Transcription
Jesus told a story that would have made every hardworking person in first-century Israel furious. And that's exactly the point. In God's kingdom, the math does not add up because the kingdom is not about fairness. It's actually about God's unfairness. And we're going to get into it on this episode of Every Word.
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Welcome back to Every Word. My name is Nate Solah and today we're studying Matthew 20:1-16. Before we do that, as always, please do me a favor, like, sub, and share this video around. Let's get everyone reading the Bible together on YouTube. Amen.
All right, let's read together. "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. After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And going out about the third hour, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace. And to them he said, 'You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right, I will give you.' So they went, going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same. 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?' They said to him, 'Because no one has hired us.' He said to them, 'You go into the vineyard, too.' 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.' And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius. Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more. Each of them also received a denarius. And on receiving it, they grumbled at the master of the house, 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.' But he replied to one of them, 'Friend, I'm doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me or do you begrudge my generosity?' So the last will be first and the first last."
This passage is a continuation of a point that Jesus is making to his disciples and it actually starts back in Matthew chapter 19, verses 23-30. So for reference, let's just go back there and take a quick look at that again.
"And Jesus said to his disciples, 'Truly I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven.' Okay, think about this point, right? Only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. Again, I tell you, it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.' When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished, saying, 'Well, who then can be saved?' But Jesus looked at them and said, 'With man, this is impossible, but with God, all things are possible.' Then Peter said in reply, 'See, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?' Jesus said to them, 'Truly I say to you, in the new world when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on 12 thrones, judging the 12 tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father, mother, or children or lands for my name's sake will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life. But but many who are first will be last and the last first.'"
Okay, notice that last statement by Jesus. Isn't that interesting? Because Jesus will go on to say the same thing but in the reverse. Right? Watch this. Verse 16. "So the last will be first and the first last." Again, 19: "many who are first will be last and last first." Now, 20:16, "last will be first and first last."
Now, to make his point, Jesus tells a parable about the master of a house who hires workers at various times throughout the day. He pays the workers the same wage, but some of them get upset. Why? Well, because they've worked more than the others in the scorching heat, right?
So here are a couple of noteworthy observations to make about this passage. So, according to Craig Blumbberg, there are ultimately three controversial stories in this sort of portion of Matthew here that all cohere thematically in order to further a particular lesson. So again, we have to zoom out a bit and go into chapter 19. But it begins in chapter 19, verses 1-12. That's the disagreement over marriage. Okay, that's the first one. The second one is the rich ruler's refusal to forsake all to have eternal life. That's verses 16 to 30 of chapter 19. And then we get to the story of the master of a house who hires workers for his vineyard. That's chapter 20, verses 1-6. This is all one thematic unit. And it actually begins and ends with an inclusio. That is, there are two questions that frame this entire section.
All right. Uh, take a look. This is Matthew 19:3. Look at this question the Pharisees ask. "Is it lawful, Jesus?" Right? And then it's also in Matthew 20:15. "Am I not allowed?" Now, my translation says, "Am I not allowed?" But in the Greek, it's better understood as "Is it not lawful, you know, or is it not permitted?" This is an inclusio with Matthew 19:3. "Is it lawful?" Chapter 20:15. "Is it not lawful?" That means we need to pay attention here. There's greater depth of meaning to be discovered when we realize that these three stories all connect together and they are bookended by these questions.
Okay. Now, here's something else, uh, interesting. The moment that a Jew heard of a vineyard in Jesus' story, right? So you see that he hired workers to go out into a vineyard. Okay. Um, they should have immediately thought of Israel, right? And perhaps we can explore some specific passages when we get into Old Testament connections in a moment. But for now, a vineyard was the way that Israel was sometimes characterized by God and by his prophets. Okay.
