'Asking' in the Bible

When he came into Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking him,

Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came to him with her sons, kneeling and asking a certain thing of him.

But Jesus answered, "You don't know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?" They said to him, "We are able."