Miraculous Mercy

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This section of Matthew's Gospel contains several stories that at first seem completely unrelated, at least on the surface. After all, what do children (19:13-15), rich people (19:16-30), workers in a vineyard (20:1-16), Jesus' prediction of His own death and resurrection (20:17-19), a mother's request for her sons' future reward (20:1-28), and the healing of two blind men (20:29-34) have to do with one another? You might be surprised. Among the various truths we can glean from these stories, there stands one overarching truth, a truth that is foundational throughout Scripture and that is crucial for the entire Christian life.

One Overarching Truth

The one overarching truth running through Matthew 19:13-20:24 is that salvation is a free gift of divine mercy totally devoid of human merit. Quite simply, salvation is impossible without the mercy of God. This is good news for unbelievers and believers, for all of us should live our lives by relying on God's mercy and not our own works and efforts. We'll see how this plays out first with little children and a rich man.

The Little Children and the Rich Man

Matthew 19:13-30

Each of the first three Gospels tells the story of the rich young man preceded by the story of Jesus gathering children around Himself (Mark 10:17-31; Luke 18:15-30). There's clearly a reason why these stories appear back-to-back, though the correlation may not be immediately obvious. In one story Jesus received people—children—and then in the next story, to our surprise, Jesus rejected someone—a rich man. Or consider this from the perspective of the disciples: Jesus received those whom the disciples thought He should reject, and He rejected a man the disciples thought He should receive. There is, then, one primary truth from this correlation, and it has two sides.

First, Jesus receives the humble. We saw this truth in the previous chapter when Jesus said, "Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child—this one is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven" (Matt 18:4).263 Children are a living illustration of the humility that should characterize Christ's followers. In verse 14 Jesus warns the disciples that the children must not be prevented from coming to Him. The kingdom belongs to the humble, not the haughty.

Second, if you are arrogant before God, you will miss the kingdom of heaven, for Jesus rejects the proud. This rich man40 thought that he could gain eternal life. In verse 16 he asked Jesus, "Teacher, what good must I do to have eternal life?" Jesus told the man that he needed to keep God's commandments (v. 17). When the man claimed to have kept the commandments, Jesus put His finger on the real issue, saying, "Go, sell your belongings and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me" (v. 21). The point to take away is not that this man would have earned eternal life if he had only been willing to give up his riches. We need to look deeper than that, to the condition of this man's heart. This rich man did not come to Jesus humbly, willing to do and give whatever Jesus asked. If he had trusted Jesus, he would have gladly sold his possessions and given them to the poor. But his heart was proud and he clung to his possessions, so he walked away, and frighteningly, Jesus let him go.

Following His encounter with this rich man, Jesus turned to address His disciples on this matter. He says in verse 24 that it is "easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God." The "eye of a needle" is not a reference to a tiny side gate leading to the city of Jerusalem, though that has been a popular interpretation of this verse. There is no evidence that this gate existed in Jesus' day (Keener, A Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew, 477). Moreover, this explanation misses the point of the passage. It's not merely hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven; it's impossible! Wealth was and continues to be a huge stumbling block for those who want to enter God's kingdom. In our sin, we are naturally drawn to trust our own resources rather than the One who is all sufficient. This truth applies to more than just rich people, though. It's impossible for any man to do anything to enter the kingdom of heaven. So the disciples ask, "Then who can be saved?" (v. 25). Jesus says that it's only possible with God, for we need Him to do the impossible. This brings us back to the one overarching truth in this section: Salvation has264 absolutely nothing to do with human merit and absolutely everything to do with divine mercy.

