The Gentiles came in at the eleventh hour, but it was because the gospel had not been before preached to them. 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. So Jesus had compassion on them, and touched their eyes: and immediately their eyes received sight, and they followed him ( Matthew 20:29-34 ). Pauline Epistles In Matthew 14:1-36 facts are narrated which manifest the great change of dispensation that the Lord, in setting forth the parables we have just noticed, had been preparing them for. 3 And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, 4 and to them he . She was a regular member of the disciple group who accompanied Jesus (Matthew 27:56), so her involvement in her sons ambitious ideas is hardly surprising. (France). Not so. a. Hugh Martin reminds us that a great teacher used to say that the saddest words in all Shakespeare's plays are the words: "Othello's occupation's gone." I love that family strength among them. He will never be less than fair, but reserves the right to be more than fair as pleases Him. It is enough to meet a difficulty which many feel by the simple plea that the reason assigned is in my judgment a valid explanation, and in itself a sufficient solution of the apparent discrepancy. In the Christian Church seniority does not necessarily mean honour. i. Matthew chapter 20 New International Version 1 For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. See Matthew 19:27-29. 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. He believed that they could and would drink the cup, and that in the end they would still be found at his side. What instrument so suitable? What could be said of her intelligence then? They put upon Him a scarlet robe, and they begin to say unto Him, "Hail king of the Jews," and they mocked Him. They've missed the joy of what it is to serve the Lord. The people whose hearts are yielded to him will be recognized as his children no matter their rank or riches by worldly standards. So He meekly retires, healing, yet forbidding it to be blazed abroad. Jerusalem's proud, traditional hypocrisy is exposed, and grace fully blesses the tried Gentile. Johannine Writings In a sense, everybody is called to recognize God through the natural world, but the word "chosen" shows that God must personally rescue us from our self-centered blindness. They cannot hurt the Christ. iv. They worked while the others were idle. It is a very significant story, for it paints a picture of the spirit and of the attitude of mind and heart to which the most precious gifts of God are open. He who had just confessed the glory of the Lord would not hear His Master speaking thus of His going to the cross (by which alone the Church, or even the kingdom, could be established), and sought to swerve Him from it. [1.] These men were hired labourers; they were the lowest class of workers, and life for them was always desperately precarious. (Compare Mark 3:13-19, andMark 6:7-11; Mark 6:7-11; Luke 6:1-49; Luke 9:1-62) The mission of the apostles did not take place till afterwards. In the next scene, then, we have the disciples as a whole tried by a sudden danger to which their sleeping Master paid no heed. The truth of this is apparent, if we compare the gospel of Mark. God, by his gospel, is hiring labourers into his vineyard, to dress it, and keep it, paradise-work. but what a heart was His! ii. Yet He confidently said it would happen. This came out most blessedly through the disciples. If, among this number who are called into the kingdom, I choose to raise some to stations of distinguished usefulness, and to confer on them special talents and higher rewards, I injure no other one. The second is, "So the last shall be first, and the first last; for many are called, but few are chosen." Deliver Him to the Gentiles: Jesus knew that the religious leaders of the Jews did not have authority to carry out capital punishment themselves; yet sometimes they executed men despite this prohibition (Acts 7:54-60). A fish was the last being for man to make his banker of; with God all things are possible, who knew how to blend admirably in the same act divine glory, unanswerably vindicated, with the lowliest grace in man. 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. Nevertheless, the Lord did not withhold the infinite boon, though He knew too well their thoughts; He spoke the word of forgiveness, though He read their evil heart that counted it blasphemy. The Old Testament Rather than seeking God as to whether or not you should buy a new car, you had to seek your elder or your shepherd. Individual instructors or editors may still require the use of URLs. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? "Can the children of the bride-chamber mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them?" He promises, First, A penny,Matthew 20:2; Matthew 20:2. [Note: Wiersbe, 1:73.]. It's God's to give, however, to whomever He pleases. 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). b. The New Testament Jesus stood and called them. 9 And when they came that were hired about the eleventh hour, they received every man a penny. 