Matthew 20:22

Ye know not Observe, Jesus addresses the sons, not the mother.

what ye ask There is some force in the middle voice of the original, "ask for yourselves," or "cause to be asked."

the cup that I shall drink of "The destiny in store for me." Cp. among other passages, Isaiah 51:17, "Thou hast drunken the dregs of the cup of trembling, and wrung them out," and Psalms 75:8; the idea of vengeance, of God's wrath against sin, is paramount in the prophets. When the disciples afterwards recalled the image it would signify to them the mediation of Christ, who by His passion and death drank for man the cup of God's wrath. Maldonatus suggests the thought of "the poison cup," the cup of death. For the image, cp. "quot bella exhaustacanebat." Verg. Aen.iv. 14.

and to be baptized, &c. These words are omitted in the most ancient MSS. They are probably an insertion from St Mark. The crucifixion was the baptism through which Jesus passed to the new life after the Resurrection. Our Christian baptism is a crucifixion by which the old man dies that the new man may live. See Romans 6:6; Galatians 5:24; Colossians 3:3; Colossians 3:5; Colossians 3:10.