Matthew 20:22

But Jesus answered and said, Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? They say unto him, We are able.

Ver. 22. Ye know not what ye ask] Ye ask and miss, "because ye ask amiss," James 4:1. A prayer for things not lawful begs nothing but a denial, as Moses did, in praying to enter into the land, Deuteronomy 3:25; as Job did in that peevish request of his, that God would "let loose his hand, and cut him off," Job 6:8,9; as the disciples did in that overly curious inquiry, "Lord, wilt thou at this time restore the kingdom of Israel?" Acts 1:6,8. Our Saviour answers that that is not fit for them to know. But a better thing he could tell them, that they should shortly after be clothed with the Holy Ghost. God sometimes in much mercy crosseth the prayers of his people, as he did David's, for the child's life, who, if he had lived, would have been but a standing monument of David's shame. Was it not better for him to have a Solomon? The saints have their prayers out, either in money or money's worth, provided they bring lawful petitions and honest hearts.

Are ye able to drink of the cup, &c.] Afflictions are frequently set forth by this metaphor of a cup; taken, say some, from an ancient custom that the father of the family should give to each under his charge a cup fit for his use, according to his size; or, as others think, from the manner of feasts, whereat the symposiarch, or "ruler of the feast," as he is called, John 2:9, prescribed what and how much every man should drink.

And to be baptized with the baptism] Or plunged over head and ears in the deep waters of affliction. Of these we may say, as one doth of the Spa waters, that they are more wholesome than pleasant. Ever since Christ cast his cross into them, as Moses did that tree, Exodus 15:25, the property of them is altered, the waters healed.

They say unto him, We are able] In your own conceit, at least, not else. For these two disciples, since they knew not what they asked, so they knew not what they answered. And yet Maldonatus hath the face to defend them in it, as if they here testified their alacrity, rather than betrayed their precipitancy: Sed exitus acta probavit; they showed their valour at Christ's apprehension.