The Way - Day 252 (Matthew 20)

Pastor Tom's Journal on Today's Reading:
Matthew 20:1-16
This parable is one of my favorites in the gospels. Jesus tells the parable of the laborers to His disciples and compares this to what the kingdom of heaven will be like. The story He tells is of a landowner who hires laborers to work in his vineyard (20:2). Let's get some background...people without work would go and stand in the marketplace throughout the day waiting for someone to hire them. The landowners would show up at the marketplace and hire people based on the amount of help needed to accomplish the work in their field. Typically, the work day started at 6:00am and ended at 6:00pm so the landowner as well as the laborers showed up early to hire workers. So with that in mind, this particular landowner goes to the marketplace and agrees with several laborers to pay them a denarius a day, which was typical daily wage. Realizing that he needed more help, the landowner returned to the marketplace at 9:00am and hired more laborers (20:3-4). The landowner again realized he needed more help so he returned to the marketplace at 12:00pm, 3:00pm, and 5:00pm (20:5-7). The evening came and the landowner told the steward of the vineyard to call all the laborers together to give them their wages (20:8). Beginning with the people who were hired last, the steward gave them a denarius which was the same pay received by those who worked all day (20:8-10). Everyone who worked that day, regardless of how long they had worked, received the same wage. Those who had worked all day were upset that they had not received more, but the landowner declares that he is good and gracious, even to those who had only worked a shorter amount of time (20:11-15). Here is the picture Jesus is trying to paint. The landowner is God the Father and the steward of the vineyard is Jesus Christ. The laborers are those who have chosen to follow Jesus Christ and carry out His work and ministry; therefore, the meaning is that those who began following Jesus Christ later in their life will receive the same reward in the kingdom of God as those who have followed Him their whole life. God is good and gracious desiring everyone to receive the blessings extended to them in spite of how long they have served Him.

Matthew 20:17-28
Again, Jesus gives insight into His future death, burial, and resurrection (20:17-19). After this, the mother of James and John came to Jesus to ask if her sons could sit on His right and left hand in the kingdom (20:20-21). Jesus responds by telling her that she doesn't know what she is asking for and that suffering is necessary for positions of prominence. Jesus wanted her to understand that the path He was on was one marked with suffering and pain (20:22). James and John declare that they are ready to suffer for His sake; however, Jesus tells them that positions in the kingdom are not for Him to give but only the Father's (20:23). When the other disciples caught wind of James and John's request (also their mother's), they were upset (20:24). Jesus calls all of His disciples to Himself and begins to teach them about true greatness. The Gentile leaders of that day used their power and influence to be great, but Jesus' pictured a different kind of greatness. "Whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant and whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave." Jesus shatters their idea about being great! Then, He challenges them to follow His example - He did not come to earth in order for people to serve Him, but to serve others and ultimately give His life to pay for the sins of mankind (20:26-28). What was Jesus trying to teach? it is very simple to understand, but hard to practice - greatness is found in serving others. As Jesus gave up His life to serve and save mankind, we also should spend our life investing in the lives of others.

Matthew 20:29-34
As Jesus and His disciples are leaving Jericho, a great number of people follow Him and on the road they encounter two blind men. Matthew is the only gospel writer who mentions that there were two men while the other writers only focus on the one named Bartimeaeus because he may have been the louder of the two. Although they cannot see what is happening, they detect that there is something big taking place. They enquire of others as to what is going on and find out that Jesus is nearby (Luke 18:36). Recognizing this as their only chance for healing, they cry out "have mercy on us, O Lord, Son of David!" The way they addressed Jesus proves that they knew Jesus was God and therefore had the ability to heal them. This term Son of David was a messianic title and pointed back to when God promised David that through his line would come the one who would establish an everlasting kingdom (2 Samuel 7:12-16). This, of course, was a reference to Jesus Christ. Although these blind men could not see, they knew this person who was healing the sick was the Anointed One. Verse 31 reveals that the multitude of people got involved with this incident and demanded that the blind men keep quiet. The people viewed them as a nuisance instead of helping them encounter Jesus Christ. The crowd's warnings fell on deaf ears because the blind men cried out even more for Jesus to have mercy on them. Jesus stands still and calls the men to Himself asking what they want Him to do (20:32). The men respond by asking Jesus to restore their sight (20:33). Jesus has compassion on the men, touches their eyes, and they receive their sight (20:34). This is a wonderful picture of humility and desperation and we have so much to learn from these blind men. First, these men knew Jesus was their only chance to be made whole. We must daily view Jesus as the only One who can deliver us from spiritual blindness and we must desperately rely on Him for guidance. Secondly, the blind men forgot about the people around them. If the would have allowed the crowd to discourage them, they would have never met with Jesus. We have a tendency to listen to the crowd instead of focusing on the One who can heal our brokenness. Like the blind men, we must see the need to humble ourselves before God and rely on Him for everything we need.

Dear God, keep me humble before You and may I recognize You as my only hope.