Episode Transcript
[00:00:24] Speaker A: Hi, I'm Josh.
[00:00:25] Speaker B: And I'm Gabriel.
[00:00:26] Speaker A: And today on reading the gospel, we are studying the event workers in the vineyard. This is found in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 20, and we'll be reading verse one all the way through 16. Follow along with us as we read.
[00:00:41] Speaker B: 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.
Then he said, you go into the vineyard, too, and whatever is right, I will give you. So they went, going out again about the 6th hour and the 9th hour, he did the same.
In about the 11th hour, he went out and found others standing, and he said to them, why do we 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.
[00:01:38] Speaker A: 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. When those hired about the 11th 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, and on receiving it, they grumbled at the master of the house, saying, these last worked only 1 hour, and you have made them equal to us, who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat. But he replied to one of them, friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for Denarius, take what belongs to you and go. I chose to give to the last worker as I gave 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?
This story seems unfair.
And I, as I say that, I think back to my father telling me life's not fair or me telling my kids life's not fair. You know, life is not fair. Is God being unfair here?
[00:03:08] Speaker B: Yeah. So this time it's about salvation, and salvation looks unfair, and it is because salvation is based essentially on forgiveness, and forgiveness is the most unfair thing in this world.
[00:03:25] Speaker A: I know people like this who feel that they deserve salvation, but others don't deserve salvation.
[00:03:32] Speaker B: I see this story as a continuation of the previous episode about a rich young man and the conversation with the disciples who said, look, this man put his heart to serve the Lord, to learn so much the Bible and to be one of the spiritual leaders of the nation. And it is hard for him to make it into heaven. So in that situation, who will be saved?
[00:04:00] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:04:00] Speaker B: And Jesus Christ tells this story to point them from our human focus on our own achievements, trying to check the marks on that long list of to do for making into the heaven.
And the focus is on God's character. And the way the master talks here is he portrays his character as generous.
And this is the conclusion, or do you begrudge my generosity?
Salvation is based on God's generosity. That's another word in the Bible, is God's grace. And grace is something that is offered for free. You cannot buy it. It's a gift.
And if those who follow Jesus Christ when they are young and they sacrifice so much throughout their life, compare themselves with those like thief on the cross, who said, forgive me or please have me with you in the kingdom, five minutes before dying, they looked back and they said, all our sacrifices were for nothing. It seems that life and this life of salvation is unfair.
[00:05:24] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. And it leads to the thought, well, why don't I enjoy myself and get hired on at the last hour? Why don't I wait till the end? If the reward's gonna be the same, why don't we just do it later?
But the problem is, well, there's a two fold problem there. The first problem is, we miss out on so much.
The reward of following Jesus, of being a Christ follower on this earth, is so much greater than the reward of not.
[00:05:59] Speaker B: And the reward is not into gaining something, but it is into building a relationship, in getting close with him. In other words, spending more time with him.
[00:06:09] Speaker A: Exactly. And on the second one, we don't know when the 11th hour is. We don't know the last hour. It's not like in the day. And we have watches and we can say, okay, when I'm 62 years old, I can go in and give my heart to God.
Today might be the last hour for us.
It might be the last chance we get.
[00:06:32] Speaker B: I know some people who really wanted to come to the Lords when they will retire.
And they say, I'm going to live the life the way I want. Now, when they retired, that desire to come back to God has disappeared because the old habits have been entrenched, ingrained into as neural pathways, and they couldn't change. They have no desire for something better.
It is today that I have to respond to the invitation of Jesus Christ.
[00:07:08] Speaker A: I've heard another illustration of this.
I had someone who, I studied the Bible with who had the view that the seven levels of heaven were promotions.
Like, if you do more, if you give more to the church, or if you're a pastor, or if you're a martyr, like you can get to. You can get to higher levels of heaven if you work longer, if you come through the whole day. And it's thought that, you know, store up, the Bible even says this store up riches in heaven where moth and rust can't destroy. And so there's this thought out there that the more I do now, the more reward I'll have there.
Is that a biblical thought is that something like, are there seven levels in heaven that we can achieve and get promoted?
[00:08:01] Speaker B: We don't know too much about heaven. What we know that those who follow Jesus Christ on earth will follow him closely in heaven. And some of them are into that personal guard of Jesus Christ called 144,000. And they go with Jesus everywhere. But they learn to do that on this earth, in this life.
