The point in the beginning of Matthew 20 is not reward, but the right and title of God Himself to act according to His goodness. He is not going to lower Himself to a human measure. Not only shall the Judge of all the earth do right, but what will not He do who gives all good? “For the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which went out early in the morning to hire labourers into his vineyard. And when he had agreed with the laborers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard ... And when they came that were hired about the eleventh hour, they received every man a penny. But when the first came, they supposed that they should have received more; and they likewise received every man a penny.” He maintains His sovereign title to do good, to do as He will with His own. The first of these lessons is, “Many that are first shall be last and the last shall be first” (Matt. 20:3030And, behold, two blind men sitting by the way side, when they heard that Jesus passed by, cried out, saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord, thou Son of David. (Matthew 20:30)). It is clearly the failure of nature, the reversal of what might be expected. The second is, “So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen” (Matt. 20:1616So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen. (Matthew 20:16)). It is the power of grace. God’s delight is to pick out the hindmost for the first place, to the disparagement of the foremost in their own strength.
Lastly, we have the Lord rebuking the ambition not only of the sons of Zebedee, but in truth also of the ten; for why was there such warmth of indignation against the two brethren? why not sorrow and shame that they should have so little understood their Master’s mind. 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! The fact is, in judging others we judge ourselves.
Here I close tonight. It brings me to the real crisis; that is, the final presentation of our Lord to Jerusalem. I have endeavored, though, of course, cursorily, and I feel most imperfectly, to give thus far Matthew’s sketch of the Saviour as the Holy Spirit enabled him to execute it. In the next discourse we may hope to have the rest of his Gospel.