Matthew 20
BSASBJesus tells of a landowner who pays all his workers the same, to show that God’s kingdom runs on generous grace and not on what we think we have earned. He then speaks a third time of His coming death and teaches that greatness means serving. The chapter ends with two blind men who cry out for mercy and are healed.
Matthew 20:1-2
Jesus compares God’s kingdom to a landowner hiring day laborers at dawn. The usual daily wage was a denarius, and the first workers agree to it. The story begins with a fair, ordinary bargain, which makes what follows more striking.
BSA: kingdom (“of God’s royal power and dominion”): The kingdom is God’s own rule, so the story shows how the King deals with people.
Greek: συμφωνήσας (symphōnēsas, G4856) — “having agreed, being in harmony.” This is the root of our word ‘symphony.’ The first workers and the landowner were in clear accord about the terms, so their later complaint has no ground.
See also: Matthew 19:30.
Matthew 20:3-5
The owner returns at about the third, sixth and ninth hours, which is roughly nine, noon and three o’clock. He finds idle men in the marketplace and sends them in. This time he names no set wage, only ‘whatever is right,’ and they trust his fairness.
BSA: right (“just, fair, righteous, being fair and innocent”): The men take his word that he will deal justly, and their trust is part of the picture.
Matthew 20:6-7
At about the eleventh hour, with perhaps one working hour left, he finds still more men waiting. They are idle only because nobody offered them work. He sends them in as well. The picture is of people nobody had called, whom God still calls.
Greek: ἀργούς (argous, G692) — “idle, unemployed.” The word means without work, not lazy. These men wanted to work and had simply not been given the chance.
Matthew 20:8
At evening the owner has his foreman pay the workers, beginning with the last hired. This order is deliberate. It lets the first workers watch what the latecomers receive, and that sets up the surprise.
BSA: foreman (“manager, steward”): He is a trusted servant who carries out the owner’s wishes exactly as given.
Matthew 20:9-10
The latecomers each receive a full day’s wage for one hour of work. The men hired first reasonably expect more. But they too receive the one denarius they had agreed to. The owner’s kindness to others now exposes what they were really hoping for.
BSA: denarius (“a day’s wage”): The latecomers get enough for a whole day’s living, which shows the owner’s care for their needs.
Matthew 20:11-12
The first workers grumble. They do not say they were cheated. They say the others were made equal to them. They stress their long toil and the heat. Their complaint is about comparison, not about their own pay.
BSA: grumble (“murmur, complain”): The same word-picture is used of Israel complaining against God in the wilderness.
Greek: καύσωνα (kausōna, G2742) — “scorching heat, burning wind.” The word can describe the hot desert wind. It shows how heavy the day was, and why they felt entitled to more.
See also: Exodus 16:7.
Matthew 20:13-15
The owner answers one man gently, calling him ‘Friend.’ He has broken no agreement. What he gives to others is his to give. The real question is whether the man resents goodness. God’s generosity is not unfair to anyone. It is a gift.
BSA: envious (“having an evil eye”): This is a Jewish way of describing a stingy, resentful look at another person’s blessing. generous (“good, benevolent, doing good”): The owner’s act is called plain goodness, which is God’s own character.
Greek: πονηρός (ponēros, G4190) — “evil, grudging.” Jesus literally asks, ‘Is your eye evil because I am good?’ Resentment sees another’s blessing as a loss to oneself.
See also: Romans 9:15.
Matthew 20:16
Jesus ends with the saying that opened the story in 19:30. In God’s kingdom, human rankings of who deserves what are turned over. No one stands before God on the strength of their record, and the late arrivals are welcomed as fully as the early ones.
See also: Matthew 19:30.
Matthew 20:17-19
On the road up to Jerusalem Jesus takes the Twelve aside and tells them plainly what awaits Him. He will be handed over, condemned by Jewish leaders, mocked, flogged and crucified by Gentiles, and raised on the third day. He walks toward the cross knowingly.
BSA: delivered (“handed over, betrayed”): The word marks a chain of handing over, from Judas to the leaders to the Gentiles.
Greek: παραδοθήσεται (paradothēsetai, G3860) — “will be handed over.” The same word is used of Judas’s betrayal and also of God giving His Son up. Men hand Jesus over, yet it is within God’s purpose.
See also: Matthew 16:21; Isaiah 53:5-6.
Matthew 20:20-21
Right after Jesus speaks of the cross, the mother of James and John asks Him for the two best places in His kingdom. She bows and speaks respectfully, but she is thinking of glory. The brothers share her wish, as Mark’s account shows. The scene contrasts sharply with what Jesus just said.
