The parable of the Landowner and the laborers, part 2. Matt 19:30- 20:16

Parables given during the third day:

 

The Laborers and the vineyard:

 

Matt 19:23 And Jesus said to His disciples, "Truly I say to you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.

 

Matt 19:24 "And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." 

 

Matt 19:25 And when the disciples heard this, they were very astonished and said, "Then who can be saved?"

 

Matt 19:26 And looking upon them Jesus said to them, "With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."

 

The rich man followed rules and did them, but one commandment he could not keep without faith and that is the first.

 

You shall set no other gods above Me. His god was materialism.   

 

The danger of riches is that they can blind one to the true issue.

 

The other thing that blinds is lack of spiritual growth, rich or poor. The disciples reveal their low spiritual stage at this time.

 

Peter acts as spokesman and reveals their fears, their spiritual covetousness, and in a tone of self-righteousness that the Lord had to continually bear.

 

 

Matt 19:27 Then Peter answered and said to Him, "Behold, we have left everything and followed You; what then will there be for us?"

 

Matt 19:28 And Jesus said to them, "Truly I say to you, that you who have followed Me [minus Judas], in the regeneration when the Son of Man will sit on His glorious throne, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

 

Matt 19:29 "And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or farms for My name's sake, shall receive many times as much, and shall inherit eternal life.

 

Matt 19:30 "But many who are first will be last; and the last, first.

 

Those closest to the Lord are dull spiritually. He always bore this lovingly and patiently. This was a part of His great humiliation and sorrow and added to the terrible solitariness of His life, which made Him feel that, in the truest sense, ‘the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.’

 

And yet we also mark the wondrous Divine generosity which, even in moments of such sore disappointment, would not let Him sit in  disappointment but once again take the opportunity to teach.

 

Matt 19:30 "But many who are first will be last; and the last, first.

 

Matt 20:1 "For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner [God] who went out early in the morning [around 6am] to hire laborers for his vineyard [kingdom].

 

Matt 20:2 "And when he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius for the day, he sent them into his vineyard.

 

Matt 20:3 "And he went out about the third hour [around 9am] and saw others standing idle in the market place;

 

Matt 20:4 and to those he said, 'You too go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.' And so they went [they trusted him to give them what was due].

 

Matt 20:5 "Again he went out about the sixth [noon] and the ninth hour [3pm], and did the same thing.

 

Matt 20:6 "And about the eleventh hour [7pm]he went out, and found others standing; and he said to them, 'Why have you been standing here idle all day long?'

 

Matt 20:7 "They said to him, 'Because no one hired us.' He said to them, 'You too go into the vineyard.'

 

Matt 20:8 "And when evening had come, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, 'Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last group to the first.' [the last group is first so that the first group will see the grace of the landowner - this may well be the pattern of the Bema seat judgment]

 

Matt 20:9 "And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each one received a denarius.

 

Matt 20:10"And when those hired first came, they thought that they would receive more; and they also received each one a denarius.

 

Matt 20:11"And when they received it, they grumbled at the landowner,

 

Matt 20:12saying,' These last men have worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the scorching heat of the day.'

 

Matt 20:13"But he answered and said to one of them, 'Friend [believers], I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for a denarius?

 

Matt 20:14'Take what is yours and go your way, but I wish to give to this last man the same as to you.

 

Matt 20:15'Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with what is my own? Or is your eye envious because I am generous?' [spiritual covetousness]

 

Matt 20:16"Thus the last shall be first, and the first last."

 

The message, the parable, is again for the disciples and it is a warning of the deep danger that can exist when arrogance is mixed with spirituality - spiritual covetousness.

 

Spiritual covetousness would make them and us no different than the Pharisee who judges the Publican, or the older brother who judges and maligns the younger brother.

 

Spiritual covetousness is extremely dangerous and the disciples had it and the Lord is going to teach and do some wonderfully gracious things to break them out of it.

 

That is the solution to spiritual covetousness - the grace of God.

 

The principle which Christ lays down in this parable is that while nothing done for Him shall lose its reward, yet, for one reason or another, no forecast can be made, no inferences of self-righteousness may be drawn.

 

It does not by any means follow, that the most work done, at least, to our seeing and judging, shall entail a greater reward.

 

On the contrary, ‘many that are first shall be last; and the last shall be first.’ Not all, not yet always and necessarily, but ‘many.’ And in such cases no wrong has been done; there exists no claim, even in view of the promises of due acknowledgement of work.

 

Spiritual pride and self-assertion can only be the outcome either of misunderstanding God’s relation to us, or else of a wrong state of mind towards others, that is a lack of impersonal unconditional love.

 

Matt 20:15 'Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with what is my own? Or is your eye envious because I am generous?'

 

The Parable of the Labourers is an illustration of Sovereign grace and its remedy to spiritual covetousness. It teaches nothing beyond this.

 

But, while illustrating how it may come that some who were first are ‘last,’ and how utterly mistaken or wrong is the thought that they must necessarily receive more than others, who, seemingly, have done more. Work for Christ is not a measurable quantity. It is not so much for so much, or hours of service, or how many were witnessed to, or any numbers whatsoever.

 

The mature believer loves what work he does on the Lord’s behalf and given any opportunity he will operate in divine good works. Some seem to get more opportunities than others and this parable shows the disciples as well as us that more opportunities do not necessarily equal more reward.

 

Any believer who is willing and knows how (BD/FHS/PPOG) has glorified the Lord whether he has many opportunities or few.

 

This conveys the grace of God and the attitude of grace. If the man who worked one hour receives as much as me who has worked 12 hours then I rejoice for him and I am content because I received what was due.

 

That is an attitude of grace.

 

Also, this is very comforting. I do not have to run around worrying about how much I do for the Lord. I am only concerned with my relationship to the Lord as His laborer. He will call me into the field in the morning, at noon, or late in the afternoon and I will be ready. As for how much needs to be done or how much is done compared to the others of His laborers is up to Him.

 

Notice that they only ones who grumble are the ones hired first.

 

Matt 20:10 "And when those hired first came, they thought that they would receive more; and they also received each one a denarius.

 

Matt 20:11"And when they received it, they grumbled at the landowner,

 

Matt 20:12saying,' These last men have worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the scorching heat of the day.'

 

What most of us would miss is that the ones hired at the 3^rd, 6^th, and 9^th hour did not complain. No deal was made with these or those hired at the 11^th hour. The landowner simply said that they would get what is right. These all received more than they expected, so even the ones hired at 9am and worked until 8pm didn’t grumble against those who worked from 7pm to 8pm.

 

It seems that anyone who tastes the grace of God will not grumble against another who receives grace even if it seems that the other is receiving more grace.

 

But those who think they are entitled or deserve a certain wage will complain when they see someone being graced out.

 

Principle: If you think as a believer that you are entitled to a certain life because you are a son of God then you are not thinking in terms of grace. We receive what we do not earn or deserve and we never know “the wage” that the Lord is going to pay us. We receive the rain and sun on the good and the bad.

 

Always think in terms of grace. You are not entitled to the very air that you breathe, much less certain rewards and blessings in life.

 

This is so comforting because it teaches me not to compete and also helps me to not struggle in the CWL.