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Intro
As we continue our sermon series called the Meaning of the Parables, we are going to close out the last two weeks by focusing on two stories Jesus told in his ministry that answer the question, “Who is God?”
This week we will be looking at the parable of the laborers in the vineyard from where Jesus teaches us about the wonder of God’s unmerited grace.
You see, many Christians will talk about the grace of God and even affirm they are saved totally, completely, wholly, by his grace all while functionally living as if God keeps a point system.
In our parable, Jesus demolishes any notion that God gives eternal life on the basis of anything other than his loving kindness.
Context
Immediately before our passage Matthew tells us the story of the Rich Young Man.
During Jesus’ ministry, a man comes to him who is very wealthy and asks Jesus, “What good deed must I do to have eternal life?”
Jesus responds by telling him if he wanted eternal life, all he needed to do was keep God’s commandments perfectly.
Now the reason Jesus doesn’t tell him that he must repent and believe in his gospel is because Jesus was trying to show him how he could never do enough to gain eternal life.
That no one can keep God’s commandments perfectly.
But this man doesn’t understand and so he tells Jesus, “Yes!
Of course I’ve kept all of the commandments, but I’m still missing something.
What is it?
So Jesus tells him that if he would be perfect (in other words meet God’s holy standard) then he had to sell everything he had and give it to the poor.
And Matthew tells us that the Rich Ruler went away very sorrowful because he had great possessions.
Jesus was lovingly trying to show this man that he had not kept God’s law perfectly because he had broken the very first one that You shall have no other gods before me.
The Rich Young Man loved his possessions and wealth more than he loved God which is by definition idolatry.
And as this man was leaving Jesus tells his disciples that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter God’s kingdom.
This stuns Jesus disciples because in their day, if anyone was blessed and loved by God surely it was this devout, rich young man.
The prevailing belief in Jesus’ day was that how much God loved you was reflected in how blessed you were in proportion to how devoutly you followed him.
Because the Rich Young Man obeyed God’s commandments plus the fact that he was very wealthy, would have led the disciples to believe this was someone who God loved.
But when Jesus said that this man had rejected salvation, the disciples begin to wonder, “Then who can possibly be saved?”
To which Jesus said With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.
Jesus was telling them that no person could ever do enough to merit God’s salvation.
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .
Pondering this, the disciples must have realized, “If we left everything we had to follow Jesus, then God must have done the impossible in our own lives.
And Peter voices a concern that all of the disciples had.
He asks Jesus, “Ok.
Since we have left everything to follow you, what kind of reward will we have?
What kind of honor will we receive in your kingdom?”
You see, the disciples had a thirst for honor.
Even right after our parable in , James and John’s mother comes to Jesus and asks him to allow her sons to sit at the places of greatest honor in his kingdom.
And Jesus disciples became indignant towards James and John.
Not because they were so pious thinking to themselves, “Oh James and John, don’t you know how proud you sound?”
But because they wanted that place of honor for themselves!
Every single one of them wanted to sit at Jesus’ left or right hand.
And how Jesus responded to his disciples will launch us into our parable.
Jesus reassured them that they would be honored in his kingdom by sitting on twelve thrones to judge the twelve tribes of Israel, but he went on to say that everyone in the kingdom was going to be honored.
And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life.
30 But many who are first will be last, and the last first.
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .
For Jesus, he wanted to show his disciples that what was important was not how much you were honored or rewarded on the basis of their works in God’s kingdom.
What matters is not how much we are honored, but how much we honor the Father who saved us!
The Story
Jesus illustrates this point with a parable where he starts by saying, 2 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.
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.’
So Jesus opens the story with a man who is a master of a house and owns a sizable vineyard, and it was time to harvest all his grapes.
Owning a vineyard is a risky enterprise even today.
Especially in the ancient world where there wasn’t climate controlled barrel rooms, it was imperative that you harvested the grapes at their peak of ripening because even one day extra in the hot middle eastern sun could damage the grapes and diminish the quality of wine that could be produced.
Knowing this, the master of the house went out to hire some day laborers “early in the morning.”
no doubt sometime prior to 6am when the work day would start.
He finds some laborers and strikes a deal to pay them a denarius for a day of labor.
Now ordinarily, only full time employees would earn a wage of a denarius a day.
This was even the typical pay for a Roman soldier.
Unskilled laborer like the ones in Jesus’ story would normally be hired for a fraction of that because they were in no position to negotiate.
If they didn’t work, they might not be able to eat or provide food for their families.
But the master of the house comes along and says, tell you what, you work for me today and I’ll pay you like one of my normal employees.
Jesus is trying to magnify the profound generosity of the master of the house.
A little bit into the day, the master realizes he is going to need more workers if he is going to harvest all his grapes.
Jesus continued 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.’
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .
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.’
So the master goes out at the third hour which is about 9am and finds some other laborers
Literally in greek this means they were without work.
They were not trying to avoid working hard.
After all they wanted to provide for their families.
It was just that the opportunity had not come along yet.
So the master hires them saying, “I’ll pay you whatever is right to pay you.”
Seeing how he already offered the other laborers a whole denarius, they jumped at the opportunity and went to the vineyard as well.
The he does the same thing around noon and 3pm and hires more workers.
Finally, about 5pm, with one hour left in the work day, The master goes again to the market place and found some more workers standing.
He asked him, why have you been standing here idle all day?
Literally in greek this means they were without work.
They were not trying to avoid working hard.
After all they wanted to provide for their families.
It was just that the opportunity had not come along yet.
Literally in greek this means they were without work.
They were not trying to avoid working hard.
After all they wanted to provide for their families.
It was just that the opportunity had not come along yet.
So the master says, you know what?
There is still an hour left in the day, you go work too and I’ll pay you.
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.
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