Matthew 20:1-19--Laborers in the Lord's Vineyard

​Matthew 20:1-19 English Standard Version (ESV)
LISTEN:  https://www.biblegateway.com/audio/mclean/esv/Matt.20.1-Matt.20.19
Laborers in the Vineyard
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.”

Jesus Foretells His Death a Third Time
17 And as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside, and on the way he said to them, 18 “See, we are going up to Jerusalem. And the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death 19 and deliver him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day.”

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Jesus continues teaching on "the last will be first and the first will be last" by way of parable now.  In this story a man with a vineyard needed to hire many day laborers to help with the harvest because the time is limited and the work has to get done before the time for harvest has run out, or the fruit will rot on the vine and be no good.  This is still a common practice in our world today and if anyone reading this owns a farm or had a family that owned a farm, you'll understand that it's all hands on deck and even other farmers and people from the community come and help because they know that farm literally puts food on their tables.

Everyone would know when it's harvest time.  the signs are there.  You would see that the fruit was ripe, you could smell it in the air, and you would see the farmhands and vineyard workers rushing to start the harvest. Keep that in mind when you hear some of the excuses.  Also, you probably won't be familiar with this system of time, so let me explain that the Roman clock went in hours from 6 am (roughly sunrise) to 6 pm (roughly sunset).  There are 12 "hours" of daylight to work with.  Keep this in mind when reading the parable as well.

First the master goes out early in the morning, likely before the sun comes up and hires the day laborers that are up early eager and looking for a full day's work--you see this in some towns today where people that want day labor jobs gather in certain areas and the farmers know where to go to to find them.  This group knows the signs and is prepared and eager to be a part of God's workforce.  They agree to do a full day's work for a day's wages (a denarius).  It was a fair price.  While these people wouldn't have gotten to work for God if God didn't offer them a job they've wanted to be on God's workforce from the beginning and they probably feel like they chose God (maybe even in slightly prideful way of feeling like they had something God needed from them).  Like every other person in this story though God chooses them and sets the terms and conditions of employment.  It's God who is doing the hiring here.

Then again the master came out a quarter of the way through the day looking for even more laborers because the harvest was plentiful but the laborers were few.  He didn't find these ones waiting for work as harvesters, but instead busy about their everyday lives and thinking about the things of the world--busy in buying and selling in the marketplace (probably best to think of this as a marketplace of different ideas and worldviews of people trying to find the right philosophy or worldview that would save them.  If you've seen the 3 Circles presentation, these are people in the "Brokenness" circle trying to find a way of escape.) and trying to make a living for themselves.  He guaranteed them fair pay, but this time does not specifically specify their wages--most of them would probably expect a smaller reward because they worked fewer hours.  That would be reasonable.  That would still sound like a great deal, especially if business wasn't going so good that day..  Some of these men who were trying to make it on their own realized that God's way was not only better or best, but the only way of escape from their sin and brokenness, and they too joined God's workforce.  Broken people often think of themselves as having baggage that will cause them to be seen as less valuable in God's eyes and they can't imagine that God would want to offer the same gift of salvation to them as to a person who appears to have no brokenness.  You may not be able to convince them of their value in God's eyes immediately, and this parable seems to indicate that you don't need to.  In fact the master here really doesn't ask these people he just says, "You come work for me too."--His very act of choosing them shows that He values them.  They didn't choose God, God chose them.

The owner then approached others in the same way during the sixth hour (around noon) and ninth hour (around 3 pm).  It just look some people longer to figure out that the none of the ways of the world were working for them and some made the decision early in their lives and others not so early on.    I think it's fair to think of the time both as time until Christ returns, but also possibly as an indicator of how old the person may have been when they made their choice to repent and believe the gospel.  In both cases you're working against a clock because we only have until our natural deaths or until God decides that the time of harvest is completed for us to make that decision.

