment.
This call of Jesus to lay down our life, to come off the platform onto the tracks and follow him, is comprehensive. We have a couple of views of this from Scripture. A big view is from Matthew 16:25, here at the end, it says,
“For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Matthew 16:25).
There’s this comprehensive, “all of life is handed over and laid down,” and then also in the micro compartments of our life are also to be handed over. Look at Matthew 10:42. It says,
“And whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward” (Matthew 10:42).
This calling is for all followers of Jesus. Some of us are going to be called to do this in different ways.
As I think about our North Hills missionaries who watch a lot of our messages online, I think of them hearing God’s call to lay down their life and going and leaving everything behind, and leaving family behind and going. That’s a wonderful way to follow God’s calling, and it’s something that Jesus is saying you will not regret.
Some of you are answering Jesus’s call to lay down your life in very different ways— some, everyone can see; some, it’s behind the scenes. A lot of the time, it’s behind the scenes.
Some of you are being called off the platform, onto the tracks to follow Jesus in changing a diaper for a little one, or waking up for the 12th time to console a little one who’s not sleeping.
Some of you are in a season where you’re being called off the platform onto the tracks to take care of an aging parent. Maybe it’s changing diapers for mom and dad that you never thought that you would do.
Some of you I know are faithfully doing this in caring for a spouse who’s really, really sick, even when your health isn’t all that great yourself. There are so many kinds of examples. Jesus is calling us in every compartment of our life, off the platform, following his example, to lay down our life.
I want you to hear this morning that, if you’re doing that today, Jesus sees everything, even down to the cold cup of water given in his name. He doesn’t miss any of it. He sees all of those things. He is aware of it, and he loves your heart. He loves your obedience. You will not regret that for a moment as you lay down your life to follow him.
Because this is a comprehensive calling in our lives, it applies to every area. Look at John 13:14. It says,
“If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet” (John 13:14).
Picture that for a moment: Jesus being down, washing people’s feet, and then turning around and handing you the towel and saying, “Follow my example and wash one another’s feet.”
It’s very simple and easy to do over time—as we’re down washing people’s feet and following Jesus’s example, week in and week out, year in and year out—as we’re washing, to start looking around and seeing, like, “Man, I think I’m the best foot washer. That guy, they shouldn’t even call that foot washing. He’s missing so much over there.” It can start to become like the example from the disciples: a comparison, interpersonal conflict with each other.
Over time, we take that towel, and we sometimes whip it around and tie it. We make a towel into a cape at times, like, “Man, this ministry would fall apart if I wasn’t here washing feet.” My invitation to you would be this: hear Jesus’s call, undo the cape, and follow him back down on the tracks, washing each other’s feet. It’s so easy to have happen.
One indication that we’ve gotten off track is the strife, the comparison, the critical spirit that we sometimes have as we’re attempting to follow Jesus faithfully in this. The invitation this morning is, what area of your life is needing a re-evaluation to come off the platform, following Jesus down on the tracks?
I want to leave you with some questions to think about as we consider this:
Like in verse 28, if you’ve never fully surrendered your life to Christ, received him as your Lord, what’s holding you back? What’s stopping you from taking that next step, jumping in with both feet?
If you’re in a season of following Jesus, week in and week out, attempting to follow him faithfully, and find yourself discouraged, tired, stressed— what do you need to believe this morning that Jesus is telling you? What is true? Are you believing that Jesus sees everything? That there’s nothing hid from his face and every single thing done in his name he sees it, and he loves it, and you’re not going to regret pouring out your life for other people, even for a moment.
Lastly, is there an area of your life where you’re sensing there’s interpersonal conflict? Are there areas of your life where maybe you’ve slid back up on the platform, looking at others, possibly comparing or seeing their faults? Is rivalry, comparison creeping in?
A lot of times, this kind of laying down our lives won’t be in the big things that everybody sees. It’s going to be not letting our ego win in an argument, or something that isn’t life or death, that we don’t have to be right in, letting it go.
Many of the times, it’s not going to be these outward amazing stories. It’s going to be saying words like, “I was wrong. Would you please forgive me?” In those words, we just see jumping off the platform, getting down on the tracks, following Jesus’s example.
Remember the story we started with: A man was helpless on the tracks. Wesley Autrey jumped off the platform to save him, laid down his life. That story moves us because it points to something much bigger and much greater, that Jesus stepped off the platform of heaven and joined us down on the track in this broken world and laid down his life to rescue us. Now he calls all of us to do the same. Let’s pray.
Father, as we consider what you say true greatness is (a willingness to lay down our lives for others), I lift up all of those who are on the fence right now. I ask that your Spirit would compel them into the kingdom. Open up their hearts to accept your invitation into their life. There are no strings attached. There’s no work needed on their part. Just them coming, handing over their life. Empower them through your Spirit to do that even in this moment.
For those of us in this room and online who are attempting to serve you faithfully and pouring out their lives in big ways and little ways, but discouraged and not thinking that this matters, and tempted to turn back— Lord, I just pray that you would renew the sense of your presence with them.
Allow them, Lord, to hear your words this morning. Allow them to see your hand at work and allow them to see that they are serving you personally as they pour out their life and that you’re receiving it as if they’re doing it to you face-to-face.
If there are any areas of our lives that we see ourselves jumping back up on the platform, give us your power to repent, expose that in our heart, to take off the cape and join you down on the tracks, washing people’s feet. Deflate our egos, give us your power to repent and to ask for forgiveness. Make the next step that we need to take clear in our obedience and empower us to do it, Lord. In Jesus’s name I pray, amen.
