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Read Matthew 20:1-16
This is a worrying parable.
On the surface it seems to be a parable about how unfair life can be and it appears to devalue work and if, in fact, an employer behaved like this today, the unions would be up in arms – and rightly so!
This is the parable of equal wages for unequal work!
How Matthew tells the story
Remember there were no chapter divisions when Matthew wrote his gospel.
Jesus is talking with his disciples at the end of chapter 19 and he finishes with the punchline “Many who are first will be last and many who are last will be first”. Then he goes on to tell a story that illustrates that
Right at the end of the story he repeats the punchline (20:16) “So the last will be first and the first will be last”
Sooo if we want to understand the parable, some of the keys to it’s significance are going to be lurking at the end of chapter 19 <ppt: arrow>
Parables are usually open-ended and it’s helpful to consider the situation that gave rise to it.
<ppt> Jesus and the rich young man
A rich young man has gone away dejected because Jesus told him his riches would get him nowhere with God
- He was a young man with great wealth so it’s likely that his wealth was not earned from his own labours (because he was still young) so it had come to him – most likely from an inheritance. So this man probably hadn’t worked for his living.
Can our riches get in the way of our eternal life? – Yes it can! Says Jesus. In fact, when the rich man had skulked away, Jesus said this to his disciples (19:24)
- “Listen – this is the truth. It’s hard for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven – in fact I’ll give you another truth: It’s easier for a camel to squeeze through the eye of a needle than for a rich man (like that one) to enter the kingdom of God!”
<ppt> Jesus worried his disciples
This unnerved Jesus’ disciples. Presumably they recognised that, while they weren’t in the super-rich category, they all had some means of their own
So they said to Jesus privately “In that case, Lord, who can possibly be saved?” (19:25) Is there hope for any of us?
- “Jesus looked at them and said “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible (even rich men entering the kingdom!)”
hinting that in God’s economy things are very different from ours.
Jesus was not saying the rich man couldn’t enter the kingdom, he was saying that it’s more difficult because he has the additional complication of his attachment to his money and prestige to contend with.
- It is more a work of God when that happens!
- Entire Devotion to the Lord has always competed with high wealth – especially riches we don’t work for!
- Salvation is not a matter of wealth, or prestige, or talent or fame or any of the things we are lured into striving for, it’s in God’s gift.
- And his way of reckoning is very different from ours (as we are going to see!)
<ppt> yes, you have made sacrifices
So Peter opens his big mouth “Lord, look at the sacrifices we’ve made for you!” (19:27) “We’ve left everything for your sake – we’ve got nothing left!” (isn’t that what you asked the rich man to do just now? – well we’ve done it! – surely that gets us into the kingdom”
(and here’s God’s way of reckoning coming into play)
“At the end of time” says Jesus “when the Son of Man (me) sits on his glorious throne, then you who have followed me (you who have given up everything) will also sit on thrones.
(can you hear God’s alternative way of reckoning coming into play?) Those at the bottom of the pile will be seen as actually being at the top (because of their sacrifice for the kingdom)
In fact anyone who gave up time and money and career and reputation and fame and prospects for Christ will receive a hundred times more at the end of the day – and they will also inherit eternal life
First and Last?
We need to ask about what Jesus meant us to understand by using this phrase of the first and the last?
There were (broadly speaking) two ways the word ‘first’ was used. Either first in order (one before another) or first in priority (one takes precedence over another)
If Jesus meant first in order it tells us that some people will get there ahead of others and we are left with a very confusing picture of how we enter salvation, particularly with Jesus saying the normal order of things (first and last) is going to be turned on its head! We can discount that use of the word.
That leaves us with first in priority. Some people will get there easily while for others it will be much more difficult. Some will take precedence over others when it comes to joining God’s kingdom.
The rich man thinks he is going to be first – actually you will be. He’s given up very little but you’ve given up everything.
So this parable was told to the disciples to help them grasp how we enter the kingdom and how God is free to reward people as he chooses.
The Story
Recap vv1-16 >>>
They operated a 12 hour day, beginning at 6am
- So the times in the story are 6am, 9am, midday, 3pm and (unusually) 5pm. You wouldn’t normally hire someone at 5pm.
- So Jesus is making a point here – that God will take people into his labour force right up to the last minute.
A denarius is the normal pay for a day’s work for a labourer. It was what the soldiers in the army were paid at about that time
- There is an ancient Jewish writer called Josephus, who described the economic situation of this time and it was dire. There was no state aid and few benefactors. Many people lived a hand-to-mouth existence, so for the men in the marketplace, offering themselves for hire, if you didn’t get work, you went hungry.
So any land-owner who came to hire men on spec like this was seen as doing them a service because otherwise they would be destitute.
- These men were all existing at the bottom of the economic pile. Unemployed and with no prospects. They were the powerless men, who were the polar opposite from the rich man Jesus had just sent away, telling him to give to the poor.
So how would the disciples have heard this story – probably not like us!
- For the vineyard owner to pay the man hired at 5pm and full day’s wages for an hour’s work was an act of staggering generosity! This man had not been hired by anyone else and would otherwise have remained destitute.
- So the man gave the master all that he could – and hour’s work! And the master gave him all that he could – adequate provision for that day!
If the master is a picture of our heavenly Father <ppt>
And if the master is a picture of our heavenly Father we can see here his amazing grace<ppt>. His generosity freely given to us who don’t deserve it for one minute. Did the man hired last deserve a full day’s wages? No – of course he didn’t! But the master still gave it.
If the master is a picture of our heavenly Father we can see here his awesome sovereignty <ppt>. He can give his gift of life to whom he pleases. Did these men earn the master’s choice of them? No. He singled them out from the queue in the market place.
- It’s within his arena of choice and I am deeply humbled by the fact that he hired me – at whatever time of the day.
And if the master is a picture of our heavenly Father we can see here his complete fairness <ppt>. My salvation will have just the same results as anyone else’s. I may have been hired earlier in the day, but my eternal reward will be just the same as any other believer’s reward.
HOWEVER
The men who had worked all day started grumbling – and we’re meant to identify with these men – and the pull ourselves up with a start when we realise we’re being greedy – just like the rich man was!
E.g. the parable of the prodigal son – the punchline was in the older brother. He complained that the father was being unfair by accepting back his wayward son. But the father
Now notice some key factors in this parable
All the men were equally desperate. They were selling themselves in the public market.
The Master was equally generous. Doing what he could to provide for these poor people.
So the master paid them all equally – they are all at the bottom of the pile – they were all the people who were ‘last’ in Jesus analogy! BUT the master gave them the pay – and they entered the kingdom
then look at v15
“Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money?” asks the vineyard owner – and we have to say ‘yes, he’s the owner, of course the way he uses his reward is his decision alone!”
so the twist is in the tail v15 “are you envious because I am generous?”
What’s the 10th commandment? ‘Don’t covet your neighbour’s wife, or car, or TV, or job, or wealth, or house.
- Be content with what you have!
First message
Many poor, struggling people will have a more significant place in his kingdom than the rich and powerful .
Why? Because they have been compelled by their poverty to apply their faith to their lives. When you’re completely out of resources, faith is all you’ve got left – so they’ve trusted the Lord for their daily bread in a way the powerful and the wealthy (that’s most of us here) have never had to.
It’s an uncomfortable reality, but it does seem to be what Jesus is saying in this parable.
Second message
Work for God’s kingdom, however small or late in the day, is never wasted. All the workers received a reward – the same reward.
