XX. (1) FOR THE KINGDOM. — The division of the chapter is here singularly unfortunate, as separating the parable both from the events which gave occasion to it and from the teaching which it illustrates. It is not too much to say that we can scarcely understand it at all unless we connect it with t... [ Continue Reading ]
A PENNY A DAY. — Measured by its weight, the “penny — _i.e.,_ the Roman _denarius,_ then the common standard of value in Palestine — was, as nearly as possible, sevenpence-halfpenny of our coinage. Its real equivalent, however, is to be found in its purchasing power, and, as the average price of the... [ Continue Reading ]
ABOUT THE THIRD HOUR. — Reckoning the day after the Jewish mode, as beginning at 6 A.M., this would bring us to 8 A.M. The “market-place” of a town was the natural place in which the seekers for casual labour were to be found waiting for employment. In the meaning which underlies the parable we may... [ Continue Reading ]
WHATSOEVER IS RIGHT. — The absence of a definite contract in hiring the labourers who did less than the day’s work obviously involved an implicit trust in the equity of the householder. They did not stipulate for wages, or ask, as the disciples had asked, “What shall we have therefore?” The implied... [ Continue Reading ]
ABOUT THE ELEVENTH HOUR. — The working day, which did not commonly extend beyond twelve hours (John 11:9), was all but over, and yet there was still work to be done in the vineyard, all the more urgent because of the lateness of the hour. The labourers who had been first hired were not enough. Is th... [ Continue Reading ]
BECAUSE NO MAN HATH HIRED us. — This, again, is one of the salient points of the parable. The last called labourers had not rejected any previous summons, and when called they obeyed with alacrity. They, too, came in full unquestioning faith.... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEN EVEN WAS COME. — It was one of the humane rules of the Mosaic law that the day-labourer was to be paid by the day, and not made to wait for his wages (Deuteronomy 24:15). This law the householder keeps, and his doing so is a feature in his character. BEGINNING FROM THE LAST UNTO THE FIRST. — T... [ Continue Reading ]
EVERY MAN A PENNY. — The scale of payment rested on the law of a generous equity. The idleness of the labourers had been no fault of theirs, and the readiness with which they came at the eleventh hour implied that they would have come as readily had they been called at daybreak, and therefore they r... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT WHEN THE FIRST CAME, THEY SUPPOSED THAT THEY SHOULD HAVE RECEIVED MORE. — Up to this time we may think of the disciples as having listened with an eager interest, yet only half-perceiving, if at all, the drift of the parable, looking, it may be, for some payment to the first-called labourers pro... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY MURMURED — _i.e.,_ as the Greek tense shows, with repeated and prolonged murmurs. THE GOODMAN OF THE HOUSE. — Better, _householder._ The Greek word is the same as in Matthew 20:1, and the archaic English phrase is a needless variation.... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT ONE HOUR. — Literally, in what was probably the technical language of labourers, _made but one hour:_ THE BURDEN AND HEAT OF THE DAY. — The word rendered “heat” is elsewhere used — as in James 1:11, and the LXX. of Jonah 4:8 — for the “burning wind” that often follows on the sunrise, and makes... [ Continue Reading ]
FRIEND. — The word so translated (literally, _comrade, companion_) always carries, with it in our Lord’s lips a tone of reproof. It is addressed to the man who had not on a wedding garment (Matthew 22:12), and to the traitor Judas (Matthew 26:50). I DO THEE NO WRONG. — The answer of the house holder... [ Continue Reading ]
TAKE THAT THINE IS, AND GO THY WAY. — The tone of dismissal is natural and intelligible in the parable. The question, What answers to it in God’s dealings with men? is not so easy to answer. If the “penny” which each received was the gift of eternal life, did those who answered to the murmuring labo... [ Continue Reading ]
IS IT NOT LAWFUL...? — The question is not that of one who asserts an arbitrary right; it appeals tacitly to a standard which none could question. As far as the labourer was concerned, the householder had a right to give freely of what was his own. He was responsible to God only. In the interpretati... [ Continue Reading ]
SO THE LAST SHALL BE FIRST. — This, then, is the great lesson of the parable, and it answers at once the question whether we are to see in it the doctrine of an absolute equality in the blessedness of the life to come. There also there will be some first, some last, but the difference of degree will... [ Continue Reading ]
AND JESUS GOING UP TO JERUSALEM. — The narrative is not continuous, and in the interval between Matthew 20:16 we may probably place our Lord’s “abode beyond Jordan” (John 10:40), the raising of Lazarus, and the short sojourn in the city called Ephraim (John 11:54). This would seem to have been follo... [ Continue Reading ]
