Parable of the Vineyard Workers

Transcript

This transcript was generated automatically from the audio and may contain small errors.

Matthew 20, verses one and two say this, it says, 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. Today we're gonna be in Matthew chapter 20. If you do not have a Bible, there should be one that is near you in a seat that is near you. Also, you can get a Bible app on your phone. I recommend YouVersion. It's pretty all right, but there's a lot of good ones out there.

Today we're gonna continue our series on Ears to Hear. We're talking about the sayings of Jesus, and we've been talking a lot about parables. And today is gonna be another parable, and this is kind of an introduction to that parable in verses one and two, where he says, 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. See, Jesus uses parables to get our attention. He uses parables to make us think. The word parable actually means to throw beside, right?

So whenever you're laying down a parable, whenever you're speaking a parable, what Jesus is doing, he's putting two things next to each other that don't necessarily belong together. And he does that so that we'll think. He takes something that we do know and puts it next to something that we don't know. In this case, in many of these cases, what we don't know is the kingdom of heaven. That's a very foreign concept to us. The kingdom of heaven works a certain way. The kingdom of heaven has kind of these things about it that are different, that don't correspond to how you and I just normally act. But what Jesus does in parables is he helps us understand those things through odd comparisons. He helps us understand those things and provoke us to thinking about what the kingdom of God is. And today, Jesus is provoking us to think about the kingdom of heaven like a master hiring laborers.

And the point, I'm gonna spoil it, the point in verse 16, it's all the way at the end. Matthew 20, 16, it says, we will see how the last will be first and the first will be last, right? That's where Jesus is going with this parable. When he launches in in verse one, he's going to verse 16. We're getting there, right? But it's not exactly what we think about when we think about first going last and last going first, right? There's kind of some preconceptions we have of that, both in our culture and maybe just when we hear that sentence and we don't really grasp the weight of it. And so Jesus tells this parable and so today we're gonna look into it, right? We're gonna see what's going on. And it opens in these first two verses with the master hiring servants, people that we will call the early workers, okay? This is a specific group of people that will come in later in the parable

so we need to know who these are. These are the people that the master, the laborers that the master is hiring early, okay? So these are the capital E, capital W, early workers, all right? And they've agreed to a denarius a day, roughly 100 bucks, okay? About what you would expect to make in a day's work. Just if you're doing some manual labor, you're gonna make about 100 bucks. And they start work early. They start work around 7 a.m., okay? They start about 7 a.m. When he went out early in the morning, we're gonna put that at 7 a.m. and you'll kinda see why later. But after this, after he hires them to work, the master does something interesting. He goes out again, Matthew 20 verses three through the first part of five. And going out in about the third hour, he saw understanding, idle in the marketplace so they weren't doing anything, just picking their nose.

And he said to them, you go into the vineyard too. And whatever is right, I'll give you so they went. Okay, so the master goes out. It's about 10 a.m., okay? About three hours has passed. And he hires more workers for whatever is right. He doesn't agree, he doesn't say a denarius a day, he doesn't agree with anything. No amount is discussed. He just tells them to go work. They're just sitting there idle and he says, go work. Okay, so then we see it again in the latter part of verse five. It says going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same. So you have this master who has a vineyard and he keeps hiring people. First it's seven o'clock in the morning, then at 10 in the morning. And then here in the latter part of verse five, we see he's out again at one p.m. And then again at four p.m., okay? So the man is hiring in three hour increments, okay?

Seven in the morning, 10 in the morning, one in the afternoon, four in the afternoon. He does the same thing. And then we get to verses six and seven. He says and about the 11th hour, okay? You know that expression that we have? Like you wait until the 11th hour. This is where we get it from. Fun. Okay, so and about the 11th hour, which by our clock is about six p.m., okay? So it's six p.m. He goes out and finds others standing. And he said to them, why do you stay idle all day? Which is a really funny question for people that you're about to hire. And he says to them, excuse me, they said to him, verse seven, because no one has hired us. And he said to them, you go into the vineyard too, okay? So the master, six p.m., he's just saying, go work the vineyard. Now notice these people are not what you and I would call ideal workers, okay? These guys are not eager to get out into the field,

