But whereas the most unlikely people entered the kingdom, those for whom it had been prepared were excluded (Matthew 20:16). (2.) The Father and the Son have their appropriate part, even as we know from elsewhere the Spirit sent down from heaven in due time was to have His. Thus man's badness takes occasion from God's goodness to be more exceedingly sinful. In spite of their lack of merit, the good householder required them to pick it up, thus giving it to them in spite of their forfeiture. That blessed One was here whom he knew to be God, who was to him the impersonation of divine power and goodness His presence was uncalled for, His word more than enough. But he answered, and said unto them, Friend, I do thee no wrong: did you not agree to work for a penny? (i) It is in one sense a warning to the disciples. The Lord works in delivering power; but withal the power of Satan fills and carries away the unclean to their own destruction. It was after our Lord had called the twelve, and ordained them not after He had sent them forth, but after He had appointed them apostles that the Lord comes down to a plateau upon the mountain, instead of remaining upon the more elevated parts where He had been before. Such is His grace, such His wisdom. Changes, to us inexplicable, occur: many first last, and last first. Judgment will have early cut them off. (Matthew 20:20-21) The mother of James and John asks for a place of special status for her sons. The dispensational aim here leads to a more manifest disregard of the bare circumstance of time than in any other specimen of these gospels. The point of the parable was that God will graciously do more for some of those who work for Him than His justice demands. He knew what they needed and what they wanted, but God still wants us to tell Him our needs as a constant expression of our trust and reliance on Him. Will be betrayed: Conceivably, Jesus could have been delivered to the religious authorities without this. He often fell down exhausted, and the rough men of the slums carried him gently back to his hut. When the account was taken; when the evening was come, then, as usual, the day-labourers were called and paid. This would not be a legal claim on man, but the scattering of good seed, life and fruit from God, and this in the unlimited field of the world, not in the land of Israel merely. The Lord, no doubt, knew the heart of His servant, and could feel for him in the effect that circumstances took upon him. It is always thus. Jesus said, "They will scourge me. For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner, Whatever is right I will give you whatever is right you will receive, Call the laborers and give them their wages, beginning with the last to the first, They supposed that they would receive more, equal to us who have borne the burden and the heat of the day. Jesus recognized that they didnt really understand, but they would. By proceeding, you consent to our cookie usage. They had certainly done nothing to merit a day's wages. Here we see the worldly ambition of the disciples in action. You don't know what the challenge/date is until you scratch off a square similar to a scratch-off lottery ticket. For many are called, but few chosen.". No doubt the first verse says, that "when He was come down from the mount, great multitudes followed Him;" but then the second verse gives no intimation that the subject which follows is to be taken as chronologically subsequent. 1. These men were hired labourers; they were the lowest class of workers, and life for them was always desperately precarious. GenesisExodusLeviticusNumbersDeuteronomyJoshuaJudgesRuth1 Samuel2 Samuel1 Kings2 Kings1 Chronicles2 ChroniclesEzraNehemiahEstherJobPsalmsProverbsEcclesiastesSong of SongsIsaiahJeremiahLamentationsEzekielDanielHoseaJoelAmosObadiahJonahMicahNahumHabakkukZephaniahHaggaiZechariahMalachiMatthewMarkLukeJohnActsRomans1 Corinthians2 CorinthiansGalatiansEphesiansPhilippiansColossians1 Thessalonians2 Thessalonians1 Timothy2 TimothyTitusPhilemonHebrewsJames1 Peter2 Peter1 John2 John3 JohnJudeRevelation, Select a Beginning Point Matthew 13:19-22), we find first of all the utter worthlessness of the flesh's readiness to follow Jesus. Johannine Writings i. Can we dare to say, No man hath hired us?. It puts the Devil on a level with God; it means that the Devil could dictate his terms to God, before he would let men go. If they had let him pass, their chance would have gone by for ever; but when the chance came they seized it. (E) They will condemn him to death 19and will hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged(F) and crucified. Historical Books This parable taught the disciples not to think of heavenly rewards in terms of justice, getting in proportion to what they deserved. The sovereign God takes pity on a needy world, and generously gives his salvation to all who accept his offer. He also gives Peter the keys of the kingdom, as we see afterwards. The