Matthew 20:1-16 - Homiletics

Parable of the labourers in the vineyard.

I. THE HIRING .

1 . The connection . The parable is very closely connected with the last four verses of Matthew 19:1-30 . It is plainly intended to illustrate our Lord's saying in Matthew 19:30 , "Many that are first shall be last; and the last shall be first." St. Peter's question in Matthew 19:27 contained an element of error. The Lord had promised a great reward to his faithful servants, and he would give it. It was their due, in a sense; but not as a debt, not as of merit ("the gift of God is eternal life"), but only of promise, because God, in the free bounty of his sovereign grace, has given unto us "exceeding great and precious promises." God will remember his holy promise; he is faithful. But his people must understand that the rewards of his kingdom are his to give—to give according to his own will. His will is not arbitrary; it is holy and just and good. He cannot deny himself; the determinations of his wilt must always be in accordance with his own infinite goodness, love, wisdom, justice. His people must learn to say, "Thy will be done." They must trust absolutely and wholly in his love and bounty. They must not prescribe their own reward. They must not venture to estimate it upon the basis of so much reward for so much work. They must not make jealous comparisons of themselves with others. Each Christian man must do his duty, not grudgingly, nor of necessity, but out of love, in simple trustfulness. God is faithful.

2 . The first hiring . The householder went out early in the morning to hire labourers into his vineyard. The Householder is God; the vineyard is his kingdom; the labourers are men called by him to do his work. The parable was addressed to the apostles, and was part of the answer to St. Peter's question; so it would seem that, in the first and strictest meaning, the labourers first called must be the apostles themselves. The householder went out early in the morning; the Lord came forth from heaven; it was to hire labourers, to send forth men to carry on the great work which he himself began. He agreed with them for a penny a day. The penny must mean the prize of the high calling—that treasure in heaven which the Lord had offered to the young ruler, that eternal life which he promised to all who deny themselves for his Name's sake. The labourers hired later in the day must, on this theory, be the holy men (such as St. Stephen, St. Paul, and others) who were called to the work after the twelve, but still in the apostolic times. Those called at the eleventh hour will be Gentile Christians called later yet to the work, such as the fellow labourers of St. Paul. The context seems to suggest this explanation as the first and most obvious meaning of the parable. But it may be fairly understood also of the Jews, God's ancient people, who were first called into covenant with God; and of the Gentiles, called in the last times into a covenant of grace. And, again, the parable illustrates in a touching and striking manner the dealings of God with individual souls; some are called in childhood like Samuel, some in middle life, some in advanced age. They differ indefinitely from one another in early training, in talents, in opportunities. But all have their appointed work; all have the like blessed hope to cheer them on in their daily task. Each must do his best according to his powers, according to the time allowed him. All must trust in God. He is gracious and merciful, just and large in his generous bounty. But he is sovereign in the exercise of his goodness. None may presume to murmur; envies and jealousies are excluded from the kingdom of heaven. The last shall be first. St. Paul, the last of all, the least of the apostles in his own sight, laboured more abundantly than they all. "Yet not I," he says, "but the grace of God which was with me." That is the true Christian temper, which ascribes all its energy and all its labours to the assisting grace of God, which never murmurs, which gladly recognizes the goodness, the work of others, which rejoices with them that do rejoice, in the successes of others, in the praises, the honours, the rewards bestowed upon them.

3 . The intermediate hirings . Again the householder went out when nearly a quarter of the working day was gone; there were others standing idle in the marketplace; he bade them go and work in his vineyard. Me made no definite agreement with them, as he bad done with the first hired labourers; they were satisfied with his promise to give whatever was right, and they went their way. Again at noon, and again when only a quarter of the working hours remained, he did the like. All went, none refused; none tried to bargain with the householder; none asked, "What shall we have therefore?" We must not stand idle when God calls us to work for him. We must go at once whenever we hear that gracious call, whether it be early or late, whatever be our circumstances and employments; all other work is but idleness in his sight, compared with the great work, the work which God has given us to do. We must trust him implicitly. We have the blessed word of Holy Scripture, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." It is enough for us.

