forget the things that lie behind us on this path, and reach forward to
higher attainments. In as far as Christians unite faithfulness and
tenderness in their treatment of evil-doers, they become "imitators of
God, as dear children."
2. The PRINCIPLE of forgiving injuries. Suppose that the methods for
practice are accurately laid down, where shall we find a sufficient
motive? Suppose that an unexceptionable machinery has been constructed,
whence shall we obtain an adequate force to set it in motion? From an
upper spring in heaven the motive power must flow; it can be supplied
only by God's forgiving love, on us bestowed and by us accepted. When,
like little closed vessels, we are charged by union with the
fountain-head, forgiving love to erring brothers will burst
spontaneously from our hearts at every opportunity that opens in the
intercourse of life.
The express command of Him who redeemed us is, "Love one another, as I
have loved you." In teaching his disciples how to pray, he linked their
promise to forgive with their plea for forgiveness, so that no prayer
of theirs should rise to heaven for receiving pardon unless it were
accompanied by an engagement expressed or implied to bestow pardon:
"Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors."
But there is much more in the connection between receiving and bestowing
forgiveness than can be expressed by the conception of yielding to the
pressure of a motive. It is not only obedience to a command enjoined; it
is the exercise of an instinct that has been generated in the new
nature. The method in which this and other graces operate is expressed
by an apostle thus: "It is no more I that live, but Christ that liveth
in me." When Christ is in you, he is in you not only the hope of glory,
but also the forgiving of an erring brother.
A traveller in Burmah, after fording a certain river, found his body
covered all over by a swarm of small leeches, busily sucking his blood.
His first impulse was to tear the tormentors from his flesh: but his
servant warned him that to pull them off by mechanical violence would
expose his life to danger. They must not be torn off, lest portions
remain in the wounds and become a poison; they must drop off
spontaneously, and so they will be harmless. The native forthwith
prepared a bath for his master, by the decoction of some herbs, and
directed him to lie down in it. As soon as he had bathed in the balsam
the leeches dropped off.
Each unforgiven injury rankling in the heart is like a leech sucking the
life-blood. Mere human determination to have done with it, will not cast
the evil thing away. You must bathe your whole being in God's pardoning
mercy; and these venomous creatures will instantly let go their hold.
You will stand up free.
Two wheels protrude from a factory, and are seen in motion on the outer
wall by every passenger. They move into each other. The upper wheel is
large, the under small. From without and at a distance, you cannot tell
whether the upper is impelling the under, or the under moving the upper.
This question, however, might be settled by an inspection of the
interior. By such an inspection it would be found that the larger and
higher wheel communicates motion to the lower and smaller. If the upper
wheel, which communicates the motion, should stand still, so also would
the lower: but more than this,--if the lower wheel, which receives the
motion, should by some impediment be stopped, the upper wheel also would
stand still.
It is in some such way that God's goodness in forgiving freely for
Christ's sake our sins, impels us to forgive from the heart those that
have trespassed against us. The power is all from above; yet, though we
by our goodness do not set the beneficent machinery in motion, we may by
our badness cause it all to stand still. It is not our forgiveness
accorded to an evil-doer that procures forgiveness to ourselves from
God; the opposite is the truth: yet our refusal of forgiveness to a
brother prevents the flow of pardon down from God to our guilty hearts.
Such is the structure of the covenant. It is only a small part of that
covenant that we can comprehend; but, as far as we are able to perceive
its provisions, behold, they are very good!
While a few acres of cold barren moorland constitute all your heritage,
if a neighbour encroaches on it by a hair's-breadth, you assert your
right and repel the aggression: possibly you may, in your zeal, accuse
him of an intention to trespass, if you see him digging his own ground
near your border. While your property is very small, you are afraid of
losing any of it; and perhaps you cry out before you are hurt. But if
you become heir to a broad estate in a fertile valley, you will no
longer be disposed to watch the motions of your neighbour, and go to law
with him for a spadeful of moss that he may have taken from a disputed
spot.
