Bible study series: Matthew 20:1-16. Sometimes it is titled Parable of the Workers.
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In the next link to the original chapter, I comment more and offer the Greek text. At the bottom you will find a “Summary and Conclusion” section geared toward discipleship. Check it out!
In this post, links are provided for further study.
Let’s begin.
Scripture: Matthew 20:1-16
1 The kingdom of heaven is like a man, the landowner, who goes out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. 2 Agreeing with the workers for a denarius for the day, he sent them out into his vineyard.
3 Then at the third hour he went out and saw others standing around in the marketplace unemployed and 4 said to those, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and I’ll give you whatever is fair.’ 5 They went.
Again, he went out around the sixth and ninth hours and did the same thing. 6 Around the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing around and said to them, ‘Why are you standing here all day, unemployed?’ 7 They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You also go into my vineyard.’
8 When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Summon the workers and give them their wage, beginning with the last, up to the first.’ 9 Those going out at the eleventh hour received a denarius each. 10 And the ones going out first thought they would get more. And even they received a denarius each.
11 Although they took it, they began to grumble against the landowner 12 saying, ‘These last ones worked one hour, and you made them equal to us, although we bore the brunt of the day and the burning heat!’ 13 In reply, he said to one of them, ‘Friend, I have not wronged you. Didn’t you agree with me for a denarius? 14 Take what is yours and go. I want to give to the last ones as also to you. 15 Isn’t it legal for me to do what I want with what is mine? Or is your eye evil because I am good?’
16 And in this way the last will be first and first last.” (Matt. 20:1-16)
Comments:
This parable carried over from Peter’s question in 19:27: Peter said he and the disciples left everything to follow Jesus. Peter and the apostles were hired first, and yet we have been hired later in the kingdom, but we get the same pay, but only if we preach the gospel of the kingdom.
This parable, boiled down, is about the Father’s generosity, not a lesson on economics, either in worldly kingdoms or his kingdom. It is about his mercy and grace, even for the latecomers to his kingdom. Salvation and grace and eternal life are the same and are equal for the early arrivers and the tardy, who arrive at the last hour.
1-16:
This time, let’s take the entire parable in one overview.
Recall that the last statement in the previous chapter set up this parable: “Many who are first will be last and the last first” (19:30). That statement and the same one in 20:16 provide two bookends, or, to use a fancy word, an inclusio or an envelope or an enclosure.
“kingdom of heaven”:
5 The Kingdom of God: Already Here, But Not Yet Fully
Bible Basics about the Kingdom of God
Questions and Answers about Kingdom of God
Basic Definition of Kingdom of God
1 Introducing the Kingdom of God (begin a ten-part series)
A denarius is what a farm laborer (or soldier) got for one full day of work. Everyone knew this, so the parable is designed to surprise the listener. Before we get to the point, let’s review some of the background details.
“early in the morning”: probably 6:00 a.m. (6:00h)
“third hour”: 9:00 a.m. (9:00h)
“sixth and ninth hour”: noon (12:00h) and three o’clock (15:00h).
“eleventh hour”: five o’clock p.m. (17:00h)
Though the word parable is not used here, it obviously is. So what is a parable?
“evil eye”: it is a Middle Eastern idiom for jealousy or resentment or miserliness, in this context (Osborne, comment on 20:15). But I prefer a more literal translation.
Let me write out who the landowner is: God the Father.
Who is the foreman? He could be just a character in the story, or he could be the Son of God, or he could be another messenger carrying out the Father’s will.
It would be an overreach to say the vineyard is Israel (see Matt. 22:1-14; 23:12; Luke 14:11), because something deeper is going on. Matthew will cover the Israel theme later. However, the pericope may have circulated as a story about Jews v. Gentiles or pagans. When pagans get saved, they have as much salvation and grace and eternal life as Jews do—God is extra-generous and extra-generous and extra-merciful with people who had gone astray.
The workers are characters in the story who are there to prove a bigger point. They do not show that we have to work to earn God’s favor. Just the opposite. We do not have to work to earn it.
One millennial pastor said that on the next work day, he would show up at the eleventh hour to get a denarius! Clever and humorous, but not quite getting the point because the reason that some workers came at the eleventh hour is that they may have been working in their own small fields (the cultural and economic context teaches us this). Now they needed more employment. These late workers were not necessarily lazy. Just the opposite. They worked hard. Alternatively, they may have been undesirable types who are victims of bodily deficiencies or other uncleanness. They may not have been “last” in a temporal sense only, but last in a social sense.