In addition to this one overarching truth concerning God's mercy, there are many secondary truths in these illustrations, truths taught throughout Scripture. For example, we know that children are important to the heart of Jesus. In Matthew 18 Jesus referred to physical children as an illustration of His spiritual children, but here children are not merely an illustration. Jesus quite literally laid His hands on children and received them; they were (and are) important to Him. His example beckons us to do the same. We are to care for children, nurturing them in every way, particularly in regard to spiritual things. J. C. Ryle said,

Let us draw encouragement from these verses to attempt great things in the religious instruction of children. Let us begin from their very earliest years to deal with them as having souls to be lost or saved, and let us strive to bring them to Christ; let us make them acquainted with the Bible as soon as they can understand anything; let us pray with them, and pray for them, and teach them to pray for themselves. The seed sown in infancy is often found after many days. (Ryle, Matthew, 170)

Moms and dads should strive to teach their children to know God and His ways. They should pray for them and pray over them. Family worship is one way to put these things into practice,41 in addition to daily instructions and being an example of godly living. While moms and dads should (ideally) be the ones who see to the spiritual formation of children, this calling should also be important to the church. Churches should think through how they can most effectively pass the gospel on to the next generation. And it's not just our children; we are to care for other children, both in our neighborhood and around the world. Through our sacrificial giving, we can see children in poverty escape physical death and begin to thrive. Even better, we can see the gospel made available to children who would not otherwise hear of Jesus Christ. Every child is important to Him.

Pastorally, the topic of Jesus' care for children can be applied in a number of ways. One important question has to do with the heart-wrenching issue of whether or not children who die in infancy go to265 heaven. We might also include within this question children who die in a miscarriage, or children who die at a young age before they are able to grasp the gospel.42 Scripture does not address this issue directly; however, it does give us good reason to trust that children are safe in the arms of Jesus. I think we can point to three primary reasons for this position.

First, God is gracious and merciful and good (Exod 34:6). As the Judge of all the earth, He always does what is right (Gen 18:25). God desires all people to be saved (1 Tim 2:4; 2 Pet 3:9), and He cares particularly about children according to Matthew 19:13-15. Yet these truths are insufficient in and of themselves to prove that children go to heaven, for otherwise all unbelievers would be safe due to God's free grace. Nevertheless, our thinking on this question must begin with the reality of God's character. This God whom we meet in Scripture cares particularly for children, and He is good.

Second, the Bible seems to express confidence that believers will see young children after death. After losing his own young son, David worships God and says, "But now that he is dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I'll go to him, but he will never return to me" (2 Sam 12:23). David comforts his wife with this hope. In this example, Scripture expresses confidence and a comfort that all who trust in God's salvation will be with such children again.

The third reason that supports the idea that children who die in infancy are safe in the arms of Jesus has to do with the level of accountability God holds these little ones to. The Bible seems to indicate that young children are held to a different measure of accountability than those who are older and more capable of grasping truth. This is not what some have referred to as an "age of accountability," a certain age when a child becomes accountable before God for his or her sin. Instead, this is the idea that, according to Scripture, God holds us accountable before Him based on a couple of criteria.

First, we are liable to God's judgment because we have an understanding of right and wrong. Romans 2:14-16 says that we have God's moral law written on our hearts, so that all people everywhere know good and evil, right and wrong. This is not the same case in the same266 way with young children. Speaking to disobedient Israel, Deuteronomy 1:39 refers to the children as "your little children... who don't know good from evil." In this context, the children were not held accountable for the disobedience of the Israelites in their day. Even though God had cursed the Israelites, the children were allowed to enter the Promised Land.

The second criterion that affects our accountability before God in judgment is found in Romans 1:18-21:

This passage teaches that God has revealed His glory to all people, and this revelation leaves them without excuse for rejecting His glory. However, if a child is unable to know or perceive God's glory, then that child does not have the same level of moral culpability before God. Unlike everyone else, this child is not "without excuse" (Rom 1:20). Therefore, the child will not be judged in the same way everyone else is judged.

