Reformed Doctrine Daily Devotions

Today’s devotion is Matthew 20:1-16.  The key verses upon which I want to comment are Matthew 20:8-16. 

 

⁸  “When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last group to the first.’

                                                

⁹  “When those hired about the eleventh hour came, each one received a denarius.

¹⁰  “When those hired first came, they thought that they would receive more; but each of them also received a denarius.

¹¹  “When they received it, they grumbled at the landowner,

¹²  saying, ‘These last men have worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the scorching heat of the day.’

¹³  “But he answered and said to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong;  did you not agree with me for a denarius?

¹⁴  ‘Take what is yours and go, but I wish to give to this last man the same as to you.

¹⁵  ‘Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with what is my own?  Or is your eye envious because I am generous?’

¹⁶  “So the last shall be first, and the first last.”  Matthew 20:8-16.

This is the perfect Scripture to follow yesterday’s devotions titled “The Rewards”.  As we saw in yesterday’s devotions, there are various different types of rewards.  But here, there was only one reward received by all the Elect which we can infer is eternal life based on the prior Scripture (“And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or farms for My name’s sake, will receive many times as much, and will inherit eternal life.”  Matthew 19:29).  We can also see from other Scripture that eternal life is the one supreme reward for all the Elect. 

If you read the entire text, not copied here, you can understand that the laborers were chosen.  They are the Elect who are chosen and privileged to work in God’s vineyard. 

Notice, as the main point for this devotion, that no matter how long each laborer worked in the vineyard, they each received the same reward.  So, why does the prior Scripture and other Scriptures emphasize different rewards (See, for example, Matthew 19:27-29.) while this Scripture for today emphasizes the same reward?

I think that the answer is that in comparison to eternal life, the other rewards “pale” in comparison.  It is a blessing to receive abundant relatives and “farms” and even to sit and judge on the twelve thrones, but it is most important to “just” be in heaven and have eternal life.  ^“For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand outside.  I would rather stand at the threshold of the house of my God Than dwell in the tents of wickedness.”  Psalm 84:10. 

In addition, even though we do experience rewards in our earthly life, we also experience sufferings in our earthly life.  But, even considering our sufferings, they pale in comparison to eternal life.  “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”  Romans 8:18. 

This Scripture also teaches us patience for what can seem to us to be a long labor in the vineyard.  This Scripture also teaches us gratitude for what we do receive.  

Although we should ask and do receive different rewards, and they each are a blessing, we need to “treasure” eternal life the most, in a certain sense as if it is the only reward.  “One thing I have asked from the LORD, that I shall seek:  That I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the LORD And to meditate in His temple.”  Psalm 27:4  “Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven.”  Luke 10:20.  Thank you.