mother of Zebedees sons came to Him: This mother of James and John (Matthew 4:21) came with a request that would make a mother proud and the sons very happy. They couldn't see Him. but it was far too much for the young man. Notwithstanding, lest we should offend them, go thou to the sea, and cast an hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up; and when thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money. Now the parable: A landowner went out early in the morning (6 am) to hire laborers for his vineyard. So He meekly retires, healing, yet forbidding it to be blazed abroad. Though there be degrees of glory in heaven, yet it will be to all a complete happiness. Here we find our Lord, after sending out the chosen witnesses of the truth (so momentous to Israel, above all) of His own Messiahship, realizing His utter rejection, yet rejoicing withal in God the Father's counsels of glory and grace, while the real secret in the chapter, as in fact, was His being not Messiah only, nor Son of man, but the Son of the Father, whose person none knows but Himself. What an anticipation of the walk by faith, not by sight, in which the Gentiles, when called, ought to have glorified God, when the rejection of the Messiah by His own ancient people gave occasion to the Gentile call as a distinct thing! He has His rejection before His eyes, as well as the presumptuous unbelief of this sordid, and self-confident, would-be follower. Though a testimony to them, still it was in the result a recognition of what Moses commanded. Jesus was there to call, not righteous men, but sinners. If you have any questions, please review our Privacy Policy or email us at privacy@biblegateway.com. No man can ever claim that he began to follow Jesus under false pretences. 4. But the Son of God, blending the infinite majesty of his Deity with the perfect capacity to suffer as a man, offered an atonement of such inestimable value that he has absolutely paid the entire debt for his people. (Spurgeon), iv. Next, the storm follows. And so they didn't really remember that He said He was going to rise the third day, until after the resurrection. If the gospel dies in England, write on its tomb, Betrayed. If our churches lose their holy influence among men, write on them, Betrayed. What care we for infidels? Therefore what shall we have? Then they remembered, oh, yeah, He said He was going to rise on the third day. But none the less do we find His affections engaged for the help of the helpless. It shows us his kindness. v. Living under grace is sort of a two-edged sword. 'God is love. For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother." There is here the first decisive step to the last act of the inescapable tragedy. (iii) These are the original lessons of this parable, but it has very much more to say to us. Some make it a caution to the disciples, who had boasted of their timely and zealous embracing of Christ; they had left all, to follow him; but let them look to it, that they keep up their zeal; let them press forward and persevere; else their good beginnings will avail them little; they that seemed to be first, would be last. Copyright 2019 by Zondervan. What do you want Me to do for you? To the end the events are put together, just as in Matthew 8:1-34, without regard to the point of time when they occurred. How thoroughly did our Lord take a lowly place for our sakes! Oh, you have to love the mothers, don't you? Yet is He the Son of man who hath power on earth to forgive sins; and He uses His authority. It was the creature doing his best, yet proving that he loved the creature more than the Creator. The scribes, at the beginning of the chapter, could not hide from the Lord their bitter rejection of His glory as man on earth entitled, as His humiliation and cross would prove, to forgive. He, on the contrary, insists not only that He was bound for the cross, but that its truth must be made good in any who will come after Him. If God be better in any respect to others than to us, yet we have no reason to complain while he is so much better to us than we deserve, in giving us our penny, though we are unprofitable servants. Can I not do what I like with my own money? I. To the proud inhabitant of Jerusalem, both one and the other were but a choice and change within a land of darkness. The Saviour, while He puts forth His hand, touching him as man, and yet as none but Jehovah might dare to do, dispels the hopeless disease at once. It would require the credulity of a sceptic to believe that this is not the self-same fact that we have before us inMatthew 8:1-34; Matthew 8:1-34. The servants are clearly divided into two classes. (e) T. Bab. Christianity knows nothing of the conception of a herrenvolk, a master race. "Neither do men put new wine into old bottles, else the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish; but they put new wine into new bottles, and both are preserved." On this the Lord takes another