Jesus says, "A master of a house who owned a vineyard, hired workers." Well, okay. We can infer then that the master of the house is who, who, who stands in for the master of the house. So, so you remember this, you remember the rules of understanding a parable? We uh went over this a number of episodes ago. Uh, but just a quick reminder, okay? Much of Jesus' parables are meant to surprise and to shock. There are elements of the story that serve this particular purpose and it's for a reason. Uh, this means the lesson is likely located in the surprising moments of a parable that Jesus is giving. Any parable, really, according to ancient Jewish literature.
Now let's look at this story specifically. Okay. A denarius, um, sometimes it's, it's called a drachma, was the normal rate of pay for a full day of work. Okay. And we know this too because you can run your trusty cursor, your trusty Logos cursor, over the footnote here and it tells you it was a day's wage for a laborer. Okay. According to D.A. Carson, the normal workday in the first-century Jewish community was 10 hours. Okay.
So, if we're sort of plugging in, uh, this picture that Jesus gives us, the master finds his first set of men at probably around 6:00 a.m., you know, uh, early in the morning, right? "He went out early in the morning to hire laborers." That's verse one. And then he goes out again, uh, at probably around 9:00 a.m. or the third hour. You see that? Verse three. He goes out again at 12:00 p.m. or the sixth hour. He goes out at 3:00 p.m., which is the ninth hour. He goes out at 5:00 p.m., which is the eleventh hour. Right?
So, so here's a question. Um, why is the master going out to find workers so much? You know what I mean? Have you ever thought about that? Like, why so many times? Like, if we're really taking this story seriously, why is he doing that? Is it due to lack of planning? Was the job so great that he didn't realize that he needed more workers than he originally thought? Is this due to maybe the poor work of the first laborers? They're just not getting it done. So, he's dissatisfied. So, he goes find, find some more people. Or is there some other reason? Right. We're not told. Perhaps it helps to know that, um, if day laborers were not hired, they and their families would probably go hungry that night. Maybe that's a motivation for the master of the house. Okay, but we're not told.
Now, uh, notice the master does not offer a denarius to the rest of the workers. Okay. Uh, he, yeah, he only, uh, offers a denarius to the ones who originally show up. Okay. So after agreeing with the laborers, verse two, for a denarius, he says to the rest, now watch this in verse four, "Whatever is right, I will give you." So the first workers get a denarius. Everybody else just gets whatever is right, whatever that means according to the master. What the other workers should not have assumed then is that they would have received the same pay as the 6:00 a.m. workers. Okay? And I'm sure if we're really fleshing this story out, we would see, uh, the shock on their faces to discover the same wage as everyone else, uh, at the end of the story when they get paid. Okay, you can probably imagine that.
Now, according to tradition, day laborers were paid at the end of each workday. All right, but notice in verse 8 how the foreman is instructed. Okay. "When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, here it is, 'Call the laborers, pay them their wages, beginning with the last up to the first.'" Okay. So, so picture this in your mind. That means all the workers had to line up and watch each other get paid. The master actually did this, it seems, on purpose because he wanted everyone to see what everyone else was getting paid.
Now, pay close attention to the details. Only, only the 6:00 a.m. workers complained. Did you catch that? Now, when verse 10, "those hired first came, they thought they would receive more and then they grumbled." Right? Also notice they're not complaining because they were treated improperly. They technically entered into an agreement with the master and received exactly what they were promised. Okay. The master replied, "Friend, I did you no wrong. Did I scam you? Did you not agree with me for a denarius, right? So, they can't claim they were swindled or something. They got what they agreed to. No harm, no foul." No, that's not the reason why they're complaining. The reason why they're complaining is because the master made them equal. Verse 12, "to the original workers. You have made them equal to us." That's their problem. Ah, now we're on to something.
So, in this parable, there are only a couple of connections to, uh, previous scripture. A couple of these are key to the whole lesson. So, for example, uh, in Deuteronomy 24:14-15 it says, "You shall give him his wages on the same day before the sun sets, for he is poor and he counts on it, lest he cry against you to the Lord, and you be guilty of sin." Okay. The same sentiment is expressed in Leviticus 19:13. So, in other words, um, a hired worker should be paid at the end of each day. This is a regular thing that, that, that Jesus pulls and uses this example in his story. Uh, it, it reveals how commonplace this was. Okay.
