Parable of the Laborers
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Matthew 20:1-16
Matthew 20:1-16
We are going to jump back into the parables.
What parables have we covered so far? I will give you a chocolate bar if you answer.
Parable of the Sower
Parable of the Tax Collector
Parable of the Talents
Parable of the Rich Fool
Parable of the Ten Virgins
Parable of the Unforgiving Servant
Good Samaritan
What are things that you would say are not fair in our world? Specifically in your realms, things you encounter?
How would you define fair?
How do we decide what is fair or not? Tradition, laws, comparison.
What do we do when something is unfair?
We live in a world consumed with fairness and equality and yet it is increasingly unfair and unequal. The point of this lesson is not how the world or we should be fair or unfair, but I will point out some of us have consumed our lives with attempted to making things fair or right in a world that corrupted by sin and the fall will never being fair or right.
I know that is a depressing thought, but you can invest as much money and effort and time into ridding corruption and rule breakers and you will never fully clense it because we are by nature corrupt.
Moving on from that turn with me to Matthew 20.
1 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. 2 After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. 3 And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, 4 and to them he said, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.’ 5 So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same. 6 And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing. And he said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’ 7 They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’ 8 And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.’ 9 And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius. 10 Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius. 11 And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house, 12 saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’ 13 But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? 14 Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. 15 Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’ 16 So the last will be first, and the first last.”
I will say from the onset that some of my thinking in this passage was greatly helped by the Preach the Word commentary on Matthew and I found that very helpful as I studied this passage.
As we enter into this story we have a couple main characters.
Master
Vineyard
Laborers
Denarius (we will get to this later)
In this parable Jesus doesn't expressly give us the characters as he has in other stories.
But who do you think the characters represent?
Master- God the Father
Vineyard- Christian work
Laborers- Christians
This parable is a little different in some of the others that we have studied in that there is not a lot of meanings and backgrounds and such to breakdown and discuss but rather than story as a whole communicates the point Jesus was trying to get across.
Someone summarize the story that we read—what happened?
A master has a vineyard and needs to hire workers—some he hired first thing in the morning, some a couple hours after that, and a couple hours after that, and so on until he hires some workers at the 11th hour—right before quitting time.
And after it is all said and done—what happens? They all get paid—they all get paid a days labor.
So what do you think this parable is comparison too? Salvation—the gift of salvation.
I am going to hone in on verses 8-16 as it is the meat of the story.
8 And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.’ 9 And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius. 10 Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius. 11 And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house, 12 saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’ 13 But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? 14 Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. 15 Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’ 16 So the last will be first, and the first last.”
The point of the parable is this:
God’s free gift of salvation is just and generous.
God’s free gift of salvation is just and generous.
We need to remind ourselves of that—this amazing, undeserved, unwarranted gift of mercy and grace that is poured on us is amazing and it is just and it is generous. He doesn’t just give us some of it or part of it but rather all of it.
How is God’s gift of salvation just?
Jesus died on our account, took the punishment and wrath to satisfy the sin so that we can have life—it has been paid in full—it is just because he didn’t just overlook it or forget about it, he paid it.
There are many different workers here in this story but Jesus focuses on two groups which are what?
First & Last.
(put of slide of faces)
Who are some of these people?
The “heroes of the faith” or “popular christians” or even people who we may say have done a lot for the Christian faith. If we were to put these people into categories they would be among the first laborers—those who are at the forefront and even respected for their positions.
Who would be some of your heroes of the faith? Or first Christians?
Lets zoom in a little bit and focus a little closer to home—perhaps this would be your circle of respected Christians—the cream of the crop. Those in leadership positions—the first ones here and the last to stay often, the ones who people look up to and go to.
It’s good and right to have healthy respect and esteem for their position but sometimes we think we have to look like that to be right with God—don’t we?
A commentator says, “Believers who due to their status, wealth, power, talent, beauty, success, fame, or any other trait deemed valuable to the world are much esteemed by the world and often also within the church.”
So if those were the first workers, who are the last?
One author put it this way—the first are those who arrive well before Church starts and stay well after its done, and the last are, well, you know who you are.
Who would you say the last are—use generic terms or types of people not names.
Think through the gospels, who would of been the last?
Little children, a leper, a blind man, a centurion, a paralytic, a Canaanite women, a tax collector.
Some would argue that when it refers to first and last here the first would be the first Christians specifically the 12 disciples but if you look at the disciples they themselves were among the down and outers. There were no perks of being a disciple outside of relationship with Jesus. There certainly no perks after Jesus left—church history tells us they were brutally murdered. I don’t think this is the disciples and those that followed.
I think Jesus is calling out the two groups of belivers we sort people in our mind.
The reason the workers that were chosen last were chosen last is because no one wanted them. Workers that were still left at 5 PM were the bottom of the barrel. You certainly were not taking them for the value added to your crew.
We would be lying if we didn’t admit there were times we were not embarrassed or ashamed by some of the people the Lord has saved—who serve along side us. Perhaps its their background or their struggles or their deficiencies but we somehow thing they are more unworthy of the reward than we are.
In this story at the end of the day all who worked got paid one denarius. We could spend time on what that was but the basic of it a day’s labor, a reasonable, well accepted.