Thus, while a human soul has no other portion than an uncertain shred of
this uncertain world, he is kept in terror lest an atom of his property
should be lost; he will do battle with all his might against any one who
is, or seems to be, encroaching on his honour, or business, or property:
but when he becomes a child of God, and an heir of an incorruptible
inheritance--when he is a prince on the steps of a throne, he can afford
to overlook small deductions from a possession that is insignificant in
itself, and liable to be taken away at any time without an hour's
warning.
In this aspect it is eminently worthy of notice that the disciples, when
their Master on another occasion (Luke xvii. 3-5), taught them a similar
doctrine on the forgiveness of injuries, immediately exclaimed,
"Increase our faith." They seem to have been surprised by the extent of
the demand, and conscious of their inability to meet it. As soon as the
duty of forgiving injuries was laid before them in its true magnitude,
they were brought to a stand; but they had sense to know wherein their
weakness lay, and simplicity to seek in the proper quarter for renewed
strength. It was a true instinct that led them, then and there, to plead
for an increase of faith. A wider, freer channel for the inflow of God's
compassion into their own hearts,--this is what they need in the
emergency, and this is what they get from the Lord.
The miller, finding that some of the lumps are large and hard, and that
the mill-stones are consequently almost standing still, goes quietly out
and lets more water on. Go you, and do likewise. When injuries that seem
large and hard are accumulated on your head, and the process of
forgiving them begins to choke and go slow under the pressure, as if it
would soon stop altogether; when the demand for forgiveness grows great,
and the forgiving power in the heart is unable to meet it;--then, enter
into your closet and shut your door, and pray to your Father
specifically for more experience of his forgiving love; so shall your
forgiving love grow stronger, and overcome every obstacle that stands in
its way. Your heart, under the fresh impulse of pardon to you through
the blood of the covenant, will toss off with ease the load of
impediments that obstructed for a time its movements, and you will
forgive even as you have been forgiven.
IX.
THE VINEYARD LABOURERS.
"For the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder,
which went out early in the morning to hire labourers into his
vineyard. And when he had agreed with the labourers for a penny a
day, he sent them into his vineyard. And he went out about the third
hour, and saw others standing idle in the market-place, and said
unto them; Go ye also into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right I
will give you. And they went their way. Again he went out about the
sixth and ninth hour, and did likewise. And about the eleventh hour
he went out, and found others standing idle, and saith unto them,
Why stand ye here all the day idle? They say unto him, Because no
man hath hired us. He saith unto them, Go ye also into the vineyard;
and whatsoever is right, that shall ye receive. So when even was
come, the lord of the vineyard saith unto his steward, Call the
labourers, and give them their hire, beginning from the last unto
the first. And when they came that were hired about the eleventh
hour, they received every man a penny. But when the first came, they
supposed that they should have received more; and they likewise
received every man a penny. And when they had received it, they
murmured against the goodman of the house, saying, These last have
wrought but one hour, and thou hast made them equal unto us, which
have borne the burden and heat of the day. But he answered one of
them, and said, Friend, I do thee no wrong: didst not thou agree
with me for a penny? Take that thine is, and go thy way: I will give
unto this last, even as unto thee. Is it not lawful for me to do
what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good? So
the last shall be first, and the first last; for many be called, but
few chosen."--MATT. xx. 1-16.
Again the heavenly kingdom is compared to the proceedings of a human
householder. While in fertile plains, like Esdraelon, the grain-field
was the Hebrew husbandman's chief care, on the mountain sides, the
vineyards were the most valuable property, and required the greatest
amount of labour. The steepness of the slopes on which the vine grows
best, greatly increases the owner's toil. In many cases the terraces
must be supported by strong stone walls; and not only must the manure
be carried on men's shoulders up the steep, but in some cases even the
soil itself is carried up in the same way, and laid upon the bare rocks.
Different kinds of work are required in vineyards at different seasons.
