Matthew 20:28

ὤσπερ, καὶ γὰρ in Mk.; both phrases introducing reference to the summum exemplum (Bengel) in an emphatic way. περ lends force to ὡς = even as, observe. ὁ ὑ. τ. ἀνθρώπου : an important instance of the use of the title. On the principle of defining by discriminating use it means: the man who makes no pretensions, asserts no claims. οὐκ ἦλθε points to the chief end of His mission, the general character of His public life: not that of a Pretender but that of a Servant. δοῦναι τὴν ψυχὴν, to give His life, to that extent does the service go. Cf. Philippians 2:8 : μέχρι θανάτου, there also in illustration of the humility of Christ. It is implied that in some way the death of the Son of Man will be serviceable to others. It enters into the life plan of the Great Servant. λύτρον, a ransom, characterises the service, another new term in the evangelic vocabulary, suggesting rather than solving a theological problem as to the significance of Christ's death, and admitting of great variety of interpretation, from the view of Origen and other Fathers, who regarded Christ's death as a price paid to the devil to ransom men from bondage to him, to that of Wendt, who finds in the word simply the idea that the example of Jesus in carrying the principle of service as far as to die tends by way of moral influence to deliver men's minds from every form of spiritual bondage (Die Lehre Jesu, ii. 510 517). It is an interesting question, What clue can be found in Christ's own words, as hitherto reported, to the use by Him on this occasion of the term λύτρον, and to the sense in which He uses it? Wendt contends that this is the best method of getting at the meaning, and suggests as the most congenial text Matthew 11:28-30. I agree with him as to method, but think a better clue may be found in Matthew 17:27, the word spoken by Jesus in reference to the Temple Tax. That word began the striking course of instruction on humility, as this word (Matthew 20:28) ends it, and the end and the beginning touch in thought and language. The didrachmon was a λύτρον (Exodus 30:12), as the life of the Son of Man is represented to be. The tax was paid ἀυτὶ ἐμοῦ καὶ σοῦ. The life is to be given ἀντὶ πολλῶν. Is it too much to suppose that the Capernaum incident was present to Christ's mind when He uttered this striking saying, and that in the earlier utterance we have the key to the psychological history of the term λύτρον ? On this subject vide my book The Kingdom of God, pp. 238 241.