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. God has work for all ages; no time amiss to turn to God; none can say, "It is all in good time;" for, whatever hour of the day it is with us, the time past of our life may suffice that we have served sin; Go ye also into the vineyard. 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.". Thus it is easy to see, that the reason for here putting together the leper and the centurion lies in the Lord's dealing with the Jew, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, in His deep grace working in the Gentile's heart, and forming his faith, as well as answering it, according to His own heart. The evil eye was a jealous, envious eye. And so they didn't really remember that He said He was going to rise the third day, until after the resurrection. So the last shall be first, and the first last. Then inside the house we have not only the Lord explaining the parable, the history from first to last of the tares and wheat, the mingling of evil with the good which grace had sown, but more than that, we have the kingdom viewed according to divine thoughts and purposes. Outwardly it was a condition of comparative cleanness. This finds its fitting place, not in Luke, but in Matthew, particularly as the details here (not in Mark, who only gives the general fact) cast great light upon God's dispensational ways. And someone said, "Jesus is going by." a. "This man blasphemeth." 111. But when the Lord was here, no matter what the unbelief of others, it was only an opportunity for the grace of Jesus to shine out. Therefore when He said, "this is my body broken for you", He could not refer to some bones being broken, but His body was broken open by this scourging that He received. 4 He told them, 'You also go and work in my . Usernames should only contain letters, numbers, dots, dashes, or underscores. a. They may not be as long in the vineyard as others; their race may be sooner run; but I have chosen to honor them in this manner, and I have a right to do it. [Note: France, The Gospel . If I assume from the words "set forth in order," in the beginning of Luke's gospel, that therefore his is the chronological account, it will only lead me into confusion, both as to Luke and the other gospels; for proofs abound that the order of Luke, most methodical as he is, is by no means absolutely that of time. 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. Counting from 6 a.m. therefore, the third hour is 9 a.m., the sixth hour is twelve midday, and the eleventh hour is 5 p.m. And when the ten heard it, they were greatly displeased with the two brothers. Gregory of Nyssa saw the glaring fault in that theory. In the end of this chapter (15) is another miracle of Christ's feeding a vast multitude. They had heard of the miracles that He had wrought, up in the area of Galilee, around Capernaum. Now this seems to be the principal scope of this parable, to show that the Jews should be first called into the vineyard, and many of them should come at the call; but, at length, the gospel should be preached to the Gentiles, and they should receive it, and be admitted to equal privileges and advantages with the Jews; should be fellow-citizens with the saints, which the Jews, even those of them that believed, would be very much disgusted at, but without reason. At its close we see the leper approaching the Lord, after He had been preaching throughout Galilee and casting out devils. Can I not do what I like with my own money? 2. The fact of two without the personal details would not powerfully tell upon mere Gentiles perhaps, though to a Jew it might be for some ends necessary. Minor Prophets Isaiah prophesied the fact that He would be scourged, but in prophesying the fact, Isaiah tells us the reason. But when he came to the first, they supposed that they should have received more; but they likewise received every man a penny. Jesus laces this point throughout the parable. It is incontestably true, that God can do no wrong. What Does It Mean That There Is No One Holy Like God? Far from lowering the position of His servant, He declares there was none greater among mortal men. a. vi. If this be a sound judgment, the comparison of the first chapter of Mark affords decisive evidence that the Holy Ghost in Matthew has taken the leper out of the mere time and circumstances of actual occurrence, and has reserved his case for a wholly different service. The evil eye was an idiom used to refer to jealousy (cf. The woman of Canaan, out of the borders of Tyre and Sidon, appeals to Him; a Gentile of most ominous name and belongings a Gentile whose case was desperate; for she appeals on behalf of her daughter, grievously vexed with a devil. He stood in the driving rain to preach, coughing all the time. It means quite simply this. Neither did He need to wait for His exaltation as man; for He was ever God, and God's Son, who therefore, if one may so say, waits for nothing, for no day of glory. Even so the last shall be first, and the first shall be last.". Thus, in the scene of the leper, we have Jesus presented as "Jehovah that healeth Israel," as