To be clear, having a different standard of accountability doesn't mean that young children stand innocent before God. The Bible is clear that we all have a sinful nature at the core of who we are; no one is innocent (Eph 2:3; Rom 3:9-20). A child does not learn to sin, but rather expresses the sinful nature that is inherent in all of us. Therefore, anyone who is saved from God's judgment is saved because of God's grace in Christ. Colossians 1:19-23 indicates that Christ is the only way we are reconciled to God. Therefore, young children still need the grace and righteousness of Christ attributed to them in some way. So how does God do this? Admittedly, there is mystery here; God does this in accordance with His infinite wisdom. Yet, given the way God saves people throughout Scripture, we should not be surprised to find out that the salvation of young children comes as a gift. It is not of human merit, but completely of divine mercy.267

There are also a few secondary truths we can glean from Jesus' interaction with the rich man in this passage. Since we are among the wealthiest people ever to walk the planet, the story of a man whose riches kept him from the kingdom of heaven certainly hits close to home. We need to be reminded that Jesus' call to salvation demands radical surrender. Despite our current practices and our best intentions, salvation is not an invitation to pray a prayer. Salvation is a summons to lose your life, to let go of everything you have and everything you are in submission to Jesus. This is what it means to be a Christian.

It's worth noting two common errors in handling this passage. On one hand, some people universalize it, saying that every follower of Jesus should sell everything they have and give the proceeds to the poor. But we know this is not true based on what we see in the rest of the New Testament. Not every disciple of Jesus is divested of possessions, for Scripture indicates that some of Jesus' disciples still had homes (John 19:27; 20:10) and fishing boats (John 21:3), while a number of women provided for Jesus and His 12 disciples out of their own means (Luke 8:1-3). So this passage clearly isn't saying that a Christian can't own private property or possessions.

On the other hand, our usual tendency is to minimize this passage. Jesus does call some of His followers to sell everything they have and give it to the poor, and the reality is that He could call any of us to do the same. One commentator has said, "That Jesus did not command all his followers to sell all their possessions gives comfort only to the kind of people to whom he would issue that command" (Gundry, Matthew, 388). Some have suggested that the rich man in this passage just needed to be willing to sell all of his possessions, but that's not what Jesus meant, or else that's what He would have said. He didn't tell the man merely to be willing to sell everything he possessed, but to "go, sell your belongings and give to the poor" (v. 21). These were not options for this man to consider; these were commands for this man to obey. We must not dilute the call of Christ, for His call to salvation demands radical surrender.

Another secondary truth illustrated in this story is that we must realize the dangerous, deadly nature of desire for possessions. We are accustomed to thinking of wealth only as a blessing, but it is often a barrier in our relationship to God. Paul warns about this fatal temptation:

If even the desire for riches plunges people into ruin and destruction, then consider the danger for people (like us!) whose lives are filled with riches. We can easily slip into a mind-set where our security and our ultimate hope are grounded in our bank account, and not in God. We must run from the desire for riches and the love of money as fast as God's mercy will enable us.

For the follower of Christ, every topic should be considered within a biblical framework, which means that we must understand our use of money and possessions in the context of redemptive history. Notice that the disciples were shocked at Jesus' teaching on wealth (v. 25), and their assumptions remind us that we cannot base a theology of wealth on the Old Testament alone. Frequently in the Old Testament, God promised material blessings for spiritual obedience. We see this play out with the patriarchs, with the people of God entering the Promised Land, and with Israel's kings;43 however, when you get to the pages of the New Testament, material reward is never promised for spiritual obedience. Craig Blomberg makes this very observation:

The NT carried forward the major principles of the OT and intertestamental Judaism with one conspicuous omission: never was material wealth promised as a guaranteed reward for either spiritual obedience or simple hard work.... Material reward for piety never reappears in Jesus' teaching, and [in fact it] is explicitly contradicted throughout. (Blomberg, Neither Poverty Nor Riches, 145)

The idea that there is no material reward from God based on obedience was revolutionary in Jesus' day, and it is still revolutionary in our day. God's plan is not to display His glory through Christians who have higher standards of living than the rest of the world; rather, God's plan is to spread His glory through the radical sacrifice of our lives for the269 rest of the world. At this point in redemptive history, this is the mind-set that should shape our view of money.

