Even at such a time that was not the end of his words, for he finished with the confident assertion of the Resurrection. "And, behold, certain of the scribes said within themselves, This man blasphemeth." Follow Christ's journey to the Cross. b. This tested their thoughts of the glory of Jesus. "Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David!" So thoroughly is it in view of Israel that our Lord does not say one word here about the Church, or the intervening condition of Christendom. So now we have, in the healing of Peter's mother-in-law, another fact containing a principle of great value, that His grace towards the Gentile does not in the least degree blunt His heart to the claims of relationship after the flesh. GenesisExodusLeviticusNumbersDeuteronomyJoshuaJudgesRuth1 Samuel2 Samuel1 Kings2 Kings1 Chronicles2 ChroniclesEzraNehemiahEstherJobPsalmsProverbsEcclesiastesSong of SongsIsaiahJeremiahLamentationsEzekielDanielHoseaJoelAmosObadiahJonahMicahNahumHabakkukZephaniahHaggaiZechariahMalachiMatthewMarkLukeJohnActsRomans1 Corinthians2 CorinthiansGalatiansEphesiansPhilippiansColossians1 Thessalonians2 Thessalonians1 Timothy2 TimothyTitusPhilemonHebrewsJames1 Peter2 Peter1 John2 John3 JohnJudeRevelation, Select an Ending Point Sufferers for Christ in the latter days, shall have the same reward with the martyrs and confessors of the primitive times, though they are more celebrated; and faithful ministers now, the same with the first fathers. Matthew 20:16 - "So the last will be first, and the - Bible Gateway b. Note, First, The soul of man stands ready to be hired into some service or other; it was (as all the creatures were) created to work, and is either a servant to iniquity, or a servant to righteousness,Romans 6:19. They next proceeded to the creation of subaltern officers, whom the tribunes chose from among the soldiers of the greatest reputation. It is true, we have only one in Mark, as in Luke; whereas in our gospel we have two. All this is what happens when men take the poetry of love and try to turn it into man-made theories. 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. The tribunes of the second and third likewise made their choice one after another; and he that remained entered into the fourth legion. c. Whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant: In the Kingdom community, status, money, popularity should never be the prerequisites for leadership. It often happens that we are easily discouraged from seeking the presence of God. There is simply the great, tremendous truth that without Jesus Christ and his life of service and his death of love, we could never have found our way back to the love of God. When the world and the devil begin to rebuke, in this case, it is a proof that the salvation of God is nigh; therefore, let such cry out a great deal the more. (Clarke). How little they had learnt the divine lesson of grace, not ordinances! The New Testament Remember, God doesn't look at us the way this world does. Reversal! 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." Matthew 20:16 - KING JAMES BIBLE ONLINE He evinces, that at the very time when Peter forgot the vision and the Father's voice, virtually reducing Him to mere man, He was God manifest in the flesh. So this seems to be the words that couch this particular parable. Jesus uses a kind of gradation. 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. One of the great fundamental facts to which we must hold on, even when we hate and loathe and despise ourselves, is that Jesus believes in us. Matthew 5:45). In this work we must not be slothful, not loiterers, but labourers, working, and working out our own salvation. (iii) These are the original lessons of this parable, but it has very much more to say to us. Rudolf Bultmann writes: "In the Cross of Christ Jewish standards of judgment and human notions of the splendour of the Messiah are shattered." He said, "Call those fellows to me." If God shall bless your brother, and make him ten times more useful than you are, then you see that he is blessing you not only blessing him, but you. a. Not so. See Matthew 19:27-29. for many be called, but few chosenThis is another of our Lord's terse and pregnant sayings, more than once uttered in different connections. For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother." that take and give unto them for me and thee." It appears to me, that the nature or aim of Mark's gospel demands this. Not only will it be fair, it will be generous beyond expectation. Would he go back on his point of no return? He welcomed his bed-fellow. He was ignorant of himself, because ignorant of God, and imagined that it was only a question of man's doing good for God. John the Baptist was sanctified from the womb, and therefore great (Luke 1:15); Timothy from a child (2 Timothy 3:15); Obadiah feared the Lord from his youth. The point of this one is that God will reward all His disciples justly, graciously, and generously. She replied, "In your Kingdom, please let my two sons sit in places of honor next to you, one on your right and the other on your left.". Yet He confidently said it would happen. "No man putteth a piece of new cloth unto an old garment; for that which is put in to fill it up taketh from the garment, and the rent is made worse." The best of the labourers, and those that begin soonest, having so many