Ordination of the Seventy at Magadan

163:3.1By the time Je­sus had fin­ished talk­ing with Mata­dor­mus, Pe­ter and a num­ber of the apos­tles had gath­ered about him, and as the rich young man was de­part­ing, Je­sus turned around to face the apos­tles and said: “You see how dif­fi­cult it is for those who have riches to en­ter fully into the king­dom of God! Spir­i­tual wor­ship can­not be shared with ma­te­rial de­vo­tions; no man can serve two mas­ters. You have a say­ing that it is ‘eas­ier for a camel to go through the eye of a nee­dle than for the hea­then to in­herit eter­nal life.’ And I de­clare that it is as easy for this camel to go through the nee­dle’s eye as for these self-sat­is­fied rich ones to en­ter the king­dom of heaven.”

163:3.2When Pe­ter and the apos­tles heard these words, they were as­ton­ished ex­ceed­ingly, so much so that Pe­ter said: “Who then, Lord, can be saved? Shall all who have riches be kept out of the king­dom?” And Je­sus replied: “No, Pe­ter, but all who put their trust in riches shall hardly en­ter into the spir­i­tual life that leads to eter­nal prog­ress. But even then, much which is im­pos­si­ble to man is not be­yond the reach of the Fa­ther in heaven; rather should we rec­og­nize that with God all things are pos­si­ble.”

163:3.3As they went off by them­selves, Je­sus was grieved that Mata­dor­mus did not re­main with them, for he greatly loved him. And when they had walked down by the lake, they sat there be­side the wa­ter, and Pe­ter, speak­ing for the twelve (who were all pres­ent by this time), said: “We are trou­bled by your words to the rich young man. Shall we re­quire those who would fol­low you to give up all their worldly goods?” And Je­sus said: “No, Pe­ter, only those who would be­come apos­tles, and who de­sire to live with me as you do and as one fam­ily. But the Fa­ther re­quires that the af­fec­tions of his chil­dren be pure and un­di­vided. What­ever thing or per­son comes be­tween you and the love of the truths of the king­dom, must be sur­ren­dered. If one’s wealth does not in­vade the precincts of the soul, it is of no con­se­quence in the spir­i­tual life of those who would en­ter the king­dom.”

163:3.4And then said Pe­ter, “But, Mas­ter, we have left ev­ery­thing to fol­low you, what then shall we have?” And Je­sus spoke to all of the twelve: “Ver­ily, ver­ily, I say to you, there is no man who has left wealth, home, wife, breth­ren, par­ents, or chil­dren for my sake and for the sake of the king­dom of heaven who shall not re­ceive man­i­fold more in this world, per­haps with some per­se­cu­tions, and in the world to come eter­nal life. But many who are first shall be last, while the last shall of­ten be first. The Fa­ther deals with his crea­tures in ac­cor­dance with their needs and in obe­di­ence to his just laws of mer­ci­ful and lov­ing con­sid­er­a­tion for the wel­fare of a uni­verse.

163:3.5“The king­dom of heaven is like a house­holder who was a large em­ployer of men, and who went out early in the morn­ing to hire la­bor­ers to work in his vine­yard. When he had agreed with the la­bor­ers to pay them a denar­ius a day, he sent them into the vine­yard. Then he went out about nine o’clock, and see­ing oth­ers stand­ing in the mar­ket place idle, he said to them: ‘Go you also to work in my vine­yard, and what­so­ever is right I will pay you.’ And they went at once to work. Again he went out about twelve and about three and did like­wise. And go­ing to the mar­ket place about five in the af­ter­noon, he found still oth­ers stand­ing idle, and he in­quired of them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all the day?’ And the men an­swered, ‘Be­cause no­body has hired us.’ Then said the house­holder: ‘Go you also to work in my vine­yard, and what­ever is right I will pay you.’

163:3.6“When evening came, this owner of the vine­yard said to his stew­ard: ‘Call the la­bor­ers and pay them their wages, be­gin­ning with the last hired and end­ing with the first.’ When those who were hired about five o’clock came, they re­ceived a denar­ius each, and so it was with each of the other la­bor­ers. When the men who were hired at the be­gin­ning of the day saw how the later com­ers were paid, they ex­pected to re­ceive more than the amount agreed upon. But like the oth­ers ev­ery man re­ceived only a denar­ius. And when each had re­ceived his pay, they com­plained to the house­holder, say­ing: ‘These men who were hired last worked only one hour, and yet you have paid them the same as us who have borne the bur­den of the day in the scorch­ing sun.’

163:3.7“Then an­swered the house­holder: ‘My friends, I do you no wrong. Did not each of you agree to work for a denar­ius a day? Take now that which is yours and go your way, for it is my de­sire to give to those who came last as much as I have given to you. Is it not law­ful for me to do what I will with my own? or do you be­grudge my gen­eros­ity be­cause I de­sire to be good and to show mercy?’”