Matthew 20:28

“Even as the Son of man came, not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.”

And they must take as their supreme example the Son of Man. He Who was destined to come out of suffering to receive the throne and the glory, had not come to exercise lordship and vaunted authority, nor to look to men to serve Him and cringe be humble before Him, nor to sit on a throne of pride. Rather He had come to serve, and His future throne would be a throne of service (Luke 12:37; Luke 22:27). And in the last analysis His service on earth would in His case involve Him in total humiliation and in giving His life a ransom for many. He would fulfil the sacrificial ministry of the Isaianic Servant.

That the Suffering Servant of Isaiah 50, 53 was in mind here can hardly be doubted. Jesus was declared to be the Servant after His baptism (Matthew 3:17) and at His Transfiguration (Matthew 17:5), while the context here is one in which the idea of lowly service is emphasised, and it comes at the end of Matthew's ‘Isaianic section', the section in which he cites Isaiah by name to the exclusion of all other Scriptural writers, see Matthew 3:3; Matthew 4:14; Matthew 8:17; Matthew 12:17; Matthew 13:14) prior to His presentation of Himself as the King (see introduction). But in this case, as Jesus has not specifically cited Isaiah, so nor will Matthew. Compare and contrast possible other references to Isaiah 53 in Matthew 26:27; Matthew 27:12; Matthew 27:57. Note further how ‘to give His life (soul)' parallels ‘you make his life (soul)' (Isaiah 53:10).

On top of this the idea of ‘the many' is prominent in Isaiah 53:11, and the whole chapter is involved with His giving of His life as a lifegiving sacrifice, epitomised in the guilt offering in Isaiah 53:10, and thus as ransom, a price paid for deliverance. The idea of God's deliverance of His people by ransoming them is found in Isaiah 35:10, where it results in deliverance from the enemies of God; in Isaiah 43:3 where He gives up other peoples as a ransom on His people's behalf; in Jeremiah 31:11 where He ransoms and redeems His people, delivering them from a stronger than he (Jacob); in Job 33:24 where the ransom He has found delivers from the Pit; and in Hosea 13:14 where He will ransom His people from the hand of the grave. In Isaiah 53 this is portrayed in terms of a sacrificial offering so that God's righteous demands are also satisfied. We can compare with this Jesus' words at the Last Supper ‘this is my blood of the covenant which is shed for many for the forgiveness of sins' (Matthew 26:28), where the reference is equally clearly to Isaiah 53:10.

‘Ransom (lutron)' is used only here and the parallel passage (Mark 10:45), in the New Testament, although Paul uses 'antilutron in 1 Timothy 2:6. In secular Greek lutron was used for the ransom of a prisoner of war or of a slave. In LXX it was used of the price a man paid to redeem his life which was forfeit because his ox had gored someone to death (Exodus 21:30), the price paid for the redemption of the firstborn (Numbers 18:15), the price paid by which the next of kin obtained the release of an enslaved relative (Leviticus 25:51) or the price paid for the redemption of a mortgaged property (Leviticus 25:26). It was a payment made to obtain release and freedom, paid in substitution for what was obtained. Compare 1 Peter 1:18; Hebrews 9:12.

‘A ransom for many' equals ‘lutron anti pollon'. This unquestionably refers to a substitutionary ransom (anti combined with the idea of ransom must be substitutionary), and thus a price paid for deliverance (compare 1 Corinthians 6:20; 1 Peter 1:18), while the ‘guilt offering' (‘asam) of Isaiah 53:10 is the sacrificial equivalent of a ransom, as can be seen from the description of the vicarious guilt offering in Leviticus 5, and note also that there 'asam also indicates a compensatory payment. And indeed the whole of Isaiah 53 is the picture of someone giving Himself for His people. It is not difficult therefore to see in it the payment of a price for their deliverance.

Thus the theme of forgiveness and salvation continues. In Matthew 1:21 He was called Jesus because He would save His people from their sins. In Matthew 6:12 He has taught His disciples to pray for the forgiveness of their sins. In Matthew 18:23 He has revealed the hugeness of God's forgiveness to the totally undeserving. In Matthew 26:28 He will reveal that His blood of the covenant will be shed for the forgiveness of sins. It is in these terms that we can see the payment of the ransom, for He comes as the One Who has come as the Servant on Whom our iniquities were laid (Isaiah 53:6), as the guilt offering offered on our behalf (Isaiah 53:10), that we might be forgiven (Leviticus 5:10), and as the One through Whom we will be accounted righteous because He has borne our iniquities (Isaiah 53:11).

It is sometimes questioned how far this idea of a ransom paid can relate to the earlier context, in that it was not something in which His disciples could follow Him. But two things must be born in mind, firstly that He wishes to give an example for His disciples to follow of supreme sacrifice, and secondly that while, of course, it is true that His disciples could not emulate His sacrifice to its fullest extent, Paul certainly saw them as participating in it to some extent as they gave themselves up to suffering and tribulation in order to expand the Kingly Rule of God and win men to Christ (Colossians 1:24). And there is no doubt that elsewhere also Jesus saw His own self-sacrifice as the very pattern of true Christian love, and as thus an example of the love that His disciples should have for each other (John 15:12).