empty spaces in their time, and their works not being filled up before God, may truly be said to labour in the vineyard scarcely one hour of their twelve; but because we are under grace, and not under the law, even such defective services, done in sincerity, shall not only be accepted, but by free grace richly rewarded. To mock and to scourge: Jesus predicted these specific aspects of His coming agony which on a human level He could not arrange. Heartlight is supported by loving Christians from around the world. All rights reserved. At the beginning of the day, a landowner hired people to work in his vineyard for an agreed wage (Matthew 20:1-2). I. get to know the Bible better! "Suffer me first," he says, "to go and bury my father." Peters question about what the Twelve would receive (Matthew 20:27) had implied that they should receive a greater reward since their sacrifice had been greater. They were beggars; but it was not money they asked for, it was nothing less than sight. They will condemn Him to death: Jesus confidently predicted that the religious leaders would do this; yet this was not something He could plan. 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. First of all, because the sacrifice that was offered to God could not have any blemish, any broken bones. 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. Examine the Scripture, and you will see for yourselves. . "I will have mercy, and not sacrifice." After Paul had preached on Mars Hill, there were those who said, "We will hear you again about this" ( Acts 17:32). 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. iv. Now He brings out not the kingdom merely, but His Church; and this not merely in view of hopeless unbelief in the mass, but of the confession of His own intrinsic glory as the Son of God by the chosen witness. "The cross," he said, "was a mousetrap (muscipula) to catch the devil, baited with the blood of Christ.". It adds to the reason for this interpretation, that Christ was conversing about the rewards that should be given to his followers, and not about the numbers that should be called, or about the doctrine of election. Therefore it was not a mere simple fact that He banished sickness or infirmity, but He carried them in His spirit before God. It ought to be so with every forgiven soul. Judgment will have early cut them off. Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the Younger and of, Jesus' mother, his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and. 3 And he went out about the third hour, and saw others standing idle in the marketplace, 4 And said unto them; Go ye also into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right I will give you. All will not be the wise that understand, nor those who instruct the mass in righteousness. To be like Christ he went to live in the slums, even though he himself was suffering from tuberculosis. "Come, come from this market-place.". Here is royalty and kingship restated and remade. But Luke saith, they understood none of these things; that is, surely they believed none of them, the saying was hid from them. (Poole), v. When our Lord told the twelve that he would die, they imagined that it was a parable, concealing some deep mystery. The scribe had no heart for the hidden glory. We can never repay God for what he has done for us but we can always be grateful to him. (Matthew 20:20-21) The mother of James and John asks for a place of special status for her sons. Lastly, Here is the application of the parable (Matthew 20:16; Matthew 20:16), in that observation which occasioned it (Matthew 19:30; Matthew 19:30); So the first shall be last, and the last first. In that market-place men stood waiting because no one had hired them; in his compassion the master gave them work to do. Poetical Books The devil was tricked by God. . and what had the Son of David to do with a Canaanite? It is my will to give to this last man the same as to you. Whence they are hired? Yes, it was His to rule and command the sea, even as the land and all that in them is. Probably thisto teach us that men who have wrought in Christ's service all their days may, by the spirit which they manifest at the last, make it too evident that, as between God and their own souls, they never were chosen workmen at all. "The ransom could not have been paid to God; it was therefore paid to the Evil One, who was holding us fast until the ransom should be given to him, even the life of Jesus." No doubt they had heard of the wondrous power of Jesus; and no doubt they wondered if that power might ever be exercised for them. Rome might at any time have recruited her armies by volunteers from such a mass of well-educated, hardy soldiers but she thought proper, to use the words of the Abbe Mably, that the honour of being chosen to serve in the wars should be the reward of the accomplishments shown by the citizens in the Campus Martius, that the soldier should have a reputation to save; and that the regard paid him, in choosing him to serve, should be the pledge of his fidelity and zeal to discharge his duty. The amazing thing about Jesus is that he never lost patience and became irritated. Those whom Christ fed miraculously, though of different sizes, men, women, and children, did all eat, and were filled. Such is His grace, such His wisdom. conservative Christian faith, which includes a firm