In spring they prepare the soil; in summer they prune and tie up the
vine branches; and in autumn all the joyous labour of the vintage comes
suddenly on. Looking to the circumstance in the parable, that the
labourers who began early counted much on having borne the heat of the
day, we might be inclined to suppose that the scene is laid in the
middle of summer; but the fact that the householder required so many
labourers and hired all that he could find, points rather to the vintage
in the end of autumn.
The master went out early in the morning to hire labourers. There was
some spot, doubtless, recognised both by masters and men, as the common
meeting-place for those who needed work, and those who needed
workmen,--the Cross or the Buchts[33] of that place and day. This
husbandman at once engaged all the men that he found, and sent them into
his vineyard to begin work at six in the morning,--the first hour of the
Jewish day. The terms were arranged beforehand,--a penny a day. The
Roman denarius is reckoned equal to sevenpence half-penny of our money;
but obviously it was considered the ordinary rate of a labourer's wages
at the time.
[33] The name of a great trysting place for selling cattle and
hiring men and women on the eastern outskirts of the city of
Glasgow, where the two operations resemble each other too closely
for the credit of our institutions or the safety of society.
Again at nine o'clock the husbandman went to the market-place, and
finding some unemployed men, sent them also to work in his vineyard.
Again at mid-day, and yet once more at five o'clock in the afternoon he
went out, and finding men on each occasion loitering about the
market-place, he sent them also into the vineyard. In these cases,
however, as was meet when the day was broken, the master did not promise
any specific rate of wages; and the men, thankful for an opportunity of
turning to some profitable account a day which would otherwise have been
wholly lost, were content to accept whatever he might be pleased to
give.
About six o'clock in the evening,--earlier or later according to the
season of the year and the consequent duration of daylight at the
time,--work in the vineyard ceased for the day, and each labourer,
called forward in turn by the steward, received his wages in the
master's presence.[34] The steward, acting doubtless under special
instructions, called first the men who had entered the vineyard at five,
and quitted it at six, and gave each a penny for his hour's work.
Surprised by the munificence of their employer, these men retire towards
their homes with silent gratitude. Afterwards those who had laboured
one-half, and those who had laboured three-fourths of the day, were
called in succession, and each received also a penny. Last of all came
the men who had laboured from morning till night. They had been standing
near, and had observed that all their fellow-labourers, not excepting
even those who had been employed only an hour, received the same uniform
reward, each man a penny. As this process was going on, they cherished
in silence the expectation that when their turn should come, they would
receive more of the master's money, because they had done more of his
work. But the steward, evidently acting on precise orders, gave each of
these men also a penny, and no more. No longer able to conceal their
disappointment, although they were well aware that they had no legal
claim for more than they had received, they broke out into murmurs
against their employer. Of course, he closed their mouths in a moment:
he had completely fulfilled his agreement with them, and they had no
right to interfere with his spontaneous generosity, whenever and towards
whomsoever he might choose to exercise it.
[34] By law, wages for the work of the day must be paid the same
evening (Deut. xxiv. 15).
Here, again, the key-notes of the parable are found at the beginning and
at the end. The direct and immediate occasion of the discourse lies in
Peter's question at the 27th verse of the nineteenth chapter, "We have
forsaken all and followed thee: what shall we have therefore?" But as
the parable sprang from Peter's question, so Peter's question sprang
from an antecedent fact. To that fact, accordingly, we must look as the
true ultimate root on which the parable grows.
As Jesus was going about in the Father's business, attended by the
twelve, a young man came running forward to him, bending the knee in
token of reverence (Mark x. 17), and asking, "Good master, what good
thing shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?" Accommodating his
lesson to the condition of the learner's heart, the Lord saw meet, at
the close of his discourse, to lay a specific cross on this promising
disciple, in order at once to reach and eradicate the specific disease
that threatened the life of his soul,--"Sell all that thou hast, and
come, follow me." The young man loved the world more than Christ:
compelled to make his choice, he cleaved to the portion that he loved
best. When by the sovereign act of the Lord he was placed in such a
position that he could not enjoy both portions, he parted with the
Saviour and clung to his wealth. Peter and the rest of the apostles
listened and looked on, during this decisive interview: they gazed after
the youth, perhaps with tears, as he slowly and sorrowfully withdrew.
