Then says the unclean spirit, "I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept and garnished. ", Kagawa himself wrote: "God dwells among the lowliest of men. What Jesus calls upon his followers to do he himself did. 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. Wretched we, that we should need such proof of it; wretched, that we should be so slow of heart to answer to it, or even to feel its immensity! This as yet draws out wonder, at least from the witnessing multitudes, that God had given such power unto men. The fact is, in judging others we judge ourselves. 22 But Jesus answered by saying to . Christianity knows nothing of the conception of a herrenvolk, a master race. The aggravation of it; "It is because I am good." All our service is already due to God; it belongs to Him. 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. They've missed the joy of what it is to serve the Lord. Judas one of the twelve, who is listening to Him, will be the one who betrays Him. 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. Yet it shall not be so among you: Their desire for position and status showed they did not yet know the nature of Jesus in respect to leadership and power. ii. Peter boasts of leaving "all" to follow Jesus as if this somehow earns him some special reward (19:27). But this, though perhaps legitimate enough as an application of the parable, is clearly secondary and subordinate, and must not be allowed to obscure its primary intention. What could be said of her intelligence then? It is incontestably true, that God can do no wrong. It may well be that we who have been Christian for so long have much to learn from those younger Churches who are late-comers to the fellowship of the faith. Deuteronomy 15:9; 1 Samuel 18:9). (Carson), ii. And as they stood there with those clouds over their eyes, Jesus said, "What do you want?" Some of the people of our own day who fancy that their sweet and pious attitude in some way entitles them to God's favor should take note of this. "Jesus deliberately and cleverly led the listeners along by degrees until they understood that if Gods generosity was to be represented by a man, such a man would be different from any man ever encountered." We can count on God dealing with us justly, graciously, and generously whether we serve God all our lives or only a short time having become His disciples later in life. They looked at one another, and they tried to fathom where there was no depth, but where the truth lay on the surface. (Spurgeon), vi. The Old Testament He may therefore give or withhold his blessings, as he pleases. Zion may say of the Lord who laboured in vain, whom the nation abhorred, "The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me." (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. But at the end, when His disciples are in the extremity of trouble, in the midst of the sea, the Lord walks on the sea toward them, and bids them not fear; for they were troubled and afraid. Though Cushi gets the start of Ahimaaz, yet Ahimaaz, choosing the way of the plain, outruns Cushi. You will indeed drink My cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with: Both James and John had to be baptized in suffering as Jesus was, but their cups and baptisms were different. He also strongly claimed his right to do what he wanted with what was his. He didn't come that people might cater to Him and minister to Him, He came to minister to the people's needs. It shows us his honesty. Changes, to us inexplicable, occur: many first last, and last first. IfPsalms 8:1-9; Psalms 8:1-9 goes farther, surely that was for the Son of man, who for the suffering of death was exalted. There are a great many decisions which have to be taken. Christ had promised the apostles, who followed him in the regeneration, at the beginning of the gospel dispensation, great glory (Matthew 19:28; Matthew 19:28); but he now tells them that those who are in like manner faithful to him, even in the latter end of the world, shall have the same reward, shall sit with Christ on his throne, as well as the apostles, Revelation 2:26-3. No sooner had Peter pronounced to Jesus the truth of His person, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God," than Jesus holds the secret no longer. of Scripture. Matthew 20 Commentary - John Gill's Exposition of the Bible They knew that they were the chosen people, nor would they ever willingly forget that choice. 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. Verse 29 gives us strict time. Again, when we listen to another (and now it is one of His disciples), at once faith shows its feebleness. The ones who labored only an hour did not deserve their pay either. He stands with the juvenile delinquents. In his defilement he came to Jesus and sought to be cleansed, before the delivery of the sermon on the mount. After the creation of consuls, they every year named twenty-four military tribunes, part of whom must have served five years at least, and the rest eleven. Here we see the worldly ambition of the disciples in action. Johannine Writings Jesus laces this point throughout the parable. "The foxes," says He, "have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man hath not where to lay His head." It is best understood as a parable about grace and reward. He sits on the dust heap among the prison convicts. The Roman penny was, in our money, of the value of a sevenpence half-penny, a day's wages for a day's work, and the wages sufficient for a day's