Matthew 20:1-16. In this parable is shown the sovereignty of the Lord in calling and rewarding the laborers in His vineyard. It is not a question of obtaining salvation, for we do not labor for salvation. It is to teach us that He is our Master. Peter said, “What shall we have therefore?” Here is the answer even to those who begin late in the day, ‘‘Go ye also into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right I will give.” Laboring for Christ because we love Him, and trust Him, is better than laboring for reward. It is grace, not law. We love to do it because of His grace to us: He made us His.
Reward is encouragement to those who are serving Him with His approval. It is not the motive to lead us to serve. Those who bargained for the penny, received it; those who trusted and served Him, received what His heart delighted to give them. “What is right I will give you;” they trusted Him. The assurance of reward is given when the Lord is the motive for the labor. If we get the reward as the motive for laboring, it falsifies the character of true service for Him. Then Peter and the disciples must learn that it is His to do with as He pleases, and, therefore, many that are last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen. It is the sovereign grace of God that is the source of true blessing. Peter was called, and a place given him by the Lord. Paul came in later on, as last, but he was a chosen vessel to unfold the heavenly mystery of Christ and the church as a stronger testimony to grace, so the last was first, and the first last. Each has his place to fill as given by the Lord (Eph. 4:8). Again, notice, this is not salvation, but service after we are saved.
Matthew 20:17-23. On the way up to Jerusalem the Lord takes His disciples apart to tell them privately what is to befall Him in the very place where He should have been crowned king. It is the Son of Man, despised and rejected.
“Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn Him to death, and shall. deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify; and the third day He shall rise again.” Sad tale of man’s sin, and of the shameful treatment the Lord received at his hands. Were there none to sympathize? Alas! even His disciples are thinking of their own glory. At the moment the Lord announces His going down to the lowest place in suffering service, the sons of Zebedee and their mother come to seek the highest place. They seek their own glory; He sought to do the Father’s will. He is the dependent man; He must suffer; He can share that with them, and in answer to the mother’s request for them, that they may sit, the one on His right hand, and the other on His left in His Kingdom. He replies, “Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? They say unto Him, We are able. And He saith unto them, Ye shall drink indeed of My cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with; but to sit on My right hand and on My left, is not Mine to give, but for whom it is prepared of My Father.” They can share His sufferings, the inward and the outward sufferings (except atonement; in this He is alone). The rewards He leaves to the Father to give as He had prepared in His sovereignty and purpose. He renounces all claim except to do the Father’s will, and those who serve Him must trust the Father for the recompense.
Matthew 20:24-28. When the ten heard it they were full of indignation. Were they better than the two? The Lord’s explanations show their need of rebuke also. “Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. 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 chief among you, let him be your servant (or slave). Even as the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life, a ransom for many.” In the world, authority was sought after; but the spirit of Christ sought to serve others. It led to the humblest place, and to seek the good of others. It was the grace that ever shone in bright perfection in the blessed Lord displayed before them – an example for them to depend on the grace of Him whom they served, to take the lowest place in service for others, after the pattern He had put before them.
“These are the principles of the heavenly kingdom: perfect self-renunciation, to be contented in thorough devotedness; this is the fruit of love that seeketh not her own – the yieldingness that flows from the absence of self-seeking; submission when despised; meekness and lowliness of heart. The spirit of service to others is that which love produces at the same time as the humility which is satisfied with this place. The Lord fulfilled this, even unto death, giving His life as a ransom for many.”
Matthew 20:29 begins the closing events of the Lord’s life on earth. It is His last presentation to Israel as the Son of David, the Lord, the true King of Israel, the Messiah. It began at Jericho, where Israel entered the land – the place where the curse so long rested. The two blind men who own Him as Lord, Son of David, have their eyes opened; these are His believing people, and they follow Him.
These picture the believing remnant of Israel, His people, who, in the future day, will wait for His appearing.