BEHOLD, WE GO UP TO JERUSALEM. — The words repeat in substance what had been previously stated after the Transfiguration (Matthew 17:22), but with greater definiteness. Jerusalem is to be the scene of His suffering, and their present journey is to end in it, and “the chief priests and scribes” are t... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE THIRD DAY HE SHALL RISE AGAIN. — This, as before, came as a sequel of the prediction that seemed so terrible. The Master looked beyond the suffering to the victory over death, but the disciples could not enter into the meaning of the words that spoke of it. St. Luke, indeed (as if he had gat... [ Continue Reading ]
THEN CAME TO HIM THE MOTHER OF ZEBEDEE’S CHILDREN. — The state of feeling described in the previous Note supplies the only explanation of a request so strange. The mother of James and John (we find on comparing Matthew 27:56 and Mark 15:40, that her name was Salome) was among those who “thought that... [ Continue Reading ]
THE ONE ON THY RIGHT HAND. — The favour which had already been bestowed might, in some degree, seem to warrant the petition. John was known emphatically as “the disciple whom Jesus loved” (John 13:23; John 19:26; John 20:2), and if we may infer a general practice from that of the Last Supper (John 1... [ Continue Reading ]
YE KNOW NOT WHAT YE ASK. — The words come to us as spoken in a tone of infinite tenderness and sadness. That nearness to Him in His glory could be obtained only by an equal nearness in suffering. Had they counted the cost of that nearness? TO DRINK OF THE CUP THAT I SHALL DRINK OF. — The words that... [ Continue Reading ]
IS NOT MINE TO GIVE. — The words in italics are, of course, not in the Greek, and they spoil the true construction of the sentence. Our Lord does not say that it does not belong to Him to give what the disciples asked, but that He could only give it according to His Father’s will and the laws which... [ Continue Reading ]
AGAINST THE TWO BRETHREN. — Literally, _concerning,_ or _about._ The context shows that it was not a righteous indignation, as against that which was unworthy of true followers of Jesus, but rather the jealousy of rivals, angry that the two brothers should have taken what seemed an unfair advantage... [ Continue Reading ]
YE KNOW THAT THE PRINCES OF THE GENTILES. — No words of reproof could more strongly point the contrast between the true and the false views of the Messiah’s kingdom. The popular Jewish expectations, shared by the disciples, were really heathen in their character, substituting might for right, and am... [ Continue Reading ]
WHOSOEVER WILL BE GREAT. — Better, _whosoever wisheth to be great._ The man who was conscious, as the disciples were, of the promptings of ambition was at once to satisfy and purify them by finding his greatness in active service; not because that service leads to greatness of the type which natural... [ Continue Reading ]
WHOSOEVER WILL BE CHIEF. — Better, _first,_ as continuing the thought of Matthew 20:16. The “servant” (better, _slave_) implies a lower and more menial service than that of the “minister” of the preceding verse, just as the “chief” or “first” involves a higher position than the “greatness” there spo... [ Continue Reading ]
NOT TO BE MINISTERED UNTO. — The words found a symbolic illustration when our Lord, a few days afterwards, washed the feet of the disciples who were still contending about their claims to greatness (John 13:3); and the manner in which St. John connects the act with our Lord’s manifested consciousnes... [ Continue Reading ]
AS THEY DEPARTED FROM JERICHO. — Looking back to Matthew 19:1, which speaks of our Lord having departed “beyond Jordan,” we may believe that He crossed the river with His disciples at the ford near Jericho (Joshua 2:7). On this assumption, the imagery of Matthew 20:22 may have been in part suggested... [ Continue Reading ]
BEHOLD, TWO BLIND MEN SITTING. — Two difficulties present themselves on comparing this narrative with the accounts of the same or a similar event in St. Mark and St. Luke. (1.) The former agrees with St. Matthew as to time and place, but speaks of _one_ blind man only, and gives his name as “Bartims... [ Continue Reading ]
THE MULTITUDE REBUKED THEM. — The silence of our Lord, the hushed reverence of the multitude, led men to look on the eager, clamorous supplication as intrusive. The entry of the Prophet about to claim His kingdom was not to be thus disturbed. But they were not to be silenced, and the litanies of Chr... [ Continue Reading ]
JESUS STOOD STILL, AND CALLED THEM. — Or, as in St. Mark, _“_bade them be called,” the message being given specially to Bartimæus. St. Mark gives, with a graphic fulness, the very words of the message, “Be of good cheer, arise; He calleth thee,” and adds that the blind man flung off his outer cloak,... [ Continue Reading ]
LORD. — St. Mark (Mark 10:51, in the Greek), after his manner, gives the Hebrew word, Rabboni (comp. John 20:16), which Bartimæus actually uttered.... [ Continue Reading ]
SO JESUS HAD COMPASSION. — Literally, _and Jesus._ It was not His purpose to meet the popular demand for signs and wonders, but compassion drew from Him the work of power which otherwise He would have shrunk from here. And then the two followed Him, glorifying God. In St. Luke’s narrative the incide... [ Continue Reading ]