The disciples were sometimes very much surprised by what Jesus did and said, and one day His words made them “exceedingly amazed.” They had always thought it was easier for rich people to be saved than for poor people, and now Jesus was saying that it was easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.
You see, the disciples had forgotten that a poor man has only God to trust in, while a rich man has his riches as well, and so he very often trusts in riches and forgets God. It is a dreadful thing to trust in riches and forget God, and it is only God who can so change a rich man’s heart that he turns away from his riches to trust in God, but God can do it. When the disciples asked, “Who then can be saved?” Jesus answered, “With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.”
Peter did a bit of thinking just then. He remembered that he and the other apostles had given up everything that they might follow Jesus, and he said, “Behold, we have forsaken all, and followed Thee; what shall we have therefore?” Peter wanted to know what reward they would get: would it be treasure in heaven, or treasure on earth, or both?
Jesus answered him so graciously; He knew that Peter and the other fishermen had given up their fishing and left their little homes in Galilee, and that Matthew had left his money-bags and his tax-collecting; they had all given up something already, and they would be found willing to give up more, even to laying down their lives for His sake and the gospel’s. The reward He promised was great indeed; He promised them each a throne. Jesus said to them, “Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration, when the Son of Man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And every one that has forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name’s sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life.”
There were twelve apostles and there will be twelve thrones, but when Jesus said “everyone,” He reached down to you and me, and He promised that everyone who gives up anything for His name’s sake will be rewarded, will receive a hundred times as much now, and eternal life for his inheritance.
But though Jesus answered Peter so graciously, He gave him a warning, and the warning is for us too. He said, “But many that are first shall be last, and the last shall be first.” And then He told them about a man who owned a vineyard, and went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard; and when he had agreed to give them the usual wages, a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard. Three hours later he went out again and found other laborers standing idle in the market place, and he said to them, “Go ye also into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right I will give you.” He went out again later on, and again yet later, and each time he found more men to send into the vineyard. At last, when there was only one hour left before the time came for stopping work, he went out once more, and even then found men, who had been standing all the day idle because no one had given them work. And he said to them, as he had said to the others, “Go ye also into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right, that shall ye receive.”
And when evening was come the lord of the vineyard told his steward to call the laborers and give them their wages, beginning with those who had been hired last. You can think how delighted these were when they received every one a penny, wages for a whole day, when they had worked for only one hour, and you can imagine too how grateful they would be to such a good, kind master; they would feel like saying, “We will come tomorrow and work for you the whole day long for love.”
But when those who had been hired early in the morning came, they too received every man his penny, just as they had agreed upon; and then they began to grumble, because they had expected more. They forgot that the lord of the vineyard could do as he pleased with what belonged to him, and they did not like it that those who had worked but one hour should be made equal to themselves who had borne the burden and heat of the day — for that was how they looked at it. They had been first to serve, but they had counted service a burden, and because they were last to be rewarded they murmured, and showed that they were last in love.
The Lord Jesus did not want Peter to be like that, and He does not want us to be like it either. He wants us to serve Him wholeheartedly, not because of the reward He has promised, but because we love Him.