Matthew 20:1-34
20 “For the Reign of Heaven is like a proprietor who went out at six in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard.
2 And he agreed with the laborers on a denarius a day and sent them to his vineyard.
3 And he went out at about nine o’clock and saw others standing idle in the marketplace,
4 and said to those ‘Go to the vineyard too, and I will give you what is right’; and they went.
5 And he went out again about twelve and three o’clock and did the same way.
6 And about five o’clock he went out and found others standing there, and said to them ‘Why are you standing idle here all day?’
7 They said to him ‘Because nobody has hired us.’ He said to them ‘Go to the vineyard too.’
8 * And when evening came the owner of the vineyard said to his superintendent ‘Call the laborers and pay the wages, beginning with the last and going on to the first.’
9 And the five o’clock ones came and got a denarius each;
10 and the first came and supposed they would get more, and they too got the denarius each.
11 And when they got it they grumbled at the proprietor,
12 saying ‘These last did one hour, and you made them equal to us that bore the weight of the day and the scorching wind.’
13 But he answered one of them ‘Comrade, I am not wronging you: did you not agree with me for a denarius?
14 take up your money and go, but I choose to give the same to this last one as to you.
15 Is it not my right to do what I choose with my own things? or do you grudge because I am liberal?’
16 Thus the last shall be first and the first last.”
17 * And when Jesus was about to go up to Jerusalem he took the twelve with him by themselves, and said to them on the road
18 “Here we are going up to Jerusalem; and the Son of Man will be put into the hands of the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death
19 and hand him over to the foreigners to outrage and flog and crucify, and on the third day he will rise.”
20 Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came to him with her sons, doing him reverence and asking something of him.
21 And he said to her “What do you want?” Said she to him, “Say that these two sons of mine shall sit one on your right and one on your left in your reign.”
22 But Jesus answered “You do not know what you are asking for. Can you drink the cup that I am going to drink?” Said they to him, “We can.”
23 * Said he to them, “Drink my cup you shall; but as to sitting on my right and on my left, this is not mine to give, but belongs to those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.”
24 And at hearing of it the ten were offended with the two brothers;
25 but Jesus called them to him and said “You know that the rulers of the nations lord it over them and their great men domineer over them.
26 * It is not so among you, but anyone who wishes to be great among you shall be your serving-man,
27 and anyone who wishes to be first among you shall be your slave,
28 * just as the Son of Man did not come to be waited on but to wait on the needs of others, and to give his life as ransom for many.”
29 And as they were going out of Jericho a great crowd followed him;
30 and lo, two blind men sitting by the roadside, hearing that Jesus was passing by, cried out “Son of David, sir, take pity on us!”
31 but the crowd rebuked them, telling them to be still. But they cried out louder “Son of David, sir, take pity on us!”
32 And Jesus stopped and called them and said “What do you want me to do for you?”
33 Said they to him, “Sir, for our eyes to be opened.”
34 And Jesus was moved with pity and touched their eyes; and at once they recovered their sight, and followed him.
Footnotes
^ 20:8 Var. pay them their wages
^ 20:17 Var. was going up
^ 20:23 Var. or on my left
^ 20:26 Var. It shall not be
^ 20:28 Var. adds But for your part try to grow from littleness, and out of (or, reading the words in the Aramaic language as spoken by Jesus, and rather than) something greater to be something less. And when you go to a house and are invited to have dinner, do not take the prominent places at the table, for fear a man of higher standing should come on and the host should come to you and say ‘Move down lower,’ and you should be humiliated. But if you take the poorest place and a man inferior to you comes on, the host will say to you ‘Come along up higher,’ and that will be good for you
