Lesson Focus:
God’s
grace is his to give to whomever he wishes, whenever he wishes.
Catch up on the story:
Once again, the parable under consideration is a result of a
question, or questions that have been put to Jesus. The first question that is put to Jesus is the question of
the rich young man in verse 16 of chapter 19. The man asks Jesus what he must do to have eternal
life. Jesus tells him to keep the
commandments. The man has done
this diligently. Finally, Jesus
urges the man to go and sell all that he has and give his money to the
poor. That way he will have
treasure in heaven. A call to
follow Jesus is also issued. The
rich man goes away sad because he was very rich.
Jesus then turns to his disciples and declares that it is
very hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven. In fact, it will be easier for a camel
to fit through the eye of a needle!
The disciples are astounded by this declaration (Remember, riches were
often seen as a sign of God’s favor).
This leads us to the second question. Peter, who has indeed left everything to follow Jesus, wants
to know what he will receive for his sacrifice and faithfulness. Indeed, the disciples, and those who
are faithful in sacrifice will receive much in the way of eternal reward. But, Jesus ends the chapter with a
warning as well, “But many who are first will be last, and the lasts will be
first.” The meaning of this
warning will become clear as we examine the parable.
Critical Questions:
1.
How
does this text reveal to us the nature and character of God/What is God doing
in this text?
2.
What
does holiness/salvation look like in this text?
3.
How
does an encounter with this story shape who we are and who we should become?
The Text:
The
parable begins, once again, with the iconic words “For the kingdom of heaven is
like…” As we have said before,
Jesus is comparing a known world and rule to living in the reign of
God. In other words, Jesus is
painting a picture of life as it should and will be when Jesus’ kingdom is
fully established. Jesus is now in
the process of bringing the kingdom of heaven here on earth, a process that
involves inviting his followers to become good citizens of that kingdom. There is a steep learning curve, so
Jesus sets about teaching via parables.
What is the kingdom of heaven like? The kingdom of heaven is like a
landowner who has a vineyard that needs to be harvested. So, the master himself sets out early
in the morning to hire workers for the day. Day laborers (see Important
Terms) would congregate in the market place in hopes that they might be hired
for the day. It may not be common
in our fair city, but there are places in our country where day laborers,
usually immigrants or migrant workers, gather at local business in hopes that
they might get hired for the day.
This happens at places like Lowes and Home Depot. Usually those who are being hired, both
then and now, were from the poorer segments of the community.
As the parable begins we are immediately struck by the idea
that the landowning master himself goes out to hire the laborers. Later on in the parable we will meet
the master’s manager who is tasked with the job of paying the workers. Why would the master go out himself
when he could send his manager instead?
And, he does not go out just once, but multiple times! Perhaps this points to the nature of
the King at the center of the kingdom of heaven. What we confess about who God is in Jesus Christ is that he
is the God who goes, the God who leaves his position of comfort so that he
might mingle and personally call us to work along side him. The King at the center of the kingdom
of heaven is a King who issues his call to participation in the kingdom not
just once, but early and often.
The master enters the marketplace and hires the first
workers he sees. He agrees to pay
them the usual daily wage. What is
translated “usual daily wage” is really “a denarius.” Then, a little later in the morning, the master goes out
again to hire workers. This time
he agrees to pay the workers, “whatever is right.” No amount is settled upon, the workers will have to trust that
the master will not take advantage of them. It may also be that the workers had no other hope of being
hired for the day, so any amount of pay would be better than nothing. Again the master goes out at noon,
three o’clock and toward the end of the day at five o’clock. Each time he agrees to pay the workers
whatever is right.
The end of the day arrives and the master instructs his
manager to pay the workers, beginning with the ones who arrived the
latest. Each worker will receive
the normal daily wage. When the
late arriving workers received their own pay, the workers who had worked the entire
day began to get excited because they believed that they might receive more
than what had been promised them.
They quickly learn that this is not the case. The workers who were hired first only
receive the normal daily wage, the same amount as those who had been hired at
the very end of the day. As you
can imagine, they begin to grumble.
I imagine if we all were put in this similar situation that our reaction
would be much the same. “I worked
all day along! And it was
hot! How can he give more to the
guy who only worked an hour? It’s
not fair!” The master’s treatment
of workers who were hired later in the day goes against everything we are
taught is fair and right. “You get
what you work for. If you want a
lot, then you have to work hard for it” and “Those who don’t work very hard or
long shouldn’t get the same as those who work hard.”
The master of the vineyard turns those notions on their
head. In fact, the master points
out that he has dealt fairly with the workers who are now grumbling. The master has paid the promised
wage. Besides, can’t the master do
with what he has in the way that he wants to? Of course he can.
Jesus then closes the parable with the same warning he began
with, “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.” What do we make of this parable and its
warning? We might spend some time
discussing who the workers are, or whom they represent. Many have speculated about the identities
of the workers. Some of the early
church fathers believe that the workers represented different time periods of
human history from Adam to Christ. Others have speculated that the workers
represent people who receive Christ at various ages of their life. The workers who were hired at the end
of the day represent the elderly.