But their Lord did not leave the impressive fact to sink into their
minds in silence: He interposed at the moment, to print the lesson
permanently on their hearts, "How hardly shall they that have riches
enter into the kingdom of heaven!" "Then answered Peter;"--as usual this
impetuous man burst suddenly into a speech upon the point in hand,
before he had well considered what he was about to say. For one thing,
there is no deceit in Peter's question; he thinks aloud, and his thought
is one of intense and undisguised self-conceit. The spirit of the
Pharisee was there, "Lord, I thank thee that I am not as other men." His
heart at this moment was undisguisedly mercenary; his eye was on the
main chance. We have done and suffered so much for God; what return may
we expect for our services? That young rich man would not part with his
portion in this world, in order to follow Christ: Peter, thereupon, made
a most comfortable comparison between himself and the undecided youth,
and expressed a hope that his own great devotion would not be overlooked
in the day of reward.
I sometimes think the Papists acted wisely in making Peter the first
Pope. He serves better as a type for them than any one of the twelve,
unless they had gone all the way and chosen Judas. None of the true men
were so forward as Peter in giving their judgment, or so frequently
wrong.
The reply of our Lord to Peter's self-righteous demand is twofold.
First, he owns and reiterates the truth that all labourers in his
kingdom will be rewarded; and next corrects the abuse of that principle
into which a self-pleasing human heart is apt to fall. In the discourse
recorded at the close of the nineteenth chapter, he teaches the cheering
truth that the Lord will richly reward the services of his people, and
in the subsequent parable gives to them and us a solemn admonition
against the error into which Peter had been for the moment betrayed.
The positive doctrine regarding compensation for all sacrifices and
wages for all work needs only to be read in the memorable words of
Jesus, as the evangelist has recorded them here. Notwithstanding the
incrustations of ignorant self-righteousness that now and then covered
and disfigured their faith, these Galileans have in very deed left all
for Christ, and shall all in very deed receive from Christ a
hundred-fold. Even Peter's own decisive life-act,--his consecration to
Jesus, was a higher and purer thing than his own foolish words at this
time would represent it to have been. It was not with a mercenary eye to
a subsequent equivalent that he left his nets and followed Jesus. That
self-devotion in the simplicity of faith will be gloriously recompensed,
notwithstanding the subsequent slips that dishonour the disciple and
grieve the Master; but Peter, and through him all men, must be clearly
taught that work done for the sake of the reward is not owned in the
kingdom of heaven.[35]
[35] These two are thus united and distinguished by
Dräseke,--"Although the kingdom of God is God's gift in the souls of
men, yet without a worthiness in men it can neither begin nor
continue, neither reveal nor develop itself. And again, although our
worthiness is necessary, we nevertheless obtain the kingdom, not
through the merit of works, but from the fulness of grace, yea, from
that alone. In short, the kingdom demands workers; hirelings it
disdains (das Reich verlangt Arbeiter; Söldlinge verschmäht es)....
Thus it stands shut against the hireling, open to the worker. Not as
though the kingdom needed thy labour. He who makes the winds his
messengers and the flames his servants, can do without thy
hand-work, O little man. Thy labour avails not; but that thou
shouldest be a labourer, that thou shouldest have a mind for God,
and through that mind shouldest elevate thy life into a free and
joyful service of him--that avails."--_Vom Reich Gottes_, ii. 40,
42.