In light of everything this passage teaches us about money and discipleship, someone might come away thinking that following Jesus is solely about what we give up. A person with this perspective will be surprised to hear that Jesus' call to salvation guarantees radical reward. Jesus tells the rich ruler to go and sell his possessions, but He follows it up by saying, "and you will have treasure in heaven" (v. 21). Jesus was not calling the rich man away from treasure but to treasure. There's actually a tinge of self-serving motivation here, as in, sell everything you have in order to get something better! The question for us is whether we will live for short-term pleasures we cannot keep or for long-term treasure we cannot lose. We don't want to miss the reward in Christ because we want more stuff in this world. Jesus is infinitely better, and His reward is eternal. In verse 29 we see what a wise investment our radical surrender is, for Jesus says that our return will be a hundredfold, both now and in the age to come. That's radical reward.

Jesus closes in verse 30 by saying, "But many who are first will be last, and the last first." This truth serves not only to conclude verses 13-30—where children are received by Jesus, while a respected and wealthy man was turned away—but it also sets the stage for chapter 20.

The First and the Last

Matthew 20:1-28

Jesus illustrates the truth that the last will be first and the first will be last by telling the disciples a parable of workers in a vineyard. This parable is not difficult to follow: The workers who were first hired, and thus worked longer than the rest, complained about those who had been hired last. Those workers hired at the eleventh hour only had to work one hour, yet they were equally compensated. We learn from this that God's grace is surprising, for it surpasses our normal expectations. We tend to recoil at a story that's all about people not getting what they deserve. It's not fair; and that's the point. God's grace in salvation is, by definition, not fair. D. A. Carson has put it rather candidly: "Do you really want nothing but totally effective, instantaneous justice? Then go to hell" (Carson, How Long, O Lord, 161). Gratefully, God surprises us with His mercy. He does what we would never expect according to what we could never earn. Once again, we see this underlying truth emerge:270 God doesn't owe us salvation for something we have done; He gives us salvation despite everything we have done. Salvation is a free gift of divine mercy totally devoid of human merit. God owes us nothing, yet He gives us everything in Christ.

Not only is God's grace surprising, but also God's grace is sovereign. God is under no obligation to extend forgiveness to sinners like us. He has the right to dispense His mercy as He pleases. This is Paul's point in Romans 9, where he answers the objection that God's mercy is not fair: "But who are you, a mere man, to talk back to God?" (Rom 9:20). Mercy is dispensed as God sees fit. This is actually good news for sinners who are unable to save themselves. We have small minds and small ways, but God's grace is wonderfully surprising and gloriously sovereign.

In verses 17-19 we see God's surprising and glorious grace expressed in the sacrifice of His Son. In His mercy, God ordained that His Son would be murdered by sinful men for the sake of our salvation. Jesus told His disciples of His own impending death, a death that would include being "mocked, flogged, and crucified" before being raised again (v. 19).

But the disciples didn't understand Him, a point that becomes evident in verses 20-28. In this passage we have a mom representing the prideful hearts of her sons. James and John wanted a prominent place in Jesus' kingdom, and we know this request ultimately came from them, because when Jesus responds, He addresses them directly (v. 22). In fact, in Mark's account of this story, the mom is not even mentioned (Mark 10:35). Jesus addressed the pride of these two disciples, but they weren't the only ones who needed more humility, as the other ten disciples were indignant when they heard this (v. 24). Their anger likely came from their own pride, so that in the end, the Lord had to address 12 proud disciples.

Twelve Proud Disciples

Matthew 20:28

In a statement loaded with theological meaning, Jesus says to His proud disciples, "The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life—a ransom for many." Verse 28 gets to the heart of why Jesus came, and this truth can be broken down into several related components.

First, He came to suffer. The title Jesus used for Himself, "the Son of Man," highlights in a significant way His identification with us as271 men. As a man, He was able to sympathize with us in our suffering (Heb 4:15), and He was qualified as a sacrificial substitute for sinners (Rom 8:3). When He spoke of the cup that He would drink (Matt 20:22), He was speaking of drinking down the wrath of God in the place of sinners. Jesus willingly walked into the jaws of suffering and death on our behalf.

