Reflective Bible Study

As we continue moving forward through the parables and illustrations Jesus shared, we come to a challenging parable that almost emphasizes God’s unfairness when dealing with humanity. However, in this parable, the results don’t seem accurate to what should be the case, implying, at least in my own mind, that if there is a result like this, it is only temporary, or that the theme of this parable is focused on our reward and not on our response.

Our parable and passage are found in the gospel of Matthew, chapter 20, and we will read it from the New International Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 1, Jesus shared with those present:

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 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.”

With how this parable ends, it is amazing in my mind to think about what God has done for us and what He has given to us through Jesus and Jesus’ death on the cross, and what that gift has to do with the reward this landowner gave to each of those he hired.

When reading this, it is interesting to note that those hired first are promised the standard pay for a day’s worth of work. In verse 2, the landowner “agreed to pay them a denarius for the day” before sending them into his vineyard.

It is also interesting to realize that the second group of people who are hired, the landowner promises in verse 4 to pay them “whatever is right”, using the wording of this translation.

From these first groups, we have clearly established the wage that can be earned from a full day of work. However, when the day ends, the landowner pays everyone as though they worked an entire day.

This is a crazy and unfair decision, because those who only worked for an hour or two are paid as though they worked the entire day. However, the only way we can see this landowner’s actions as unfair and not as generous is when we compare the wage each person earned with the others.

If we look at each person individually, without comparing their wage with the others, then we are left with the picture that the landowner is amazingly generous. The landowner could only be seen as generous for paying someone who worked an hour or two as if they had worked for an entire day.

What seems unfair on first glance is actually a blessing in disguise.

If we analyze the parable and what the parts of the parable represent, we discover some important things. First, since this is a Kingdom of Heaven parable, we must look for God represented, and the most logical role for God to be in this parable is the landowner. Since God created everything, He also owns everything, making Him the ultimate landowner, even if He has entrusted property managing to us.

With God as the landowner, that means He hires people to work in His vineyard. Since this is a Kingdom of Heaven parable, the picture it represents will likely be much bigger than just a single day in a single location. The work for a day in the context of this parable very likely represents the work of someone God commissions for their entire lifetime. This means that someone could be hired early in life and work for more hours of their lifetime than someone hired later in life.

As we begin unpacking the big ideas in this parable, let’s shift our focus onto looking at what God’s reward for a lifetime of service is. In the gospels, as many of you likely already know and understand, our reward for choosing God and placing our hope, faith, trust, and belief in Jesus is eternal life.

The reward for a life that perfectly served God is eternal life.

The problem with this reward is that only one life was lived perfectly, and that life, Jesus’ life, ended in death. This was part of God’s plan for making the way available for us to be saved.

This means that even if we grew up as a Christian, and we dedicated our lives to God’s service as soon as we could, the best we can offer God is a life of imperfect service that started after the start of the symbolic day. Because of this, we all have the promise of Christ’s perfect life of service standing in for us when we are rewarded for our imperfect lives of service that didn’t last for the whole day. We are rewarded based on Jesus’ life and not on our own.

This is amazing news for us, and the idea that those hired first would grumble about their reward seems crazy. When the reward for a lifetime’s worth of service is eternal life, it is impossible to divide out this gift in any different way. Eighty-five percent of eternal life is the same as not having eternal life. Eternal life is only eternal if it is given at 100%.

When we reach heaven and we see everyone who has been saved, I’m pretty sure we will be surprised by some of those who are there. Will we grumble or complain about it to God? Maybe, but this grumbling must be temporary, because the only way we grumble is if we are comparing ourselves to each other and taking our focus off of what God has given to us.

We are promised eternal life, and regardless of who accepts this gift and regardless of who God saves, our responsibility is working for God and our reward is eternal life. The only way our gift is not a blessing is when we compare ourselves to others and take our eyes off of our Savior.

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always challenge you to do, be sure to intentionally seek God first, and choose to dedicate your life to Him. In whatever situation God has placed you in, be sure to work for Him and focus on the gift He offers you. Avoid comparing yourself to anyone else, because when we look at others, we have taken our eyes off of Jesus and taking our eyes off of Jesus is a bad idea in the big picture of eternity.

Also, as I always challenge you to do, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to keep growing closer to God each and every day. Don’t let me or anyone else get between you and God. Choose to grow a personal relationship with God and to develop your personal connection to Him.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or deviate away from where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

On the night Jesus was betrayed and arrested, while Judas Iscariot and the religious leaders are gathering the mob to arrest Jesus, Jesus spends the first part of His remaining time with the disciples teaching them and giving them reasons for hope.

