"Call thy labourers, and give them their hire." — Matthew 20:8

[cv5]

Yes, when He mounts the throne, you shall mount with Him. When the heavens ring with "Well done, well done," you shall partake in the reward; you have toiled with Him, you have suffered with Him, you shall now reign with Him; you have sown with Him, you shall reap with Him; your face was covered with sweat like His, and your soul was grieved for the sins of men as His soul was, now shall your face be bright with heaven's splendour as is His countenance, and now shall your soul be filled with beatific joys even as His soul is.

-Spurgeon

 

[notonmywatch]

Romans 8:18
For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

 

[Webers.Home]

.
Matt 20:1-16 follows on the heels of Matt 19:27-30 which is helpful towards
applying this parable.

Well; first off I think we should settle it in our minds that it would be a
mistake to Christianize the parable because Matthew's gospel is primarily
about Messiah, the future king of the Jews headquartered in Jerusalem, viz:
the "kingdom of heaven" in this parable is the Earth per its natural form and
condition rather than the future Earth depicted in the book of Revelation.

In Matt 19:27-30 Jesus promised his apostles a share in managing Messiah's
kingdom. Well; no such promises were made to either Moses and the
Prophets or the Priesthood. I'm fairly confident that God has something very
nice in store for them in recognition of their services to God and Man. But
although they will be citizens in Messiah's kingdom, they won't be granted a
throne like those promised to Jesus' twelve.

Now: the day-long laborers in the parable complained about their wages, but
I really don't think Moses and the Prophets and the Priesthood will do that.
For example:

I enjoy watching the women's pole vault competitions on YouTube. Those
girls are just as acrobatic and they are strong. I marvel at what they do with
those long springy poles that propel them up into the air like sling shots. Man
what a ride! I don't know how they do it.

Now, when a girl wins her event, she gets the prize whereas all the folks
behind the scenes get no prize. Are they bitter about that? No; absolutely
not! They're happy for the girl and applaud and cheer their fool heads of so
thrilled are they for her victory and to have taken part in getting her to
where she is.

John the Baptist had a really good figure of speech that sort of says it all.

"The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the
bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the
bridegroom's voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete." (John 3:29)

John was the last of the Old Testament prophets. He won't get a throne
alongside Messiah's managing the kingdom (Matt 11:11) but John doesn't
care just so long as Jesus gets his because that's what John was all about.
_

 

[Webers.Home]

.
Post No.3 isn't the only possible application of Matt 20:1-16. There are
others, for example:

The division between Jews and Gentiles has been on-going since practically
the days of Jacob and if not him, then surely Esther; and it appears that
Peter was intent upon perpetuating it. (Acts 10:28)

Well; the Jews have been God's chosen people ever since Abraham, and in
point of fact, as a nation are God's firstborn. (Ex 4:22) For many, many
centuries they bore the burden of preserving the knowledge and writings of
God. And then, Messiah comes along and enlists the Gentiles to join the
party; so to speak.

Well; that would probably be okay with the Jews except that now the
Gentiles are on equal footing, and equally deserving of as much of God's
providence as they. (Eph 2:11-22) Ouch!
_