as you can tell by the question and answer that goes on, right? People are just standing there. And the answer they give when he says, why didn't you go out into the field? And they're like, well, nobody told us to. That's a terrible question. If you answer that question like that in a job interview, okay, you're not getting hired, all right? These are not good workers. This is not a great exchange. And still the master's like, okay, go out in my field. They still get hired. And here is where Jesus starts to make us think. It's in verse eight. Notice how the master pays them. Verse eight says, when evening came, the owner of the vineyard sent to his foreman, call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last up to the first, okay? So now Jesus is starting to provoke us a little bit, okay, because before we're like, okay, that's weird. This master really wants workers in his vineyard.

He keeps getting these guys all the way up till six p.m., like right before you're shutting it down, he's hiring workers. Maybe they work 30 minutes, maybe they work an hour. And so now they're getting paid the last up to the first. All right, verses nine and 10. It says, and when those hired about the 11th hour came, okay, so the last people that were hired, the six p.m. workers, when they came, each of them received a denarius, okay? So you're already starting to see, okay, something's wrong, okay? Because they're getting the same thing that the early workers were promised, which is a denarius, about 100 bucks, okay? And now when those hired first came, sorry, when those hired first came, the early workers, capital E, capital W, early workers, when they came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius, okay?

They thought they would receive more. Just to kind of get in their head just a little bit, I want you to imagine that you're kind of at a, you're at a year-end company party, right? And I mean, everybody's there, and it's the end of the year, and they're handing out bonuses, okay? So the money is flowing. People are excited, okay? And your team, your cohort, wherever, you know, kind of whatever division that you're in, you know, your whole division knows, the whole company, the boss knows, everybody knows that you guys carried the water this year. I mean, you brought in major revenue without what your team contributed. That company would be, I don't know about sunk, but I mean, it would be limping, okay? But as it stands, they had a great year, and it really was because of you. It really was because of your team, even. Maybe it wasn't you in particular, but your team is just, I mean, killing it.

And they started to announce bonuses by team, or cohort division, whatever, right? And yours is last. Be honest. What are you thinking? You're getting paid. You're getting paid the most. You see that you're going last. You see that this kind of like, you know, this podunk team, this team that doesn't really know what they're doing, they're getting a bonus, and they're getting $10,000. The whole team, you know, each of them are getting $10,000. Oh, you cannot wait until your team goes up, okay? And you're excited. You're ready.

And when your team gets up there, it's the same language. Hey, thanks for your contribution this year. You did great. Couldn't have made it without you. But that's what they said about every other team. And here, we want to give you this bonus of $10,000. How does that $10,000 taste? It tastes a little bitter. It tastes a little bitter. Normally, you might be excited if somebody just handed you a $10,000 check, but in that moment, in that moment, when you are paid the same, you are legitimately upset. You're legitimately upset. I don't even blame you. And when we look at this parable, let's think about this. The early workers, capital E, capital W, right? They worked longer. They worked harder. They had more initiative. They likely helped the newer hires catch on to what was being done, okay? They thought they would receive more because they deserved more. They did.

150%. Those early workers deserved more. So we're gonna keep going. Matthew 20, verses 11 through 12. And you can see this coming a mile away. And on receiving it, they grumbled at the master of the house. These are the early workers, capital E, capital W. They are grumbling against the master saying, verse 12, these last, the dregs over here, the 11th hour guys, the 6 p.m. workers, the guy that only put an hour in, 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, okay? Now look, that statement is 100% correct, okay? They're legitimately upset. This is a true complaint. But I want you to see kind of where they're upset. It's right there in the middle. When it says, in the middle of verse 12, it says you have made them equal to us.

