Matthew 20

10. But when the first came, they supposed that they should have received more--This is that calculating, mercenary spirit which had peeped out--though perhaps very slightly--in Peter's question ( Matthew 19:27 ), and which this parable was designed once for all to put down among the servants of Christ.

11. And when they had received it, they murmured against the goodman of the house--rather, "the householder," the word being the same as in Matthew 20:1 .

12. Saying, These last have wrought but one hour, and thou hast made them equal unto us, which have borne the burden and heat--the burning heat.
of the day--who have wrought not only longer but during a more trying period of the day.

13. But he answered one of them--doubtless the spokesman of the complaining party.
and said, Friend, I do thee no wrong: didst not thou agree with me for a penny? &c.

15. Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good?--that is, "You appeal to justice, and by that your mouth is shut; for the sum you agreed for is paid you. Your case being disposed of, with the terms I make with other laborers you have nothing to do; and to grudge the benevolence shown to others, when by your own admission you have been honorably dealt with, is both unworthy envy of your neighbor, and discontent with the goodness that engaged and rewarded you in his service at all."

16. So the last shall be first, and the first last--that is, "Take heed lest by indulging the spirit of these murmurers at the penny given to the last hired, ye miss your own penny, though first in the vineyard; while the consciousness of having come in so late may inspire these last with such a humble frame, and such admiration of the grace that has hired and rewarded them at all, as will put them into the foremost place in the end."
for many be called, but few chosen--This is another of our Lord's terse and pregnant sayings, more than once uttered in different connections. (See Matthew 19:30 , 22:14 ). The "calling" of which the New Testament almost invariably speaks is what divines call effectual calling, carrying with it a supernatural operation on the will to secure its consent. But that cannot be the meaning of it here; the "called" being emphatically distinguished from the "chosen." It can only mean here the "invited." And so the sense is, Many receive the invitations of the Gospel whom God has never "chosen to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth" ( 2 Thessalonians 2:13 ). But what, it may be asked, has this to do with the subject of our parable? Probably this--to teach us that men who have wrought in Christ's service all their days may, by the spirit which they manifest at the last, make it too evident that, as between God and their own souls, they never were chosen workmen at all.

Matthew 20:17-28 . THIRD EXPLICIT ANNOUNCEMENT OF HIS APPROACHING SUFFERINGS, DEATH, AND RESURRECTION--THE AMBITIOUS REQUEST OF JAMES AND JOHN, AND THE REPLY. ( = 10:32-45 Luke 18:31-34 ).

For the exposition,

Matthew 20:29-34 . TWO BLIND MEN HEALED. ( = 10:46-52 , Luke 18:35-43 ).

For the exposition,