Matthew 20:1-16
The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard
1 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. 2 He agreed to pay them a denarius[a] for the day and sent them into his vineyard.
3 “About nine in the morning he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. 4 He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ 5 So they went.
“He went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing. 6 About five in the afternoon he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’
7 “‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered.
“He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.’
8 “When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’
9 “The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. 10 So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. 11 When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. 12 ‘These who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’
13 “But he answered one of them, ‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? 14 Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. 15 Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’
16 “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”
Jesus turns this world upside down, and we have to study to see why we have it wrong...Throughout Jesus' ministry He seems to view our world different and sometimes opposite than we view it...He is the Truth, so the way He looks at things is the correct way...The way we look at things must be wrong in different aspects of being blessed, mourning, wealth and treasures, fame, and heaven (and there are others)...We think we understand things, but our flesh allows us to understand certain things and it includes our own biases...
When Jesus tells us the Parable of the Vineyard, and after we read it, we think it is not fair...But if we own a vineyard or company and hire different workers, we feel we can pay them any amount that is a fair wage...If we pay some more than others, it is our choice...We are the owners, and we can do that...Jesus shows that fairness is opposite of ours, in this parable...He tells us the first will be last, so He tells us that being popular and famous are the opposite in His Kingdom...Let's take God in this parable...Jesus shows that God is sovereign...God has divine providence...What God does is fair, because He is the Perfect Judge...Since God controls the world, how could this parable be unfair then?...Another thing, why would we want justice or perfect justice from Him?...If we are perfectly judged, and we are sinners, there will be no one in heaven...But to judge us and with no one getting to heaven, is the law, and not grace...His grace gets us to heaven...
Jesus shows us something else about grace...Since we know we are sinners, we should not want justice...We should want His grace...We should not want what we deserve, because if we want and get what we deserve as sinners, what do we deserve and what will we get?...We have at least two problems here...One is that we do not understand the True definition of fairness...Jesus does...The other thing is we do not understand the severity of sin and being a sinner...Some may think that if I am nice, or do good works, I can get to heaven...But there is always some sin, one or many sins in our lives...Every one since Adam and Eve's fall from grace we do not deserve to be with God in heaven...When we think about Jesus, and the cruelty and torture on the cross as He was in pain and dying and then did die...That is what my sins did to Him...That is the severity of our sins...We deserve justice, but we should pray for grace...Grace is not fair and just, and it is God's love that gets us into His kingdom...
The last will be first shows us that God's grace is completely His to give, because we are undeserving...We might think we understand things and we have led the life right for salvation...But grace comes from God and salvation is only God's to give...And He gives it through His Son...Salvation is found in no One else. for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we will be saved (Acts 4:12)...God's Divine Providence and His Loving Grace give us His Son, which we do not even deserve, atonement for our sins...