At the close of this chapter 9, in His deep compassion He bids the disciples pray the Lord of the harvest to send forth labourers into His harvest. The nature of envy; It is an evil eye. To the proud inhabitant of Jerusalem, both one and the other were but a choice and change within a land of darkness. All will not be the wise that understand, nor those who instruct the mass in righteousness. How often the heart shows itself, not merely by what we ask, but by the uncalled-for feelings we display against other people and their faults! Pentateuch And so anti what Jesus has declared. Then shalt thou call, saith the good and faithful servant, and I will answer. He came to occupy not a throne, but a cross. 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. It brings me to the real crisis; that is, the final presentation of our lord to Jerusalem. The strange thing is that instinctively the world itself has accepted these standards. 33), it is added, "And with many such parables spake He the word unto them . Then Jesus going up to Jerusalem took the twelve disciples apart in the way, and he said unto them, [now He is on the way, there is probably great multitudes, but He takes the twelve apart] He said, Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn him to death, and shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify him and the third day he shall rise again ( Matthew 20:17-19 ). The bodily presence of the Messiah was not needed. "There arose a great tempest in the sea, insomuch, that the ship was covered with the waves; but he was asleep." They did not see why they should be allowed to stake their claims to preeminence. It was the little foreshadowing of what will be when the Lord has joined the remnant in the last days, and then fills with blessing the land that He touches. This came out most blessedly through the disciples. We have the natural tie here brought into prominence; and this was a claim that Christ slighted not. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. Pentateuch That is on the debit side of the account of the disciples; but there is much on the credit side. He gives sight to the blind. What does it mean? Does this scribe offer to follow Jesus? Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem: This was not a surprise to the disciples. It was His meat to do the will of God. It was going on, then, to the bitter end, and surely not without such suffering and sorrow as holy, unselfish, obedient love alone can know. Since the text and audio content provided by BLB represent a Whence they are hired? On the way, he took the Twelve aside and said to them, 18We are going up to Jerusalem,(C) and the Son of Man(D) will be delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. 1. In gentleness, in sympathy, and in love, with never an impatient word, he seeks to lead them to the truth. 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. It is an evil eye, which is displeased at the good of others, and desires their hurt. And so the sense is, Many receive the invitations of the Gospel whom God has never "chosen to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth" (2Th 2:13). a. And He arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. Jesus instructs His little band that discipleship is never designed as a quid pro quo formula of compensation. That is why the first will be last and the last will be first. Seemingly, the disciples did not really listen when Jesus said these things. Luke-Acts The disciples had been summoned to work in the vineyard. Outwardly it was a condition of comparative cleanness. In truth, this was Emmanuel, God with us. For they needed someone to help Him bear the cross. Jesus called them to him and said, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. Sign up now for the latest news and deals from Bible Gateway! Take that which is yours, and go your way: and I will give unto this last even as unto thee. 20 Then the mother of James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to Jesus with her sons. Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the Younger and of, Jesus' mother, his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and. The parable of the workers in the vineyard 20:1-16. His cup may be drunk in one great moment; his cup may be drunk throughout a lifetime of Christian living. By proceeding, you consent to our cookie usage. The axiom of this verse and of chapter nineteen, verse 30, sets the tone for Jesus entire ministry and the church. 2. He will never be less than fair, but reserves the right to be more than fair as pleases Him. There must be the mouth to praise the Lord, and speak of the glorious honour of His majesty, as well as eyes to wait on Him. Note: MLA no longer requires the URL as part of their citation standard. THE MASTER SEEKS HIS WORKERS ( Matthew 20:1-16 ), 20:1-16 "For the situation in the Kingdom of Heaven is like what happened when a householder went out first thing in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. "In God's economy," as someone has said, "there is no such thing as a most favoured nation clause." 