Now, when the, think about this again, when the early workers received a denarius, they grumbled. Okay. Remember this is reminiscent of the Israelites grumbling against God in the desert in Exodus 16:7-12, Numbers 14:27, and Deuteronomy 1:27. As a matter of fact, look how God talks about this in, uh, Numbers. Watch this. Numbers 14:27. "How long shall this wicked congregation grumble against me?" There it is. "I have heard the grumblings of the people of Israel which they grumble against me." He says it three times. The circumstances out of which the grumbling arose, right? This is in, uh, Jesus' parable were different than what was going on, obviously, in Numbers in the Old Testament. But the spirit of discontentment is the same. Is it not? God, in this case, is providing for his people like the master of the house. Right? And they still grumble. They still complain. Are you with me?
Now, at the end of the parable in Matthew 20:15, the master says this, "Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?" Now, that last phrase is literally rendered, "Is your eye evil or bad because I am good?" Okay, wait a second. Wait a second. We've engaged with this type of saying before. Do you have a bad eye? Right? You remember this? To have a bad eye, ladies and gentlemen, is a Hebrew idiomatic expression that refers to being stingy and miserly. In Hebrew, the phrase is *ayin ra*. It's, it's a bad or an evil eye. When someone has *ayin ra*, they do not have God's good eye. Instead, they look for what they perceive to be bad in the world. They look for bad in other people, hence grumbling and complaining. Instead of, um, beauty and potential, they look for things to fear and to mistrust.
Now, I mentioned this previously, uh, the sad truth about people that have a bad eye, uh, is that people ultimately find what they're looking for, right? If that's what you're doing, you're going around and finding everything that's wrong with the world, guess what? You're going to find what you're looking for. It's precisely this *ayin ra* that causes people to miss what God is doing in the world. This saying, uh, actually comes out of Proverbs. It's Proverbs chapter 23. Take a look at this. Uh, let's start in verse 6. "Do not eat the bread of a man who is stingy. Do not desire his delicacies." Now, again, if you run your trusty Logos cursor over the footnote for stingy, guess what it is? An evil eye, a bad eye, right? So, "Do not eat the bread of a man whose eye is bad or evil, for he is like one who is inwardly calculating. Eat and drink, he says to you, but his heart is not with you." Uh, also Proverbs 28:22 says this, "A stingy man," there it is again, "A stingy man, a man whose eye is bad or evil, hastens after wealth and does not know that poverty will come upon him." Okay.
Now, we see Jesus repeat this concept in Matthew 6:23. And we spent some time on that, uh, in that particular episode. If you haven't seen that or if you want a refresh, I encourage you to go back and take a look at that video. But Matthew 6, Jesus says there, "If your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is that darkness?" Right? The master of the house in Matthew 20 has God's good eye. The earliest workers at 6:00 a.m. do not. They have a bad eye. We know this because their actions and their complaints have nothing to do with the master's treatment of them and everything to do with the master's generosity towards others.
Okay? But remember, there was a promise given in Isaiah 61 about the year of the Lord's favor. So again, we're trying to make connections here before we get to the lesson, right? Where is Jesus drawing from when he starts talking about all these things where he pulls from in order to create these stories in the first place? Well, we need to consider Isaiah 61 and the year of Jubilee. Watch this. Verse one. "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, to grant to those who mourn in Zion, to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit, that they might be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified. They shall build up the ancient ruins. They shall raise up the former devastations. They shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations. Strangers shall stand and tend your flocks. Hm. Foreigners shall be your plowmen and vine dressers, but you shall be called priests of the Lord. They shall speak of you as the ministers of our God. You shall eat the wealth of the nations, and in their glory you shall boast. Instead of your shame, there shall be a double portion. Instead of dishonor, they shall rejoice in their lot. Therefore, in their land, they shall possess a double portion. They shall have everlasting joy."
