Again someone approached Jesus with a question that provided an opportunity for Jesus to give His disciples important teaching (cf. v.3).
19:16-17 A rich young man asked Jesus what he needed to do to obtain eternal life.730The text presents him as a rather typical obsessive compulsive personality who probably never knew when to stop working.
The term "eternal life"occurs here for the first time in Matthew's Gospel (cf. Dan. 12:2, LXX). However the concept of eternal life occurs in 7:14. Eternal life is life that continues forever in God's presence as opposed to eternal damnation apart from God's presence (7:13; cf. 25:46).
The young man's idea of how one obtains eternal life was far from what Jesus had been preaching and even recently illustrating (vv. 13-15). He demonstrated the antithesis of childlike faith and humility. He thought one had to perform some particular act of righteousness in addition to keeping the Mosaic Law (v. 20). He wanted Jesus to tell him what that act was. He was a performance oriented person.
Jesus' question in verse 17 did not imply that He was unable to answer the young man's question or that He was not good enough to give an answer.731It implied that His questioner had an improper understanding of goodness. Jesus went on to explain that only God is good enough to obtain eternal life by performing some good deed. No one else is good enough to gain it that way. Jesus did not discuss His own relationship to God here. However, Jesus implied that He was God The young man had asked Jesus questions about goodness that only God could adequately answer.
The last part of verse 17 does not mean that Jesus believed a person can earn eternal life by obeying God's commandments. Obedience to God's commandments is a good preparation for entering into life. However obedience alone will not do.
19:18-20 The rabbis had added so many commands to those in the Mosaic Law that the young man did not know which commandments Jesus meant. Jesus listed the sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, and fifth commandments, in that order, plus part of "the greatest commandment"(Lev. 19:18). The fact that the young man claimed to have kept all of them reveals the superficiality of his understanding of God's demands (cf. 5:20; Phil. 3:6). Moreover having lived an upright life he still had no assurance that he possessed eternal life. This is always the case when a person seeks to earn eternal life by his or her goodness. One can never be sure he or she has done enough. This young man may have been rich materially, but he was lacking what was more important, namely the assurance of his salvation.
19:21-22 By referring to being "complete"Jesus was referring to the young man's statement that he felt incomplete (v. 20; cf. v. 16), that he needed to do something more to assure his eternal life. Jesus did not mean that the young man had eternal life and just needed to do a little more, to put the icing on the cake (cf. 23:8-12). Earlier Jesus had told his disciples that perfection, the same Greek word translated "complete"here, came from following Him (5:48). He repeated the same thing here.
What this young man needed to do was to become a disciple of Jesus, to start following Him and learning from Him. God's will did not just involve keeping commandments. It also involved following Jesus. If he did that, he would learn how a person obtains eternal life, not by good deeds but by faith in Jesus. To follow Jesus this rich young man would need to sell his possessions. He could not accompany Jesus as he needed to without disposing of these things that would have distracted him (cf. 8:19-22). Such a material sacrifice to follow Jesus would gain a reward eventually (cf. v.29). Jesus was assuming the young man would become a believer after he became a disciple.
"So attached was he to his great wealth that he was unwilling to part with it. Such is the insidiousness of riches that, as Bengel notes, If the Lord had said, Thou art rich, and art too fond of thy riches, the young man would have denied it.' He had to be confronted with all the force of a radical alternative."732
The young man was not willing to part with his possessions to follow Jesus. He was willing to keep the whole Mosaic Law and even to do additional good works, but submitting to Jesus was something else. Jesus had put His finger on the crucial decision this young man had to make when He told him to dispose of his possessions. Would he value his possessions or following Jesus to learn more about eternal life more highly? His decision revealed his values (cf. 6:24).
"His real problem was lack of faith in Christ, whom he considered a good Teacher but who apparently was not to be regarded as one who had the right to demand that he give up all in order to follow Him."733
This passage does not teach that salvation is by works. Jesus did not tell the young man that he would obtain eternal life by doing some good thing, but neither did He rebuke him for the good things that he had done. He made it very clear that what he needed to do was to follow Jesus so he could come to faith in Jesus.
This passage does not teach that a person must surrender all to Jesus before he can obtain eternal life either. Jesus never made this a condition for salvation. He made giving away possessions here a condition for discipleship, not salvation. We have seen a consistent order in Matthew's Gospel that holds true in all the Gospels. First, Jesus called a person to follow Him, that is, to begin learning from Him as a disciple. Second, He called His disciples to believe on Him as the God-man. Third, He called His believing disciples to continue following Him and believing on Him because He had an important job for them to do.
