This research provides an exegesis of Christ's commentary on achieving greatness, as found in Matt. 20.20-28. The research will set forth the context in which this lesson appears and then critically discuss the significance and meanings of the events in the passage.
It is virtually impossible to reach meaning with Matt. 20.20-28 without reference to the much more often quoted parable that precedes it, dealing with the laborers in the vineyard, all of whom receive the same payment for vastly different workday lengths (Matt. 20.1-16). Also relevant is the passage intervening between the parable and the request of the mother of James and John for precedence with Jesus--during which Jesus explains to his 12 disciples that he is about to be arrested, condemned, tortured, and crucified, only to rise on the third day following (Matt. 20.17-19). Together, these passages can be read as an introduction to the text beginning at 20.20, when Jesus disposes of the Zebedee's wife's request for her two sons.
The parable of the workers in the vineyard compares the kingdom of heaven, not to the vineyard or the workers, but rather to the employer, who must be seen as having the authority to dispense the largesse of heaven on the labor pool. The employer's sole discretion = the sole discretion of heaven, which cannot be questioned legitimately: "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. 20.15-16). The parable can be taken as a lesson in humility, with the seekers of benefit plainly not entitled to interrogate of heaven how its benefits are distributed. No one is cheated, yet no one is thrust into greatness. Does that defy logic? Perhaps, but that is profoundly the point, as Matt. 20.20-28 makes plain, a point to which this research will return.
The passage that follows (Matt. 20.17-19) may well be perceiv...