Verse 28 speaks of a second component to Jesus' coming: He came to save. That's what He means when He speaks of giving His life as "a ransom for many." The word Matthew uses for "ransom" is lutron, a word that can refer to a payment made to release someone from slavery. Today we might associate this word with a hostage situation, which is fitting given sin's control over us. We are slaves to sin, self, and death, but Jesus gave His life so that we might be free from these things (Rom 6:17; Heb 2:15).

You may be wondering how this is possible, that is, how does Christ's death save us from sin and death? The key lies in that little word "for" in verse 28. In this instance the word carries the sense of "in place of" (Osborne, Matthew, 742-43), and it speaks to the fact that He came to be our substitute. Jesus gave His life in the place of those He would save. We stand under the weight of our sin and the wrath of God, fully deserving death, but Jesus took our place; He became our substitute. This is the glory of the gospel: not just that Jesus died for you in order to express a loving sentiment, but that He died instead of you.44

Jesus came to suffer, to save, to be our substitute, and based on this context in Matthew 20, He came to show us how to live. Unlike worldly rulers who lorded their authority over people (vv. 25-26), Jesus' disciples were to manifest a different kind of leadership. Like their Master, they were to live selflessly for the good of others. God's glory, and not their own reputation, was to be their goal. The disciples were to love people by serving them. When Jesus tells James and John, "You will drink my cup," He is telling them that they too will lose their lives serving others. To be sure, these disciples didn't experience the cup of suffering that Jesus experienced on the cross in an atoning sense, but their lives would be lived in sacrificial service to others based on what Jesus had done. James was beheaded (Acts 12:2), and John was exiled as a prisoner on272 the island of Patmos (Rev 1:9). This kind of sacrificial service is what defines kingdom greatness.

Jesus' desire to show us how to live leads to the final purpose for His coming in this context, and this purpose is really at the center of all the others: He came to serve us. This truth may seem simple, but it's worth pondering for a moment. The reality here completely reverses our expectations. Consider:

• Jesus did not come to be served by you; He came to serve you.
• Jesus did not come to be helped by you; He came to help you.
• Jesus did not come to be waited on by you; He came to wait on you.

For a religious teacher to talk like this sounds like lunacy. However, unlike earthly rulers, Jesus did not come as some potentate whose personal whims were to be catered to by lowly servants. He came to be our lowly servant by becoming a man and providing salvation for us. The One who deserves to be served came to serve, and this service was ultimately demonstrated on the cross. Matthew may very well be alluding to the "Servant" prophesied by Isaiah, the One who "bore the sin of many" (Isa 53:11-12). We need Him in the profoundest sense of the word; He doesn't need us. We need to consider, then, what this means.

Jesus is our servant, but in order to understand what Jesus does mean here, we need to make sure we also understand what Jesus does not mean. This does not mean we tell Jesus what to do; He's not our servant in that way. Mark's Gospel records this kind of misguided approach by James and John, as they told Jesus, "Teacher, we want You to do something for us if we ask You" (Mark 10:35). That's not the way to approach Jesus, as if He is there to do all our bidding. That's a classic example of what this text does not mean.

This text does not mean we tell Jesus what to do, but this does mean Jesus gives us what we need. This point is absolutely key to understanding Christianity. Jesus had just told James and John that they were going to suffer and that following Him would involve the radical sacrifice of their lives in service to others. But this radical call to service from Jesus was accompanied by a radical promise from Jesus. To renounce the ways of this world and to give their lives as slaves in this world was not possible, humanly speaking; but Jesus could empower James and John by His service to them.273

The one overarching point in this section of Matthew's Gospel surfaces once again: salvation is all of divine mercy, and not by human merit.

That we are utterly and completely dependent on God's mercy is not only true at the point of conversion. Even after we're saved, we are dependent on divine mercy in every part of our lives. Jesus promises to give us what we need on a daily, moment-by-moment basis. When He leads His children into difficult places or calls us to do difficult things, He enables us to do these things because He is our servant.