BSA: kingdom (“reign, dominion”): She sees His kingdom as a coming rule and wants a place of honor in it.
See also: Mark 10:35-37.
Matthew 20:22
Jesus says they do not understand what they are asking. The cup stands for the suffering He is about to undergo. The brothers answer quickly that they can drink it. They speak with confidence, but they do not yet see how much the cup will cost.
BSA: cup (“a drinking vessel”): Jesus uses an everyday object as a picture for the portion of suffering He must accept.
Greek: ποτήριον (potērion, G4221) — “cup.” In the Old Testament a cup often stands for a person’s appointed lot, whether blessing or judgment. Jesus uses it for the suffering He will take on.
See also: Matthew 26:39; Psalm 75:8.
Matthew 20:23
Jesus tells them they will indeed share His suffering. James was later put to death by Herod. But the places of honor are not His to hand out. The Father has prepared them. Jesus does not offer a reward for ambition.
BSA: cup (“the cup of suffering”): The gloss makes plain that the cup is suffering, and His followers will share in it.
See also: Acts 12:2.
Matthew 20:24
The other ten are angry with the two brothers. Their anger probably shows they wanted the same honor. The disciples are still thinking in terms of rank. The quarrel gives Jesus the opening to teach what greatness means.
BSA: indignant (“moved with indignation, much displeased”): Their anger was strong, and it exposed their own pride.
Matthew 20:25-26
Jesus calls them together and points to the way worldly rulers act. They dominate and make their authority felt. Then He says plainly that it must not be so among His followers. Greatness in His kingdom is measured by service to others.
BSA: servant (“minister, attendant to others”): The word describes someone who attends to the needs of others, with no stress on rank.
Greek: κατακυριεύουσιν (katakyrieuousin, G2634) — “lord it over, rule over harshly.” The ‘kata’ in front adds the sense of pressing down on people. It describes rule that uses its power over others instead of for them.
Matthew 20:27
Jesus goes further. Whoever wants to be first must be a slave. A slave had no standing and no claims of his own. Jesus asks His followers to take the lowest place for the good of others, and He does not mean this as a trick to gain honor.
BSA: slave (“a servant subject to another”): A slave belongs wholly to another, so Jesus asks for a life given over to others.
Greek: δοῦλος (doulos, G1401) — “slave, bondservant.” This is the lowest rank of servant in the Greek world. Jesus chooses the starkest word for the life He asks of His people.
Matthew 20:28
Jesus makes Himself the pattern. The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many. His death is a payment that frees others, and it is the supreme act of service.
BSA: ransom (“redemption price, payment for sin”): A ransom is the price paid to set a captive free, and His life is that price. for (“in the place of, for the sake of”): He gives His life in the place of those who needed freeing.
Greek: λύτρον (lytron, G3083) — “ransom price.” This was the price paid to free a slave or prisoner. Jesus names His own life as that price.
See also: Mark 10:45; 1 Timothy 2:5-6.
Matthew 20:29-30
Leaving Jericho for Jerusalem, Jesus is followed by a crowd. Two blind men sit by the road. They hear He is passing by and call Him Lord and Son of David, a title for the promised Messiah. They ask for mercy, not for a reward they have earned.
BSA: mercy (“show compassion, pity”): They appeal to His kindness, since they have nothing to offer Him.
See also: 2 Samuel 7:12-13.
Matthew 20:31
The crowd tells the men to be quiet. Perhaps they thought the beggars were a nuisance. The men only cry out louder, repeating the same prayer. Their persistence shows how much they believed He could help.
BSA: admonished (“hold their peace, quiet”): The crowd tried to silence them, but they would not be hushed.
Matthew 20:32-33
Jesus stops, in the midst of His journey to the cross, and calls them. He asks the very question He put to James and John, ‘What do you want Me to do for you?’ The blind men ask simply for sight. They want to see, not to be great.
BSA: opened (“restored to sight, as if a door is unlocked”): Their eyes are pictured as shut like a door, and they ask Jesus to open them.
See also: Matthew 20:21.
Matthew 20:34
Jesus is moved with compassion, touches their eyes, and they see at once. They follow Him. This is the right response to His mercy, and the two who asked for sight become disciples on the road to Jerusalem.
BSA: compassion (“pity, sympathy”): His healing flows from real feeling for them, and not only from power.
Greek: σπλαγχνισθείς (splanchnistheis, G4697) — “moved deeply, felt compassion.” The word comes from the Greek for the inner organs, the gut. It describes pity felt in the deepest part of a person.