We are saved for Jesus. We are not saved for a specific rewards.
Heaven is not like a multi level marketing when you are going up the ladder and you get a larger share of the income. No, it's a relationship with Jesus Christ. And where Jesus is there, the heaven is, and we might receive all the riches that we have dream in this world and a beautiful mansion in heaven and an apartment in Jerusalem.
If Jesus Christ, the son of God, is not there, those have no value.
[00:09:08] Speaker A: Yeah. And so it is up to God. It's not fair that he gives salvation to some people, the thief on the cross, at the last minute. It's not fair. It's not fair that he gives salvation to me, even though I've been a follower of Christ for a few years now. It's not fair that he gives it to people who never really went out in the world and always loved Jesus. Salvation is not fair for any of us.
[00:09:38] Speaker B: But there is something interesting in this story.
This concept of unfairness was not in their minds early in the morning when they negotiated one Denarius per day of labor, they are practically happy. They said, we got a good deal.
That fairness was based on false expectations, and those false expectations were based on misreading the master's character. And they said, oh, if those guys who worked just 1 hour received one denarius, that means the master has changed his mind. And he will give us 12 hours times one will be twelve denarius. Wow, that's amazing. We don't have to work next week. We can go on vacation. That was the problem.
So we really have to learn to have a sound, unbalanced understanding of who God is.
And we have to work with Christ very close so we can understand his character. We do not develop some false expectations, some illusions.
[00:10:48] Speaker A: Yeah. So what is this passage telling us about God?
[00:10:53] Speaker B: For me, I see God's grace as defined here as generosity, as being the foundation of our salvation, a God who is generous. And I really like this concept. I like to use it in my own language. I like to incorporate it into the culture of my small groups and churches.
Generosity, generosity cannot daydream and develop false expectations.
A God of love, that love is manifested in the form of grace, and we receive that by faith.
[00:11:41] Speaker A: You know, for me, I might be reading a little too much in this text.
When I think of the jobs a worker could have back then, working in the vineyard would probably be pretty special.
It's better than getting grain in the field. It's better than maybe getting figs off the tree. I love when I go over. We're not too far from southwest Michigan. They've got some nice vineyards there. Whenever I go over there, I live there for a while, and I'd go ride my bike. And as you're riding, you smell the grapes, and they just smell wonderful. And I carry a few dollars in my back pocket and stop by one of the roadside stands and pick up some of the grapes. When I go out there now, I'll stop by and buy some grapes. And you go out and you pick them yourself. And as you're picking them yourself, you're allowed to eat as much as you can.
And this is the image that I have that the master is allowing them. Hey, come do this job. I'm going to pay you a denarius. And by the way, you can eat what you want.
And so I see it as an enjoyable job, not something that was a burden, not something that was hard, something that they would have gotten something good out of along the way.
And so as they go through this experience, it is work.
They do need to put something out there, but there are benefits. Again, that's me reading into this. But I see in my life God giving us good things along the way.
I've done work for God. One of my favorite things to do is to sit down with someone in personal Bible study.
[00:13:27] Speaker B: And also I like this idea. I connect this with Matthew 1128 through 30, when Jesus says, come to me and learn from me, and take my yoke and learn from me, because I'm humble and meek.
By being yoked to Christ to work together, we notice, we are exposed to a different behavior, a different approach to everything.
And that is what God wanted to teach us through the life of Jesus Christ.
And that is the greatest reward. Those who worked early in the morning had a chance to spend more time with the master, to learn more about his generosity. But they missed that opportunity. And those who came in the last moment, they are so grateful, and they valued the master's generosity.
[00:14:25] Speaker A: Let's pray.
Father, we are so thankful that you allow us to be laborers in the harvest. Jesus has said the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. And I pray that we who are listening now will accept that call right now to go work. We won't wait till the 11th hour. We won't be jealous of those who didn't have to do as much work.
But, Father, I pray that we'll also enjoy that work, that we'll realize that the work you have for us is a good work. It's a work that helps us sleep soundly at night, that gives us a peace, that gives joy.
And I pray that you'll fill our lives with that joy. In Jesus name, amen. Amen.