Some people wonder whether Jesus' teaching in this passage contradicts what Paul and other New Testament authors say about being a "slave," or "servant," of Jesus Christ (Rom 1:1; Jas 1:1; 2 Pet 1:1). The Bible does talk about our service to Him: "Do not lack diligence; be fervent in spirit; serve the Lord" (Rom 12:11). So which is it—is Jesus our servant? Or are we supposed to serve Him? Yes... and no.

We are Jesus' servants. The Bible is clear on this point. But this does not mean that Jesus needs our aid. When some people hear this servant language, they assume that Jesus needs our help. Acts 17:25 is a good corrective here: "Neither is He [God] served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives everyone life and breath and all things." God is Almighty, and He needs no support. We cannot supply His needs, since He has none. He never gets tired, hungry, or lonely. He does not need us; we need Him. So, then, what does the Bible mean when it says we are servants of Jesus? This does mean that we submit to Jesus' authority. He reigns over us as Lord and King, and we now gladly live for His glory and His purposes on earth.

How we respond to Jesus says a lot about our view of Him. We trust Jesus to serve us because Jesus' service to us enables our obedience to Him. Every time Jesus calls us to do something, it is His way of telling us how He wants to serve us. When He calls us to give up everything we have, for example, or when He calls spouses to love each other even when times are tough, in all these situations Jesus aims to serve us and sustain us. Everything Jesus commands us to do is a call to trust Him, and only with such trust is obedience possible.

We are being served at every moment, and as we realize this, we exalt Jesus by serving others. As we are strengthened by His power and love, our service to others demonstrates His sacrifice for us. This was Jesus' point to His disciples in John 13:35: "By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."274

Two Blind Men

Matthew 20:29-34

So far we've had a story of children who in their humility could see Jesus and a rich man who in his riches could not see Jesus. We've also observed disciples who in their pride were struggling to see the love of Christ. These stories are capped off at the end of chapter 20 with a story of two blind men who, based upon confession of faith in Jesus, the Son of David, were brought from darkness to light.

For those in need of Jesus' help (which is all of us), the application of this story is simple: boldly confess your need for His mercy. Throw aside your pride and say, maybe for the first time in your life, "Lord Jesus, have mercy on me." That was the cry of these blind men, for they knew that they could not open their own eyes. They were fully dependent on Jesus' power and kindness. Even if you're already a Christian, the same truth applies: Daily confess your need for Christ's mercy. Trust Him to serve you.

As we boldly confess our need for God's mercy, we also need to humbly believe in His power to do the miraculous. We must trust God to do what only He can do. When Jesus asked these two men what they wanted done for them, they responded in verse 33 by saying, "Open our eyes!" They were trusting in the sovereign power of Jesus to cure their blindness. We are reminded one last time in this section that the entirety of the Christian life is based on divine mercy, not human merit.

Reflect and Discuss

1. Why are people so resistant to receiving salvation as a free gift? How does our sinful nature play into this?
2. Explain the difference between Christianity and the false religions of the world with regard to human merit.
3. In your own words, describe what it means to come to Christ like a child.
4. What is the difference between childlike faith and simply being immature in your faith? How can childlike faith exist alongside a diligent and disciplined pursuit of God and His Word?
5. What might Matthew be showing us by contrasting whom Jesus accepted with the rich ruler?275
6. In Matthew 19:16-22, was Jesus calling the rich man to earn his salvation by obedience and sacrificial giving? Explain your answer.
7. What does the parable of the workers in a vineyard teach us about God's grace?
8. How does the misguided approach of the disciples beginning in Matthew 20:20 parallel your own approach to God and the Christian life?
9. How does Jesus' healing of the blind men in Matthew 20:29-34 contrast with the request for privilege by James and John in the previous paragraph?
10. Why can't grace and pride coexist? Can you think of other Scriptural passages that speak to this truth?