Over the past few episodes, we have looked at what John has told us about Jesus’ last message to His followers leading up to His arrest, and in this episode, we’ll continue looking at Jesus’ words, including a promise Jesus emphasizes, but that the disciples might not have fully understood until later.

With this said, let’s dive into our passage. Our passage for this episode is found in John, chapter 16, and we will read it using the New International Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 1, John records Jesus saying to the disciples:

¹ “All this I have told you so that you will not fall away. ² They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God. ³ They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me. ⁴ I have told you this, so that when their time comes you will remember that I warned you about them. I did not tell you this from the beginning because I was with you,

⁵ but now I am going to him who sent me. None of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ ⁶ Rather, you are filled with grief because I have said these things. ⁷ But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. ⁸ When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: ⁹ about sin, because people do not believe in me; ¹⁰ about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; ¹¹ and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.

¹² “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. ¹³ But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. ¹⁴ He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. ¹⁵ All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.”

¹⁶ Jesus went on to say, “In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me.”

¹⁷ At this, some of his disciples said to one another, “What does he mean by saying, ‘In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me,’ and ‘Because I am going to the Father’?” ¹⁸ They kept asking, “What does he mean by ‘a little while’? We don’t understand what he is saying.”

¹⁹ Jesus saw that they wanted to ask him about this, so he said to them, “Are you asking one another what I meant when I said, ‘In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me’? ²⁰ Very truly I tell you, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy. ²¹ A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world. ²² So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy. ²³ In that day you will no longer ask me anything. Very truly I tell you, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. ²⁴ Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.

²⁵ “Though I have been speaking figuratively, a time is coming when I will no longer use this kind of language but will tell you plainly about my Father. ²⁶ In that day you will ask in my name. I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf. ²⁷ No, the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. ²⁸ I came from the Father and entered the world; now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father.”

²⁹ Then Jesus’ disciples said, “Now you are speaking clearly and without figures of speech. ³⁰ Now we can see that you know all things and that you do not even need to have anyone ask you questions. This makes us believe that you came from God.”

³¹ “Do you now believe?” Jesus replied. ³² “A time is coming and in fact has come when you will be scattered, each to your own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me.

³³ “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

In this late-night message to Jesus’ disciples, two portions of this passage stand out in my mind. The first is when Jesus is sharing three primary roles for the Holy Spirit, also known as the Advocate according to this translation. Jesus promised us in verse 9 that when the Holy Spirit comes, He would “prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment”. Jesus then clarifies these three points in verses 9 through 11. The truth about sin, specifically our past sins, is that they only really matters if we do not believe in Jesus. The truth about righteousness, referring to personal integrity and having a Godly character, is found in Jesus standing in heaven as our advocate. And the truth about the judgment is that it is guaranteed to happen because the prince of this world, referring to Satan, stands as condemned.

While each of these points could be the focus of a full length sermon, before our time runs out, there is one other idea that Jesus shared in this passage I want to draw our attention to.

In some segments of Christianity today, there is the belief that God is looking at those in the world with anger and hostility, but that Jesus is holding the Father’s anger back. Whenever a prayer comes in, it might go to Jesus, who would petition for this prayer to be answered by God. However, this belief runs contrary to Jesus’ message to His followers that night. Verses 26 and 27 clearly draw out the truth about God the Father and His attitude towards us: “In that day you will ask in my name. I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf. No, the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.”

Jesus tells us that God the Father loves us and that He is willing to hear and answer our prayers. We can, and should, ask our prayers in Jesus’ name, but all too often, slapping the phrase, “In Jesus’ name” at the end of our prayers is less heartfelt and more cliché than we might want to admit. When we come before God with our prayers, it is beneficial to come in Jesus’ name, because it reminds us about what Jesus accomplished for us, but we should never cheapen our prayers to God with clichés. Clichés hurt our prayers unless we intentionally mean the words that we are saying.

While there is more we could focus in on, it will need to wait for another time. With that said, as we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always challenge you to do, intentionally seek God first in your life and choose to welcome the Holy Spirit into your heart. Understand the three primary roles the Holy Spirit has and let Him teach you the truth about sin, the truth about righteousness, and the truth about the judgment. While Satan has lies spread throughout culture about all three of these things, trust that when we lean on the Holy Spirit for God’s truth, He will lead us into God’s truth in each of these topics.

Also, continue to pray and study the Bible for yourself, being intentional about inviting the Holy Spirit into your study time. Since the Holy Spirit is behind the inspiration of the Bible, there is no better Teacher for our minds when trying to understand the Bible than the Holy Spirit. Ask the Holy Spirit for help studying, and don’t be surprised when He draws your attention onto new insights you never have seen before.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or drift away from where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!