Matthew 20:1-16 - The Kingdom of Heaven is like...The good news of Jesus in a story

 

The switch over has begun.  This Sunday marked our last passage in Matthew until the first of the year.  A few Sunday offs and then a couple Sundays covering advent and then a special sermon for the final Sunday of the year.  I am praying that I will be preaching on our new mission and identity statements.  It would be a great way to end 2025 and keep moving on this quest to have our church documents reflect who we are and where we are at as a local church family.

Matthew 20:1-16 contains a parable that I just love.  It could be my favorite and I love how it dovetails with the Parable of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15.  This is a Matthew only passage and that makes me wonder why.  Matthew being a tax collector and this parable dealing with wages might give us a clue but always leaving the final reason being the inspiration of the Holy Spirit given to him.  The parable is also a tremendous picture of the gospel.  I know that you can't attribute characters to each parable but I think you can on this one because the subject matter is given to us at the start.  

This is just my thoughts on this parable.

The landowner = God

Morning = a starting of the kingdom of heaven

Laborers = those who have said "yes" to the God to serve

Denarius = what is justly required provided by the landowner

Evening = an ending or settling of accounts

The steward = Jesus, sent by the landowner to provide what was just

Call the laborers = the Bridegroom gathering the bride (the church)

A parable that some of the first hired complain and grumble to the landowner because physically they don't get what they feel is fair but when looked at spiritually, the landowner is absolutely fair providing a salvation to all who say "yes to serve" no matter if it is the first hour or the 11th hour.  I think of Timothy as someone who came to Christ in the first hour and the thief on the cross as someone who came to Christ in the 11th hour.  Both salvations, the forgiveness of sins, the escape from the wrath of God, eternal life provided, and a resurrection to be forever in the presence of God are the same for both.  God says this should bring from us joy and rejoicing rather that complaining and grumbling.

We see this is in the Parable of the Prodigal Son as the older brother grumbles to the father when his younger brother comes homes.  Instead of having joy as the father did, the older brother is still focusing on himself and what he has received or not received.  His eyes and the eyes of those hired first were still on themselves and not thinking of God's will, wish and plan.  We can do the same and the complaining is a red flag to get our attention that we are looking internally rather than externally.  We are looking at our will over the will of God and not really meaning what we are praying when we say, "Thy will be done, Thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven."

It was a time to call for a response to the actions of our sovereign God.  The disciples had seen the response of the rich young ruler.  The rich young ruler's true god emerged so he was neither a first hour or an eleventh hour.  He didn't say "yes to serve" to the steward who held the just payment for his soul.  The disciples will see others who, as they, went the route of the terms and conditions to enter the kingdom of heaven.  It is not based on our goodness, merely being religious, being richly blessed, having more good deeds than bad deeds, or finding another way.  Jesus pops all these balloons to point His disciples to what the truth is.  Some things needed to be unlearned and I believe this is also true today.  The only way for us to know the truth is to go to the truth.

Adam



A simple man serving a great God and the local pastor of Stillwater Community Chapel (stillwater-chapel.org). We are in our 39th year of full time ministry. God directed us to this local body of believers on the Western Range of the Rockies to grow with them in mission and mindedness of Christ.

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