Don’t Worry About Your Start

I. Text: (CSB) 1 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. 2 After agreeing with the workers on one denarius, he sent them into his vineyard for the day. 3 When he went out about nine in the morning, he saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. 4 He said to them, ‘You also go into my vineyard, and I’ll give you whatever is right.’ So off they went.

5 About noon and about three, he went out again and did the same thing. 6 Then about five he went and found others standing around and said to them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day doing nothing?’ 7 “‘Because no one hired us,’ they said to him. “‘You also go into my vineyard,’ he told them. 8 When evening came, the owner of the vineyard told his foreman, ‘Call the workers and give them their pay, starting with the last and ending with the first.’

9 “When those who were hired about five came, they each received one denarius.

II. Subject: Don’t Worry About Your Start

III. Introduction: This message is a great message for us to understand that we should not get caught up in when we started or even where we are right now in our life. If you walked in with your head down or your shoulders slumped forward because you feel you got a late start; I pray that you will see the worth of this message and raise your head up and your shoulders back in the name of Jesus. So, again I say…

Don’t Worry About Your Start

IV. Body: 1. For links what follows to the preceding. It is because of what Jesus has just said about those who would follow him giving up everything for the kingdom of heaven’s sake and because of the reversals implied in the first being last and the last first that Jesus proceeds to this parable. He speaks about a “landowner”. The man in this parable owned a vineyard. Jesus speaks of a time when the grapes were ripe, and the time had come to pick them. The man went out early, which would be usual in order to be sure of getting the workmen and also of getting a whole day’s work out of them.5 Jesus does not say where he went to, but the normal place for hiring workers appears to have been the marketplace, and that is where he would have gone (cf. v. 3). We should probably understand the day laborers as being somewhat poor or needy. They were not part of a household, so they depended for their livelihood on being hired each day.

2. The landowner apparently had little difficulty in getting workmen, and he came to an agreement with them that they should work for a denarius per day which appears to have been the normal pay for a day’s work. There would probably have been no difficulty in negotiating such a deal, for it meant normal pay for normal work. With agreement reached he sent them off to his vineyard.

3–4. Either he could not at first get all the workmen he needed or else he decided later to hire some more so that the work would be done more quickly. So, he went out about the third hour, that is, the third hour after sunrise. The day begin at sunrise and the night at sunset. So, with about a quarter of the daylight hours gone the landowner went out again. He found potential workmen standing in the marketplace idle. Evidently, they were looking for work but had somehow escaped his notice when he made his initial venture out.

Don’t Worry About Your Start

So, he approached them to secure them as laborers. There is no specific offer of a job, nor is there any indication of haggling over terms or even of coming to an acceptable agreement (as in the case of the first workers). The landowner simply addressed them and directed them to go into his vineyard. He named no specific figure as the wage but said that he would give whatever is right (“pay you a fair wage,” REB, GNB). The workmen apparently were ready to leave it to the owner. They may have understood him to mean that he would pay the right proportion of a denarius. 5. Evidently this was enough, for the workmen went off. The landowner repeated the process at three-hour intervals. We get a picture of a man who wanted a good deal of labor for his vineyard, but who could not get it all on any one occasion; therefore, he made repeated visits to the marketplace, and as he found them he directed workers to his vineyard.

6. That the man kept coming and looking for workmen even toward the end of the day appears that he wanted to complete his grape harvest that day; grapes will not keep indefinitely but must be harvested soon after they ripen. There is a slightly longer conversation with those hired at about the eleventh hour. By this time the working day was almost over, and it is somewhat surprising that there should still be potential laborers standing and evidently seeking employment.

Don’t Worry About Your Start

The fact that they were still there perhaps indicates that they desperately needed work. This time there is no immediate offer of employment, but a question as to why these men had been standing idle all day long. For whatever reason the landowner thought it reasonable to inquire before proceeding further.

7. But the reason is simple: no one had hired them. Jesus does not explain how they had come to miss the landowner with his continuing offers of work, because that is not the point of the story. It is rather that right up to the eleventh hour the landowner was ready to take on workmen; and at that very time he sent his final batch to the vineyard. Once more there is no discussion about their pay. There is the simple instruction, “You go into the vineyard, too.” Obviously, there was an understanding that these last workmen would be paid, but there is nothing to show how much they would get.[1]

Don’t Worry About Your Start

V. Conclusion: A parable: Is an earthly story to illustrate a heavenly lesson.

8 When evening came, the owner of the vineyard told his foreman, ‘Call the workers and give them their pay, starting with the last and ending with the first.’

9 “When those who were hired about five came, they each received one denarius.

This parable warns us that priority in time means little. It seems better to interpret the parable as putting emphasis on the truth that God acts in grace toward us all.[2]

[1] Morris, L. (1992). The Gospel according to Matthew (pp. 499–501). Grand Rapids, MI; Leicester, England: W.B. Eerdmans; Inter-Varsity Press.

[2] Morris, L. (1992). The Gospel according to Matthew (p. 504). Grand Rapids, MI; Leicester, England: W.B. Eerdmans; Inter-Varsity Press.