That's it. That's the dig. That's the frustration. It's not that they got paid last, right? This is what Jesus is going to point out at the end. This is what he means when he says the last will be first and the first last. It's not that they got paid last, they don't care, right? They're not upset about that. They're upset because they're being treated the same. For most of my life, whenever I would hear the phrase, the first shall be last and last shall be first, I would kind of put it in this category of a reversal of sequence, right? In other words, the people that would hurry up and try to get to the front of the line, right, they would hurry up and like run and get to the front and there'd be a line of form behind them and then God would come along and be like, okay, we're going the other direction now, right? Like now the last refers and the first or last,

whoa, reversal. That's not really what's going on in this parable. I'm not sure that's fully what that whole concept means. What you see here is a frustration that everybody's being treated the same. A deep and abiding frustration that the first are treated just like the last and the last are treated just like the first. And this tracks with how the master responds. And I want to just kind of hit 13 and 14 and 15. Look at the master's response one by one. Verse 13, the master replied to them, he's replying to the early workers, he says, friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius?

See look, I'm not being unfair to you. I paid you what we talked about. I'm fulfilling all my obligations, you fulfilled your, I'm not wronging you. Next verse, 14. Take what belongs to you and go, I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. Okay, so there's a, first it's like, hey, look, everything's square. Next verse, hey, I can give any wage I want

to whomever I please. I'm the master, right? Verse 15, am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me, there's a step up. Or do you begrudge my generosity? Which is a great question. And the parable kind of ends here. The next verse is, so the first will be last, last will be first, okay. This is kind of where the story ends. Literally, literally, well, before I wanna get there, it says am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Again, the master's kind of like turning the screw and saying, listen, that's my money. You can grumble all you want, but that's not your money. You shouldn't even care what this last worker got paid. Why does this bother you so much? And then he asked the question, do you begrudge my generosity? Literally, in the Greek, this says, is your I bad toward my good? Is your I bad toward my good? And that's kind of an idiom, kind of an Aramaic idiom,

where it's saying, look, are you jealous of the fact that I'm generous with somebody else and you want me to be generous with you, but I'm not, but I'm still giving you what you were owed. Does my generosity make you jealous? So what's the master doing? The master in this parable in verses 13, 14, 15, he's reminding the early workers of leverage. Now, I'm gonna use this word leverage, and I mean it exactly how it sounds. It is an upper hand. It is an opportunity. It is a way that you kind of have weight or have proper authority in a situation, okay? And the master is reminding these early workers of leverage. How does he do that? The first, what he says is, look, you're not the master. You're not the master. You have no leverage with me, okay? The master's reminding the early workers, you have no leverage. If you wanna find out, if you wanna find out how much you deal with pride,

wait until somebody tells you, I'm the boss and you're not. Okay. You wanna know, maybe you're in need of being humbled is when somebody sits you down and tells you lovingly, listen, that's not your role. I had a meeting a while back, previous life, previous job, and I was all worked up about something, something my boss did, and I had a coworker in my office and we're sitting there and I'm just griping, man. It's not my best moment. I would not recommend it. And he just leans forward lovingly and just says, hey bro, that's not your role. And it was like I was hit with a ton of bricks and I was leaning forward and I was kind of, and as soon as he said that, I leaned all the way back and I just put my arms up and I'm going, you're right. It's tough. It's tough to get reminded of that.

So the first thing, he's reminding them of leverage. You have no leverage with me. And the second thing he's saying is, you are the same as other workers. You have no leverage with them. If the first and the last end up in the same place, it really does kind of cut down on competition, right? In other words, it's not about who was first or who was last. Look, if you get to the restaurant, okay, let me show you leverage in real time here. If you get to the restaurant first, you have your place in line. You officially have leverage. The unwritten social rules of you saying, no, I was at Outback Steak house first, Steakback.

I was here first, okay? These other people came in 20 minutes after me. They're not getting seated ahead of me. I was here first. That's how restaurant works. If it doesn't work like that at restaurant, you get mad. You get legitimately upset. If you're there and you're saying, okay, yeah, oh, it'll just be a few minutes, you know, like 20 minute wait or whatever, and other people like just waltz in and same party size as you, same everything as you, and they get the basic year table, and the hostess looks at you and says, hey, I'm so sorry, it's gonna be 10 more minutes.

