Matthew 20:1-16
1 “For the Kingdom of Heaven is like the landowner who went out 1) early one morning to hire workers for his vineyard. 2 He agreed to pay the normal daily wage and sent them out to work. 2) 3 “At nine o’clock in the morning he was passing through the marketplace and saw some people standing around doing nothing. 4 So he hired them, telling them he would pay them whatever was right at the end of the day. 5 So they went to work in the vineyard. 3) At noon 4) and again at three o’clock he did the same thing. 5) 6 “At five o’clock that afternoon he was in town again and saw some more people standing around. He asked them, ‘Why haven’t you been working today?’ 7 “They replied, ‘Because no one hired us.’ “The landowner told them, ‘Then go out and join the others in my vineyard.’ 8 “That evening he told the foreman to call the workers in and pay them, beginning with the last workers first. 9 When those hired at five o’clock were paid, each received a full day’s wage. 10 When those hired first came to get their pay, they assumed they would receive more. But they, too, were paid a day’s wage. 11 When they received their pay, they protested to the owner, 12 ‘Those people worked only one hour, and yet you’ve paid them just as much as you paid us who worked all day in the scorching heat.’ 13 “He answered one of them, ‘Friend, I haven’t been unfair! Didn’t you agree to work all day for the usual wage? 14 Take your money and go. I wanted to pay this last worker the same as you. 15 Is it against the law for me to do what I want with my money? Should you be jealous because I am kind to others?’ 16 “So those who are last now will be first then, and those who are first will be last.”
2 Corinthians 5:17 tells us about a spiritual reality that is part of every believer in Christ when we received Him as our Savior and Lord. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” This new life we have in Christ is formed and experienced by the many lessons we have learned about ourselves from God’s Word. Through these lessons, we learn that the Holy Spirit teaches us we come to realize that there are many things that should not be a part of the life of someone who has a loving relationship with God.
In our relationship with God, we should have learned that we live in a world that is influenced by the way we thought and lived in the past before our new life in Christ. Ephesians 2:1-2, 2 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. We also should have learned that this world is influenced by a spiritual kingdom we do not see, the kingdom of darkness which is ruled by our enemy, Satan.
As maturing believers in Christ, we live this life in Christ with a new way of thinking that is expressed by our decisions, actions and words, as understood in Ephesians 4:22-24. “22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”
At this point you might be asking yourself, what does what I have been reading have to do with Jesus’ parable of the workers in the vineyard?
If you remember in last week’s study we pointed out after the rich young man (Matthew 19:16-30) left Jesus, He directs His attention and teaching to His disciples who were listening to everything that He told the rich young man. Matthew 19:23-30, 23 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “I tell you the truth, it is very hard for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. 24 I’ll say it again—it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God!” 25 The disciples were astounded. “Then who in the world can be saved?” they asked.
There was a way that the disciples thought that needed to be changed. “It was commonly believed by the Jews that if someone was blessed with riches, they had God’s approval and were thereby assured of entrance into His kingdom of heaven.” This is why when Jesus said what He said in verses 23-24 the disciples responded the way they did in verse 25. The way that the disciples were looking at the situation was from their old way of reasoning and not from God’s perspective. 26 Jesus looked at them intently and said, “Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But with God everything is possible.”
Then Peter exposes what was truly on his heart and mind concerning what happened with the rich young man and what Jesus was teaching them by saying in verse 27, “Then Peter said to him, “We’ve given up everything to follow you. What will we get?”. Jesus could have easily rebuked Peter for saying such a comment, however Jesus, being the loving and merciful teacher, did not. Jesus used Peter’s comment as a teaching opportunity to help him and the other disciples to see the correct answer from a spiritual perspective.
Even though there was much personally that the disciples gave up in this life to follow Jesus, they did not realize they were making investments for eternity which does not go unnoticed by Jesus. Matthew 19:28- 30, 28 “Yes,” Jesus replied, “and I assure you that when the world is made new and the Son of Man sits upon his glorious throne, you who have been my followers will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 29 And everyone who has given up houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or property, for my sake, will receive a hundred times as much in return and will inherit eternal life.