man here below, and in Jewish relationships, still maintaining the law. This was testing matters more closely. In Matthew 16:1-28 we advance a great step, spite (yea, because) of unbelief, deep and manifest, now on every side. In this laying aside of authority, he gives a silent rebuke to our self-seeking. (Spurgeon). "Upon this rock," says He, "I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." He was going to build His Church "upon this rock" Himself, the Son of God. He said to her, "What do you wish?" "Dear Beloved, The apostle Paul is known as a great missionary. That the same night that in which Jesus was betrayed, He took bread, and when He had broken it, He said, take eat this is my body which is broken for you. Seeking the Gospel in Malachi, the Last Book of the Old Testament. But the Lord could not send her away without a blessing, and without a blessing reaching to His own glory. He who gave the law maintained its authority, and used it as an occasion for testifying His own power and presence. to forget His ancient people. Secondly, Till we are hired into the service of God, we are standing all the day idle; a sinful state, though a state of drudgery to Satan, may really be called a state of idleness; sinners are doing nothing, nothing to the purpose, nothing of the great work they were sent into the world about, nothing that will pass well in the account. "If you wish to be great," he says, "be a servant; if you wish to be first of all be a slave." how is it that ye have no faith? that take and give unto them for me and thee." HEARTLIGHT is a registered service mark of Heartlight, Inc. | Privacy Policy. 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. Is thine eye evil, because I am good? The aggravation of it; "It is because I am good." and who are my brethren?" 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. 16.So the first shall be last. No man can ever claim that he began to follow Jesus under false pretences. God does not permit Scripture to be thus used without losing its force, its beauty, and the grand object for which it was written. New International Version (NIV). (v) Here also is the generosity of God. (Matthew 20:11-15) The complaint of the early workers. is like unto a man that is an householder, which went out early in the morning to hire labourers into his vineyard. Follow Christ's journey to the Cross. Christianity knows nothing of the conception of a herrenvolk, a master race. It is grief to ourselves, anger to God, and ill-will to our neighbour; and it is a sin that has neither pleasure, profit, nor honour, in it; it is an evil, an only evil. Out in the world, said Jesus, it is quite true that the great man is the man who controls others; the man to whose word of command others must leap; the man who with a wave of his hand can have his slightest need supplied. 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. And it really was a heavy bondage trip. (Matthew 20:3-7) Through the day, the landowner continues to hire workers. "And when Jesus departed thence, two blind men followed Him, crying and saying, Thou Son of David, have mercy on us." 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." Then comes the boast of Peter, though for others as well as himself. Not but that there is a counsel in every will of God, and what seems to us to be done arbitrarily, will appear at length to have been done wisely, and for holy ends. 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. 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. (vi) Surely that brings us to the supreme lesson of the parable--the whole point of work is the spirit in which it is done. Succa, fol. He may therefore give or withhold his blessings, as he pleases. James was the first of the apostolic band to die a martyr ( Acts 12:2). Note, First, The church is God's vineyard; it is of his planting, watering, and fencing; and the fruits of it must be to his honour and praise. Sometimes we go without when God would want to give us something simply because we will not answer this question, and we do not have because we do not ask (James 4:2). Well, he did not come to get your service; he came to give you his services; not that you might first do him honor, but that he might show you mercy. (Spurgeon). Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the Younger and of, Jesus' mother, his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and. Thus, in the chapter before us, we have a very comprehensive sketch of the Lord's manifestation from that time, and in type going on to the end of the age. After Paul had preached on Mars Hill, there were those who said, "We will hear you again about this" ( Acts 17:32). Copyright 2019 by Zondervan. Ingratitude is the ugliest of all sins. Take that which is yours, and go your way: and I will give unto this last even as unto thee. He therefore, 1. Whatever the time may have been, whatever the incidents added by others, the account is given here for the purpose of showing, that as Israel's case was desperate, even unto death, so He, the Messiah, was the giver of life, when all, humanly speaking, was over. Origen said it was the devil; Gregory of Nyssa objected that this put the devil on the same level as God, and allowed the devil to dictate terms to God. You may unsubscribe from Bible Gateways emails at any time. 16 "So the last will be first, and the first will be last.". And then they would take a leather whip, with little bits of lead and glass, embedded in it. But nothing would stop the two blind men; for them it was a matter of sight or blindness, and nothing was going to keep them back. Article Images Copyright 2023 Getty Images unless otherwise indicated. 