“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard. About nine in the morning he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ So they went.
He went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing. About five in the afternoon he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’ ‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered. He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.’
When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’ The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner.
‘These who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’ But he answered one of them, ‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’” “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.” Matthew 20:1-16
“In a rabbinic story of the time, the owner of a farm went into town to hire temporary workers for the harvest. The day wore on, and as late as the eleventh hour he recruited one last batch of workers, who had a mere hour remaining to prove their worth. In the familiar version of the story, the latecomers made up for lost time by working so hard that the foreman decided to reward them with a whole day’s pay. Jesus’ version, though, says nothing about the diligence of the workers. He accents instead the generosity of the employer — God — who lavishes His grace on veterans and newcomers alike. No one gets cheated and everyone gets rewarded, far beyond what they deserve.”
Philip Yancey (b. 1949) in The Jesus I Never Knew: Revealing What 2,000 Years of History Have Covered Up (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996) 95.
I got my NICNT Commentary on Matthew out and, sure enough, R.T France notes the following (748).
“An early fourth century B.C. rabbinic parable (y. Ber. 2:8 = Eccl. Rab. 5.11.5; Cant. Rab. 6/2/6) at first sight seems closer to that of Jesus, in that one man who only worked two hours is given the same pay as those who worked all day, but this is justified by the judgment that he had accomplished more in two hours than they had in the whole day.”
So when we sit with Phil and read this text with this fresh insight, we see Jesus is trying to get them to understand grace. The denarius comes not because they deserve it but because God is generous.
So notice the source of the grumbling. It’s the mindset of the world but of God’s people in that day.
It flows out of the entitlement mentality related to work. When Jesus started the parable, they were probably thinking it would end with with the “equal work with equal pay” conclusion based on merit.
This would have been a prevailing cultural mindset then, and we see it today.
People who think they should get what they deserve need to look in the mirror and say out loud, “Because of my sin, I deserve death and no amount of hard work can make things right.”
That’s why Jesus would accomplish the work for us, dying for our sins on the cross.
Back to the parable. Only when we understand that a denarius was one day’s wages and be sufficient supply for a person to live do we stop grumbling and see the generosity of God.
God is the landowner. He wants everyone to work in His vineyard. Whether you come at the start of the day or the end of the day, He will supply what you need. That’s generosity. That’s grace.
So for us, we need to stop grumbling about what we do not have. Give thanks for what we have. And invite everyone we know to labor in His kingdom and trust Him for daily bread.
And notice I changed the header photo to Bear Creek. This will be my world over the next week. Sammy (our son), Emily, Eve, and Ellie will travel to California with Sophie (our daughter) and Peter to see their grandparents in honor of their 65th wedding anniversary.
I get to stay at Sammy and Emily’s place and house sit and watch their two dogs. I will be walking this trail many times a day. What a privilege to help them go have a great trip starting tomorrow!
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