The last chapter closed with the important doctrine that in the kingdom the Lord will remember all suffering and service here for His name's sake. But it is evident that though this be an undoubted truth of Scripture, referred to in the Epistles of Paul, and elsewhere in the New Testament, it is one which the heart would be ready to abuse to self-righteousness; and that a person might soon forget that all is of grace, and might be disposed to make a claim upon God by reason of anything which He had enabled a soul to do. Hence a parable is added which brings in a totally different principle, where the prominent thought is the sovereignty of God, for the express purpose, I think, of guarding against such effects. For God is not unrighteous to forget our work and labor of love which we may have showed toward His name. But, then, there will be a danger in our remembering it. It does not follow because God will not forget what His people do for Him, that His people are to remember it themselves. We have but one thing to think of and set before our souls—Christ Himself: as the Apostle Paul said, “This one thing I do; forgetting those things that are behind, and reaching forth unto those things that are before:” not forgetting what we have done wrong, the very reverse of what will be even in glory. When there is not a vestige of humiliation more, we shall have a more lively sense than ever of our manifold failures; but not as producing one thought of doubt, or fear, or unhappiness. Such thoughts would be contrary to the presence of God. It is a good thing for the believer, holding fast his full blessing, to think of what he is—to humble himself day by day in the sight of God; always remembering that true humiliation is on the ground of our being children of God. If we take the place of being still in our sins, and needing to start afresh, as it were, over and over again, there never can be proper Christian experience or progress. There is a great difference between the humiliation of a sinner and that of a saint, who, while he has an evil nature, has also a new nature in Christ. Humility is always right; but when we draw near in worship to God, it is no proof of this humility to be speaking about ourselves as poor sinners. We come together to enjoy Christ, to set forth what God is; and after all, can there be a doubt that this, involving as it does the consciousness of our nothingness, really shows the deepest and most genuine humility. A person who had some office about the queen, and who had proper respect for her, would be thinking of her, not of himself. How much more when we are in the presence of God? This ought to fill our souls with joy in the worship of the Lord. What is comely for the saint, what is most acceptable to God, is not the constant bringing in ourselves in one way or another, right as this may be, in a certain sense, in our closet. But the praise of God for what He is, above all, in the knowledge of His Son and of His work, is the great end of all the dealings of God with His children.
This will be a test for the soul. Where there is a consciousness of habitual carelessness and lack of dependence, with their sad results, there will not be a preparedness of heart for worship. In such circumstances, the Spirit makes the conscience active, instead of drawing out the heart. What does not the Lord deserve from us? When we go to praise Him, breaking bread in His name, it is not because we can take comfort from anything but Himself: and this will not arrest, but strengthen, our self-judgment. What is the Word of God, and what the Holy Ghost, for? Is it not that we should be growing up into Christ in all things? The proper thought connected with the Lord's table is, I am going to meet with Christ, to praise Him, together with His saints: and this keeps a check upon our spirits, and brings before our souls what a thing it is to meet with Christ, and to be found in His presence. Worship is the soul finding itself in the presence of God, in the Spirit. By and by we shall have perfect worship in heaven. Now we have it only in part, even as we know but in part. But in principle the worship of the believer is a heavenly thing, even while accomplished on the earth, as we ourselves are said to be “heavenly” also. What we have to forget is not our shortcomings—to be indifferent or light about them; but “let a man discern or examine himself:” it is the inward discernment of the soul. And what then? “So let him eat.” That is, the Christian even, if conscious that he has forgotten the Lord during the week, is not to distrust Him. What is he to do? To go to the Lord's table as if it were no matter at all? That would be sin. Is he, then to stay away? Neither one nor the other. What, then, can he do? He is to judge himself, to confess his fault, to humble himself before God; and “so let him eat.” This is God's way. A person staying away does not mend matters. I am as good as saying, “I am not a Christian at all,” if I keep away from the Lord's table; or I have been behaving so badly, that others would consider me not a Christian if they knew it. Constantly bringing it before the soul is one of God's ways for preserving from sin. But let it be done in the spirit of self-judgment at home, so that we praise when we come together in the name of the Lord.