I mean, I'm leaving at that point. I don't know about you, but that's not, I'm not really, I'm not sitting around for that because that's how leverage works, right? Your place in line. In fact, the only people that should skip in front of you are people of great importance, like the President of the United States, or like a congressman, or a pregnant lady, or something. Somebody needs a reason to get in front of you, okay? Because that's how leverage works. But if somebody cuts in front of you, like if you're in line to get coffee, for example, that's another leverage point. You're in line to get coffee and somebody's like, oh, hey, I need to get ahead of you.

I mean, I'm waiting for a reason, okay? Because that's how leverage works. You should know not to cut in front of people. That's not how leverage works. Oh, sorry, that's how leverage works. That's not line etiquette, okay? And you and I, we know how lines work. We know how leverage works. We know about being there first. All those are unwritten rules. But in this parable, Jesus is making a very specific point in that he's saying, in my kingdom, there is no line. In my kingdom, no one got here first. No one gets paid more. No one gets paid less. There is no such thing as leverage because you're all the same and you're not the master, right? All of you are treated as equal and compared, look, in the kingdom of heaven, compared to master Jesus, right? What am I gonna do? Talk about how honorable I am compared to Jesus. And if I think I'm more honorable than somebody else,

how stupid does that sound, right? Like, oh, I have more honor. Well, I mean, both of you don't really compare to the honor that Jesus should receive, right? If we're worshiping Jesus like we are at the beginning of this service, right, if we're singing to the Lord, and it would be ludicrous for one of us to think, man, I should really be receiving at least some of this praise. No, not even close. Because it's silly to think that we're somehow on par with Jesus, that we're anywhere close to His level. And that in comparison to His level, we're all on the same level, all of us.

And if that's true, and it is, and Jesus makes a whole parable about it, if that's true, if that's true, that should radically reshape how we see most of our life. That should radically reshape how we treat other people, even strangers. It should radically help us understand that our perception, the way that we approach things, the way that we approach leverage should be informed by Scripture. It should be informed by what Jesus wants. And so I wanna show you four ways from the Bible, very quickly, four ways, that this idea of no leverage comes into play, okay? And in these four places, I will tell you, sometimes I'm gonna name the place, and you're going to have leverage in that situation, okay? You're gonna have leverage. Let me show you what I mean. Let's talk about a kingdom workplace, right? If we're gonna see our workplace in light of the kingdom, okay, in Luke 22, and you can just write it down,

you can go there later, Luke 22, 25 through 27, okay? In chapter 22, verses 25 through 27, Jesus is talking to his disciples about what it's like to be a Gentile ruler, right? And what it's like to be, verses, what it's like to be a leader in the kingdom of God. And what he says is, he says, don't be like the Gentile rulers, because, specifically, because they throw their weight around. He says, in our kingdom, in my kingdom, the last will be first, the first shall be last, so your great ones are also servants. Whoever is first is also a slave. In other words, they don't stop being great ones, they don't stop being first,

but they use the position that they are in to serve. In other words, Jesus, when speaking to his disciples, isn't trying to say, hey, there should be no leaders among you. Hey, look, it's all flat. It's all 100% democracy. That's exactly the way the kingdom of God works. No. What he's saying is that when you have position of leadership, when you have leverage, that you use that leverage to serve. And this is the point of the parable, and this is really what Jesus did in his own ministry, because right after that, it's saying, look, I didn't come to be served. I came to serve and give my life as a ransom for many. That's when Jesus says that. It's right after he's telling him about Gentile rulers. Here's the point of the parable. To truly understand that your position does not give you value. If you're gonna really wrap your mind around that, if you're gonna understand that because I'm this title,

because I'm, to understand, to really rid yourself of the notion that your position or your leverage gives you value, and people of lower privilege or lower leverage have less value than you, you need to understand that you always, you always use your leverage to honor Jesus by serving people, always. Always, no exceptions every time. That means when you're in the front of the line, you let people go ahead of you, right? You always use your leverage to honor Jesus, and if you are a leader, you use your power to serve and love and care for. You never use your power to coerce.

