All Rewarded Alike

Towards the end of the Savior’s ministry the rich young ruler came to Him seeking to know what else was needed to inherit eternal life.  The synoptic gospels all record the account as the Savior told him to give up all his riches: “Go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me” (Matt. 19:21).  He was apparently too devoted to his own possessions and his own gain, and he went away sorrowing (though whether he did still follow the counsel of the Savior after that is not known).  After this story, all three gospels recount how Peter then inquired about the reward that awaited them as apostles: “Then Peter said, Lo, we have left all, and followed thee” (Luke 18:28).  Matthew records that Peter asked, “What shall we have therefore?” (Matt. 19:27)  The Savior then promised great things to those who “hath left house, or parents, or brethren, or wife, or children, for the kingdom of God’s sake,” telling them that they would “receive manifold more in this present time, and in the world to come life everlasting” (Luke 18:29).  The accounts as they are in the King James version suggest that the Savior was simply promising a reward to Peter and his brethren in the twelve for their sacrifice, but the JST of Mark adds an interesting detail: “But there are many who make themselves first, that shall be last, and the last first. This he said, rebuking Peter” (JST Mark 10:30-31).  So while the promise of eternal life and blessings for those who have made great sacrifices for the gospel was surely real, Peter—not too unlike the rich young ruler—was focusing too much on his own reward.  If we seek to make ourselves first, if we focus on what blessings we will obtain as compared to others, then we may likewise be worthy of the chastisement Peter received. 

               Interestingly, the two other members of the three chief apostles, James and John, seemed to have had a similar problem as Peter.  Both Matthew and Mark recorded an incident shortly after this exchange with Peter and the rich young ruler in which the two sons of Zebedee were similarly concerned about the reward that they were going to receive.  They (and their mother in Matthew’s account) requested of Jesus, “Grant unto us that we may sit, one on thy right hand, and the other on thy left hand, in thy glory” (Mark 10:37).  They seemed to have missed the whole point about the laborers in the vineyard—the parable recorded in the same chapter in Matthew—in which all faithful servants received the same reward.  They thought for some reason they deserved some kind of special standing with the Lord, and it didn’t go unnoticed by the other ten: “And when the ten heard it, they began to be much displeased with James and John” (Mark 10:41).  Bruce R. McConkie suggested that the request of James and John was “in apparent open disregard of the teaching just given in the Parable of the Laborers of the Vineyard, that all servants worthy of exaltation would be rewarded alike, each receiving his ‘penny’ appointed” (Doctrinal New Testament Commentary, 1:566).  All of us who serve faithfully, no matter time of day we entered that service, will receive the full reward that the Savior has to offer.  If we are concerned about our remuneration as compared to others as were James and John, if we focus on what is ours like the rich young man or on what great prize we will be given like Peter was, then our service in God’s kingdom surely has the wrong focus.  Ultimately Peter, James, and John did learn to selflessly serve in the kingdom without thought of reward, for all of them subsequently devoted their lives to his service and suffered greatly for it.  As Elder McConkie commented, “In due course James and John and all the apostles, save Judas, drank of the Lord’s cup and underwent his baptism—all suffered persecution and possibly even martyrdom, with the exception of John who was translated.”