In order to keep up this sense of grace, the Spirit of God recurs in this chapter to the sovereignty of God; the counteractive to the self-righteousness that is to be found even in the heart of a disciple. Peter might say, “We have left all and followed thee,” and the Lord might assure him that it would not be forgotten; but He immediately adds the parable of the householder. Here you find not the principle of rewards, or God's righteous recognition of the service done by His people; but His own rights, His own sovereignty. Hence, there are no differences here—no one specially remembered because he had won souls to Christ, or left all for Christ. The principle is this, that while God will infallibly own every service and loss for the sake of Christ; yet does He maintain His own title to give as He will. There might be some poor soul brought to the knowledge of Christ at the day of his death. Now, God the Father claims His own title to give what He may please; he may have done no work, but God's title is reserved to give to those who have not wrought anything at all—as you may think—just what is good in His own eyes. This is a very different principle from what we had in the last chapter, and exceedingly counter to the mind of man. “The kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which went out early in the morning to hire laborers into his vineyard. And when he had agreed with the laborers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard.”
The common application of this parable to the salvation of the soul is a mistake. For this is that which Christ wrought for, suffered for, and lives for, independently of man. The poor sinner has just to give himself up to be saved by Christ. When brought to an end of itself, acknowledging that it deserves nothing but hell, how sweet that God brings before such a soul that Jesus Christ (and this is a faithful saying) came into the world to save sinners. When content to be saved as nothing but a sinner, and by nothing but Christ, there and then only is there rest given of Him. Wherever we have to contribute our part, it will be only uncertainty, and doubts, and difficulties; and there is where the salvation of God shines forth. Christ alone is salvation. The man that is saved contributes nothing but his sins. But God is delighted, and not the less because it is the fruit of His grace, to hear a poor sinner acknowledge that Jesus is worthy to bring him, freed from sin, to heaven. But in this parable the question is not this. There is nothing in it about believing in Christ or His work. It is positive work that is done. There you may think, surely the Lord will reward the work according to its kind and degree. This we have seen: but there is another principle not always understood—God reserves in His own hand the right to do as He pleases, and He never makes a mistake. It may seem hard that a man should be toiling for fifty years, and that another, brought in just at the close of his life, should be honored in heaven as much as himself. But God is the only righteous, the only wise judge of what is for His own glory. If He please, He will put all upon an equal footing. He will reward the work that is done, but He will give as He will.
“When he had agreed with the laborers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And he went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle in the market-place; and said unto them, Go ye also into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right I will give you. And they went their way.” It is not grace in the sense of salvation here. “Whatsoever is right I will give you.” It is God that judges what is becoming. “Again he went out about the sixth and ninth hour, and did likewise.” And, singular to say, “About the eleventh hour he went out.” What a heart this tells? What infinite goodness! That God, who recognizes every service and suffering done for Himself, yet keeps intact the prerogative of going out at the last moment to bring in souls, and occupy them with what might seem to be a little service! But He can give grace to do that little well. “About the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing idle, and saith unto them, Why stand ye here all the day idle? They say unto him, Because no man hath hired us. He saith unto them, Go ye also into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right, that shall ye receive. So when even was come, the lord of the vineyard saith unto his steward, Call the laborers, and give them their hire, beginning from the last unto the first.” “Beginning from the last” in the perfect wisdom of God. And why is it that “the last” are made so much of in this parable? What makes it the more striking is, that in the close of the preceding chapter it was not so. There, “Many that are first shall be last, and the last shall be first.” But here the last are always spoken of first. So the steward is told to begin from the last unto the first. And again, when the master of the vineyard has to speak himself, it is the same thing: “the last shall be first, and the first last.” It is the sovereignty of grace in giving as He pleases; not alone in saving, but in rewarding in the time of glory—for this is what is spoken of. Of course the last received their wages thankfully. But when the first heard about it, they begin to think themselves entitled to more—they who had borne the burden and heat of the day. But the master reminds them that all was a settled thing before they entered upon their work. In their selfishness, they forgot both the terms and the righteousness of him with whom they had to deal. If, out of the liberality of his heart, the householder was pleased to give others, who had worked the twelfth part of what they had done, as much as he gave themselves, what was that to them This was his affair entirely. God maintains His own rights. And it is of the greatest importance for our souls that we hold to the rights of God in everything. Persons will argue as to whether it is righteous for God to elect this person or that. But if you go upon the ground of righteousness, all are lost, and lost forever. Now, if God is pleased to use His mercy according to His wisdom, and for His glory, among these poor lost ones, who is to dispute with Him? “Who art thou, O man, that repliest against God?” God is entitled to act according to what is in His heart: and “shall not the judge of all the earth do right?” Is He entitled to act from Himself? He cannot act from man on the grounds of righteousness. There is no foundation on which He can thus deal; and it is entirely a question of His own good pleasure. And we must remember that there is not a man that is lost but rejects the mercy of God, despises it, or uses it for his own selfish purposes in this world. The man that is saved is the only one that has a true sense of sin, the only one that gives himself up as lost really unto God; but then he falls back upon His infinite mercy in Christ to save a poor sinner.
