A Series on the parables of Jesus – Part 2Workers in the vineyard (Click
on the link below to read the verses.)
[During the
first century, it was common for a rabbi to use parables when teaching their
disciples. The parables of Jesus were stories that he told to illustrate
spiritual truth using some element from everyday life. Jesus used seeds, fish,
trees, bread - things people could easily relate to – for a “teachable
moment”.]
Don’t you just love those TV commercials about prescriptions that show
people laughing and smiling and having a wonderful life? Then at the end of the
commercial, the narrator - speaking faster than you can understand - rattles off
all the possible side effects ending the list with the big one… “Possible death”.
Disclaimers are common in advertising. Jesus was familiar with
disclaimers and actually used one once… today’s parable. But before we get into
the parable, we need to look at what happened just before it.
A rich young ruler asked Jesus what he needed to do to inherit eternal
life. Following a brief conversation, Jesus told the young man to sell all that
he had, give it to the poor and follow him. “At
this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth”.
Jesus then turned to his disciples and told them, “It is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven…
but with God all things are possible”.
Not seeming to hear what Jesus had just said, Peter asked, “We’ve given up everything to follow you.
What will we get?” Unfazed, Jesus told him the rewards that he and other
followers would receive, but then made this ominous statement.
30 But many who are the greatest now will be least
important then, and those who seem least important now will be the greatest
then. NLT
Jesus proceeded to tell the disciples a parable by saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like”… a
landowner who hired workers for his vineyard at different times throughout the
day. But at the end of the day, he paid all of them the same amount.
Of course, those who had been working all day didn’t like that. It wasn’t
fair. After all, they had worked through the heat of the day, doing the bulk of
the work. In their opinion,
they deserved to be paid more than those who only worked
half a day, or even just an hour.
Jesus completes his parable by repeating what he had said before to Peter’s
question. The Message puts it this way.
16 “Here it is again, the Great Reversal: many of the
first ending up last, and the last first.” MSG
Peter felt entitled, and tried to make his relationship with Jesus
transactional. His thinking was, “If I do something for you, then you owe me”. Those
thoughts, and that justification, are as old as the Garden of Eden. But that isn’t
how Jesus works.
So, what is the message of Jesus’ parable/disclaimer?” It is to correct
the thinking and the priorities of those of us who follow him. And, to show
that the kingdom of heaven is a gift based on the generosity and grace of our
Heavenly Father.
***
Anyone
with ears to hear should listen and understand.
Mark 4:23 NLT
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