19:23-24 "Truly I say to you"or "I tell you the truth"introduces another very important statement (cf. 5:18; et al.). Jesus evidently referred to a literal camel and a literal sewing needle (Gr. rhaphidos) here. His statement appears to have been a common proverbial expression for something impossible. I have not been able to find any basis for the view that "the eye of the needle"was a small gate. Jesus presented an impossible situation.
"We should recognize that by the standards of first-century Palestine, most upper-middle-class Westerners and those on the Pacific rim would be considered wealthy. For all such persons the questions of wealth, discipleship, and the poor cannot be side-stepped if following Christ and his teaching means anything at all."734
Probably Jesus referred to the kingdom of God in verse 24 for the sake of variety since He had just spoken of the kingdom of heaven in verse 23. Also by using God's name He stressed God's personal authority. While some interpreters take these as two different kingdoms, usage argues for their being synonymous.735
19:25-26 The disciples' amazement was due to the Jewish belief that wealth signified God's favor. "Saved"is a synonym for entering the kingdom (v. 24) or obtaining eternal life (v. 16, cf. Mark 9:43-47). The antecedent of "this"in verse 26 is salvation (v. 25). In other words, man cannot save himself (cf. v. 21). Nevertheless God can save him, and He can do anything else. Jesus characteristically pointed the disciples away from man's work to God's work.
19:27-28 Jesus' statement encouraged Peter to ask a question. It may have occurred to him when Jesus told the rich young man that if he followed Him he would receive treasure in heaven (v. 21). He asked Jesus what those who had made this sacrifice could expect to receive.
Jesus assured the disciples very definitely--"Truly I say to you"--that God would reward them for leaving what they had left and following Him (v. 28). The "regeneration"or "renewal"(Gr. palingenesia) refers to the establishment of the messianic kingdom (Isa. 2:2-4; 4:2-6; 11:1-11; 32:16-18; 35:1-2; 65:17; 66:22; cf. Acts 3:21; Rom. 8:18-23). Then the Son of Man will sit on His glorious throne (lit. throne of glory, cf. 25:31; Dan. 7:13-14). This is a very clear messianic claim. Jesus equated Himself with the Son of Man (Dan. 7:13). Moreover the 12 disciples will then sit on 12 thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel (cf. Isa. 1:26; Dan. 7:22).
"In the O.T. krinein[to judge] often means govern' (e.g. Ps. ix. 4, 8)."736
Since there were 12 chief disciples or apostles (10:2-4), it seems clear that Jesus had these individuals in mind. "Israel"always means Israel, the physical descendants of Jacob (Israel), whenever this term appears in the New Testament. The reward of these disciples for forsaking all and following Jesus would be sharing judgment and rule with the great Judge, Jesus, in His kingdom (Ps. 2). This judgment will take place and this rule will begin on earth when Jesus returns at the Second Coming (25:31-46).
"This is clearly a picture of the millennial earth, not heaven. Late in Christ's ministry, He supports the concept that the kingdom, while postponed as far as human expectation is concerned, is nevertheless certain of fulfillment following His second coming."737
How much the rich young man gave up to retain his "much property"(cf. vv. 21-22)!
"The Lord thus confirms the promise He had already given to Peter (Matthew 16:19) and enlarges it to include all of the apostles. They are to be rulers over Israel in the kingdom."738
There is a vast difference between earning salvation with works and receiving a reward for works. Salvation is always apart from human works, but rewards are always in response to human works.
19:29 Not only the 12 Apostles but every self-sacrificing disciple will receive a reward for his or her sacrifice. Jesus meant that everyone who makes a sacrifice to follow Him will receive much more than he or she sacrificed as a reward. He did not mean that if one sacrifices one house he or she will receive 100 houses, much less 100 mothers or 100 fathers, etc. If a disciple leaves a parent to follow Jesus, he or she will find many more people who will be as a parent to him or her in the kingdom. God is no man's debtor. Additionally that person will inherit eternal life. That is, he or she will enter into the enjoyment of his or her eternal life in the kingdom as heirs for whom their heavenly Father has prepared many blessings.
"We must remember that eternal life in the Bible is not a static entity, a mere gift of regeneration that does not continue to grow and blossom. No, it is a dynamic relationship with Christ Himself [cf. John 10:10; 17:3]."739
19:30 This proverbial saying expresses the reversals that will take place when the King begins to reign in the kingdom. The first and last are positions representing greatness and lowliness respectively. The rich young man and the disciples are cases in point. The young man was rich then but would not have received many blessings in the kingdom had he been a believer in Jesus. The disciples, on the other hand, had given up everything to follow Jesus, but they would have a great wealth of blessings in the kingdom.