15 Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Going back just a little bit further, Peter had said to Jesus, "Lord, we have left all to follow thee"( Matthew 19:27 ). To all justice shall be done. To all to whom the rewards of heaven are promised they shall be given. There are a great many things which have to be done at the moment or they will never be done. Minor Prophets To me it is evident, from a careful comparison of them all, as I think it is capable of clear and adequate proof to an unprejudiced Christian mind, that neither Matthew nor Luke confines himself to such an order of events. Remember, God doesn't look at us the way this world does. Now if you go back to the last verse of the previous chapter, you'll find this same statement. We have here not only our Lord's ministry in the first parable, but in the second parable that which He does by His servants. It is but a day's work that is here done. God's generosity will not succumb to human jealousy. Nevertheless, when there was the display of the glory of the kingdom, the Father's voice proclaimed Him as His own Son, and not merely as the man thus exalted. "I will have mercy, and not sacrifice." If we accept it as the true reading, it adds something to the warning of the previous clause. They shall enter heaven, as was promised. & Sanhedrim, fol. Isaiah prophesied the fact that He would be scourged, but in prophesying the fact, Isaiah tells us the reason. These workers hired at the very beginning of the working day agreed to work for a denarius a day, the common daily wage for a workingman. The true disciple rests easy in the assurance that because his pay is from a Master of grace, it will be gracious. . Matthew calls her the mother of the sons of Zebedee; Mark calls her Salome; and John calls her Jesus' mother's sister. "Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof" He had only to say in a word, and his servant should be healed. No word whatever implies that the cleansing of the leper happened at that time. Doubtless, it was contingent upon the utter ruin of Israel through their unbelief; but the fall of the lesser thing opened the way for the gift of a better glory in answer to Peter's faith in the glory of His person. Spurgeon applied this to us spiritually: Why is any one of us remaining idle towards God? Did you not come to an agreement with me to work for 4 pence ? Peter asked: "What do we get out of it?" I will obey to the end.. The kingdom of heaven assumes a form unknown to prophecy, and, in its successive mysteries, fills up the interval between the rejected Christ's going to heaven, and His returning again in glory. Many be called, but few chosen - The meaning of this, in this connection, I take to be simply this: "Many are called into my kingdom; they come and labor as I command them; many of them are comparatively unknown and obscure; yet they are real Christians, and shall all receive the proper reward. c. I wish to give to this last man the same as to you: The landowner did nothing to explain why he did it, other than simply to say I wish. The reasons for the landowners generosity were completely in the landowner himself, and not in the ones who received. On the other hand, by far the greater weight of tradition goes to show that John lived to a great old age in Ephesus and died a natural death when he must have been close on a hundred years old. They may come at the beginning of their life, in their youth, in adulthood, in old age, or at the very end. The grand lesson is that men do not deserve or merit salvation. It means that no matter when a man enters the Kingdom, late or soon, in the first flush of youth, in the strength of the midday, or when the shadows are lengthening, he is equally dear to God. Jesus deliberately and open-eyed sets out for Jerusalem and the Cross. "Christ demands that the driving force in your life must be love. "Behold my servant, whom I have chosen, my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased." He had no reason to quarrel with the master; for what he gave was absolutely his own, Matthew 20:15; Matthew 20:15. Never heard of them before. Descending then upon the plateau, He delivered what is commonly called the Sermon on the Mount. Had Peter confessed who the Son of man really is? The Gentile church, which was as yet unborn, the Gentile world, which as yet stood idle in the market-place, would produce greater numbers of eminent, useful Christians, than were found among the Jews. A verification email has been sent to the address you provided. PREVIOUS Matthew 20:15 NEXT Matthew 20:17. Finally, he was to be crucified; there we see the ultimate suffering of death. Historical Books Whatever might be the Church or the kingdom, it is precisely when the Lord unfolds His new glory in both the kingdom and the Church that He maintains the proprieties of nature in their rights and integrity. When they had received the boon for which they craved, they did not go away and forget; they followed Jesus. It's God's to give, however, to whomever He pleases. The householder had every right to have cut them off with a trifle instead of a whole day's pay. 