Even so the last shall be first, and the first shall be last.". 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. He never doubted that James and John would maintain their loyalty. Christ only meant to say that every one who has been called before others ought to run with so much the greater alacrity, and, next, to exhort all men to be modest, not to give themselves the preference above others, but willingly to share with them a common prize. woe unto thee, Bethsaida! It does not seem exactly as a pictorial view of what the Lord was doing, or going to do, but rather the repeated pledge, that they were not to suppose that the evil He had judged in the elders of Jerusalem, or the grace freely going out to the Gentiles, in any way led Him. It is true, we have only one in Mark, as in Luke; whereas in our gospel we have two. It is a summons from the King to His people Israel. What He was introducing could not mix with Judaism. It was as Son of David that they addressed Jesus. 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. The indignation of the ten doubtless sprang less from humility than jealousy plus fear that they might lose out. (Carson). "This man blasphemeth." The "calling" of which the New Testament almost invariably speaks is what divines call effectual calling, carrying with it a supernatural operation on the will to secure its consent. Evidently it is the change of dispensation that is in question and at hand, the cutting off of the fleshly seed for their unbelief, and the bringing in of numerous believers in the name of the Lord from among the Gentiles. Johannine Writings Then they remembered, oh, yeah, He said He was going to rise on the third day. 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. 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. (Ken Chumbley, The Gospel of Matthew, commentary, p.#351). It is not a thing that can be settled by a mere assertion. a. 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. There is no incident which so demonstrates their invincible faith in Jesus. "Can the children of the bride-chamber mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them?" And he said, "If a person eats or drinks in an unworthy manner, he is eating and drinking damnation to his own soul"( 1 Corinthians 11:26 ). He was there for the express purpose of glorifying God. A man came there first thing in the morning, carrying his tools, and waited until someone hired him. 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. 2 He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard. John is swifter of foot, and comes first to the sepulchre: but Peter has more courage, and goes first into it. In what follows we have that which is necessary, to complete the picture of the other side. Therein is greatness. Though Cushi gets the start of Ahimaaz, yet Ahimaaz, choosing the way of the plain, outruns Cushi. The point of the parable was that God will graciously do more for some of those who work for Him than His justice demands. 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. James was the first martyr among the apostles, and John was the only apostle to not die through martyrdom though not from a lack of trying. 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. 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." Where did they come from? Accordingly, notice that, in the manner in which the Holy Ghost introduces it, there is no statement of time whatever. God's generosity will not succumb to human jealousy. They were still thinking in terms of personal reward and personal distinction; and they were thinking of personal success without personal sacrifice. Some consider that John the Baptist enquired solely for the sake of his disciples. yea, they may forget, yet will not I forget thee. In later days others will come in. 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. 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. a. 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. When the account was taken; when the evening was come, then, as usual, the day-labourers were called and paid. He makes some more useful than others, without regard to the time which they serve, and he will reward them accordingly. The Gospels People do not merit salvation either by works or by attitudes of trust. & Sanhedrim, fol. When it came time to pay the workers, the men hired last were paid first and paid for a full day of work! 4. e T. Bab. 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. This parable taught him that God would give him a just reward for his sacrificial labor for Jesus. Next, we find Him confessed by the centurion, no longer as the Messiah, when actually with them, confessed according to a faith which saw the deeper glory of His person as supreme, competent to heal, no matter where, or whom, or what, by a word; and this the Lord Himself hails as the foreshadowing of a rich incoming of many multitudes to the praise of His name, when the Jews should be cast out. What do you want Me to do for you? This gives an opportunity to teach what truly defiles not things that go into the man, but those things which, proceeding out of the mouth, come forth from the heart. In the pagan world humility was regarded, not so much as a virtue, but as a vice. That was a test of his faith. If we understand it of that which is ours by debt or absolute propriety, it would be a dreadful word; we are all undone, if we be put off with that only which we can call our own. If you have any questions, please review our Privacy Policy or email us at privacy@biblegateway.com. He went out again about twelve o'clock midday, and about three o'clock in the afternoon, and did the same. Proud member Note, There are but few chosen Christians, in comparison with the many that are only called Christians; it therefore highly concerns us to build our hope for heaven upon the rock of an eternal choice, and not upon the sand of an external call; and we should fear lest we be found but seeming Christians, and so should really come short; nay, lest we be found blemished Christians, and so should seem to come short,Hebrews 4:1. And you guessed it already its a quote from the bible \"so the last shall be first \u0026 the first last\"which of course made me think of a competition type challenge !!! And they said unto him, Lord, we want our eyes opened. 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. We need not dwell upon it. So, I believe now, there is no attempt ever made on the Name of the Son of God, there is not a single shaft levelled at Him, but the Spirit turns to the holy, and true, and sweet task of asserting anew and more loudly His glory, which enlarges the expression of His grace to man. Men little weigh what their words will sound and prove in the day of judgment. 20:29-34 When they were leaving Jericho, a great crowd followed him. They glorified God. He was to be condemned to death; there we see the suffering of injustice, which is very hard to bear. One of these people might have been the rich young man if he had become a disciple (Matthew 20:16-22). Or is your eye evil because I am good? Does this scribe offer to follow Jesus? and who are my brethren?" 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. 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. There is an element of human tenderness in this parable. Note, Evening time is the reckoning time; the particular account must be given up in the evening of our life; for after death cometh the judgment. ii. 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. 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. A daily dose of Christian quotes to inspire and encourage. get to know the Bible better! Ingratitude is the ugliest of all sins. They put upon Him a scarlet robe, and they begin to say unto Him, "Hail king of the Jews," and they mocked Him. The Lord, however, in the same chapter, shows that it was not a question alone of what was to be done, or to be suffered, or is to be by-and-by, but what He was, and is, and never can but be. Matthew 5:45). He had brought out the kingdom before in view of that which betrayed to Him the unpardonable blasphemy of the Holy Ghost. ., p. First, it sheds a light on the disciples. This made it to be plainly and only a difficulty for God to solve. And he went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and said to them, You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you. So they went. For him the cup was martyrdom. But Israel had no sense of their leprosy; and they valued not, but despised, their Messiah, albeit divine I might almost say because divine. None the less does the Lord uphold it, purged of what accretions had come in to obscure its original and proper character. Their state had long been that of a man whom the unclean spirit had left, after a former dwelling in him. Love is the sign of true discipleship. For many are called, but few chosen.. iii. ", Kagawa himself wrote: "God dwells among the lowliest of men. & Sanhedrim, fol. Grace should be especially manifested in our service; it is of grace, not works. Because it is free grace, that is given to those that have it, boasting is for ever excluded; and because it is free grace, that is withheld from those that have it not, murmuring is for ever excluded. Hence, he waits to present their rejection of the Messiah, as morally complete as possible in his statement of it, though necessarily not complete in outward accomplishment. They complained against the landowner: After being paid, the men hired first took up their complaint with the landowner. 1. So the last will be first, and the first last. The third and fourth legions had the same advantage in their turns. Matthew 20:16 in all English translations. This is a good example of the word baptism having the sense of immersion or being swallowed up in.. . and a sinking ship are serious difficulties to a man. Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Follow Christ's journey to the Cross. It is easy to sympathize with these who had worked all day. b. [4.] They were greatly displeased: The other ten disciples mistakenly thought that a unique honor had just been bestowed on James and John. What instrument so suitable? This should quicken us to expedition and diligence in our work, that we have but a little time to work in, and the night is hastening on, when no man can work; and if our great work be undone when our day is done, we are undone for ever. He was to be scourged; few tortures in the world compared with the Roman scourge, and there we see the suffering of physical pain. 15 Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own?