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. . To hire laborers for his vineyard: The landowner went to the marketplace, which was the gathering place for day laborers. "I am certain that there is much about the scourging about Jesus that we do not fully understand. This he said in the hearing of the disciple who would act the traitor: did no compunction visit his base heart? (Spurgeon), ii. But if this be so, there is here absolute certainty that our Lord, on the very Sabbath in which He cast out the unclean spirit from the man in the synagogue of Capernaum, immediately after quitting the synagogue, entered the house of Peter, and that there and then He healed Peter's wife's mother of the fever. It can only mean here the "invited." And thus as Isaiah predicts the scourging, the stripes, he declares, "by His stripes ye are healed"( Isaiah 53:5 ). Not only will it be fair, it will be generous beyond expectation. And because they were sent of God, they each one received from the Lord that same portion.Sometimes we see people who on their deathbed receive Jesus Christ as their Savior and they enter into eternal life. Jesus was there to call, not righteous men, but sinners. All will not be the wise that understand, nor those who instruct the mass in righteousness. Poetical Books The axiom of this verse and of chapter nineteen, verse 30, sets the tone for Jesus entire ministry and the church. We begin with the comparatively limited significance it originally had. The delivered demoniacs are, to my mind, clearly the foreshadow of the Lord's grace in the latter days, separating a remnant to Himself, and banishing the power of Satan from this small but sufficient witness of His salvation. GenesisExodusLeviticusNumbersDeuteronomyJoshuaJudgesRuth1 Samuel2 Samuel1 Kings2 Kings1 Chronicles2 ChroniclesEzraNehemiahEstherJobPsalmsProverbsEcclesiastesSong of SongsIsaiahJeremiahLamentationsEzekielDanielHoseaJoelAmosObadiahJonahMicahNahumHabakkukZephaniahHaggaiZechariahMalachiMatthewMarkLukeJohnActsRomans1 Corinthians2 CorinthiansGalatiansEphesiansPhilippiansColossians1 Thessalonians2 Thessalonians1 Timothy2 TimothyTitusPhilemonHebrewsJames1 Peter2 Peter1 John2 John3 JohnJudeRevelation, Select an Ending Point For him the cup was the constant discipline and struggle of the Christian life throughout the years. The householder had every right to have cut them off with a trifle instead of a whole day's pay. And yet the Lord says, we get the penny, and so that's good enough for me.Now the Lord does here point out, "look if I want to be good, if I want to extend grace, you shouldn't really complain about the grace that I extend. So the last shall be first, and the first last,. As he had asserted in Matthew 19:30 and which is clearly illustrated by this parable, as it may be applied to Jews or Gentiles, or to nominal and real Christians: for many be called; externally, under the ministration of the Gospel, as the Jews in general were, by Christ and his apostles; but, few chosen; in Christ from all eternity, both to grace and glory; and in consequence, and as an evidence of it, but few among the Jews; as also in the Gentile world, comparatively speaking: and even but a few of those that are outwardly called, are inwardly and effectually called by the powerful grace of God, out of darkness into marvellous light, into the grace and liberty of the Gospel, into communion with Christ, and to the obtaining his kingdom and glory, according to the eternal purpose of God. But he answered, and said unto them, Friend, I do thee no wrong: did you not agree to work for a penny? The servants are clearly divided into two classes. 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.]. All through their history the Jews had dreamed of the Messiah; but the Messiah of whom they had dreamed was always a conquering king, a mighty leader, one who would smash the enemies of Israel and reign in power over the kingdoms of the earth. So little old Jewish mama coming to Jesus with her two sons. Not merely were there many pieces of value, but one pearl of great price. It is best understood as a parable about grace and reward. Let none suppose that, in giving my own convictions, I have the presumptuous thought of putting these forward as if they were the sole motives in God's mind. Free Challenge: Mr & Mrs Smith. I will obey to the end.. This parable is not a perfect illustration of Gods grace, because the principle of working and deserving is involved. And so anti what Jesus has declared. 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.
