SEPTEMBER 21 “Unequal
wages” matthew 20:1-16
Matthew
20:1-16
The
Labourers in the Vineyard
READER 1) ‘For the kingdom of heaven
is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire labourers for his
vineyard. After agreeing with the labourers for the usual daily wage, he sent
them into his vineyard. When he went out about nine o’clock, he saw others
standing idle in the market-place; and he said to them, READER 2) “You also go
into the vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.”
READER 1) So they went. When he went
out again about noon and about three o’clock, he did the same. And about five
o’clock he went out and found others standing around; and he said to them,
#2) “Why are you standing here idle
all day?”
R #1) They said to him,
R #3)“Because no one has hired us.”
#1) He said to them,
#2) “You also go into the vineyard.”
#1) When evening came, the owner of the vineyard
said to his manager,
#2) “Call the labourers and give
them their pay, beginning with the last and then going to the first.”
#1) When those hired about five
o’clock came, each of them received the usual daily wage. Now when the first
came, they thought they would receive more; but each of them also received the
usual daily wage. And when they received it, they grumbled against the
landowner, saying,
# 3) “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.”
#1) But he replied to one of them,
#2)“Friend, I am doing you no wrong;
did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? Take what belongs to you
and go; I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you. Am I not
allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because
I am generous?”
#1) So the last will be first, and
the first will be last.’
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BACKGROUND
Jensen (Preaching Matthew's Gospel) writes:“In chapters 19 and 20 Jesus begins to address his disciples about the nature of following him and how differently the children of the kingdom live from the normal cultural expectations of the day. These chapters cover such topics as marriage, divorce, celibacy, children, rank, privilege and money!”
Eugene Boring (Matthew, New Interpreter's Bible) offers this introduction to the section Matthew 19:1-20:34: "Instructing the Disciples En Route to the Passion."
Matthew 19:1-26 is quite literally devoted to the new understanding of family (cf. 12:46-50), dealing with the place of divorce, remarriage, celibacy, children, and young people in the new Christian community. Matthew then grounds the radical reversal of cultural understandings called for by inserting …a parable intended to deal with the resentment generated within the community by this grand and gracious reversal (20:1-16). Matthew understands the theme of …the parable to be "the last shall be first and the first last" (19:30; 20:16).
For the church in
Matthew’s time there was an issue about new, Gentile converts coming into the
community who were not well versed in the Jewish law, etc. Understandably, the more long-term disciples
resented this, and the parable was cited as a corrective to such resentment . What is being questioned is the idea of how
one is “paid” in the kingdom of God.. not by what one does -- either by doing
good deeds or keeping the commandments or working in the vineyard -- but by the
graciousness of God. (Jonathan+)
A denarius for a days work does not indicate a generous
landowner. It was the minimum wage a family in poverty could exist on.
The word for "think" (nomizo) does not
refer so much to a rational process (as logizomai), but "to
assume," "to presume," "to suppose," based on what one
expects to happen or what is "customary" or the "rule"
(which are meanings for the root nomos). Usually such assumptions are
wrong as in its other uses in Mt: 5:17; 10:34. (Stoffregen)
SUMMARY
Their complaints, as I see it, are three:(1) "They assumed they would receive more"
…I don't think their real complaint was as much about the money as the other two listed below.
(2) "You have made them equal to us."
…They make a distinction between "us" and "them" and that "we" are better than "they." "We" deserve more than "they."
(3) "[we] have born the burden of the day and the heat"
They do not see their invitation to work (and wages earned) as a sign of grace, but as a burden to be borne.
BRIAN STOFFREGAN, CROSSMARKS
ROBERT CAPON, Kingdom,
Grace, Judgment
p. 395-96
“It is the evil eye, you see- the ophthalamos poneros, the eye that loves the darkness of its
bookkeeper’s black ink, the eye that cannot stand red ink of unsuccess as it
appears in the purple light of grace- that is condemned here. Bookkeeping is
the only punishable offense in the kingdom of heaven…for if the world could
have been saved by bookkeeping, it would have been saved by Moses, not by
Jesus.”
Boring (Matthew, New
Interpreter's Bible): "Grace is always amazing grace. Grace that can be
calculated and 'expected' (v. 10) is no longer grace. (cf. 22:11-14)" [p.
394]
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