Wait a second. Does any of this sound a little familiar to you? Did you notice certain elements in verses 5 through 7? Look at that. A vineyard. H vine dressers, right? Well, look at this. Uh, wealth, right? Uh, portions of some kind of payment. Double portion, right? That's interesting. You see what the parable is communicating? What it's doing is it's illustrating the logic of Jubilee. There, there is some kind of, uh, Jubilee theology that the story is drawing from and Jesus is, uh, doing that to make a point. He, he's drawing from that. All right.
And I think that we have the elements necessary now to identify a lesson for the original audience. So the setup for this parable, uh, started back in Matthew 19:27. Okay. Uh, and this is what we talked about right at the outset. Jesus told his disciples, "It'll, it's going to be very difficult for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven." Right? Uh, the disciples were confused and they asked, "Well, then who then can be saved?" They, they, they likely asked this question because they had a similar mindset to the rich ruler. People can earn their way into God's kingdom and into God's favor. And we went over that last time. Okay. Remember the rich ruler revealed this particular mindset when he asked this teacher, verse 16, "What good deed must I do to have eternal life?" As we noted, that's not how God's kingdom works. That is a, uh, yeah, what is that? A worldly mindset way of thinking about how the economy of heaven works. Okay? And the disciples also had this kind of mindset to some degree. And we know this because of Peter's question. Notice specifically what he's asking Jesus, uh, in verse 27. Look at this. "Then Peter said in reply, 'See, we have done something, right? We have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?'" The answer is everything. Amen. Uh, relationship with God in the dynamic of eternal life is everything you need. Peter says he left everything. What is he receiving in return? Everything. You see, the kingdom of heaven cannot be understood with a business mentality of getting paid for wages earned. The kingdom of heaven trades on God's grace and mercy that he extends to whomever he pleases. That's why Jesus gives the parable of the master paying laborers the same rate of pay no matter what time they showed up. It's not about getting paid for wages earned. If that was the case, the earliest workers would have received the most pay, right? But see, Jesus is seeking to disabuse his disciples from this type of mentality that we start to see going back one chapter prior. It's this business mentality.
So, what does he do? He tells a shocking story of a master that throws his wealth away. He, he, this guy is like a, a bad reject, you know, from, from a Dave Ramsey class, you know what I mean? He just throws it all away, you know? And that's what I mean, like, how can you do that? How can this master do such a thing? And the answer is because the real currency in the parable is not actually money. It's mercy. Do you understand? The same is true in the kingdom of heaven. To be rich in God's kingdom has nothing to do with material possessions. It has everything to do with being close to the Lord. Notice the authority that, that Jesus promises the disciples will receive in chapter 19:28. You know, Son of Man is going to sit on his glorious throne. You're going to have your 12 thrones, right? Oh, wait a second. Okay, that can only be bestowed upon those who sit in close royal relationship to the Son of Man. Right? That's what I mean. You can't move away from, uh, the fundamental principle here.
And here in lies a lesson for the original audience. All right, you ready? The real currency in the kingdom of heaven is not money. It's mercy. Those who are fit for the kingdom of heaven must have God's good eye and extend this currency. They must extend this radical mercy to all who need it. In God's kingdom, true satisfaction comes out of seeing that everyone is blessed, not just yourself. If God's people would have truly understood this, there would have been no divorce there. You know what I mean? Like, what? Am I allowed, God, to divorce my wife? That's not even a question somebody would ask if they truly understood what Jesus is talking about. Right? There, there, there would have been no question about how many deeds are, are necessary to gain entrance into the kingdom of heaven. Right?
As I mentioned previously, this parable is a part of a series of events that are situated within an inclusio. Three events, as it turns out. And an inclusio, again, it's a bookend that sorts of, it kind of frames the content within it to create a thematic unit. So this is not quite like a chiasm. We've talked about that before. Um, even though chiasms do include, include inclusio, right? But it is a way to show us the readers that there is some kind of connection to identify. This thematic unit goes all the way back up into the chapter, uh, uh, uh, into chapter 19 and it begins and ends with two questions. "Is it lawful?" That's 19:3. "Is it not lawful?" And that's 20:15.
