Matthew 20:11 · World English Bible
Matthew 20:11 Meaning When They Received It
When they received it, they murmured against the master of the household,
What does Matthew 20:11 mean?
The murmuring is the ego's oldest voice, certain it has been shortchanged whenever another is treated as its equal. The goodman of the house is the loving presence within, who withholds nothing; the complaint is not against him but against the very fact of a mercy that will not rank its children.
From the Christian Psychology reading below.
Matthew 20:11 through 1 lens
The same verse, read by one tradition.
Christian Psychology
CHRISTIAN PSYCHOLOGY
Christian Psychology
The murmuring is the ego's oldest voice, certain it has been shortchanged whenever another is treated as its equal. The goodman of the house is the loving presence within, who withholds nothing; the complaint is not against him but against the very fact of a mercy that will not rank its children. What looks like injustice is only equality resented.
A mind grumbles this way whenever grace is given freely, for the ego lives by comparison and cannot bear a gift that makes comparison meaningless.
Goodman of the house: the loving presence within the mind, the master who withholds nothing and gives the same peace to all, so that only the ego finds cause to complain of him.
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Christian Psychology lens
Live Matthew 20:11 today
- Catch the complaint before it leaves your mouth today, the small one about what someone else got. Let it dissolve and see if you actually lost anything.
- When you hear yourself start a sentence with how unfair it is that so-and-so, stop and ask the person in front of you about their day instead.
- If a colleague is praised for something you also did, let the grumbling thought pass without feeding it. Their good news is not a subtraction from yours.
What am I calling unfair that is really just someone else being treated as my equal?
The same truth in other traditions
Taoism · Zhuangzi
The monkeys raged at three measures in the morning and four at night, and were happy with four and three. Nothing changed but the comparison.
Buddhism · the Dhammapada
"He wronged me, he took from me." Those who keep turning such thoughts over never come to rest.
Stoicism · Seneca
It is not the one who has little who is poor, but the one who wants more. Poverty is measured against another's hands.
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