She came "desiring a certain thing of him" but had not yet said what it was (Matthew 20:20). Jesus asked her to name it. Gill says He asked "not as being ignorant of the matter," but "to lead them on to say all they had to say," and he sees in it "the goodness, humanity, and patience of Christ, in not upbraiding them." In Mark's account James and John come themselves, and Jesus asks them, "What would ye that I should do for you?" (Mark 10:35-36). Barnes explains that the sons made the request through their mother.

She answered plainly: "Grant that these my two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand, and the other on the left, in thy kingdom" (Matthew 20:21). Jesus replied to her sons, "Ye know not what ye ask," and asked whether they could drink His cup (Matthew 20:22). When the other ten heard, "they were moved with indignation against the two brethren" (Matthew 20:24), and Jesus taught them all that whoever would be great must be a servant, "Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister" (Matthew 20:26-28).

Barnes identifies the mother as probably Salome, comparing Mark 15:40 and Mark 16:1; Gill reaches the same conclusion from Matthew 27:56. Her sons were James and John (Mark 10:35).

To sit at a king's right and left hand meant the highest honor next to him. Barnes calls it "a token of confidence, and the highest honor granted to his friends," citing 1 Kings 2:19, where Solomon has a seat set for his mother "on his right hand." Barnes adds that the disciples "were still looking for a temporal kingdom." Gill suggests the sons drew this hope from Jesus' recent promise of twelve thrones (Matthew 19:28).

Jesus asks this same question more than once. In Matthew 20:32 He asks two blind men, "What will ye that I shall do unto you?" Mark records nearly the same words to James and John and to blind Bartimaeus (Mark 10:36, 51). Jesus invites people to name what they want. But the request of James and John and the request of the blind men reveal very different hearts: one asked for honor, the other for mercy.

The timing matters too. Jesus had just spoken of being betrayed and crucified (Matthew 20:18-19), and the request was for thrones. Matthew Henry observes that "The sons of Zebedee abused what Christ said to comfort the disciples." Jesus did not shame them. He used the moment to show that greatness in His kingdom looks like serving, because He Himself came "to give his life a ransom for many" (Matthew 20:28). This same mother is later named among the women at the cross: "the mother of Zebedee's children" (Matthew 27:56).