Thus He points out the utter moral incongruity of fasting at that moment, and intimates that it was not merely the fact that He was going to be rejected, but that to conciliate His teaching and His will with the old thing was hopeless. As it has been put, this parable states implicitly two great truths which are the very charter of the working man--the right of every man to work and the right of every man to a living wage for his work. Even at such a time that was not the end of his words, for he finished with the confident assertion of the Resurrection. Amen. He here is predicting the fact that He is going to be scourged. A ransom is something paid or given to liberate a man from a situation from which it is impossible for him to free himself. Your promises are thrilling. Successful service to God is the gift of His grace. 1. They did not know that Jesus could have made the same promise of suffering to come to any of them (if they really wanted it!). "Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof" He had only to say in a word, and his servant should be healed. to forget His ancient people. God could not be limited by a question of place; His word was enough. (See Mt 19:30; 22:14). "Upon this rock," says He, "I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." His wounds are those which he receives in the house of his friend. (Spurgeon). Set a timer for 20 minutes (no peeking) and start eating. And behold, two blind men sitting by the road, when they heard that Jesus was passing by, cried out, saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord, Son of David! Then the multitude warned them that they should be quiet; but they cried out all the more, saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord, Son of David!. To take on the position of the minister is to take on the position of the servant to the flock of God. A man may go idle to hell; but he that will go to heaven, must be busy. yea, they may forget, yet will not I forget thee. 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. Matthew 20:16-20 New International Version 16 "So the last will be first, and the first will be last." Jesus Predicts His Death a Third Time 17 Now Jesus was going up to Jerusalem. Secondly, In all the dispensations of his grace, God gives or withholds the means of grace, and the Spirit of grace, as he pleases. And he ordained twelve, that they should be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach." And they said unto him, We're able ( Matthew 20:22 ). "Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David!" On the other hand, by far the greater weight of tradition goes to show that John lived to a great old age in Ephesus and died a natural death when he must have been close on a hundred years old. He said, "Call those fellows to me." "In God's economy," as someone has said, "there is no such thing as a most favoured nation clause." Ransom was most commonly used as the purchase price for freeing slaves. (Carson) Lytron (ransom) and the preposition anti (for, literally instead of) point clearly to the idea of his taking our place. (France), ii. This tested their thoughts of the glory of Jesus. If there be a privilege more manifest than another which has dawned on us, it is what we have found by and in Jesus, that now we can say nothing is too great for us, nothing too little for God. Would you prayerfully consider a gift of support today? And who knows, but what they may have put her up to it, because when Jesus asked the question, they're ready to respond. Or is your eye evil because I am good?. As to any one else, even the most liberal gift that ever was given of God to fallen man on earth, to the golden head of the Gentiles, exempted the deep and its untamed inhabitants. The second lesson is even greater--all God gives is of grace. When those who had worked all day found that the landowner paid the same amount to the late-comers as he paid to them, they complained. It is not for such depending creatures as we are to quarrel with our Sovereign. Whereas, on the contrary, there are other kinds of order that call for more profound thought and enlarged views, if we may speak now after the manner of men; and, indeed, I deny not that these the Holy Ghost employed in His own wisdom, though it is hardly needful to say He could, if He pleased, demonstrate His superiority to any means or qualifications whatsoever. but it was far too much for the young man. This attitude threatened to be carried forward into the Christian Church. The violent man, Herod, guilty of innocent blood, then reigned in the land, in contrast with whom goes Jesus into the wilderness, showing who and what He was the Shepherd of Israel, ready and able to care for the people. This, I believe, is a great lesson, and too often forgotten. Isaiah prophesied the fact that He would be scourged, but in prophesying the fact, Isaiah tells us the reason. 