<p>20:12&nbsp;<em>These last-&nbsp;</em>The Lord answers the question &ldquo;Are there few that be saved?&rdquo; by insisting that we personally strive to enter by the narrow door (Lk. 13:23,24). This was the same message the Lord had taught Peter through the parable of the 1st hour labourer getting distracted by the reward of the 11th hour one. He had that tendency to look on the faults of others (Mt. 18:21), to compare himself with others (Mt. 19:21 cp. 27; 26:33). John&rsquo;s Gospel ends with Peter yet again being distracted by the possible spiritual destiny of his brother John- &lsquo;What about&nbsp;<em>this&nbsp;</em>man?&rsquo; was answered by the Lord with an appeal to Peter to not worry about that but instead &ldquo;You- follow Me&rdquo;. And so, so many tragic times we do the same. We are distracted from the quintessence of our lives, the following, to death, of the Lord, by our jealousy of others and our desire to enter into their spirituality rather than personally following. We should rather be like the weak old labourers in the parable who walk away from judgment day clutching their &lsquo;penny&rsquo; of salvation, thinking &quot;I really shouldn't have this. I didn't work for a day, and this&hellip; this coin&hellip; this is a day's pay&rdquo;. But we will be there. You and me. For all our doubts and fears, our chronic lack of self worth, for all the inward, unspoken struggles to believe and understand, that nobody knows nor even notices. We will be there. This is grace, and this will be grace. Truly there is all joy and peace through believing these things, &ldquo;that ye may abound in hope&rdquo; (Rom. 15:13).<br />Paul was ever aware of his own proneness to failure. He saw himself as tempted to be like the man in the parable who thought he should have more, because he had laboured more abundantly than the others (Mt. 20:12 Gk. = 2 Cor. 11:25).</p><p><em>Have spent</em>- Clearly the harder workers believed that there was to be a direct connection between work and reward. And the purpose of the story is to debunk that idea.</p><p><em>Only one hour</em>- The labourers had been brought into the vineyard at various times. It was the scandal of the 11th hour labourers which so stuck in the gut of the original workers. And those 11th hour workers, at least in chronological terms, are us- called in these very last days. We therefore can see ourselves as the recipients of maximum grace- for we are hardly the strongest or most functional of the generations of Christ's servants, more focused as we are on internal grievances than on the massive work of getting the amazing harvest in.</p><p><em>But you have made them</em>- This is precisely the same word used earlier in the verse to speak of how the weaker workers had 'worked' or, literally, 'made' only one hour. By accident, almost, these complaining labourers had stumbled upon the salvation by grace and imputed righteousness which Paul spells out in Romans in so many words. The strangely gracious Lord of the harvest had 'worked them' as worthy of a day's pay; He had imputed to them the work of a whole day when they had only done a fraction of that. And still the workers didn&rsquo;t get it. The story ends with them still in confusion. Some will be in the Kingdom who have big questions about the justice of God (Mt. 20:12,13 &quot;friend&quot;); the wise virgins, apparently selfishly, won't give any oil to the others; some will sit in the Kingdom in &quot;shame&quot; because they thought they were greater than other brethren (Lk. 14:9- cp. the elder brother?); some remonstrate that a highly rewarded brother already has ten pounds, and surely doesn't need any more exaltation (Lk. 19:25).</p><p><em>Equal to us-&nbsp;</em>It was on this basis that they were all made &quot;equal&quot; before the final judgment. The basis of their unity, therefore, should have been- and indeed&nbsp;<em>is</em>- the fact that our salvation is by imputed righteousness. Peter surely learnt the lesson of all this when he spoke of how to the Gentiles had been&nbsp;<em>given</em>&nbsp;by God the 'like' s.w. &quot;equal&quot;&nbsp;<em>gift</em>&nbsp;which had been given to &quot;us&quot;, the Jewish disciples (Acts 11:17). In this sense the dimensions of the new Jerusalem are &quot;equal&quot; (Rev. 21:16 s.w.).&nbsp;</p><p><em>Who have borne the burden of the day</em>- The same words used for carrying the burden of the cross and of the sins and failures of others (Lk. 14:27; Jn. 19:17; Rom. 15:1). It can be no accident that here in Mt. 20 the Lord goes on to speak of His cross and the need to participate in that death through carrying the cross. Whenever we behold the cross, surely we are left with the deep impression that 'I would not have gone through with this'. But that is the burden we are to carry, and no amount of other works or attainment of standards can compensate for that. The disciples thought they could so easily carry that cross (20:22 &quot;we are able&quot;), just as these workers were sure that they had borne the required burden and should be rewarded for it. But in the light of the cross and of the demand implicit within it to likewise suffer in the salvation of little ones, the hard workers had carried nothing.&nbsp; Their salvation too was to be on the basis of total grace.&nbsp;</p><p><em>And the scorching heat</em>- This is the language of the day of judgment (2 Pet. 3:10,12; James 1:11). These hard workers had been through nothing- they had not been through the day of judgment, at which acceptance will be proportionate to our acceptance of other little ones.</p>