Then finally the master goes out for "last call"--one hour before sunset to see if there is anyone left that can help Him because He still hasn't found enough laborers for the plentiful harvest (the harvest of souls before those souls die or the day of the Lord comes and they get swept up in the other harvest that we've already talked about).  This is the last chance for these people to be saved.  Maybe they've waited all their lives only to make a deathbed confession or maybe they have said they will wait until they see the signs of the day of the Lord approaching before they decide to make things right with God.  Not many in this camp will choose to be a part of God's team, and they may especially feel like they have wasted the entirety of the youth of their lives and that God couldn't use an old person like them or that there's just simply no more time left for them to go out and win souls for Christ because they were waiting to make their decision until the very end as well.  After the sixth trumpet in the book of Revelation we only see God's wrath poured out on the world and it appears that there is no more harvest for salvation at that time, but only a time of severe plagues and wrath in quick success where all the enemies of God are destroyed.  Even if you think we are living in the end times, do not wait for that day.  Prepare now, because the longer you wait, the harder it is to want to make that decision, because in this case this potential laborer would feel silly going to work for only an hour--he might as well just go home at that point.  Why get dirty and sweaty for only one hour?  There may seem to be nothing to gain for this person.  Yet some people will look at themselves and realize that they have been lazy this entire time and have no money in their pockets and they'd be better of with something than with nothing...even if it's only a small reward.  The excuse of these men seems laughable until you understand what they are saying.  "Why haven't you accepted the gospel and been saved yet, old man (or old woman)?"  And there answer is, "I would have, but no one shared the gospel with me my entire life."  How sad and what a black mark on our churches today that there are people that will say to God, "I would have believed, but no one told me."  God Himself goes and seeks out these people that no one else has been willing to invite.  There will be no excuses when everyone stands before the throne of God.  Even if God needs to make an eleventh-hour appeal to someone through a dream or vision or some other kind of special revelation or sends an evangelist or pastor (or you) to them in their eleventh-hour, He will make sure that they know the gospel and can join His team if they want to.  This is why ministries like prison ministries and nursing home ministries, and hospital ministries are so important for churches to be involved in when people are in those eleventh-hour moments.  We need to be there to answer those calls when they realize that even though they have made no attempt to include God in their lives yet, they somehow know He is the only answer for them.  God still loves these people and He still chooses them, even when many of us would not choose them because we passed them by assuming they had nothing to offer.  It is God's desire for all men and women to be saved.

The master then lines them up to pay them their wages from the ones that joined last to the ones that joined first.  People would assume this to be very strange, because you wouldn't do this as the vineyard owner if you were going to pay everyone out of a fixed bag of money.  You'd want to make sure there was enough to pay those that worked for you all day first and then if you ran out later down the line, no one would really be that upset about it because they knew they didn't work as hard.  But God doesn't do that here.  He makes everyone that was saved first see that He gives exactly the same reward--even to those who made deathbed confessions.  Some of those from the first group were incredulous.  Remember what I said earlier about them thinking they had chosen God and that they thought they were something special.  They actually think they get to argue with God about how He pays His employees and they forget that they are a slave in God's household and they work for God, not the other way around.  They tell a sob story about how they had it so bad working long hours in insufferable conditions and these others didn't experience any kind of hardship or trials like they did (as if that somehow obligated God to give them something more than they had been promised).  God will still speak kindly but firmly to them saying that He did them no wrong and gave them exactly the amount that they contracted to work for and it's His business not theirs how He spends His money and pays His laborers and that they need to simply take what belongs to them and stop complaining.  Then Jesus repeats the lesson He's been trying to teach...."In this way the last will be first, and the first will be last."  Jesus is not telling them that there is benefit in waiting, but rather that there is no special treatment for those that are on God's side for their entire lives--in fact, the may experience more hardship.  Everyone will get the same reward--abutment everlasting life in the presence of God in heave and citizenship in the kingdom.

Then Jesus needs to "reset" the scene for them and remind them that He doesn't have forever in His time here on Earth.  He's about to die on the cross and be raised on the third day,   This time Jesus gives a few more details.  First He says that He's going there on purpose.  Yes, the chief priests and the scribes will condemn Him to death (we've heard that before).  But now He tells them that they are going to turn Him over to the Gentiles (the Romans) to be mocked, flogged and crucified.  There was no mistaking what kind of death, but that He would be raised to life on the third day.  I don't blame them if they didn't hear that last part before the part about being turned over the the Gentiles to be crucified probably would have made ti hard for them to hear anything else.  We may not have this context, but for any Jew to be hung on a tree was a curse like no other.  

Deuteronomy 21:22-23 English Standard Version (ESV)
A Man Hanged on a Tree Is Cursed
22 “And if a man has committed a crime punishable by death and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, 23 his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is cursed by God. You shall not defile your land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance.

So for them to hear that He was going to die on a cross when they knew He committed no sins and that this was a sign that He was cursed by man and God in a way that would cut Him off from God's covenant blessings, and moreover that He was going into this willingly with eyes wide open, they were probably too much in shock to hear the part about rising again on the third day.  Jesus became sin for us and took on the wrath and curse of God that we all deserved.  The bad news is that you deserved this, the Good News of the gospel is that Jesus took it for you because you couldn't.