WORK IN THE VINEYARD

WORK IN THE VINEYARD

Matthew 20: 1-16 NET.

¹ “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. ² And after agreeing with the workers for the standard wage, he sent them into his vineyard. ³ When it was about nine o’clock in the morning, he went out again and saw others standing around in the marketplace without work. ⁴ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and I will give you whatever is right.’ ⁵ So they went. When he went out again about noon and three o’clock that afternoon, he did the same thing. ⁶ And about five o’clock that afternoon he went out and found others standing around, and said to them, ‘Why are you standing here all day without work?’ ⁷ They said to him, ‘Because no one hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go and work in the vineyard too.’ ⁸ When it was evening the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, ‘Call the workers and give the pay starting with the last hired until the first.’ ⁹ When those hired about five o’clock came, each received a full day’s pay. ¹⁰ And when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more. But each one also received the standard wage. ¹¹ When they received it, they began to complain against the landowner, ¹² saying, ‘These last fellows worked one hour, and you have made them equal to us who bore the hardship and burning heat of the day.’ ¹³ And the landowner replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am not treating you unfairly. Didn’t you agree with me to work for the standard wage? ¹⁴ Take what is yours and go. I want to give to this last man the same as I gave to you. ¹⁵ Am I not permitted to do what I want with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?’ ¹⁶ So the last will be first, and the first last.”

We have been following the Gospel chronologically and stopping to analyze the commands of Jesus. Last week we looked at Jesus’ instruction to the rich young man in Mark 10. If I had chosen Matthew’s Gospel, that passage would have been Matthew 19:16-30. So, the following passage in Matthew is today’s text. It contains a parable that is not in any other place – the parable of the workers in the vineyard. Because it is a parable, we will not find a direct command in the passage itself. There is an implied command. Before we get to that, I want to look at today’s passage itself and see what we can learn from it.

Jesus is describing the work of the Kingdom.

Jesus says the kingdom of heaven is like what happens to the characters in Jesus’ story of the workers in the vineyard. Matthew’s Gospel is about Jesus as the king of the coming kingdom. Matthew presents Jesus as the son of David and Abraham (1:1). Matthew presents evidence proving that Jesus is the rightful king of the coming kingdom by showing that he descended from David. That evidence is in chapters 1-4 of the Gospel. Matthew also shows that Jesus is the sacrifice God intended to provide atonement. Jesus is the sacrifice provided by God in place of Isaac in Genesis 22. That evidence is in chapters 26-28 – the final three chapters of Matthew’s Gospel. So, the focus of the seven chapters at the beginning and end of the Gospel is on who Jesus is as the coming king.

The other 21 chapters in Matthew’s Gospel are about the coming kingdom itself. Chapters 5-7 are called The Sermon on the Mount. It contains Jesus’ instructions for believers on representing his coming kingdom in this present age. Chapters 8-11 tell us how to spread the kingdom by evangelizing others. Chapters 12-13 encourage us to stay committed to his coming kingdom. Chapters 14-19 teach us how to live by the standards of the coming kingdom.

The focus changes around this point in Matthew’s Gospel once again. The following six chapters are all about when the kingdom will come and set up his kingdom on earth. This section will teach us more about the Second Coming than any other place. That is why Matthew chose to include this parable here. The parable as a story is about a day working in a vineyard. But the story is about working for the King today as we look forward to Him coming from the sky and setting up his kingdom on Earth.

The parable focuses on the workers’ pay at the end of the day. Although the landowner hires different workers at different times during the day, he pays them all the same wage regardless of how long they labored in the vineyard when he went to settle with them. Since the parable is about the kingdom, the work that is done in the parable symbolizes all the work done by kingdom citizens today.

It seems unfair.

Workers were hired to work the vineyard in shifts. Some started early in the morning. Others showed up to be hired at 9 am. Then noon, then 3 pm. Then, finally, a group started at 5 pm.  That meant that they only worked for one hour. When the last group got in line for their day’s pay, they were paid the standard wage. Every worker in the vineyard that day got the standard salary.

The first group – the one starting early in the morning- began complaining about the day’s pay. It was the pay that they had agreed to. But it didn’t seem fair that the pay was the same as that given to the last group – the one that only worked an hour.

The landowner insisted that he was not mistreating anyone. He paid everyone the same price. He was right to treat all his workers the same way and reward them with the standard wage. But it just seems unfair.

Part of the reason we can’t get our heads around this story is that we are accustomed to working for hourly wages. Business owners hire people by the hour and pay them according to a scale they can afford. For unskilled labor, it just makes sense. But it makes less sense if the employer ignores that arrangement and pays everyone the same wage regardless of their work hours.

But our modern problems with how this story unfolds are not that much different from the problems its original hearers and readers had with it. Remember that the story did not tell us how to pay our employees. The point of the story was not about proportional remuneration. It’s about the kingdom of heaven. It’s about what will happen when the kingdom in heaven comes down to earth.

