Matthew 20
“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard. About nine in the morning he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ So they went. He went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing. About five in the afternoon he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’ ‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered. He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.’ When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’ The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. ‘These who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’ “But he answered one of them, ‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’ So the last will be first, and the first will be last.” Matthew 20:1-16 NIV
This parable is about how we attain salvation: through God’s grace and generosity. In this parable, God is the landowner and followers of Jesus are the workers. This parable shows that it does not matter whether you believe in Jesus and work for Him your entire life, or whether you accept Him as Lord and Savior when you are on your deathbed. The critical thing is that you do, in fact, accept Him and believe that He is the Son of God who died for us in order to have our sins forgiven, and then decide to obey His commands. That’s it. That is all it takes. The criminal who repented on the cross as he was being crucified alongside Jesus (Luke 23:40-43) was saved, right along with people who believed and served God for many years. Salvation is by God’s grace alone, and it is not based on our works. None of us deserve eternal life, it is a free gift from God for those who believe: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). We need to remember to be thankful each and every day for this indescribably wonderful gift! We should also be careful not to compare ourselves with others, or to judge them according to whether we feel they are worthy of salvation. God is the ultimate judge and only He can decide who receives this gift that is solely His to give.
Then the mother of Zebedee’s sons came to Jesus with her sons and, kneeling down, asked a favor of Him. “What is it you want?” He asked. She said, “Grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other at your left in your kingdom.” “You don’t know what you are asking,” Jesus said to them. “Can you drink the cup I am going to drink?” “We can,” they answered. Jesus said to them, “You will indeed drink from My cup, but to sit at My right or left is not for Me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared by My Father.” Matthew 20:20-23 NIV
We are sometimes like the mother of James and John, coming to Jesus with a request that is selfish. We need to be careful of our motives, and we should always pray “Your will be done” (Matthew 6:10). God’s will is perfect and His plan is perfect, so why would we want anything other than His plan? Oftentimes His plan is hard to follow, it doesn’t coincide with what we want to do, or it seems to take too long to see results. During these times, remember that there may be sacrifices when we follow God’s will, but in the end His perfect plan is the one that will bring us the most peace and joy. If we are asking for something that is not in God’s will, we will know it soon enough. Perhaps the prayer will not be answered, and if we try to do something about it on our own, we will encounter obstacles at every step. It is not wrong to ask for miracles that seem impossible. God encourages us to have this kind of faith and to pray these types of prayers. We should have faith that what we are asking, no matter how great, can be done. But we should also try to understand that when the answer to a prayer is “no,” God always has a reason for it. We must trust Him with our whole heart, we must realize that ultimately He is in control, and we must accept that His plan for us is the right one: “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9).