Subscription Lists

Now, this is one of my favourite parables – strap your seatbelts on:

‘For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire labourers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the labourers 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 labourers 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, but 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 am 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.’ (Matthew 20:1-16)

Now, I think that this parable can speak into all sorts of areas of the Christian life, but for today we’ll look at some key themes.

The master went out

I’d invite you to begin by looking at the opening sentence of this parable. The story starts with the master leaving his vineyard, to obtain labourers. The message is this: Jesus left heaven just like the master left the vineyard. He left his comfort zone to meet with us. He initiates, we respond. Christian teaching today focuses a lot on the individual: ‘make a decision for Jesus’, ‘choose to accept him’, ‘give your life to Christ’. The message of Jesus here is clear: Jesus starts it all off. We were just like these labourers, standing idle in the marketplace. Elsewhere in the New Testament we’re even called ‘dead’ – and dead people don’t do that much action. It’s all about Jesus; don’t pretend you called him, and he came down, because it’s not about us – it’s all, always, only about him!

We are labourers

The second point is quite obvious, but I think needs pointing out. We have a tendency to lean one way or the other when it comes to Christianity. Some of us lean more on the ‘we are forgiven children of God’ side, and some lean more on the ‘we’re slaves to righteousness’ side. The problem is that both are true. We have been adopted into God’s family, we’re children of the living God – what a privilege! But as well as that, we are his labourers. We’ve been called to work hard for him, to serve him, to seek ways of living for his glory. We’re not saved by our work, we’re saved into our work. And our work is important.

Don’t think you deserve it

Finally, let’s tackle the real issue behind this parable: gratefulness. The labourers who had worked from the morning were jealous of those who had done only a little work, because they felt they’d earned more. Let’s not get ‘holier than thou’ about this, because I know that I’d be the same! The truth is that these labourers were all simply standing idle in the marketplace. They were offered a job for no reason other than the master wanted labourers! The denarius was given irrespective of the work performed, because, again, it’s not about us – it’s all about Jesus!

I don’t often do this, but why not pray this prayer with me:

‘Father, thank you so much for adopting me into your family. Thank you for the privilege it is to be a worker for your glory. Please help me realise that it is not about me, but that it’s about you. You saved me. You love me. You came to me and rescued me. Thank you, thank you, thank you! Amen.’

"God's Words For US" from Cecelia Lester

Trusting God Yields Happiness