For the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is a householder, who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard.
Read Chapter 20
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
The kingdom of heaven is like. That Isaiah , God acts in the kingdom of Heaven like a master hiring labourers into his vineyard; for strictly speaking, the kingdom of Heaven is not like the householder himself, but like his house and family.
Christ"s purpose is by means of this parable to prove the truth of His last saying in the preceding chapter, many that are first shall be last, &c, and to shew that by the grace of God, without any injustice or injury to anyone it will cpme to pass that those who here seemed to have the first place will in the Day of Judgment have the last, and those who seemed to have the last will then have the first; that Isaiah , that the Apostles and the despised faithful who followed Christ will in the kingdom of Heaven be preferred to the Scribes and Pharisees; and the believing Gentiles to the Jews, who were called by the Lord that they might obtain the first place in the kingdom of God, that Isaiah , in the Church both militant and triumphant; or, that th...
se21. And He said unto her, &c. Christ wisely refuses the general petition, and would have her express it particularly, lest she should be asking for something foolish and unworthy, which He foresaw she would do, in order that He might teach us to do like He did.
She said to Him, &c. S. Chrysostom says, "They wished, since they had heard that the disciples should sit upon twelve thrones, to obtain the primacy of that seat, and they knew that they would be preferred before the rest with the exception of Peter; but fearing that Peter was preferred before them, they dared to say, "Grant that one of us may sit on Thy right hand and the other on Thy left."" We may learn from this how bold and blind and insatiable ambition is to which she incited these two Apostles, because they had seen that in the Transfiguration which was the beginning of Christ"s kingdom they were preferred by Christ to the other Apostles.
But the mother is to be excused because she makes her request of Christ, her kin...
se18. We go up. That Isaiah , because Jerusalem, and especially the temple were on Mount Sion. Again, we go up, in order to submit to the Cross, according to that saying, "I, if I be lifted up from the earth, &c." Again He says "we go up" to mark this stedfast purpose, as S. Chrysostom paraphrases, "Ye see how I go of My free will to death; when then ye shall see Me hung upon the Cross, think not that I am no more than man: for though to be able to die is human, yet to be willing to die is more than human."
Lastly, we go up, as if to our triumph on the citadel of Jerusalem and Calvary; for on the cross Christ triumphed over death, sin, the devil and hell; as the Apostle teaches, Colossians 2:15.
The Son of Man is betrayed, &c. "For," says Rabanus, "Judas betrayed the Lord to the Jews, and they delivered Him to the Gentiles, i.e, to Pilate and the Romans. To this end the Lord refused prosperity in this world, but chose rather to suffer affliction, that He might shew us who have falle...
se23. And He saith to them, &c. Christ here foretells the martyrdom of James and John. For S. James , preaching Christ more fervently than the other Apostles, first suffered martyrdom for Him, being slain by Herod with the sword. S. John also drank of this cup when he was plunged by Domitian, at Rome, before the Latin Gate, into a cauldron of boiling oil, and came forth renewed in strength; so that by a new miracle he was a martyr by living rather by dying.
Again, not only Prochorus, S. John"s disciple, in his Life of S. John (the truth of which is rightly suspected by Baronius), but also S. Isidore declares that S. John really drank the cup of poison, but that he also drank it without harm; whence also he is generally represented in pictures holding a cup. And, lastly, we may say that the whole life of S. John was a continual martyrdom, for he lived a very long time after all the Apostles, to the year of our Lord101; and this long absence from Christ, his beloved—after Whom he was co...
se13. But He answered, &c. An evil eye is an envious eye. The sense Isaiah , Since I have bestowed a favour of grace on those who came at the eleventh hour by giving them a denarius, I have done thee no wrong. The Master might have made answer to the murmurer, Those who came at the eleventh hour worked with greater grace and zeal, and accomplished more in one hour than thou didst in the whole day, and therefore merited more, as the first have received a better denarius. But it did not become the Master to contend on an equality with His servant, but rather to silence his murmuring by asserting his own right of ownership, liberality, and grace.
You will object, that S. Prosper here seems to take away all merit: for (lib2 , de Vocat. Gent. c5) speaking of this parable, he says. "We read that the same reward was given to all the labourers, in order that those who laboured much without receiving more than the last might understand that they had received a gift of grace, not a reward of wo...
se17. And Jesus going up, &c. This was the last journey of Christ to Jerusalem. From S. John xi54, &c, it is clear that after raising Lazarus He had departed to the city of Ephraim, to escape the hatred of the Pharisees, and now from that city on the approach of that Passover, when He was put to death by the Jews, He went up to Jerusalem according to the law. And truly He went up that He might accept, and, as it were, eagerly seize the cross and death appointed for Him in Jerusalem, and prepared by the decree of the Father for the redemption of the world.
For the kingdom. The participle for, is found in the Greek, and connects the present parable with the last verse of the preceding chapter: indeed it is a comment on that text, and describes to us the gospel dispensation. Thus the conduct of God in the choice he makes of members for his spiritual kingdom, the Church, and of his elect for the kingdom of heaven, is not unlike that of the father of a family, who hires workmen to labour in his vineyard. There are various opinions respecting who are meant by the first, and by the last, in this parable. Many of the fathers suppose that the saints of different states and degrees are here designed, whose reward will suffer no diminution from the circumstances of their having come to the service of Christ at a late age of the world, according to Sts. Hilary, Gregory, and Theophylactus; or, at a late age of life, according to Sts. Basil, Jerome, and Fulgent us. In the latter case, however, we must understand that their greater fervour in co-opera...
Then He adds also a parable, as training those who had fallen short to a great forwardness.
What is to us the intent of this parable? For the beginning does not harmonize with what is said at the end, but intimates altogether the contrary. For in the first part He shows all enjoying the same, and not some cast out, and some brought in; yet He Himself both before the parable and after the parable said the opposite thing. That the first shall be last, and the last first, that is, before the very first, those not continuing first, but having become last. For in proof that this is His meaning, He added, Many are called, but few chosen, so as doubly both to sting the one, and to soothe and urge on the other.
But the parable says not this, but that they shall be equal to them that are approved, and have labored much. For you have made them equal unto us, it is said, that have borne the burden and heat of the day.
What then is the meaning of the parable? For it is necessary to make t...
