Parable time.

The master of a house hired a bunch of people to work his vineyard for, for the sake of ease, $100. They get to work and the master heads out. 3 hours later he sees some men standing around waiting for work, says “why not” and hires them on too. He’ll pay them whatever feels right. Trusting him that it’ll be a fair wage, they head to his vineyard. About every 3 hours he repeats this, hiring on more and more people until it’s the 11th hour. Work ends in one hour and he still finds people lingering. No one had come to them until now. Good news, you’re hired. 6pm rolls around and the day is done. Time to pay everyone, from the last ones hired to the first. He pays the last hired $100.

……That’s the same as the first guys. The ones who worked 12 hours. These guys did an hour at best and are getting the same pay. Alright well this whole vineyard thing must’ve gone pretty well for the people who showed up to get the whole day’s pay. Imagine how generous the master will be to the guys who have been sweating since the start. Yeah anyway here’s your $100. The workers grumble, as you can probably imagine. Completely unfair. Ridiculous even.

Well, is it though? What did they agree to? $100. What changed? Literally nothing. All they did to shape their perspective towards ingratitude and resentment was learn about the payment someone else received and concoct a scenario in their head of increased reward that was never promised to them, so their expectations were not met. The master corrects them gently, calling them friend. Usually in these parables, someone has stepped out of line and get put in their place harshly, or is punished. It’s by GRACE that you receive MORE than you deserve. The first on the scene got precisely what was agreed upon and God claims the right to give extra as He sees fit. To look upon another with jealousy is to tell God He is wrong to freely give what He has. It’s also incredibly prideful to point at someone else and say they don’t deserve what they got. All we deserve is death and Hell, to be honest. Love Jesus and you’ll get what was promised: eternal life with God.

Jesus is heading up to Jerusalem to brief his disciples once more on what’s to come: He’s going to be delivered to the chief priests and scribes to be put to death. None of this is a surprise to Him and none of it shakes His commitment to the mission. He’s here to redeem humanity.

A woman comes up, possibly the sister to Mary, Jesus’s mother, asking for her sons (James and John) to be declared right here and now, the seconds in command of God’s kingdom, behind Jesus alone. Jesus turns to face James and John directly, suggesting they either asked her to ask Him or at least had foreknowledge. He says plainly they don’t know what they’re asking. Jesus is not here to set up a material worldly kingdom right here and now to replace Rome and they should definitely know this by now. At least from our lens. We have 2 thousand years of Church history telling us precisely what Jesus’s mission was for and we don’t have a cultural expectation that the Messiah was here to win a war against the world militarily. So maybe it was just that hard to shake off their upbringing. He asks if thye can drink from His cup, which is to say “be persecuted and killed”. Well that’s good (both of them are killed) but even still, it’s not Jesus’s request to answer. That’s the authority of God the Father. The other disciples learn that the two were trying to sneak into a high rank and get mad. They’re still struggling with pride. Fair enough.

Jesus steps in again and point out that it’s not an iron fist rule that His favorite disciple will seek. The greatest among them will be as a servant to the others. A nobody. In fact, if they wish to seek status and chase ambition, then the path is to be like a SLAVE, even. A life of eager and obedient servitude sounds insane to status seeking Jews of the era, but Jesus points out that He came to earth to live exactly this life. He’s going to surrender even His life for those He serves. To be number 1 in heaven, they need to be humble and self sacrificing.

As He continues walking, two blind men call out to Him “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!”

Let’s stress this point: two blind men recognize Him. And not just who He is but who He REALLY is. Neat. So normally, yelling “have mercy on us” was the cry of people begging for money. Recognizing Him as Jesus is a sign that they had other things in mind, but the disciples told them to be quiet, likely perceiving the normal reason. Jesus is about to be put to death so it’s a good thing they kept at it, because it was now or never. Jesus is specifically moved by pity to touch their eyes and cure their blindness. A lesson I see in other commentaries is that this really highlights a truth about our relationship with God: you don’t know how long you have. In the sense of Jesus walking the earth among them, Him passing through your town might be the only chance you see Him. In modern times, it’s more a matter of the heart. “I’ll convert tomorrow. I’ll take communion next Sunday. I’ll try to convert my friend the next time I see them.” Not always a next time.