maintenance. They drew up by tribes, and lots were drawn to determine in what order every tribe should present its soldiers. [At the end of his parable about the Kingdom of Heaven being like workers hired at different times during the day, Jesus said,] "So those who are last now will be first then, and those who are first will be last.". A man who wanted to work came there first thing in the morning, carrying his tools, and waited until someone hired him. General Epistles (Matthew 20:32-34) Jesus heals the two blind men. b. It is clearly the failure of nature, the reversal of what might be expected. James was the first of the apostolic band to die a martyr ( Acts 12:2). The design is, I think, manifest: the Spirit of God is here giving a vivid picture of the manifestation of the Messiah, of His divine glory, of His grace and power, with the effect of this manifestation. The only reason we will receive any reward is that God has called us to be His workers. Successful service to God is the gift of His grace. The landowner reminded them that he had paid them the amount they had agreed to, and if he paid others the same amount, that was his concern. The faithful and true witness, it was His to display that power in goodness which shall be put forth fully in the world to come, the great day when the Lord will manifest Himself to every eye as Son of David, and Son of man too. 3. Note: MLA no longer requires the URL as part of their citation standard. They worked in the heat of the day while others shaded themselves. A ransom is something paid or given to liberate a man from a situation from which it is impossible to free himself. (Barclay), iii. I merely indicate by the way how the thorough increasing rejection of the Lord Jesus in His lower glory has but the effect of bringing out the revelation of His higher. The highest creature must go away into nothing, if he must go away with that only which is his own: but if we understand it of that which is ours by gift, the free gift of God, it teaches us to be content with such things as we have. Matthew 20:16 in all English translations. Recognizing the value of consistent reflection upon the Word of God in order to refocus one's mind and heart upon Christ and His Gospel of peace, we provide several reading plans designed to cover the entire Bible in a year. Nor was it only a difference in the forms the truth took; but the vital principle which Christ was diffusing could not be so maintained. Yet He confidently announced to His disciples that this would happen. It was true that He was made of woman, and made under the law; but He was Jehovah Himself, that lowly Nazarene. Poetical Books If I am faithful for an hour, if I am faithful for twelve hours, it is my faithfulness to the service to which the Lord has sent me.Now a lot of times we think that men like Billy Graham will surely receive the greatest rewards in heaven, because look at the tremendous fruit of his ministry. General Epistles "Oh, you bet you, we're able." Jesus gives the parable of the laborers in the vineyardHe foretells His crucifixion and resurrectionHe came to give His life as a ransom for many. a. Ingratitude is the ugliest of all sins. At least we can draw the following applications from it. The Lord now lets them know their mad folly, and warns them that this blasphemy was about to culminate in a still deeper, deadlier form when the Holy Ghost should be spoken against as He had been. That means that James and John were full cousins of Jesus; and it may well have been that they felt that this close relationship entitled them to a special place in his Kingdom. This parable taught the disciples not to think of heavenly rewards in terms of justice, getting in proportion to what they deserved. Sometimes a man dies full of years and full of honour, with his day's work ended and his task completed. Did you not come to an agreement with me to work for 4 pence ? When he had come to an agreement with them that they would work for 4 pence a day, he sent them into his vineyard. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands." 1. The crowd rebuked them, so that they might be silent. If the Gentiles were to be allowed into the fellowship of the Church at all, they must come in as inferiors. One of these people might have been the rich young man if he had become a disciple (Matthew 20:16-22). ESV Text Edition: 2016. After this, dismissing the multitudes, He retires alone, to pray, on a mountain, as the disciples toil over the storm-tossed lake, the wind being contrary. There was a strange inclusiveness in the suffering to which Jesus looked forward; it was a suffering in which no pain of heart or mind or body was to be lacking. The failure of this greatest of women-born only gives Him the just occasion to show the total change at hand, when it should not be a question of man, but of God, yea, of the kingdom of heaven, the least in which new state should be greater than John. A mere Jew would have been defiled. A devotional to help reclaim Jesus as the daily Lord of our lives. Major Prophets What care we for those who curse and blaspheme? Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary. Mockery could go no farther. Reviewing, then, these closing incidents of the chapter (ver. (d) T. Hieros. The request of James and John not unnaturally annoyed the other disciples. But here pardon dispensed on earth arouses the pride of the religious leaders to the quick, and implacably.
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