Here's what Craig Blombberg says about, uh, this inclusio. Look at this. "The section that began with questions about what God requires humans to do closes ironically with illustrations of what humans try to require God to do. The subsection that begins with questions about the least believers need to do closes encouragingly with illustrations of the most God will do." Let me say the same thing using different words. The section began with man's bad eye, his evil eye, and then it ends with God's good eye. That is the contrast that we are supposed to identify and to meditate on.
How can the Pharisees and the rich ruler who, on the outside, if we're just third-party observers looking at them, they appear to be righteous, law-abiding citizens, how can they ultimately clash with Jesus over these issues? How can they not see this? And the answer is, is because they have the wrong eye. They were looking at the world upside down. The things of this world, money, marriage, whatever it is, fill in the blank, are not designed to cause a person to focus on themselves. They are designed to cause a person to focus on God and to focus on others. Marriage is a God-ordained gift designed to be the crucial cornerstone for families, cities, nations that bless the world. So, so you see what I, like, do you see how marriage has that outward orientation to it? There's like an arrow that's pointed outside of the married couple. It's not merely focused inward. It's meant to bless others as well. Marriage in light of God's good eye is a vehicle to extend God's blessings to everyone. Wealth is the same thing. Wealth, like marriage, is a vehicle to extend God's blessings to those who are in need. Why? So, everyone can be blessed. It's the same thing. Do you understand?
The only way God's people are truly going to let, uh, understand this, uh, they're going to, uh, have their eyes open to this because we are caught, and this is a rabbit trail. We are stuck, uh, with this encroaching influence of the world upon the church. And so this, this thing that we do, uh, that is paradoxical, right? To be in the world but not of the world, sometimes leaves us off-balance. Sometimes the influence of the world, uh, it comes in like the tide and overtakes us too much. We can't think like the world, ladies and gentlemen. We need to see things the way that God desires, the way that the Bible describes. And that's, that's the whole point. The only way that we're going to understand this lesson is if we truly seek to have God's good eye. If we truly desire to look around, uh, to put on the glasses of radical generosity and look around because if we do that, we'll be able to see potential. We'll be able to see providence. We'll be able to see the opportunities to spread the kingdom of God instead of taking those radical generous glasses off and seeing all the problems of the world that, by the way, do actually exist.
The real currency in the kingdom of heaven is not money. It's mercy. Those who are fit for the kingdom of heaven must have God's good eye and extend radical mercy to all who need it. Now you tell me, does that still teach today? Does that still, uh, uh, catch us right in the gut today? It does me. You know, I think we should all go away and chew on this one. Amen.
All right. This is where I stop and you keep going. Keep following that five-day Bible reading plan. Let me know what you're seeing in the text. If you don't have that plan, the link for that is below. Uh, and then come back and share your thoughts. I'd love to see what you're coming up with in your study of the scripture. As always, if you're interested, I'm using Logos for my Bible app and you can too. It will absolutely level up your studies of God's word. Just go to logos.com/wise disciple and you'll actually see something interesting. You're going to see my recommended book reading list. You're also going to see an offer for a Wise Disciple bundle. This would be a bundle of books that you could purchase if you so chose, uh, that will give you some key insights, uh, that I have learned over the years when studying the scripture. I mean, if especially if you're interested in sort of the unique ways that I try to make connections and pull things out. Obviously, I'm not doing this, uh, from my own cleverness. I'm pulling from brothers who have come before me, from commentaries, and from other, uh, resources. So, if you're interested in a bundle along those lines, go check out the Wise Disciple bundle. Again, it's logos.com/wise disciple.
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Next time, James and John desire to sit at the right hand of Jesus, but they're not actually prepared for what he says next. So, we'll get into it next time. As always, keep your eyes on the scripture. Stay close to the Lord. Happy reading and bye for now.
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