There shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but yourselves cast out.
Someone has just asked Jesus whether only a few will be saved. He answers with a shut door and with people left outside it. This verse shows what being shut out will feel like — and who they will see inside.
The people warned here were not strangers to religion. That was the problem. Religious advantage makes nobody safe, and one writer says it can do the opposite.
It is always so. Religious privilege, when misused and abandoned, leaves those who enjoy it worse than before, worse than those who have never enjoyed it. So the Messiah will say to them, "I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from Me, all you workers of evil." God could not accept mere forms. There must be what suits His nature.
The three names Jesus lists were the very ancestors His hearers claimed. The phrase He picks for their grief also turns up elsewhere, and always in the same kind of case.
Weeping and gnashing of teeth! Notice this phrase. In the rest of the New Testament only Matthew uses it (Matt. 8:12; 13:42, 50; 22:13; 24:51; 25:30), and always of people who have brushed aside the offer of grace... The Jews boasted in their natural descent from Abraham and gloried in it. It will do them no good if they reject grace.
Tears at the end are not proof of a changed heart. One writer takes the phrase apart and asks what each part of it shows:
"Weeping and gnashing of teeth" would be theirs. Their fathers and the prophets would have the pure joys of the kingdom of God, and they themselves would be thrust out of it... The weeping is only in self-pity, not in repentance. Wailing is the attitude of complaining, for faith is absent. Gnashing of teeth is a spirit of rebellion, not corrected even by the solemn judgment of God.
Notice where the pain starts: they see. One writer sets this beside a scene from the days of Elisha, a prophet in Israel.
"It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God" (Heb. 10:31). His judgments are as sure as His favours. None of His words can ever fail. The scornful official found Elisha's words to be literally true: "You shall see it with your own eyes, but you shall not eat of it."... Awful thought! They see others blessed, and themselves outside of it for eternity.
The verse also settles something about believers who died long before Christ came. Jesus names them as present in the kingdom.
It is true that the Old Testament believer does not enter a Kingdom which could only begin with a rejected Christ. But in the resurrection they will be raised. As raised, they will have their part in the Kingdom of Heaven, on its heavenly side... they will have their part in the Kingdom in display. Luke 13:28 proves this.
The verse also marks a change in the kingdom itself. Earlier parables in the chapter show a kingdom with a mixture in it. Here the mixture is gone.
The parables of verses 18-21 show there will be mixture in the kingdom in its present form. But verse 28 shows that in its coming form there will be none. Then the patriarchs will be in it, and those with nothing but outward ceremony will be thrust out.
The shut-out are only half the picture. People from outside Israel sit down in the kingdom, and the expected order is reversed.
It is not only that the Jews are shut out from their fathers when the time of glory comes. Others "will come from east and west, and from north and south" — the widest gathering in of the Gentiles — and "recline at table in the kingdom of God." So it was clear that "some are last who will be first." Such were the Gentiles, called by grace. And "some are first who will be last." Such were the Jews. They had held the earliest and chief place in the calling of God, but they gave it up for self-righteousness and rejected their Messiah.
Jesus said this to one nation. One writer turns the warning toward anyone who has heard the gospel and left it there.
What will it be for you who have heard the gospel and neglected so great a salvation? What hope could there be in that day! But for faith there is blessing now and always.
- Privilege — being close to religious things saves nobody. Misused, it leaves a person worse off than those who never had it.
- Pedigree — descent from Abraham did no good once they refused grace. "Weeping and gnashing of teeth" describes people who brushed that offer aside.
- Pain — the grief is self-pity and complaint, not repentance. Its sharpest edge is watching others enjoy what you threw away.
- Patriarchs — Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are raised and seen in the kingdom. In that coming form no mixture is left in it.
- Places — the empty seats are filled. People come from every direction, and the first end up last.
And they shall come from east and west, and from north and south, and shall lie down at table in the kingdom of God.
Jesus has just spoken of a narrow door, and of a house whose door is shut. Verse 29 turns to the table inside: people arrive from every direction and fill the seats that unbelief left empty.
Commentators read the four directions as a signal. The gospel was about to go worldwide, past limits that Israel's forms could never hold.
Verse 29 hints at the calling of the Gentiles that was about to come, for grace was about to go out worldwide with mighty effects. Jewish limits and forms cannot hold grace, as we saw much earlier in this Gospel. Like new wine it will burst the wineskins. The Jew was first historically, but in the presence of grace his ingrained legalism often hindered him, so that he came in last. The Gentile, not hindered in that way, becomes first when grace is the question.
Those who had every advantage shut themselves out. God's response was not to cancel the feast but to fill it from elsewhere.
Verse 29 shows what happens if Jews shut themselves out by unbelief. God will still bring others (Gentiles) from the east, west, north and south to sit down in the kingdom of God. Men count some people "last", of no importance — as the Jews counted the Gentiles. Those people will be first, because their faith is real. Men count others "first" — as the Jews counted themselves, because of their outward show of religion to impress others. Those people will be last. God is a God of truth, and He will bring everything to its proper level in the day of His judgment.
They come from four directions, but they enter by one door. That door is a Person.
At that time the narrow door meant receiving Christ — the real but narrow entrance of faith in Him and conversion to God. Some will come and knock when the door is closed. He will say to them, "I do not know where you come from": you are not changed. Strive to enter through the narrow door, through which Christ goes before you — that is, rejection.