belief in the inerrancy The Lord works in delivering power; but withal the power of Satan fills and carries away the unclean to their own destruction. They were not attached to any group; they were entirely at the mercy of chance employment; they were always living on the semi-starvation line. we have in Peter what man is, even after all this. b. Those that were priests in the house of God would not they at least receive their own Messiah? A verification email has been sent to the address you provided. We seem completely borne away from the ordinary level of our gospel to the higher region of the disciple whom Jesus loved. Third, this passage sheds a light on Jesus. When they had received the boon for which they craved, they did not go away and forget; they followed Jesus. Barclay, William "The Gospel of Matthew, Volume 2" (The New Daily Study Bible, Matthew 11-28) (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1975), Bruce, Alexander Balmain "The Synoptic Gospels: The Expositor's Greek Testament" Volume 1, Section 1 (Matthew-Luke) (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1897), Carson, D.A. The Old Testament Now if you go back to the last verse of the previous chapter, you'll find this same statement. Many of them bleed to death. b. Descending then upon the plateau, He delivered what is commonly called the Sermon on the Mount. without holiness no man shall see the Lord. Free Challenge: Mr & Mrs Smith. Our website uses cookies to store user preferences. Take notice of the care with which the Spirit of God here omits all reference to this: "And a certain scribe came." 7 They say unto him, Because no man hath hired us. She said to him, "Speak the word that these two sons of mine may sit, one on your right hand, and one on your left, in your Kingdom." New International Version (NIV). Matthew 20:16 Interlinear: So the last shall be first, and the first So the last shall be first, and the first last The GENTILES, who have been long without the true God, shall now enjoy all the privileges of the new covenant; and the Jews, who have enjoyed these from the beginning, shall now be dispossessed of them; for, because they here rejected the Lord, he also hath rejected them. But that cannot be the meaning of it here; the "called" being emphatically distinguished from the "chosen." ( Matthew 20:16) The parable applied: the principle of God's reward. but what a heart was His! There is an element of human tenderness in this parable. Prophets 2. 1. "This [fellow]," etc. 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. There are a great many decisions which have to be taken. Gentile as he was, he was for that very, reason the less narrowed in his thoughts of the Saviour by the prevalent notions of Israel, yea, or even by Old Testament hopes, precious as they are. Sorrow would come full soon when He, the Bridegroom of His people, should be taken away; and then should they fast. The man that was not called promises to go anywhere, in his own strength; but the man that was called feels the difficulty, and pleads a natural duty before following Jesus. The pay was perfectly normal; a denarius or a drachma was the normal day's wage for a working man; and, even allowing for the difference in modern standards and in purchasing power, 4 pence a day was not a wage which left any margin. The first came to an agreement with the master; they had a contract; they said, "We work, if you give us so much pay." Let me passingly notice a very few particulars. Jesus purpose in telling this story was to illustrate what he had just said concerning Gods unexpected gift to those who at present appear to be disadvantaged (see Matthew 19:30). We are dependent, therefore, for determining this case, on the fact that Mark does habitually adhere to the chain of events. What does Matthew chapter 20 mean? | BibleRef.com Beracot, fol. So the last shall be first - This is the moral or scope of the parable. This question is accordingly put to the proof in the ninth chapter. They don't understand all of the provision that the Lord has made for them. b. They worked in the heat of the day while others shaded themselves. You may unsubscribe from Bible Gateways emails at any time. There is no question of to whom the ransom was paid. He had been preparing them for the new things, and the impossibility of making them coalesce with the old. A ransom is something paid or given to liberate a man from a situation from which it is impossible for him to free himself. 10 But when the first came, they supposed that they should have received more; and they likewise received every man a penny. Matthew 20:16 NIV - "So the last will be first, and the - Bible Gateway (i) These two blind men were waiting, and when their chance came they seized it with both hands. Copyright 2023, Bible Study Tools. These are the words of an older gentleman who trusted Christ a few days before he died from cancer. And I believe that we can believe and trust Jesus Christ for physical healing, as well as spiritual healing. Are you able to drink of the cup that I shall drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am going to be baptized with? That many who begin last, and promise little in religion, sometimes, by the blessing of God, arrive at greater attainments in knowledge, grace, and usefulness, than others whose entrance was more early, and who promised fairer. I have endeavoured, though, of course, cursorily, and I feel most imperfectly, to give thus far Matthew's sketch of the Saviour as the Holy Ghost enabled him to execute it. We have, first, the sower sowing the word. Therefore He could not have any broken bones. When God settles all the accounts, then things are going to be valued by his standards and not the world's standards. And Jesus tells him, "Look no one has left anything, but what in this life he get a hundredfold, and in the life to come, eternal life"( Matthew 19:29 ). Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands." Time would fail now to dwell on this chapter, interesting as it is. 5. Thus, the fourth chapter of Mark coincides, marked with such data as can leave no doubt. Many people are in the ministry for what they can receive (either materially or emotionally) from their people instead of for what they can give. Peter boasts of leaving "all" to follow Jesus as if this somehow earns him some special reward (19:27). About the third hour, [nine o'clock in the morning], he saw others standing idle in the market place, and he said unto them; Go into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right I will give you. They complained against the landowner: After being paid, the men hired first took up their complaint with the landowner. It was necessary to complete the picture. They had the desperation appropriate for those who know that today is the day of salvation. PREVIOUS Matthew 20:15 NEXT Matthew 20:17. Secondly, Whatsoever is right,Matthew 20:4-7; Matthew 20:4-7. 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. d T. Hieros. 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. Sinners are said to labour in the very fire (Habakkuk 2:13), whereas God's servants, at the worst, do but labour in the sun; not in the heat of the iron furnace, but only in the heat of the day. Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." He could not bear to see them idle. 1. 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. What Does It Mean That There Is No One Holy Like God? 6 And about the eleventh hour he went out, and found others standing idle, and saith unto them, Why stand ye here all the day idle? So our goal as disciples is to value things now as God does. ", To report dead links, typos, or html errors or suggestions about making these resources more useful use the convenient, Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology, Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament, The Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary, International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard (Matthew 20:1-16); Jesus a Third Time Predicts His Death and Resurrection (Matthew 20:17-19; Mark 10:32-34; Luke 18:31-34); Greatness is Serving (Matthew 20:20-28); Two Blind Men Receive Their Sight (Matthew 20:29-34). The very next scene, the case of Jairus, the ruler, shows it. Nothing shall be withheld that was promised. c. Early in the morning: This is literally at dawn, usually reckoned to be about 6:00 in the morning. Matthew 20:16 - Bible Verse Meaning and Commentary - Bible Study Tools Matthew 20:16 Commentaries: "So the last shall be first, and the first Some think this parable speaks of the way that people come to God at different stages of their life. But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister [or servant]; And whosoever will be the chief among you, let him be the bondslave ( Matthew 20:23-27 ): Jesus here is teaching the servanthood of the ministry and the path to greatness. 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. Far from lowering the position of His servant, He declares there was none greater among mortal men. The strange thing is that instinctively the world itself has accepted these standards. is like unto a man that is an householder, which went out early in the morning to hire labourers into his vineyard. See Matthew 19:27-29. The Lord then had been shown such as He was towards Israel, had Israel in their leprosy come to Him, as did the leper, even with a faith exceedingly short of that which was due to His real glory and His love. A few I have chosen for higher stations in the church. Thus many that are last shall be first. See Deuteronomy 24:15. Not even their wonderful "attitude" entitled them to a day's pay. Sometimes a young person dies almost before the door of life and achievement have opened at all. It was His meat to do the will of God. And then Paul warned the Corinthians about the manner in which they did partake of the Lord's supper. b. In this we have another striking illustration of the same principle, because this miracle, in point of fact, was wrought long before the healing of the centurion's servant, or even of the leper. Here, too, these Pharisees question and reproach His grace, when they see the Lord sitting at ease in the presence of publicans and sinners, who came and sat down with Him in Matthew's house. 33), it is added, "And with many such parables spake He the word unto them . You don't know what the challenge/date is until you scratch off a square similar to a scratch-off lottery ticket. It is a just prefiguration of what will be in the close of the age the mass of the unbelieving Jews, now impure, but then also given up to the devil, and so to evident perdition.
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