Preparing For Easter: The Parable Of The Workers In The Vineyard

(Full Disclosures: This message is based on a message preached at First Baptist Church, Chamois, MO, on 3-5-2023. This is not an exact transcription. Further, Sermon Central has a message based on this text called “Go Thy Way-The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard” but this is a completely different message and focus.)

Introduction: Last Sunday we looked at the rich young ruler, and the dark side of love. That was because he loved his stuff more than his soul, and when Jesus told him what he needed to do, he didn’t do it. True, he came running to Jesus, but he walked away when Jesus got too personal and too close to comfort, in his opinion.

It was right after this that Jesus remarked that it was very hard for a rich man (or, woman, for that matter) to enter the Kingdom of God. It was after this, when the rich man walked away, that Jesus told this parable. Let’s look at the text:

Text: Matthew 20:1-16, NASV: 1 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. 2 When he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius for the day, he sent them into his vineyard. 3 And he went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle in the marketplace; 4 and to those he said, ‘You go into the vineyard also, and whatever is right, I will give you.’ And so they went. 5 Again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did the same thing. 6 And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing around; and he *said to them, ‘Why have you been standing here idle all day long?’ 7 They *said to him, ‘Because no one hired us.’ He *said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’

8 “Now when evening came, the owner of the vineyard *said to his foreman, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, starting with the last group to the first.’ 9 When those hired about the eleventh hour came, each one received a denarius. 10 And so when those hired first came, they thought that they would receive more; but each of them also received a denarius. 11 When they received it, they grumbled at the landowner, 12 saying, ‘These who were hired last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day’s work and the scorching heat.’13 But he answered and said to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for a denarius? 14 Take what is yours and go; but I want to give to this last person the same as to you. 15 Is it not lawful for me to do what I want with what is my own? Or is your eye envious because I am generous?’ 16 So the last shall be first, and the first, last.”

<opening prayer>

Jesus told this story not long after the rich young ruler walked away sad after running to Jesus, concerned about how he would inherit eternal life. One of the conditions, which Jesus laid on the ruler, was to sell all he had and give alms. I remember a saying, something along the lines of “those with little feel the need; those with much feel naught but greed.” He had plenty of “stuff” but that was the problem: he wanted his stuff more than he wanted to obey the words of Jesus.

Now, one of the reasons why the disciples, especially Peter, remarked, “We left everything to follow You, so what about us?” was that this wasn’t the first time Jesus had issued that challenge back in Luke 12, when the Lord had finished His parable of the Rich Fool. We’ll not go there at this time but it’s always a good passage to read, and heed.

All right. We’re now at the point where Jesus told this parable about something that most Jews would be very familiar with, and that was vineyards. I remember reading in some of the commentaries that the soil of Israel was very good for growing grapes, not so much for grains. We shouldn’t be surprised; after all, the Parable of the Sower and Seed (Matthew 13) explains how hard it was to get any kind of a decent crop at all!

But going back to vineyards. There are various descriptions about how big the vines grew and how much space each vineyard would need. One of the teachers observed that during grape harvest season (usually in our September time frame) the towns were deserted because most everyone was out harvesting grapes. Grapes, by the way, had other uses besides, well, grapes and wine; some of course became raisins: Abigail gave David and his men one hundred “clusters of raisins (1 Samuel 25:18)” and later the people of Israel ate raisins in abundance when David was made king over all Israel (1 Chronicles 12). They even knew how to boil down grape juice to make a type of honey! Grapes, then, were very valuable indeed.