Matthew 20:1 - 7

Workers in the Vineyard (1)

1 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard.

2 Now when he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard.

3 And he went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle in the marketplace,

4 and said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.’ So they went.

5 Again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did likewise.

6 And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing idle, and said to them, ‘Why have you been standing here idle all day?’

7 They said to him, ‘Because no one hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right you will receive.’

Jesus begins this chapter discussing the reason for the statement about “But many who are first will be last, and the last first.” Which was his last statement of the previous chapter.

The church or the “kingdom of heaven” is like an owner of a vineyard or farm who needs to hire some day help for his work in the fields. He goes out to the place where men congregate while waiting to be hired for daily work.

After the owner had agreed to pay a denarius, which was commonly a day's wages the men went to the fields to work for the man.

In the third hour of the workday which is 9am our time, the owner found out he needed more men to work so he went back out to the marketplace to look for more workers, the marketplace was where unemployed men would congregate each day hoping to be hired to work.

The workers were not told how much they would be paid, but they were told would be paid what was right, so they went to work.

The owner did the same at noon and 3pm and hired more workers.

He went again at about 5pm and hired whatever men were still waiting in the marketplace. He asked why they were still idle.

These men told him they were waiting because nobody had come to hire them. So he sent them to the fields to work about an hour.

Will conclude the lesson on this parable at the next session.