Matthew 20:1 Commentary and Bible Study

(Synoptics: Matthew 20:1-16)The parable of the labourers in the vineyard is about the grace of God, the freedom that he has to dispense grace in any way that he sees fit, and the unmerited favour that his people receive from him. He cannot be bound by any constraints imposed upon him by anyone else, because what he gives is totally undeserved and beyond all ability of man to deserve. This vineyard owner has lands and estates; and is significantly wealthy, yet he makes five visits to marketplace. In those days the workers normally went to the vineyards, not the other way round. Even more remarkably, he keeps going through the day. He might have said, ‘If they are not there at the start of the day, they are not worth hiring. They must be substandard labourers.’ He is clearly a man of compassion. He doesn’t want them to be in poverty. This is not teaching us how to run our businesses, but this is how it is in the kingdom of heaven. The climax of the parable is the complaint of the labourer hired first that he has been paid the same as the one hired last, and then the Lord’s answer to him, which contains the key lesson of the parable. The vineyard owner is right to say that he is free to give what he likes to each one of his workers. He is under no obligation to enter into the same contract with all of them, and he rightly points out that the first had agreed to his wage before he started, and should therefore have been content with it. Nevertheless, the first hired wants to compare what he has received with what the last has received, and to compare the work that he has done with what those who have worked the shortest day have done. He is offended that there is not a wage structure in place that rewards according to work carried out, and he feels aggrieved that others should be paid the same for doing less, because he sees this as a work-reward situation. The difficulty is that Christ has set this parable about grace in the context of an illustration based on a work arrangement. In such a situation it does not seem unreasonable for a worker to compare the work he has done and the wages he has received with that of others. When Paul illustrates the difference between works and grace in Romans 4:4-5, he makes works equivalent to an employee who receives his wages at the end of his work. He receives these, Paul points out, not as a gift but as an obligation, a debt owed him by his employer. But the one who does not work receives his payment as a gift. That presents us with a clear distinction between reward and free gift. Why does Christ not maintain the same clear distinction? Because he is expounding his statement in Matthew 19:30, that ‘many that are first shall be last; and the last shall be first.’ This follows Peter’s insistence that he has forsaken all and followed Christ. Peter is in danger of seeing his discipleship of Christ as a relationship of works, as if he has to some extent earned his place in heaven. He seems to feel he should receive some greater reward for what he had done, because he had given up more than others. It is to correct this mistaken idea that the parable is given. There can be no great difference along these lines for what God gives far out balances our puny sacrifices – the benefit of forgiveness of sins is not to be compared with anything we do. Peter needs to learn more about grace. ‘If you see the Christian life as a matter of receiving a reward in the next life for following me in this life,’ says the Lord, ‘then you have misunderstood your situation.’ That is not the nature of the kingdom of heaven. The parable is given to correct a misunderstanding in Peter’s mind, and it also establishes a principle about the kingdom of heaven that defines grace. Christ does this by deliberately introducing an element which seems unfair in the context of a work contract. That is what upsets the first labourers, and it may also upset the reader who thinks that the first labourers have a fair point. Though we may acknowledge that the vineyard owner is technically correct in saying that he can make any contract he likes with his workers on an individual basis, yet we feel that the first labourers are somewhat justified in their complaint. But if we feel like this then we must understand that the kingdom of heaven operates on an entirely different principle. All that God gives us is undeserved. Nothing that we receive from him is earned as a reward. If Peter thinks that his giving up all and following Christ earns him something, then Christ corrects that wrong understanding.