If you are a leader, if you're a boss in a workplace, that means that you are generous with your compensation, that you are not stingy. It means that when you are disrespected, which will happen, you are gentle in correction, that you are not brutal. If we're gonna see our workplace in the light of the kingdom, that we must understand, if we have leverage, and most of us do of some kind, we might not be boss, boss, but we got leverage. We have seniority in some aspect, right? Now, if you have zero, if you have none, that's okay. That's a great position to be in. You can kinda see the Lord work in your life through that, but it won't be long until you do have position, until you have worked your way up in some kind of capacity, and you're going to begin to feel like you are owed a certain amount of respect or deference, or pay, right?

All right, kingdom workplace, what's the next one? Kingdom marriage, okay. Kingdom marriage illustrated in Ephesians 5, 22 through 27. How are we gonna see our marriage in light of the kingdom? If you are a spouse, if you're married to somebody, okay, which is more than a few people in this room, if you are married to somebody, Jesus compels you to live in mutual submission

to one another, okay? And for husbands and wives, that looks different. For wives, that's following direction, that's following your husband. For husbands, that is sacrificially leading your family, putting the needs of your wife and your children above your own, okay? That's what mutual submission looks like. And at different times in your marriage, different times of the day, different times of the year, different seasons of your marriage, one of you is going to have the upper hand. It's going to happen, you're gonna have leverage, okay? And when you do, when you have that leverage, how you use that leverage tells your spouse everything they need to know about you. If you use that leverage, that advantage to care for them, to serve them, to sacrifice for them,

man, that's a good thing to do. We're talking about a kingdom marriage at that point. If, if, in your marriage, you're always looking for the upper hand, you're always trying to bite at your spouse by getting a little bit more advantage so that you can kind of tell them what to do so that you don't have to do this, so that you can, look, that's not a kingdom marriage. That's not the way it's set up. That's not the way Jesus put husbands and wives together and said, hey, let's be fruitful and multiply. Let's show people who the kingdom of God is. No, no. If you are not, if you are not using your leverage to bless another person, that's not what Jesus is showing us with the kingdom, right? So I just wanna encourage you, even today, pray for ways to bless your spouse. Pray for ways to serve them. Pray for ways for you, when you're in a specific situation where you could take advantage of them,

where you could kind of leverage them a little bit that you don't, and that instead of leveraging them, you serve them. Man, what, how many problems would become a lot smaller in that kind of marriage? How many, how many times would a fight be averted? In that marriage. Look, it's not perfect, right? I'm not saying let's all be perfect, and if you can't do it, then we're all sunk. I'm telling you, there's a way the kingdom works that even works out in our marriage. It also works out in our families. Ephesians 6, 1-4, we're gonna see our families in light of the kingdom. Parents, you always have the upper hand, always. Even when they're older, you still have the upper hand. I know, it's not fair. Kids, it's fine, you'll be parents one day. Then you'll have the upper hand, it'll be great. It all works out. And at one point, your parents didn't have the upper hand.

They had parents who had the upper hand over them, okay. Parents always had the upper hand, and that's why we have a particular frustration or disgust for parental abuse, because we understand kids can't do anything about that, right, like that's why it makes us so angry. It's because parents have the upper hand. Makes a lot of sense. Parents, you always have the upper hand. In Ephesians chapter six, it says specifically to fathers, and I love this, I don't love it because I'm good at it. I love it because it picks on fathers, which is always helpful. It says fathers don't provoke your children to anger.

I don't think it's any coincidence that it doesn't say moms don't provoke your children to anger. I don't think that, I think there's a certain wisdom there, right, where fathers either, by withholding affection or by yelling or some kind of coercive, some kind of power move, right, will provoke their children to anger. Now look, I'm a dad. I've been a dad for a long enough time to provoke my children to anger several times, and I feel terrible for it. I lose sleep over it. I apologize whenever I've realized I've done it, when I remember it. Again, being a kingdom family isn't about being perfect, but it's about understanding what that ideal is, right? If you are a father, you have the advantage over your children, and you should use it to serve them, right, even when you're disrespected, even when you are deeply frustrated, even whenever they've done the same stupid thing