4 . The last hiring . The day was now nearly ended; only one hour remained. For the last time the householder went into the marketplace. God, in his long suffering mercy, calls us again and again, at different periods of our lives, in different ways. He is "not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." The marketplace is the world; it is a bustling, noisy scene; yet, alas! many stand there all the day idle. Their idleness may be laborious idleness. There was one who said on his death bed, "Heu! vitam perdidi laboriose nihil agendo." Their life may be restless, eager in the pursuit of pleasure or riches, filled every hour with this or that engagement, this or that amusement. Yet, if the great end of life be neglected, all is but a laborious doing nothing; for nothing real is gained. "Man walketh in a vain shadow," if he is not working for God; this life, with all its varied occupations, is no better than idle play', if it has no conscious relation to the life beyond the grave. Men think that they are working hard when, in the eye of God, they are standing idle all the day, for they are not working out their own salvation, the only work that is real, earnest, abiding. God doth not leave such idlers to perish. He calls them again and again, by his Word, by his ministers, by his providence. He calls then at the eleventh hour, "Why stand ye here all the day idle?" "The night cometh, wherein no man can work," and the work to be done before nightfall is of momentous importance. They that then stood idle gave a reason for their idleness, "Because no man hath hired us." The excuse was true in the mouth of those Gentile fellow labourers who were gathered into the Church late in the apostolic times. God "in times past," said St. Paul ( Acts 14:16 ), "suffered all nations to walk in their own ways" (comp. also Acts 17:30 and Romans 11:1-36 .). They had not been called into the Church, the kingdom of heaven. It can be true only in a very partial sense of Christians now. Men do not heed the call; the loud noise and bustle of the world drown the still small voice of the blessed Spirit. Their deafness is wilful; the voice comes again and again; they will not listen, and it becomes fainter and less distinct. Sometimes it is unheeded to the end; sometimes at last it swells into a trumpet note, and rouses the thoughtless to repentance. Yet, alas! even in Christian countries there are many, brought up among evil surroundings, in all the misery of godless training and wicked examples, without instruction, without the means of grace; of whom (it sometimes seems to us, when we face sadly and helplessly these perplexing problems of life) those words may still be said, "No man hath hired us." But God, we know, is not willing that any should perish; we may not doubt but that in some way his voice makes itself heard even to such as these, if not earlier, yet at the eleventh hour, as life is drawing near to its close. "Go ye also into the vineyard," the householder, said, though so short a time for work was left. No stipulation was made; perhaps, in this case, the reward was not even mentioned; the promise of giving whatsoever was right is omitted here in some of the most ancient manuscripts, which the Revised Version follows. The men trusted the householder implicitly; they went even at that late hour into the vineyard. There was yet work to be done; and, if there was work, there was hope. They went, they worked; and, we shall find, their trust was not in vain.