Remarkable is the construction of the chain by which this writer
connects the poor unemployed men who were standing idle in the
market-place with the ever-during, ever-increasing satisfaction of
their souls in eternity. So verlangt das Reich Arbeiter, nicht
Söldlinge. Es beruft die Arbeitlosen. Es stellt die Bernfenen an. Es
beschäftigt die Angestelleten. Es übt die Beschäftigten. Es belohnt
die Geübten. Es genügt den Belohnten. Und Gnüge währt ewig; wächst
ewig.--ii. 51.
Every one that hath forsaken earthly possessions for Christ's sake shall
receive an hundred-fold, and shall inherit everlasting life,--"_But_
many that are first shall be last, and the last first."
This short antithetic sentence is the very gate by which we enter into
the meaning of the parable; if we rightly comprehend it, we rightly
comprehend all. It is necessary to determine here the connection between
this sentence and the doctrine, which is taught in the immediately
preceding verses. While the Lord undertakes that service and sacrifice
in his cause will be rewarded, he warns his disciples in the next breath
that those who labour longest, or produce the greatest quantity of work,
do not in every case, and necessarily, receive the highest reward. In
his kingdom the reward is not measured only and always by the length of
the service or the quantity of work; many who are first as to the amount
of work done will be last as to the amount of recompense received.
A lesson drawn from this scriptural principle may be legitimately
addressed to those who are not within the kingdom, but I think the
Master in this parable primarily intends to draw distinctions, not
between those who are within and those who are without, but between two
classes of genuine disciples,--between those who simply trust in the
Lord and serve him in love, and those who, although also in the main
believers, allow the leaven of self-righteousness to creep in and mar
the simplicity of their faith.[36]
[36] On the other hand the text, Luke xiii. 30, although precisely
similar to this in form, distinguishes, as may be seen from the
context, between those who are within and those who are without.
It is not said that those who are first in the quantity of work shall
all or uniformly be last in the measure of reward, but "many" that are
first shall be last. Some who are foremost in the amount of service may
also be most free from the self-righteous spirit, and some who have
laboured least may also receive least if they do their little under the
influence of a hireling's selfishness. The meaning is, that although you
be first as to length of time and quantity of labour, if the leaven of
self-righteousness mingle in your offering, you will be lowest in the
Master's esteem, and least in the day of reward; whereas, although you
be last in point of time, and least in point of service, if you receive
all from Christ's mercy, and render all in love to Christ, you will be
higher in the end than some who seemed more energetic and successful
workers.
"For the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is a householder,"
&c. This picture will illustrate the truth which has been declared; the
householder represents Christ, the vineyard his kingdom, and the
labourers his servants. The main lesson of the parable concerns, not the
way of redemption, but the service which the redeemed render to their
Lord. The wages of the labourer represent the rewards which Christ
confers upon his servants, but this must be taken with certain
explanations and limitations, especially these two,--(1.) That the
reward is partly a thing now begun, and partly something that is
completed in heaven; (2.) That the value of the reward depends
essentially on the disposition of heart with which the workman receives
it.
It is not necessary to determine whether the labourers who were first
hired, and who laboured all the day, represent the Jews under the first
dispensation, or those in the Christian Church who individually are
converted in early youth, and continue in Christ's service throughout a
long life, or those who, from special talent, or zeal, or opportunity,
do and suffer most for the Lord and his cause. The all-day labourers may
represent all these classes, each in turn, and especially the last. We
must not understand exclusively by "the first" those who began first in
point of time. The term indicates rather those who are first in the
sense of being chief or greatest; it points especially to those who were
first in rank as having endured the greatest amount of loss, and done
the greatest amount of work in Christ's cause. In the parable it is true
those who were first sent into the vineyard, in point of time, were
chief among the labourers as to the quantity of labour contributed, but
the time is only an accident. The matter truly brought into view is not
the time, but the quantity of work. Time is here employed simply as a
measure of quantity, for it is obviously assumed throughout that all the
men performed equal amounts of labour in equal times. It conduces
greatly to a clear conception of the whole lesson when you think of the
first and last as indicating those who did and suffered most in Christ's
cause and those who did and suffered least.