In the case we have here, when the first came and complained to the good man of the house, he answered them, “Friend, I do thee no wrong. Didst not thou agree with me for a penny? Take that thine is, and go thy way; I will give unto this last even as unto thee. Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good?” There comes out the whole secret. Man, yea, a professing disciple of the Lord, a laborer in His vineyard, may be disputing because he is to have no more than another who, in his opinion, has done little as compared with himself. It was the same principle that made the Judaizers so jealous about the Gentiles being brought in. So says the Lord, “The last shall be first, and the first last.” I would just ask, Why in the last chapter is it, “Many that are first shall be last, and the last first,” and here, “The last shall be first, and the first last?” In speaking about rewards, according to the work done, the failure of man is intimated; for indeed weakness soon shows itself. “The first shall be last.” But in this new parable is the sovereignty of God that never fails. Consequently here, “The first shall be last, and the last first.” “Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present evil world.” There was a first, we may say, who became last—a laborer for the Lord, who had not given up Christianity, but grown tired of the path of unremitting service for Christ. If instead of honor now, the thousands of those who are engaged in the service of Christ were to receive only scorn and persecution, there would be no slight thinning of their ranks. The present return should be shame and suffering. This must be looked for by him who intelligently seeks to serve faithfully the Lord in this world.
Demas may have been a believer; but the trial and reproach, the love of ease and other things all came strongly over his spirit, and he abandoned the service of the Lord. “All seek their own, not the things that are Jesus Christ's:” there is a similar principle.
We have our Lord next shown going up to Jerusalem; and now he prepares them for still greater trouble. “Behold, we go up to Jerusalem: and the Son of man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and the scribes; and they shall condemn him to death, and shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify him: and the third day he shall rise again.” And yet even after this, so selfish is the heart of man, the mother of Zebedee's children comes to Him with her sons, who were among the apostles themselves. She comes worshipping Him and desiring a certain thing of Him. “And he said unto her, What wilt thou? She saith unto him, Grant that these my two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand and the other on the left, in thy kingdom.” Now comes out another principle; for, indeed, so perfect is the humiliation of Christ—such the self-abandonment of the only One who had a perfect knowledge of all things and a right to everything by His personal glory, that He says, I have no place to give you in my kingdom. It is not mine to give, save as my Father may desire. But I have something to give you now: and what is it? Suffering. Yes, suffering is what Christ gives His servants now, and this as the highest privilege. When the Apostle Paul was converted, he asks at once, “What wilt thou have me to do?” The Lord tells him what great things he should suffer for His name's sake. Suffering all is better than doing anything. It is the best portion a saint can have in this world. The highest honor we can have here is suffering with and for Christ. This our Lord lets the mother of Zebedee's children know, when she asks for a place for her sons on His right hand and on His left in His kingdom. “Jesus answered and said, 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.” He took in two different kinds of suffering: the cup, which is inward suffering; and the baptism, which expresses what we are immersed into outwardly. The two include every kind of trial, inward and outward. He is not here speaking about the cross in atonement, for there can be no fellowship in this. But there might be the cross in rejection, though not as atonement. There may be the sharing of what Christ suffered from man, but not of what He suffered from God. When He was suffering for sin on the cross, He drops relationship, and bows in infinite grace to the place of judgment. He is made sin. He realizes what it is to be forsaken of God, making Himself responsible for the sins of men. He says therefore in that terrible moment on the cross, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” With this we have nothing to do—no rejection because of sin. God forsook Jesus that He might not forsake us. There never can be God forsaking a Christian, or even hiding Himself from him. There is no such thing in Scripture since the death of Christ as God hiding himself from a believer. We have not a promise merely, but the accomplishment of it. The first principle of the gospel is perfect forgiveness and reconciliation. We are brought nigh unto God through the blood of Christ and forgiven all trespasses.