Many things will happen when Jesus returns to Earth to set up his kingdom here. But one of the most important things is that he will gather all his kingdom citizens.  In the Book of Revelation, Jesus says that he is coming soon and has his reward to pay each one according to what he has done (Revelation 22:12).

But even reading those words, we might get the impression that the coming kingdom will be inhabited by some who are rewarded more than others. We know that society today is like that. Some make more money than others. Some can afford bigger houses, newer cars, and better clothes. Life is about status. There is an upper class, a middle class, and a lower class.

In other words, life today is unfair. Our Constitution tells us that all are created equal, but the moment some people are born, their inequalities scream out. Most seem trapped in a life that grants them undeserved blessings or challenges. Some people are exceptional and go from rags to riches. But most do not break the mold.

It is fair because of God’s grace.

The message of the parable of the workers in the vineyard is that when King Jesus returns to set up his kingdom, there will be a hard reset. Everyone who has ever come into the kingdom will receive the standard wage. Each will receive the gift of God, eternal life in Christ Jesus (Romans 6:23).

No one deserves this gift. It is a gift. That is why it will not matter how many hours you work in the vineyard. We will not be saved because we worked a single hour in the vineyard. Our salvation is based on the fact the landowner sought us out. Whether he found us first thing in the morning or just an hour before quitting time is irrelevant. We are saved because of the shepherd seeking out lost sheep.

Our God is seeking the lost even today. Some of us have been working hard for him for decades, but our time in service will not make us any more saved than those who answer his call on their deathbeds. Our conversion is not a work we perform for him. It is an act of grace by him.

The ground is level at the foot of the cross. That is why the Apostle Paul tells us that our status is all the same – there is “neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female — for all of you are one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). Since our status is the same, our reward will be the same.

The kingdom that comes from heaven will not have upper and lower classes. He is preparing a place for us that will not reflect our greatness or lowliness. Jesus told us that we will receive the kingdom like a child. All our status, accomplishments, and things we take pride in are considered nothing because they make no difference to God. Our greatness does not impress God.

The problem that the rich young man had in last week’s message also relates to this story. The Lord told him that there was one thing he lacked. He told him to sell all he had and give it away to poor people. But this seemed so unfair for Jesus to ask him to do that. He had worked hard for his wealth. He had made wise decisions. It seemed unfair for Jesus to penalize him for making sound financial decisions. So, he was sad and left sorrowful because he had much wealth.

But Jesus is the king of his coming kingdom. He has every right to treat all of his citizens the same. He is not obligated to let anyone who does not agree to his terms into his kingdom. It is his kingdom. The king says “Come” to whoever wants to come. “And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let the one who hears say: “Come!” And let the thirsty one come; let the one who wants it take the water of life free of charge” (Revelation 22:17).

The Apostle Paul discovered this amazing fact of God’s fair grace. He told the Philippians that if “someone thinks he has good reasons to put confidence in human credentials, I have more: I was circumcised on the eighth day, from the people of Israel and the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews. I lived according to the law as a Pharisee. In my zeal for God I persecuted the church. According to the righteousness stipulated in the law I was blameless. But these assets I have come to regard as liabilities because of Christ. More than that, I now regard all things as liabilities compared to the far greater value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things — indeed, I regard them as dung! — that I may gain Christ, and be found in him, not because I have my own righteousness derived from the law, but because I have the righteousness that comes by way of Christ’s faithfulness — a righteousness from God that is in fact based on Christ’s faithfulness. My aim is to know him, to experience the power of his resurrection, to share in his sufferings, and to be like him in his death,

and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead” (Philippians 3:4-11).

Paul was a rich man who made the right choice. He decided to follow Jesus, but he first had to divest himself of all his “greatness.” Nobody gets into the kingdom by deserving it. We all bow to the one who bought us by his blood. We all surrender our ideas of fairness and receive his kingdom as little children. We all surrender our self-reliance and self-sufficiency and become objects of mercy.

For further study:

Buchanan George Wesley. The Gospel of Matthew. Wipf & Stock 2006. pp. 775-779.

Clarke Howard W. The Gospel of Matthew and Its Readers: A Historical Introduction to the First Gospel. Indiana University Press 2003. pp.164-167.

Davis Daniel J. Parables of Matthew. FaithQuest Brethren Press 1998. pp. 49-57.

Fortna Robert Tomson. The Gospel of Matthew: The Scholars Version Annotated with Introduction and Greek Text. Polebridge Press 2005. pp. 168-169.

France, R.T. The Gospel According to Matthew. Grand Rapids (MI: Eerdmans, 2007. pp. 746-752.

Harrington, Daniel J. Meeting St. Matthew Today: Understanding the Man, His Mission, and His Message. Chicago: Loyola Press, 2010. p. 62.

Vann Jefferson. The Coming King: a new translation and commentary of Matthew’s Gospel. Piney Grove Publications 2023. pp. 197-199.