step, when one said to Him, "Behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to speak with thee." Let them read their error in One who was evidently superior to the condition and the ruin of man in Israel. So it was here; and our Lord turns to eternal account, in His own goodness, the shortcoming of John the Baptist, the greatest of women-born. That meant that they did believe him to be the Messiah, but it also meant that they were thinking of Messiahship in terms of kingly and of earthly power. He was to be betrayed into the hands of the chief priests and Scribes; there we see the suffering of the heart broken by the disloyalty of friends. Here is royalty and kingship restated and remade. It is not for us surely to think this impossible. Deuteronomy 15:9; 1 Samuel 18:9). (Carson), ii. 1 "For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. 2. iii. No doubt the tempest was great; but what harm could it do to Jesus? Matthew did not wish to show James and John guilty of worldly ambition, and so he puts the request into the mouth of their mother rather than of themselves. The Incarnation, he said, was a divine stratagem to catch the great leviathan. But the master well knew that 4p a day was no great wage; he well knew that, if a workman went home with less, there would be a worried wife and hungry children; and therefore he went beyond justice and gave them more than was their due. Except where noted, scripture quotations are taken from the Easy-to-Read Version 2001 by Bible League International. Pauline Epistles Then comes the boast of Peter, though for others as well as himself. Usernames should only contain letters, numbers, dots, dashes, or underscores. In the picture of the holy city in the Revelation there are twelve gates. The second lesson is even greater--all God gives is of grace. They were still thinking in terms of personal reward and personal distinction; and they were thinking of personal success without personal sacrifice. The first is the defence of the disciples, grounded on analogies taken from that which had the sanction of God of old, as well as on His own glory now. ii. Therein is greatness. We cannot earn what God gives us; we cannot deserve it; what God gives us is given out of the goodness of his heart; what God gives is not pay, but a gift; not a reward, but a grace. Copyright 1996 - 2023 All rights reserved. They had their mistaken ambitions; they had their blindness; they had their wrong ideas; but he never dreamed of writing them off as bad debts. And if thou hast what thou didst agree for, thou hast no reason to cry out of wrong; thou shalt have what we agreed for." Examine the Scripture, and you will see for yourselves. Now what is Jesus seeking to teach by this parable of sending forth the laborers into the vineyard? But at the same time it is plain, although He bore the consciousness of the vast change He was introducing, and expressed it thus fully and early in the history, nothing turned away His heart from Israel. There are people who think that, because they have been members of a Church for a long time, the Church practically belongs to them and they can dictate its policy. The second is, "So the last shall be first, and the first last; for many are called, but few are chosen." And he went out about the third hour ( Matthew 20:3 ). When those who had worked all day found that the landowner paid the same amount to the late-comers as he paid to them, they complained. If the harvest was not ingathered before the rains broke, then it was ruined; and so to get the harvest in was a frantic race against time. The unparalleled grace of the Saviour must form and fashion the saints henceforth. He welcomed his bed-fellow. d. Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve: Real ministry is done for the benefit of those ministered to, not for the benefit of the minister. For He loved Peter felt for him, and his wife's mother was precious in His sight. It shows us his trust in men. The true disciple is motivated by love not lust. But if He here does not go beyond a hint of that which the Gentiles were about to receive on the ruinous unbelief and judgment of the Jew, He does not keep back their own awful course and doom in the figure that follows. 1. A mere Jew would have been defiled. Matthew chapter twenty opens with the parable of the laborers going out into the vineyard.And Jesus said. God is the great Householder, whose we are, and whom we serve; as a householder, he has work that he will have to be done, and servants that he will have to be doing; he has a great family in heaven and earth, which is named from Jesus Christ (Ephesians 3:15), which he is Owner and Ruler of. Let them recognize the power that banished the leprosy, and the grace withal that touched the leper. He could and did form His instruments according to His own sovereign will. I have endowed them with apostolic gifts or with superior talents, and suited them for wider usefulness. Inattention to this has perplexed many. But it was for a land of darkness and sin and death that Jesus came from heaven the Messiah, not according to their thoughts, but the Lord and Saviour, the God-man. In what follows we have that which is necessary, to complete the picture of the other side. At least we can draw the following applications from it. a. At its close we see the leper approaching the Lord, after He had been preaching throughout Galilee and casting out devils. He also strongly claimed his right to do what he wanted with what was his. essayed to destroy the testimony with their utmost and blasphemous contempt. Many of them bleed to death. Then a beggar asked for his shirt and got it. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Of course, both do preserve chronological order when it is compatible with the objects the Holy Spirit had in inspiring them; but in both the order of time is subordinated to still greater purposes which God had in view. (Matthew 20:32-34) Jesus heals the two blind men. He takes accordingly the title of the "Son of man" for the first time in this gospel. What could be said of her intelligence then? He was ignorant of himself, because ignorant of God, and imagined that it was only a question of man's doing good for God. For him the cup was the constant discipline and struggle of the Christian life throughout the years. They in turn will give me to the Gentiles, the Romans. a. "The parable is emphasizing a right attitude in service." The request of James and John not unnaturally annoyed the other disciples. The point of this closing aphorism is not to suggest that God's ways are simply or only about an inversion of the status quo. But Christ does not explode at their obtuseness, or blaze at their blindness, or despair at their unteachableness. Again he went out about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, [noon and three in the afternoon], he did likewise. The parable itself displays a reversal of expectations "the last will be first and the first will be last"; this is not only the summary of the parable (20:16), but a critical aspect of New Testament theology. He is first of all betrayed by Judas to the chief priests, because Judas made a bargain with the priests to turn Jesus over to them. The reason I consider to be plain; and the same principle applies to various other parts of our gospel where we have two cases mentioned, where in the other gospels we have only one. Your promises are thrilling. I do not pretend to say this was the only purpose served; far be it from me to think of restraining the Spirit of God within the narrow bounds of our vision. i. Be sure to join our Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/theweekendadventurer 23,599 people like this 25,112 people follow this http://www.myadventurechallenge.com/ info@myadventurechallenge.com After Paul had preached on Mars Hill, there were those who said, "We will hear you again about this" ( Acts 17:32). The evil spirits asked leave to pass into the herd of swine, which thus typify the final condition of the defiled, apostate mass of Israel; their presumptuous and impenitent unbelief reduces them to that deep degradation not merely the unclean, but the unclean filled with the power of Satan, and carried down to swift destruction. It was very different with the hired day-labourers. The men who were hired at the eleventh hour who worked only about one hour were obviously elated about being paid first, and being paid for a full day. 20:29-34 When they were leaving Jericho, a great crowd followed him. Paul was as one born out of due time, yet came not behind the chiefest of the apostles, and outdid those that were in Christ before him. These are the words of an older gentleman who trusted Christ a few days before he died from cancer. Minor Prophets The Christian works for the joy of serving God and his fellow-men. The ability to serve God is the gift of His grace. A new tribe presented other four soldiers, and the second legion chose first. They cannot hurt the Christ. Then came to Him the mother of Zebedee's children [now James and John were the sons of Zebedee and she came to Him] with her sons ( Matthew 20:20 ). If there be a privilege more manifest than another which has dawned on us, it is what we have found by and in Jesus, that now we can say nothing is too great for us, nothing too little for God. It is of immense significance to see that, even in a world in which the dark was coming down, the disciples would not abandon the conviction that the victory belonged to Jesus. Jesus blessedly answered their thoughts, had there only been a conscience to hear the word of power and grace, which brings out His glory the more. They next proceeded to the creation of subaltern officers, whom the tribunes chose from among the soldiers of the greatest reputation. General Epistles Not only will it be fair, it will be generous beyond expectation. "This man blasphemeth." A Gentile (indeed, any mind not under any kind of legal prejudice or difficulty) would be far more moved by a detailed account of what was more, conspicuous. That they might possibly be outstripped by their successors in profession, and, though they were before others in profession, might be found inferior to them in knowledge, grace, and holiness. As the apostles were the first-fruits of the whole church, they appeared to possess some superiority; and Christ did not deny that they would sit as judges to govern the twelve tribes of Israel. It is the man who will not be kept from Christ who in the end finds him. 3. [There is what I call a clear, unmistakable note of time.] "That ye may know it (then saith He to the sick of the palsy), Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thy house." Poetical Books Secondly, The particular pleading with those that were offended with this distribution in gavel-kind. But I am convinced that there are others who will receive either as great or even greater honor than will Billy Graham who you have never heard of. for many be called; externally, under the ministration of the Gospel, as the Jews in general were, by Christ and his apostles; but. The true disciple rests easy in the assurance that because his pay is from a Master of grace, it will be gracious. Here is the Christian revolution; here is the complete reversal of all the world's standards. Higher proportionate rewards shall be given to them than to others. Far from lowering the position of His servant, He declares there was none greater among mortal men. International Standard Version "In the same way, the last will be first, and the first will be last, because many are called, but few are chosen." LOVE'S ANSWER TO NEED'S APPEAL ( Matthew 20:29-34 ). And they went their way. Lowly, noiseless grace now it was to be, according to the prophet, till the hour strikes for victory in judgment. i. It was a scorned Messiah who, when rejected of His own people, Israel, turned to the Gentiles by the will of God: it was One who could look upon publicans and sinners anywhere. Is it not most sweet to see, that He who proves His divine glory at once associates us with Himself? And so with the other conversation: "Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father;" it was after the glory of Christ had been witnessed on the holy mount, when man's selfishness of heart showed itself in contrast to the grace of God. Jesus was moved with compassion to the depths of his being, and touched their eyes; and immediately they recovered their sight and followed him. Israel must give full testimony in the bright day of His coming. He therefore, 1. It shall not be so among you, but whoever wishes to prove himself great among you must be your servant; and whoever wishes to occupy the foremost place will be your slave, just as the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.". THE LORDSHIP OF THE CROSS ( Matthew 20:20-28 continued). b. Luke-Acts The Pharisees were enraged at a power they could not deny, which rebuked themselves so much the more on account of its persistent grace; but Jesus passes by all blasphemy as yet, and goes on His way nothing hinders His course of love. The Old Testament The Gospels And, behold, there were two blind men who were sitting by the way side, and when they heard that Jesus was passing by, they cried out, saying, Have mercy upon us, O Lord, thou son of David. This sets forth not at all the way in which the Christian stands related to Christ; for even though we had known Him after the flesh, henceforth know we Him no more. THE MIND OF JESUS ( Matthew 20:20-28 continued). The crown set before us is a crown of righteousness, which the righteous Judge shall give. and when they were alone, He expounded all things to His disciples [in both the parables and the explanations alluding to what we possess in Matthew 13:1-58.]. "And, behold, certain of the scribes said within themselves, This man blasphemeth." a. (Matthew 20:11-15) The complaint of the early workers. The Lord admired the faith superior to Israel's, and took that occasion to intimate the casting out of the sons or natural heirs of the kingdom, and the entrance of many from east and west to sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of the heavens. vi. Then follows another incident, which equally proves that the Spirit of God is not here reciting the facts in their natural succession; for it is assuredly not at this moment historically that the Lord goes into the house of Peter, sees there his wife's mother laid sick of a fever, touches her hand, and raises her up, so that she ministers unto them at once. And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing idle, and said to them, Why have you been standing here idle all day? They said to him, Because no one hired us. He said to them, You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right you will receive..
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