II. THE RESULT .

1 . The reward . When even was come, the lord of the vineyard said unto his steward, "Call the labourers, and give them their hire." Christ himself is the Steward, as a Son over his own house ( Hebrews 3:6 ). All power is given unto him; it is he who will say to the redeemed, "Come, ye blessed of my Father; inherit the kingdom prepared for you." The steward called the labourers; he began, as his lord had bidden him, with the last hired. They had wrought but one hour, and that without any definite agreement. They knew not what to expect; they had done their best, it seems; but the time was short, very short. What could they look for? They came in doubt and anxiety. But they received every man a penny—the full day's wages. They were, we may be sure, full of joy and gratitude; it was far more than they had expected. They had not earned it, they knew; it was of grace, a free gift, a proof of the generous bounty of the lord of the vineyard. The rewards of heaven are not calculated by the methods of earth. Men called late into Christ's service might rank with the first chosen twelve. Paul the persecutor would sit on one of the twelve thrones; Judas the apostle would forfeit his place in the apostolic hierarchy. Gentiles would be called into the kingdom on an equal footing with God's ancient people. Throughout the history of the Church it would happen again and again that men called late in life, sometimes on the very bed of death, would receive the full reward. Work is not always measured by time; life itself is not measured by time. A short life has sometimes far more of real living, more of deep spiritual energy, and even sometimes of outward work, than a very long life spent without earnest purpose ("He being made perfect in a short time, fulfilled a long time," Wis. 4:13). We may well believe that in the dying hours of the penitent thief there was concentrated a depth of repentance, an intensity of love, an energy of victorious faith, which he marked and rewarded who measures life, not by time, not by outward work, but by faith and love. The labourers were called in order from the last unto the first. All received the like reward—the penny, covenanted to the first called, given, it seems, without covenant to those sent later into the vineyard. The parable contemplates a portion only of God's dealings with mankind; its point of view does not extend to the disobedient, mentioned elsewhere, who went not to the vineyard. Here all the labourers had worked, and all received their hire. But that reward, though in itself the same, varies according to the spiritual capacity of the receiver. Eternal life is promised to all the blessed; God himself is their Portion. Yet we read of ten cities and of five ( Luke 19:17 , Luke 19:19 ). There will be first and last, greatest and leash in the kingdom of God; all the stars shine in the heavens, but one star differeth from another star in glory. All the blessed will, by the grace of God, be admitted into the exceeding great rapture of the beatific vision. That vision of love and glory will fill every heart with unutterable gladness; the saints will be changed into the same image from glory to glory, drawn ever nearer, received into an ever-closer nearness, an ever-deepening blessedness, increasing in proportion to the powers, the love, the fervour, the devotion of each glorified spirit. All will receive the blessed promise, eternal life; the realization of that promise will depend in some measure on the capacities of the receiver. All will be blessed. Holy Scripture seems to teach that there will be degrees of blessedness in heaven, as there are degrees of holiness on earth.

2 . The murmurs . The first-hired labourers had borne the burden and heat of the day; they now received the covenanted reward. It was their just due according to the original agreement. But they murmured, not because they had received too little, but because others, as they thought, had received too much. These last had wrought but one hour, and yet the good man of the house had made them equal to those who had worked from morning until evening. The Jews showed this narrow spirit of unworthy jealousy towards the Gentiles; we see it throughout the New Testament. It was this that caused the rejection of our Lord at Nazareth ( Luke 4:25-29 ). It was this that excited the fierce wrath of the Jews against St. Paul ( Acts 22:21 , Acts 22:22 ). They were God's chosen people; the adoption was theirs, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the Law, and the service of God, and the promises ( Romans 9:4 ). They could not endure the thought that the despised Gentiles were to be admitted to an equality of privileges. St. Peter had just showed something of this spirit in his question, "Behold, we have left all, and followed thee; what shall we have therefore?" The primary intention of the parable was, it seems, to teach him and his brother apostles that the rewards of God's kingdom are not of debt, but of grace; and to rebuke that desire of pre-eminence, those jealousies and rivalries, which we meet with so often in the history of the apostles, and, alas! in the whole history of the Church. There must be no jealousies in the kingdom of God. Each Christian must learn of him "who is meek and lowly in heart" the great grace of humility; we must all learn "in lowliness of mind to esteem others better than ourselves." We must learn this great lesson now; for murmurers have no place in the kingdom of glory. Heaven is the home of love; no jarring notes of envy or discontent may disturb its Divine harmonies. It is the home of blessedness; there can be no complaints in heaven; for, if there are degrees of blessedness, yet each redeemed soul is blessed to the full extent of its capacities, and is disturbed by no unsatisfied longings. Then if we apply the parable to the circumstances of individual Christians, and understand the penny as meaning the unspeakable gift—Christ now, eternal life hereafter—we must regard this portion as belonging to the scenery, so to speak, of the parable, to its setting, as conveying a warning of what might happen on earth, not a prophecy of what will happen hereafter. On earth the murmurers receive the penny; they have worked for it. There is no intimation in the parable that they worked less strenuously than those called later; it would not be just to withhold it, though they marred their industry by their envy and ill temper. In the world to come such men would lose their reward; in this world they knew not how to value it. The reward offered was the gift of Christ, Christ himself, Christ present to his people's hearts; but, alas! though they seemed to begin well, they envied others who afterwards outstripped them in the Christian race; and that envy of the progress, of the successes, of the rewards of others marred their own religious service, destroyed the value of their work, poisoned and killed out of their hearts the holy life of faith and love. To such heaven would be no heaven if they were allowed to enter there, for to the unloving there can be no joy in the love of heaven. "He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love."