When reading verse 30 we must keep in mind the context to which Jesus is referring to; “now” applies to here in this life on earth; “then” applies to in the future in heaven. 30 But many who are the greatest now will be least important then, and those who seem least important now will be the greatest then.
As Jesus begins the parable (Matthew 20:1-16), he places it in the context of “then”, in the future, 1 “For the Kingdom of Heaven is like…”, using an earthly example, a vineyard and those who went to work in it. Charles Erdman in his commentary gives us a good explanation about the context of the moment of Jesus teaching Peter and the others. “The interpretation of this parable has been found difficult simply because it has been separated from the story of the rich young man and from the question of Peter to which it really belongs. It was simply designed to indicate the peril of refusing to enter the service of Christ and the danger of a commercial spirit in seeking for rewards in such service. Peter seemed to imagine that, because he had sacrificed for Christ, the Master was bound to give him a great reward. Jesus did promise the reward, but he wished to rebuke the spirit which prompted one to serve, not in love and gratitude, but for the sake of the recompense which may be given.”
The mentality that Peter and the other disciples had about what would they get “now” for leaving the things of this life behind to follow and serve Christ, was reflective of the old way of life with its worldly and selfish way of thinking. It was a “what’s in it for me” and “I want it now” way of looking at their voluntary decision to be disciples of Christ.
In verses 1-7 of Matthew chapter 20 there are five groups of workers or day-laborers. The first group of workers verses 1-2 were recruited to work in the vineyard early in the morning. Most Bible scholars believe the hour to be 6:00 a.m. which was considered to be the first hour of the day. This group was different than the other four in that an agreement was made with the owner of the vineyard how much they were to receive for their day’s work, which was for a denarius or the “normal daily wage “.
The other four groups of workers were hired at different times of the day. The second group, verses 3-5a started to work at the third hour of the day or at 9:00 a.m. The third group, verse 5b was hired at the sixth hour which is noon and in the same verse we see that the fourth group was hired at 3:00 p.m. The last group of workers were hired at 5:00 p.m. or the eleventh hour, verses 6-7.
What these last four groups had in common was they did not negotiate an agreement with the land owner of how much they were going to get paid at the end of the day as did the first group. What the last four groups did differently than the first group was that they trusted the honesty of the landowner when he told them that he “…would pay them whatever was right at the end of the day.”
What is the application of this parable for us today? We must remember Jesus is teaching Peter and the other disciples that things work differently and will be different in the kingdom of heaven than they are now on earth. To understand this, we need to change our way of thinking, as Ephesians 4:23 in the New Living Translation it says, “…let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes.”
In this parable we see all five groups of workers were faithful with their work until the end of the day. What was different was how many hours each of the five groups labored in the vineyard. With the five groups of laborers, the task that was given to each group was the same no matter what hour they started to labor in the vineyard. The pay or recompence was also the same for each group of workers no matter the hour they entered the vineyard to work, in spite of how long they endured the heat of the sun.
In God’s vineyard or “the Kingdom of Heaven” there will be no seniority, no scale of rewards based on what we do and or how long we have served the Lord. There will not be any special privilege or consideration of time being a member. Everyone in God’s kingdom is equal in worth and equal in status and are equally loved by God. And as the laborers of the vineyard, what we will receive will not be based on how long we have known Jesus or how long we labored and served Him.
In verses 10-15 we read, that even though the first group protested, they were paid as they had agreed with the owner of the vineyard. We need to be careful not to compare what we do for the Lord with others, then complain about how much more blessed they are than us.
In God’s eyes our worth is not measured by what we do or how long we have been doing it, but what God sees is our love for Him lived out by our faithfulness to the end.
Barclay sums up this parable this way. “Surely that brings us to the supreme lesson of the parable–the whole point of work is the spirit in which it is done. The servants are clearly divided into two classes. The first came to an agreement with the master; they had a contract; they said, “We work, if you give us so much pay.” As their conduct showed, all they were concerned with was to get as much as possible out of their work. But in the case of those who were engaged later, there is no word of contract; all they wanted was the chance to work and they willingly left the reward to the master.”
Pastor John