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. When God settles all the accounts, then things are going to be valued by his standards and not the world's standards. The devil, by his temptations, is hiring labourers into his field, to feed swine. Matthew 13:19-22), we find first of all the utter worthlessness of the flesh's readiness to follow Jesus. He would send fit messengers, nor would the work be done till the rejected Messiah, the Son of man, came. Then, in Mark 3:1-35, there are notes of time more or less strong. He sets forth the sign of the prophet Jonah, the repentance of the men of Nineveh, the preaching of Jonah, and the earnest zeal of the queen of the South in Solomon's day, when an incomparably greater was there despised. Blessed Paul guarded against this, when, though the chief of the apostles, he owned himself to be nothing, to be less than the least of all saints. i. He answered one of them, 'Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Note, It is good for us often to consider what it was that we agreed with God for. get to know the Bible better! It ought to be so with every forgiven soul. 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 offence taken (Matthew 20:11; Matthew 20:12); They murmured at the good man of the house; not that there is, or can be, any discontent or murmuring in heaven, for that is both guilt and grief, and in heaven there is neither; but there may be, and often are, discontent and murmuring concerning heaven and heavenly things, while they are in prospect and promise in this world. The axiom of this verse and of chapter nineteen, verse 30, sets the tone for Jesus entire ministry and the church. "If you wish to be great," he says, "be a servant; if you wish to be first of all be a slave." Now according to the historians, this scourging was such an awful taxing thing upon the person that many people never made it to the cross. For many are called, but few chosen.". Reviewing, then, these closing incidents of the chapter (ver. The Lord, while thoroughly proving that He forgot nothing, owned everything that was of grace in Peter or the rest, while opening the same door to "every one" who forsakes nature for His name's sake, solemnly adds, "But many that are first shall be last; and the last shall be first." Not only shall the Judge of all the earth do right, but what will not He do who gives all good? Jesus of course was talking about His crucifixion and His death. The limit was reached by Peter the Lombard. Jesus was there to call, not righteous men, but sinners. In the eighth chapter of Matthew as it tells of them bringing all of their sick and those who were diseased to Jesus, and He healed them, every one, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet saying, "He in His own body bore our sufferings." Jesus came to give his life a ransom for many. They glorified God. It was precisely because He was Himself untouchable by sickness and infirmity, that He was free so to take up each consequence of sin thus. Help us purchase electrical generators for churches. The line from the . And the third day He will rise again: Jesus was remarkably specific in this announcement of His fate, and foretold many things over which He had no apparent control. The men who were standing in the market-place were not street-corner idlers, lazing away their time. The New King James Version (NKJV) organises this chapter as follows: . The men who stood in the market-place were waiting for work, and the fact that some of them stood on until even five o'clock in the evening is the proof of how desperately they wanted it. (Ken Chumbley, The Gospel of Matthew, commentary, p.#351). In Matthew 13:1-58 we have the well-known sketch of these new ways of God. They are the circumstances that preceded the discourse upon the mount, as given in Matthew 5:1-48; Matthew 6:1-34; Matthew 7:1-29. The last trumpet, at the great day, shall call the labourers,1 Thessalonians 4:16. The idea was you were to confess the crimes that you had committed against Rome, and as you confessed your crimes, the man who was administering that scourging would go easier and easier on you. "Lord," they said, "what we want is that our eyes should be opened." On the evening of the day when He delivered the seven parables given in Matthew 13:1-58. The Gospels 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. Note: MLA no longer requires the URL as part of their citation standard. A verification email has been sent to the address you provided. 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). At that time Jesus answered, "I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and revealed them unto babes. On the other hand, it is not too much to say, that the same Scriptures which convince one unbiassed mind that pays heed to these notes of time, will produce no less effect on others. The Gentile church, which was as yet unborn, the Gentile world, which as yet stood idle in the market-place, would produce greater numbers of eminent, useful Christians, than were found among the Jews. Here we see the worldly ambition of the disciples in action. So the last shall be first, and the first last As he had asserted in ( Matthew 19:30 ) and which is clearly illustrated by this parable, as it may be applied to Jews or Gentiles, or to nominal and real Christians: for many be called; externally, under the ministration of the Gospel, as the Jews in general were, by Christ and his apostles; but, few chosen; in Christ from all eternity, both to grace and glory; and in consequence, and as an evidence of it, but few among the Jews; as also in the Gentile world, comparatively speaking: and even but a few of those that are outwardly called, are inwardly and effectually called by the powerful grace of God, out of darkness into marvellous light, into the grace and liberty of the Gospel, into communion with Christ, and to the obtaining his kingdom and glory, according to the eternal purpose of God. I feel sure that no Christian harbours a doubt about it. But these men slept in Gethsemane, forsook the Master when He was arrested, and one of them at least failed Him at the crosswe can only follow Christ in his cup and baptism, after we have been endued with the Spirit of Pentecost. (Meyer). Jesus recognized that they didnt really understand, but they would. There is no greater mistake than to suppose, because there is the richest development of God's grace in new things, that He abandons or weakens natural relationships and authority in their place. Far different this was from the errand on which He was intent; but He was there for faith. Had there been a single thing good in Israel, their choicest guides would have stood that test. All men, no matter when they come, are equally precious to God.". This utter, growing rejection of Jesus was coming out now rejection, at first allowed and whispered in the heart, soon to be pronounced in words like drawn swords. "That by His stripes you may be healed." (ii) These two blind men were undiscourageable. In Mark 2:1-28 it says, "And again he entered into Capernaum." They did not see why the two brothers should steal a march on them, even if they were the cousins of Jesus. They may not be as long in the vineyard as others; their race may be sooner run; but I have chosen to honor them in this manner, and I have a right to do it. The prisoner would be tied to a post in such a way, as your back would be stretched. If you do, you have a different concept of God than I do. Let those who have so little experience of what man is, even in the regenerate, beware lest they impute to the Baptist such an acting of a part as shocks us, when Jerome imputed it to Peter and Paul in the censure of Galatians 2:1-21. It is an evil eye, which is displeased at the good of others, and desires their hurt. The giving of a whole day's wages to those that had not done the tenth part of a day's work, is designed to show that God distributes his rewards by grace and sovereignty, and not of debt. (Compare Mark 3:13-19, andMark 6:7-11; Mark 6:7-11; Luke 6:1-49; Luke 9:1-62) The mission of the apostles did not take place till afterwards. He maintains His sovereign title to do good, to do as He will with His own. But it would be unusual for a wealthy "landowner" to locate his own . The strange thing is that instinctively the world itself has accepted these standards. Wisdom Literature 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. Greatness does not consist in commanding others to do things for you; it consists in doing things for others; and the greater the service, the greater the honour. And, 2. In heaven, every vessel will be full, brimful, though every vessel is not alike large and capacious. They had their mistaken ambitions; they had their blindness; they had their wrong ideas; but he never dreamed of writing them off as bad debts. The Greek word is constantly so used as an expression of contempt, "This [fellow] doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils." By submitting your email address, you understand that you will receive email communications from Bible Gateway, a division of The Zondervan Corporation, 3900 Sparks Drive SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546 USA, including commercial communications and messages from partners of Bible Gateway. The promise of Matthew 19:28 forms the background to this request; the thrones are already assured, leaving only the question of precedence. (France). And, behold, there were two blind men who were sitting by the way side, and when they heard that Jesus was passing by, they cried out, saying, Have mercy upon us, O Lord, thou son of David. Then, after the parable of the mustard seed (ver. In truth, this was Emmanuel, God with us. I injure no one, and have a right to do what I will with my own." Very apt we all are to undervalue the deserts of others, and to overvalue our own. b. And, look you, two blind men were sitting by the roadside, and, when they heard that Jesus was passing by, they shouted out, "Lord, have pity on us, you Son of David!" Mary Magdalene is named in all the lists; Mary the mother of James and Joses must be the same person as Mary the wife of Clopas; therefore the third woman is described in three different ways. 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. 4. The Lord Jesus, even before He pronounced the sentence, for so it was, indicated what was at hand in these two instances of the Sabbath-day, though one may not now linger on them. (Matthew 20:29-31) Two blind men gain the attention of Jesus.

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