3 . The reply of the householder . "Friend," he said. The Greek word is not one which implies affection or friendship, but only knowledge and companionship; it is used by the king in the parable to the man who had not on a wedding garment, and by our Lord in addressing Judas at Gethsemane. The man had received the penny; the payment was according to the agreement; he had no right to more. The apostles would receive the promised reward; but they ought not to seek great things for themselves; they ought not to desire pre-eminence; they ought to trust the bounty and the justice of God. They ought not to boast of what they had done; they ought not to say, "Behold, we have left all, and followed thee;" but rather, as St. Paul said afterwards, "I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day." Implicit faith in God's justice and love is the proper attitude of the Christian soul. His will is sovereign; he distributeth to every man severally as he will; but it is not arbitrary; it is holy and just and good. He knows, as none else can know, all the circumstances, all the surroundings, all the temptations, all the advantages and disadvantages, which must be taken into consideration in any accurate estimate of character. Without this knowledge it is impossible to weigh one man against another, or to balance the relative preponderance of good or evil in each. We cannot have this knowledge. God has it; we must trust his ruling. We must not dare to complain if others, whom we regarded as our inferiors, are put above us or on an equality with us. God has his reasons; he doeth all things well. Perhaps the householder in the parable knew that any addition to the stipulated reward was not deserved; perhaps he knew that it would be misused, that it would in some way do harm rather than good. God, who knows all things, certainly acts always for the best. The Lord is loving unto every man. He maketh all things work together for good to them that love him. This is enough for us to know. We must learn the blessed grace of humility, the holy lesson of contentment. Murmuring there must not be; it shows at once the unworthiness of the murmurers. Envy is an evil thing; it comes from the evil one; it has no place in the kingdom of heaven, for the law of that kingdom is love.

4 . The conclusion . The Lord sums up the parable in the words which he had used before ( Matthew 19:30 ). The parable was intended to illustrate their meaning. He now repeats them, "So the last shall be first, and the first last." He does not mean that it will be so in all cases; but that the fact of being first called, or first in other senses, first in station, first in the esteem of men , or even first in outward works, will not necessarily save a man from being last at the end. " Many that are first shall be last." The first hired in the parable were last in several respects. They received their reward last; that reward was least in proportion to the time of service; and they were last in good feeling. All the rest were contented; they only were dissatisfied and ungrateful. Then the first places in the kingdom are for those who are first in humility, first in self-abasement, who are willing to be last of all and the servants of all; who recognize their own sinfulness, their unworthiness of the least of God's mercies; who, far from putting forward a claim to pre-eminence, are content to take the lowest place. Such men may seem last in the eyes of men; they may have been called late in life; they may be very inferior to others in showy qualities; but they are first now in the sight of God; they will be first one day in the sight of men and angels. If the last clause of Matthew 19:16 is genuine in this place, it cannot be taken in the same sense as in Matthew 22:14 . There the guest who had not on a wedding garment was called indeed to the marriage, but not chosen unto life eternal; he was cast into outer darkness. Here all receive the reward; but few are chosen out, as pre-eminent in holiness, for the highest places in God's kingdom, to sit on the right and left of the King, or to occupy the twelve thrones of the rulers of the spiritual Israel. God gives these highest distinctions to whom he will, to the lowliest and the most self-denying. But there is no room for ambition in the kingdom of heaven; all the faithful must be content, all will be content with the place assigned to them, for the very lowest place there is a prize unspeakably glorious, blessed above all that we can ask or think.

LESSONS .

1 . God's rewards are of grace, not of debt.

2 . Christians must be humble and thankful, not jealous of others.

3 . The very lowest place in God's kingdom is far higher than the best of us deserves.

4 . We must obey the calling of God. He has work forevery one of us; let us earnestly try to do it.

5 . Let us not despair if we are called at the eleventh hour. Only let us do our best. The last may be first.