They share the table with the fathers of Israel. Descent from Abraham does not seat anyone there; grace received does.
Gentiles will accept grace and sit down in the kingdom with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Matt. 8:11). The Jews boasted in their natural descent from Abraham and gloried in it. It will do nothing for them if they reject grace. Such people will weep and gnash their teeth. They will see those they looked down on in the kingdom with the patriarchs and the prophets — a kingdom they had heard of but will never enter.
Nearness to Jesus on the map gave no claim. A different kind of link now counts.
They would come from east and west, from north and south, and sit down in the kingdom of God. But it was on new principles, and under an order of supreme righteousness: the last would be first, and the first last. Meanwhile those who claimed local nearness to Him lost every claim: "I do not know where you come from; depart from Me, workers of evil." The tie now was a moral one, and the power of the kingdom was new and heavenly.
One writer sees the promise already in motion — and turns the warning back on lands that have heard the gospel longest.
The happy and believing "whoevers" are being gathered out of all nations. In these days the word of the gospel runs with swift feet. It travels north, south, east, and west. Crowds who grew up knowing nothing of God are hearing it with amazement and joy, and they will sit down in the kingdom of God. This is because faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. The men and women of these "Christian" lands should wake up to a solemn fact. Their indifference and unbelief puts them in danger of being shut out of the blessing for ever.
- Door — a door closes. Those who trade on nearness and privilege find it buys no way in.
- Entry — the one way in is narrow and personal: receive Christ by faith and turn to God. Descent from Abraham will not do it.
- Reach — east, west, north and south: grace bursts the old wineskins and goes worldwide. Writers see it running in every direction today.
- Table — those who come are not just let in. They are seated with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and the prophets.
- Reversal — the last become first. Real faith, not reputation, sets the seating order.
And behold, there are last who shall be first, and there are first who shall be last.
Someone had just asked the Lord how many people will be saved. He answered by speaking of a narrow door, a shut door, and people left outside who plead their connection with Him. Then comes the twist: the order everyone assumed is reversed.
The saying closes a warning about a narrow door. One writer explains what that door is, and who is shut out.
Striving to enter through the narrow door means, to my mind, a man brought to a true sense of sin. He casts himself on God's grace in Christ. That is repentance towards God, and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Christ Himself is the narrow door — at least, Christ Himself received this way, by faith and repentance. So our Lord, opening this out, announces the judgment of Israel. He announces judgment on anyone who would like the blessing well enough, but refuses God's way, which is Christ.
One writer names the two groups, and says why each ends where it does.
However, verse 29 shows what happens if the Jews shut themselves out by unbelief. God will still bring others, the Gentiles, from the east, west, north and south to sit down in the kingdom of God. Those whom men count "last," of no importance (as the Jews counted Gentiles), will be first because their faith is real. Those counted "first" (as the Jews counted themselves, because of their outward show of religion made to impress others) will be last. God is a God of truth. He will bring everything to its proper level in the day of His judgment.
The reversal has a reason. A new basis of belonging has come in, and one writer hears grace in the first half of the saying.
They would come from east and west and north and south, and sit down in the kingdom of God. But it was on new principles, and under an order of supreme righteousness — there would be last first, and first last. Meanwhile those who claimed local connection with Him lost every claim: "I do not know where you come from; depart from me, workers of iniquity." Now it was moral association, and the power of the kingdom was new and heavenly. Since this was grace, the Lord says here: "Some are last who will be first."
The people the Lord warned had real advantages. Those advantages will not save them.
Not receiving Christ for eternal life, men are only "workers of iniquity" — the baptised no less than the circumcised. They plead past privileges, but it does no good: "We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets." Neglected opportunities and slighted mercies only make the guilt heavier.
The same writer states the rule behind this.
Religious privilege, when misused and abandoned, leaves those who enjoy it worse off than before — worse off than those who never enjoyed it.
One writer sums up the scene as a clash between how people rank and how God ranks.
Then there would be weeping and gnashing of teeth. They would see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of God, while they themselves were shut out. Gentiles from every quarter would come and sit down there; the last being first, the first last. Men's thoughts naturally run the opposite way to God's. But God's will stand.
The saying is not just history about one nation. One writer turns it on whoever hears it.
But there is deep cheer for the despised Gentiles. For the Lord adds, "And they will come from the east and west and from the north and south, and they will recline in the kingdom of God. And behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last." Do you say, how terrible and true this is of unbelieving Israel, and how full of blessing for the Gentiles who believe? What will it be for you who have heard the gospel and neglected so great a salvation? What possible hope can there be in that day! But there is blessing through faith, now and always.
- Order. The verse turns rank upside down. People counted as nobodies come in. People who count themselves insiders stay outside.
- Basis. The new order runs on grace and moral association with Christ, not on local or national connection with Him.
- Door. Entry is through the narrow door — repentance towards God and faith in Christ, who is Himself that door.
- Privilege. Hearing the gospel without receiving it leaves a person worse off than never hearing it at all.
- Application. It was terrible for unbelieving Israel and glad news for believing Gentiles. It is now a direct question to anyone who has heard the gospel and ignored it.