The Lord, then, says that they knew not what they were asking; and asks if they were able to drink of the cup that He should drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that He was baptized with. They say unto Him, We are able. They did not know what they said, any more than what they asked. For after this, when our Lord was only in danger of death, we find that they all forsook Him and fled. And one of these two sons of Zebedee, if he did venture into the hall of judgment, it was merely, as it were, under the high priest's robe, that is, on the plea of being known to him. When Peter followed on his own ground, it was only to show his utter weakness. In presence of such a cup as this, and such a baptism, the Lord says, “Ye shall indeed drink of my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with;” not, Ye are able: “but to sit on my right hand and on my left is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father.” I would just remark that the words which are put in in italics mar the sense very much, being inserted without warrant. Leave them out and the sense is better. It was His to give to those only to whom the Father destined it. Christ is the administrator of the rewards of the kingdom. He says, As I am now the servant in suffering, so I shall be in the glory. In everything, Christ is the One who will turn all things to the glory of God. Every knee shall bow to His name, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord; but then it will all be to the glory of God the Father. “And when the ten heard it, they were moved with indignation against the two brethren.” A good deal of our indignation is no better than theirs. Their own pride was wounded. No doubt it seemed a very right thing to put down these two brethren who were so full of themselves. But why were they thus indignant? Because they too were full of themselves. Christ was not filled with indignation. It was a sorrow to Him: but they were moved with hot feeling against the two brethren. We have to take care. Often where we seek to pull down those that seek to exalt themselves, there is self on our part too. Supposing, too, we take one who has fallen into sin, you will see a good deal of strong feeling about it: but is this the best way of showing our sense of sin? Those who feel most for God have always the deepest feeling for poor sinners, and for saints who have slipped away from God. “If a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual restore such an one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.”
“But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them; and they that are great exercise authority upon them.” He put His finger upon that very love of greatness in themselves. They were loud in condemning it in James and John; but the feeling with which it was condemned, betrayed that they had the same thought in their own hearts. He says, “It shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant.” There is a difference between the two words. The word translated “minister” means a servant, but not necessarily a slave, though a person who might be hired. But in verse 27 it is a bondman or slave. Do you want to be really great according to the principles of my kingdom? Go down as low as you can. Do you want to be greatest? Go down the lowest of all. Whoever has least of self is greatest in the kingdom of Christ. For “the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.” He took the lowest place of all, and gave His life a ransom for many. Blessed forever be His name!
The last verses properly belong to the next chapter, which is the approach of our Lord to Jerusalem from the way of Jericho. And it is necessary to take the two chapters together, to have the proper connection of all that the Holy Ghost has given us here. But I cannot close even this part of the subject without recalling attention to the principles of the kingdom of God as shown us by Christ Himself. And what a wonderful call it is for self-renouncing service! What a joy to think that everything that now is a trial, will be found as a joy in that kingdom! There are those who may think that they are favored with few opportunities for serving the Lord—who are shut out from what their hearts would desire. Let us remember that He who knows everything reserves His right to give as He will to His own and of His own. He will do the very best according to His heart. Our one business now is to think of Him who came, not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many. That is our prime call and need—to be Christ's servants, in serving each other.