Some have speculated that the later workers were the Christians while
the ones hired early in they day were the Jews.
The identity of the workers, I do not believe, is the main
point of the parable. It is,
rather, the identity of the master that matters most in this parable. As we have already said, the master is
a missionary master; he goes out, personally, to recruit workers. He calls early and often. Not only that, he is an extravagantly
benevolent master. He promised
that what he would pay the workers would be fair and right. With the first workers he gives them
the normal daily wage. But with
the later workers he becomes extravagant!
One commentator wonders if “Jesus is hinting at the goodness of grace, at a judgment that will be more
generous than our conscience usually allows us to believe?”[1] After all, is it not up to God to do
with what belongs to him in the way that he chooses? God’s generosity is far beyond our usual ability to
comprehend.
The
warning that Jesus gives about first becoming lasts and lasts becoming firsts
speaks deep to our hearts. How
often do we pride ourselves on being workers who have shown up early to work in
the Christian faith? Many of us
have been Christians since an early age.
We have heard the call of the master and have responded. But do we get envious when those,
perhaps who have not worked as hard or as long, receive or will receive the
same blessings we have? Do we
think of ourselves more highly than we ought because we have worked so
long? If so, we are in danger of
becoming lasts. The unthinkable
grace and love of God is God’s to give to whomever he wishes, whenever he
wishes. May we rest in the
knowledge that God has given that great grace to us, not because we have
deserved it, but because he desired to give it.
So What?
The
kingdom of heaven is like great and unmerited grace. The King of that kingdom, Jesus Christ, calls us to come and
participate in his kingdom, to join the work, and promises to reward us fairly. Only, the King doesn’t cease
calling. All those who listen and
respond get to participate in the kingdom and receive its rewards, even those
who respond very late in the day. The King is more than just fair, the king is
extravagant, giving disproportionate payment to those who, often times, we
believe shouldn’t get very much.
God’s grace is his to give.
We
are warned, though. We will become
lasts, not from a failure to work, but from an over-sized vision of what we
think we deserve in comparison with others. Rather, we should rejoice in the great gift of grace that
God has given us. We should
rejoice and find comfort in the fact that the master we serve is extravagant in
his blessing to all. And then, we
must exercise the same great grace.
Important Terms:
Day Laborer:
“Day
laborers fall into a class of people in advanced agrarian societies known as
‘the expendables’… For them, as
Thomas Hobbes noted, life was ‘solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.’ Owing to the specters of ‘malnutrition,
disease and deprivation’ that haunted them, they were unable to maintain marriages,
or reproduce themselves, but the ranks of the expendables were continually
replenished by ‘the steady stream of new recruits forced into is ranks form the
classes immediately above it,’ the unclean and degraded, the peasantry, and the
artisans. The expendables were largely
composed of the excess children of peasant households who could afford to pass
on their inheritance to only one child, usually the eldest son; the holdings of
these peasants were to small to support more children. ‘The best that most of them [the
expendable] could hope for was occasional work at planting and harvest time and
charity in between…’ Between 5 and 10 percent of the population ‘found itself
in this depressed class…’”[2]
Critical Questions:
1.
How
does this text reveal to us the nature and character of God/What is God doing
in this text?
a.
God
in Jesus is an active God who goes out early and often to call workers to
participate in his kingdom work.
God is gracious with what is his own, giving regardless of merit.
2.
What
does holiness look like in this text?
a.
Holiness
looks like our becoming like the master who goes out early and often to call
and invite others to work alongside of us. As we grow in grace, as we become more like the master, we
learn to become extravagantly generous with what God has given us.
3.
How
does an encounter with this story shape who we are and who we should become?
a.
We
are called to participate in the extravagant nature of the kingdom of
heaven. We should become like the
master who goes out, early and often, into the public square and call others to
join in and begin as workers in the kingdom of heaven. We should become like the master by
being extravagantly generous with the grace and love that we have received from
the master.
Specific Discussion
Questions:
Read the text aloud. Then, read the text to yourself
quietly. Read it slowly, as if you
were very unfamiliar with the story.
1.
Refresh your understanding of the context. As a group, go back and read Matthew
19:16-30.
2.
Why do you think that the master himself goes out to
hire workers? Why do you think he
continues to go out throughout the day?
3.
Why does the master not settle on a given wage for the
workers he hires later in the day?
4.
The master instructs his manager to pay the workers
beginning with the ones hired last.
Why do you think this is?
5.
Why does the master give the workers who were hired at
the end of the day the same amount as the first workers hired? Do you think your reaction would have
been the same as the reaction of the first workers hired?
6.
If we are the workers in the story, what does this say
about us? How might we become like
the master in the story?
7.
What does Jesus mean when he says, “So the last will be
first, and the first will be last?”
[1] Frederick Dale Bruner, Matthew:
A Commentary: The Churchbook, Matthew 13-28, Revised & enlarged edition
(Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2004), 320.
[2] William R. Herzog II, Parables
as Subversive Speech: Jesus as Pedagogue of the Oppressed, 1st edition
(Louisville, Ky: Westminster John Knox Press, 1994), 88-89.
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