This statement introduces the parable of the workers and their compensation (20:1-15). Jesus repeated it at the end of the parable but in reverse order (20:16). This structure shows that the parable illustrates the point of this verse. Here He evidently meant that many of those in the first rank of priority then--for example, the rich, the famous, and the prominent disciples--will be last in the kingdom. Their reward will be small because they were not willing to sacrifice themselves to follow Jesus wholeheartedly. Conversely those whom the world regarded with contempt because of the sacrifices they had made to follow Jesus would receive great honor in the kingdom for making those sacrifices.
"The principle taught in this account is that neither poverty or wealth guarantees eternal life. . . .
". . . what guarantees eternal life is following Christ (in faith), and what guarantees eternal rewards is living according to His commands (obedience)."740
This parable explains why the last will become first. It begins with a well known scene but then introduces surprising elements to make a powerful point.
"Jesus deliberately and cleverly led the listeners along by degrees until they understood that if God's generosity was to be represented by a man, such a man would be different from any man ever encountered."741
20:1-2 Jesus introduced this parable as He did the other kingdom parables in chapter 13 (cf. 13:24, 31, 33, et al.). This is how conditions will be in the messianic kingdom. One denarius was the normal day's wage for a day laborer in Jesus' day (cf. 18:28). The vineyard is a common figure for Israel in the Old Testament (Isa. 3:14; 5:1-2; Jer. 12:10; et al.).
20:3-7 The third hour would be about 9:00 a.m., the sixth hour about noon, and the eleventh hour about 5:00 p.m. The market place would have been the central square of the town where day laborers obtained work and pay. The landowner did not promise a particular wage, only that He would deal justly with the laborers. Jesus did not explain why the landowner kept hiring more workers throughout the day. That was an irrelevant detail in His story. All the workers trusted the landowner to give them what was fair at the end of the day.
20:8-12 The evening was the time of reckoning for the workers (cf. Lev. 19:13). The order in which the landowner's foreman paid the workers created a problem. In view of what he paid those hired late in the day, those who began working earlier expected to receive more than they had hoped for. They grumbled against him because he had been generous to the latecomers and only just with them. They cited their hard working conditions as justification for their grievance.
20:13-15 "Friend"is only a mild term of rebuke in this context. The landowner pointed out that he had not cheated those whom he hired earlier in the day. He had paid the wage they agreed to. It was his business if he wanted to pay the latecomers more than they deserved. The evil or envious eye (v. 15) was an idiom depicting jealousy (cf. 6:23; Deut. 15:9; 1 Sam. 18:9).
The landowner's rhetorical questions explained that he had distributed the wages as he had because he was gracious and generous as well as just.
20:16 The point of the parable was that God will graciously do more for some of those who work for Him than His justice demands.
In view of the context, the 12 disciples correspond to the workers hired at the beginning of the day, the beginning of Jesus' public ministry. Those hired later correspond to other people who became Jesus' disciples later in His ministry. One of these people might have been the rich young man if he had become a disciple (vv. 16-22). Peter's question about what the Twelve would receive (v. 27) had implied that they should receive a greater reward since their sacrifice had been greater. This parable taught him that God would give him a just reward for his sacrificial labor for Jesus. Nonetheless God had the right to give just as great reward to those whose service was not as long. This parable taught the disciples not to think of heavenly rewards in terms of justice, getting in proportion to what they deserved. They should think of them in terms of grace, any reward being an act of God's grace. Even those hired early in the day received a reward, and the landowner had been gracious and generous in hiring them and not others.
Modern disciples of Jesus should view heavenly rewards the same way. The only reason we will receive any reward is that God has called us to be His workers. We can count on God dealing with us justly, graciously, and generously whether we serve God all our lives or only a short time having become His disciples later in life.
This parable does not teach that God will reward all His disciples equally. Other parables teach that He will not (e.g., 25:14-30). The point of this one is that God will reward all His disciples justly, graciously, and generously. In some cases the last called will be among the first in rank of blessing. Conversely in some cases those whom God called early in their lives may not receive as much reward as those called later in life if their commitment to Jesus was inferior.
Jesus was probably hinting at more in this parable. Disciples in Jesus' day would not necessarily receive more reward than disciples whom God calls to serve Him just before the day of laboring ends, before His second coming. Neither would Jewish disciples necessarily receive more than Gentile disciples whom God calls later in His program of preparation for the kingdom (cf. 1 Cor. 6:2; Rev. 2:26).