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. Here is the Christian revolution; here is the complete reversal of all the world's standards. So the last will be first, and the first last: Peter and the disciples knew they had given up a great deal to follow Jesus. Beracot, fol. . As for the Gentile, the Lord's proffer to go and heal his servant brought out the singular strength of his faith. There were two; but the Spirit of God chose out, in Mark and Luke, the more remarkable of the two, and traces for us his history, a history of no small interest and importance, as we may feel when we come to Mark; but it was of equal moment for the gospel of Matthew that the two demoniacs should be mentioned here, although one of them was in himself, as I gather, a far more strikingly desperate case than the other. He therefore, 1. That they had reason to fear, lest they themselves should be found hypocrites at last; for many are called but few chosen. "And, behold, certain of the scribes said within themselves, This man blasphemeth." The world may assess a man's greatness by the number of people whom he controls and who are at his beck and call; or by his intellectual standing and his academic eminence; or by the number of committees of which he is a member; or by the size of his bank balance and the material possessions which he has amassed; but in the assessment of Jesus Christ these things are irrelevant. Even when they were bluntly told that there lay ahead a bitter cup, it never struck them to turn back; they were determined to drink it. Peter goes forth, but losing sight of the Lord in the presence of the troubled waves, and yielding to his ordinary experience, he fears the strong wind, and is only saved by the outstretched hand of Jesus, who rebukes his doubt. And the third day He will rise again: Most important, this was something that Jesus had no apparent control over. This parable may sound to us as if it described a purely imaginary situation, but that is far from being the case. BEST VALUE in digital Bible study. When time ends, and with it the world of work and opportunity, then the state of retribution commences; then call the labourers, and give them their hire. None are hired at the twelfth hour; when life is done, opportunity is done; but "while there is life, there is hope." How Daniels Prophecy of 70 Weeks Connects to the End Times. Something of affinity there is between this parable and that of the prodigal son, where he that returned from his wandering, was as dear to his father as he was, that never went astray; first and last alike. How many times during communion has God touched me physically, and ministered to me physically, as I received that work of Christ for my own physical need?So Jesus predicts His crucifixion finally, and then rising again. The system of grace is foreign to us: God deals with us according to who He is, not according to who we are. If God was there, what else could He, would He do? Judas had been called, but would not be among the chosen either for the higher work or for its ultimate reward-Interpreting the parable as we have been led to interpret it, we cannot for a moment imagine that its drift was to teach the disciples that they would forfeit their place in the kingdom. It might be well enough for a Pharisee; it might be worthy of a legal formalist, but it would never do for God; and the Lord Jesus was come here not to accommodate Himself to their thoughts, but, above all, to do God's will of holy love in an evil, wretched world. 1. It is clear that the unclean spirit, returning, brings idolatry back again. So the last will be first, and the first last, Betrayed they will condemn Him to death deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock and to scourge and to crucify. There is here the first decisive step to the last act of the inescapable tragedy. The apostles were sent forth at the first and third hour of the gospel day; they had a first and a second mission, while Christ was on earth, and their business was to call in the Jews; after Christ's ascension, about the sixth and ninth hour, they went out again on the same errand, preaching the gospel to the Jews only, to them in Judea first, and afterward to them of the dispersion; but, at length, as it were about the eleventh hour, they called the Gentiles to the same work and privilege with the Jews, and told them that in Christ Jesus there should be no difference made between Jew and Greek. In immediate juxtaposition to this stands the Gentile centurion, who seeks healing for his servant. The parable teaches one truth, and but one; and where Jesus has explained it, we have no right to add to it, and say that it teaches anything else. "Of whom do the kings of the earth take custom? "Then," said the Lord, "are the children free. Accordingly, here we have, first, the Lord judging the wrong thoughts of "Scribes and Pharisees which were of Jerusalem." Jesus' conclusion to the parable mirrors the formula introduced at Matthew 19:30, which leads into the parable: "So the last will be first, and the first will be last" (20:16; see also 19:30). Whereas, on the contrary, there are other kinds of order that call for more profound thought and enlarged views, if we may speak now after the manner of men; and, indeed, I deny not that these the Holy Ghost employed in His own wisdom, though it is hardly needful to say He could, if He pleased, demonstrate His superiority to any means or qualifications whatsoever.
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