I asked what makes something fair—why would someone think it unfair here that were all paid the same?
Be honest, how would you react if you worked all day at your neighbors house and your friend shows up at 4 PM, works an hour and gets the same?
You would be upset—but is it unfair? Why?
If you agree to something and they honor that agreement why does it matter what others get?
Were they unfair to you for doing what they said they would do?
In the Christian life there is a reward, a payment if you will that we receive which is what? Eternal life/salvation.
The payment of the denarius at the end of the day would have been in line with Jewish tradition and laws but it is indicative of something else here too.
When do we get that gift of eternal life or salvation?
Now or later?
Yes—both. We are saved now, but we also will be saved later.
We have been saved, redeemed, forgiven.
9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
But we also know there is coming judgement and at the end we will be saved from eternal damnation.
We have been justified but in a sin tainted world we still struggle with sin. But one day we will be free of those chains—I am not saying we will be saved again but we will full realize the salvation to which we have been given.
There are two wrong ways to look/react to grace:
Begrudging
Grumbling
Begrudging being looking down on with disgust. This is when see some of the others in the field with us so to speak and we look down on or lament the fact they will get the same reward as us.
Why do you think we do this?
“Self interest, a lack of compassion for others, or a misunderstanding of the nature of grace distorts our clear vision.”
We fail to remember just what God has done for our us and instead focus on others and all the reasons why they don’t deserve something.
They just started working and yet we get the same.
And what happens is it leads right inot the other wrong way to react at grace which is grumbling.
What is grumbling?
Bickering, complaining, mumbling, being annoying about it.
14 Do all things without grumbling or disputing,
9 Show hospitality to one another without grumbling.
9 Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing at the door.
Obviously this is a problem if it keeps coming up—but how do we do it?
How do we grumble about grace?
“That’s not fair”
How about instead of that we say “Wow, this grace, God’s generosity transcends human conception or fairness.”
We may not see it as fair but it is.
I think of the Israelites.
Think with me about the storyline here. The Israelites during Josephs time go into captivity, first willingly moving there and as kings died and forgot about Joseph pretty soon they were enslaved. They were without hope for generation after generation.
You can picture the people praying Lord if you save us we will do anything for you—we will never complain and will be so thankful.
Enter Moses—the 10 plaques, the angel of death that passes over the houses of those.
That reminds me of a story DA Carson shared:
Picture two Jews, by the name of Smith and Brown. Remarkably Jewish names.
The day before the first Passover they’re having a little discussion in the land of Goshen, and Smith says to Brown, “Boy, are you a little nervous about what’s going to happen tonight?”
Brown says, “Well, God told us what to do through his servant Moses. You don’t have to be nervous. Haven’t you slaughtered the lamb and dobbed the two door posts with blood—put blood on the lintel? Haven’t you done that? You’re all ready and packed to go? You’re going to eat your whole Passover meal with your family?”
“Of course I’ve done that. I’m not stupid. But, it’s still pretty scary when you think of all the things that have happened around here recently. You know, flies and river turning to blood. It’s pretty awful. And now there’s a threat of the first-born being killed, you know. It’s all right for you. You’ve got three sons. I’ve only got one. And I love my Charlie, and the Angel of Death is passing through tonight. I know what God says; I put the blood there. But it’s pretty scary, I’ll be glad when this night is over.”
And the other one responds, “Bring it on. I trust the promises of God.”
That night, the angel of death swept through the land. Which one lost his son?
And the answer of course is: neither.
Because death doesn’t pass over them on the ground of the intensity, or the clarity, of the faith exercised. But on the ground of the blood of the lamb. That’s what silences the accuser.
The blood silences the accuser of the brothers as he accuses us before God. He silences our consciences when he accuses us directly. How many times do we writhe in agony asking if God can ever love us enough, if God can ever care for us enough after we have done such stupid, sinful, rebellious things after being Christians for 40 years?
What are you going to say, “Oh, God, I tried hard, you know. I did my best. It was a bad moment”?
No, no, no.
I have no other argument! I need no other plea! It is enough that Jesus died, and that he died for me!
We overcome him by the blood of the lamb. There is the ground of all human assurance before God. There is the ground of our faith. Not guaranteeing intensity of faith—so fickle are we.
It’s not the intensity of our faith but the object of our faith that saves. They overcome him on the ground of the blood of the lamb
Even in that we could complain—thats not fair, one was very faithful and confident while the other snuck in. But not the intensity of our faith but the object of our faith that saves.
With that as the backdrop—God saves them and takes them out of Egypt and parts the waters and delivers them from Pharoah. And what did they do?
The complain, they grumble—Moses we would rather be enslaved then die here in the dessert.
They grumble, they complain. Why?
They lose sight of the object of their faith.
We go from undeserving of amazing grace to unsatisfied in what we have been given.
We grumble because we lost sight of what Christ has done. “It’s not fair”
He has taken a dead, useless heart and made it new, rescued us from death and thats amazing.
The thief on the cross showed up at the end of the day, hardly worked and yet he was saved.
As we think about this parable hopefully we are encouraged to keep pressing on. There is a reward that is fair and just. The work will look different for many of us but thats okay. Keep pressing on.
Do not complain or grumble. Remember the gift that we have been given and how amazing that is.