for the 50,000th time, right after you told them not to. Use, I'm not saying don't correct, correct your children. Yes, that is biblical, correct them, but also use your leverage to serve them. Lastly, kingdom church. I realize that might sound completely redundant, but let me tell you, there's plenty of churches who operate under the world's code of leverage. Plenty, actually. If I were a betting man, I'd say most, to be perfectly honest with you, it's hard. I'll just say I don't say that uncaringly, it is difficult. It's difficult for a group of people to come together and not worry about leverage, not worry about who the decision makers are, not worry about what's gonna get done, how's it gonna get done, and what order will it get done, and do I approve, okay? It's a hard thing, and you're a person, you can understand why that's hard, right?

How are we gonna see church in light of the kingdom? We see it both with leadership and with followship, if we can talk about it that way. With leadership, you see pastors and deacons. You can look at 1 Timothy 3, 1 through 16, and it gives all these qualifications for people that are gonna be church leaders, pastors, deacons, right? We have pastors and deacons at our church. What does it tell you? Does it tell you, hey, if you're gonna, if you're gonna make somebody a pastor, you need to make sure that they speak well, you need to make sure they can lead, you need to make sure that, nope, it actually doesn't say any of that. What does it say? It says be gentle, make sure they're gentle, make sure they're kind, make sure they treat their family well, make sure they're well thought of by outsiders. In many other places, not in 1 Timothy 3, but in many other places, it says,

look, look, you, pastors, you shepherd, shepherd the flock of God among you, and you do that soberly as one who has to give an account. Man, what a great thing. Look, it's not just pastors that have to give account. If you are in a position of leverage, if you are in a position of authority in any capacity, one day, you will stand before the Lord, and the Lord will look at you and tell you, look, I gave you that, I put that at your feet, I gave you children, I put you in charge of people at work, I put you in a position of leadership in the church, I put that, I put you there. What did you do with that? You and I are going to have to give an account, and that should scare us a little.

That should make us think twice about yelling at somebody. That should make us think twice about using our leverage to coerce somebody, and it should really, really inspire us to love like Jesus loves us, because you think about who has the ultimate leverage over us, God in heaven. I mean, look, the power of God, I think sometimes it's just white noise. I think I'm just not in tune with it, and every once in a while it just kind of like washes over me and I cry. I mean, I'm just like, oh, God, you are so powerful, and you are so in charge of everything, and you are still moving all these situations around just like this. How humbling that is. Listen, when you understand that God has all the leverage, but what does he do? What does he do with that leverage? Does he just pound you into the ground? Does he say, look, I told you not to do this, and you did it, now you're dead.

No, he gives us grace upon, I've got so much grace. If we could have a little bit of that toward another person, using our leverage to bless somebody else. Jesus tells us parable to help us understand how our lives and our situations, our relationships can radically change, but what that's going to do is that's gonna take some action on your part, some cooperation with the Spirit on that. And so as we pray, as we sing, and even after, even this week, I want you to think about where you are in a position of leadership. This week, I want you to think about that. I want you to be thinking about leverage. You got leverage this week. What are you doing with it? Are you blessing people with it? Are you just kind of ignoring it and kind of hoping nobody notices that you have the leverage? Where are you with that? And then what's the Lord calling you to do with that leverage?

Like everybody needs a way to kind of work this out, to kind of talk this out. I'm gonna be right over here in the seats, kind of that front row right there, after the service, and if you wanna come and talk after the service, people will just be hanging out. It's okay, you won't be conspicuous. No one will be staring at you. I'm just gonna be over here standing, or sitting, and just come and talk to me. Let's pray. Jesus, we ask for you to show us,

we ask for you to show us how, how to be a servant, how to be in a position of authority, in a position of leverage, and not use it to our own advantage, but to use it to your kingdom advantage. Help us to see maybe how we are the 11th hour worker, or how we're the early workers, and how maybe we're so concerned with who's first, and who's second, who's third, and who's last, and we're so busy trying to be first. Lord, help us to understand that in your kingdom,

you're the only one with leverage, and that in this world, you only give us leverage so that we can bless. Other people help us to see that, live that. It's your name that we pray, amen.