It was biblical law that the landowners had to pay the workers at the end of the day (Lev. 19:13; Deut. 24:14-15), because the landlords paid in cash, and the workers had to buy food on that day, since there was no refrigeration.
With those introductory background elements done, let’s now get to the meaning of the parable.
Jesus begins the parable with a typical scene that everyone could relate to. It is harvest time, and the harvest has to be brought in. That’s the reason he went to the marketplace throughout the day. He needed workers. The landowner agrees on the wage for those hired early, and the workers early in the morning trusted in the integrity of the landowner, and he did show them integrity. They got the standard wage at the end. But then as the story progresses, Jesus introduces, by degrees, features that shock the listeners. “Did he just say that the guys who where hired at five o’clock also get one denarius, each? That’s good for those guys but bad for business to pay one denarius for one hour of work! He lost money!”
The point of the story is that in the worldly system, the people who work the longest indeed get the most pay. That is fair and just. But this parable is not a guide to discuss labor law in a civil society today. Bad idea.
Instead, in Matt. 19:27 Peter pointed out that he and the other eleven had forsaken all. What will happen for them? It is true that Jesus promised them thrones of judgment in the Next Age, but this should not discourage the rest of us to think we won’t have any salvation or grace or eternal life or ministry opportunities.
The landowner gently shamed them for objecting to generosity. They were focused on economic fairness and justice, but the landowner was focused on mercy and generosity. For those who worked long hours, justice or fairness was served, but for those who worked one hour, mercy was added.
The point, however, to this parable is that in God’s kingdom, he extends equal grace and salvation and eternal life to those who need it at the eleventh hour as to those who needed grace and salvation and eternal life early on. God’s grace and salvation is for everyone in equal measure, from the longstanding kingdom citizen, as well to those who entered the kingdom only an hour ago.
So now we have the announcement in a pithy statement: the last will be first and the first last. This statement is a correction to the belief that the ones who received grace and salvation early on somehow have more of it than those who received it recently. The long-timers expected—perhaps demanded—they get more. Not so. With that attitude, they go to the back of the line. And the ones who did not complain go to the front of the line.
This parable is like the Parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32). The elder son, who was responsible, did not get a celebration when he did all the right things. His dad may have celebrated his obedience many times, for all we know. In contrast, the younger son, who was disobedient, returned home and received a Welcome Home Party. The older son resented it and said so, just as the early-morning workers did.
I like to apply this final statement (the first will be last, and the last first) to the famous TV pastors who believe they are working harder and longer hours than the Sunday School teacher. The TV pastor should be paid like a CEO in a big corporation. Maybe that’s true in a worldly system, but they have no more grace or salvation than the humble teacher.
“This reverses the order of 19:30 and so frames the parable with the principle of the greatest eschatological reversal. Those who make the world’s values primary and place them above God will be ‘last’ at the eschaton but those who put Christ first and find themselves in this world will receive the kingdom rewards of 19:28-29” (Osborne, comment on 20:16).
Blomberg summarizes and applies the parable:
The reason we object to equal treatment for all is precisely the objection of the workers in this parable—it doesn’t seem fair. But we are fools if we appeal to God for justice rather than grace, for in that case we’d all be damned. Nor will it do to speak of salvation begun by grace but ever after preserved by works. True salvation will of necessity produce good works and submission to Christ’s lordship in every area of life, or else it never was salvation to begin with. But all who are truly saved are equally precious in God’s sight and equally rewarded with eternal happiness in the company of Christ and all the redeemed. (comment on 20:13-16)
I won’t push it too far, but I would just point out that famous TV pastors who accumulate money and fame down here on earth may be sent to the back of the innumerable crowds for all eternity because they got their reward down here, right now. At the same time, a little-known worker in the kingdom will go to the front of the line.
Just a passing thought.
GrowApp for Matt. 20:1-16
1. Has God done something unexpected in your life, like give you as much grace and salvation as the ones who were Christians a long time? Tell your story of God’s undeserved grace and salvation.
2. If you are a longtime Christian, what did you think when you saw an “extra-lost” sinner get as much salvation and grace as you have right now?
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14. Similarities among John’s Gospel and the Synoptic Gospels
1. The Historical Reliability of the Gospels: Introduction to Series
SOURCES AND MORE
To see the bibliography, please click on this link and scroll down to the bottom. You will also find a “Summary and Conclusion” for discipleship.
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