Laborers in the Kingdom:

Context:

• Jesus just finished discussing the reward for leaving everything for the sake of the kingdom of God.
• Now He tells what working in the kingdom is like.

Matthew 20:1-7 “...For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and to them he said, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.’ So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same. And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing. And he said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’ They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’...”

What was the master of the house doing?

• Offering laborers the opportunity to work.

What was the agreed upon wage for a day?

• A single denarius.
• Believed by scholars to have been a Roman soldier's daily pay.
• Some say this small silver coin was worth about 20 cents.
• Some say it was worth 10 donkeys.

Matthew 20:8-10 “...And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.’ And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius. Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius...”

What did the master of the house pay the laborers?

• The agreed upon amount.

Matthew 20:11-12 “...And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house, saying, ‘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.’...”

How did the workers respond to the pay?

• Those who had worked the longest grumbled about not receiving more.

Was their response legitimate?

• In worldly, fleshly terms - yes. They did indeed bear “the burden of the day”. The world is always comparing and rating people’s worth.
• In heavenly, spiritual terms - no. They received the agreed upon amount. In the kingdom, people are of equal, immeasurable worth for who they are.

Matthew 20:13-16 “...But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’ So the last will be first, and the first last...”

What was the master of the house allowed to do?

• What he chose.

What is God allowed to do?

• What He chooses.

What was the trait the master was displaying?

• Generosity.

What is one of the wonderful traits that God displays?

• Generosity.

How did Jesus demonstrate the last/first concept with His own life?

• Philippians 2:4-8 “...Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross...”

• Philippians 2:9-11 “...Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father...”