Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard

Jesus told a parable about a vineyard owner who gave his workers the same pay, for different amounts of work. The workers were protesting against the owner.

He said to them, hey, don't I have the right to do with my stuff whatever I want to? If I want to be generous to these people over here and give them more than I offered you, I mean for less work, why should you complain? But the workers did complain, and I think most if not all of us can relate. We all have built-in fairness detectors. When we're treated unfairly, we tend to put our foot down and demand what we think we deserve. But in this case, our fairness detector isn't accurate. Here's Dr. R.C.

Sproul. We're going to continue now with our study of the parables of Jesus. And before we look at the one I've selected for this session, I want to remind everybody that we went over some of the basic principles of parables early on, saying that in most cases a parable only has one particular point or meaning, and that we have to be careful not to read all kinds of things into it. Now having said that, I noticed that in the seminaries where we work with interpreting the Scriptures, that sometimes there will be people who will try to argue that a text of the Bible has more than one meaning. It might have a multitude of meanings. And orthodox Christianity has responded to that and said, no, no, no, there's only one meaning of the text.

It's what the author intended to convey. There may be a thousand applications of that single text, but it only has one meaning. And I mention that because the parable that we're going to be looking at is one that I think has a single meaning but has many, many possible applications.

And the one I'm going to use tonight is to see its application to the very controversial doctrine of election. So with that in mind, let's look at what is called in my Bible the parable of the workers in the vineyard. Now again, when you see these headings in your Bible, they aren't part of the text.

That's what the translators have added to help you find different places in the Bible. And so they've chosen to call this the parables of the workers in the vineyard. I don't think that the parable is about the workers in the vineyard. I think it's about the owner of the vineyard. And so I would call it the parable of the owner of the vineyard.

So having made that quibble with the translator, we'll continue. We're in chapter 20 of Matthew, beginning at verse 1. For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. Now when he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And he went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and said to them, you also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.

So they went. Again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour and did likewise. 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?

They said, because no one has hired us. He said to them, you also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right you will receive. So when evening had come, the owner of the vineyard said to his steward, call the laborers and give them their wages, beginning with the last, to the first. And when those came in who were hired about the eleventh hour, they received a denarius. But when the first came, they supposed that they would receive more. But they likewise received each denarius.

And when they received it, they complained against the landowner saying, these last men have worked only one hour, and you made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the heat of the day. But he answered one of them and said, friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what is yours and go your way. I wish to give to this last man the same as to you. Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things? Or is your eye evil because I am good? So the last will be first, and the first last, for many are called, but few are chosen.

Here, we have a parable that deals with such weighty matters in biblical terms as justice and grace, as well as questions of merit that we have to deal with. Now, I'm fascinated with the way in which language is distorted and twisted in our culture where the original meaning of terms not only changes and is morphed into something else, but so often begins to mean its exact opposite. For example, when I went to school, if the teacher told you to scan the textbook, what would you do?

What did you think that he meant? Well, the word scan meant to look very carefully at every detail, but the word sounds like the word skim, and we like the idea of skimming the textbook rather than scanning the textbook. So we took the word scan to mean read over lightly, gloss over it loosely, and let it go.

You better hope that the airport control tower scanners are not just casually skimming the radar system when you're on your next airplane flight. But this is how language changes. It's fluid. I think of the word justice. I think of the word social justice, for example.

That label social justice in the hands of Marxists has now been twisted, and it really describes social injustice. I'll give you an example. You go to a college class, and there are ten students in the class, and you have a final exam. And five of the students work all week diligently preparing for that final exam. The other five students party all week and don't even glance at a page of their assignments for the final exam. And so the ten students come and take the exam, and then the final grades are posted, and the grades are posted where every student gets a C. And that's what's called equality, where you take from the A's and you give it to the F's, and you distribute the wealth of the grades in the classroom.

How long do you think that teacher would last in higher education? And it's not a case here where the students who made F's and were given C's received grace that was gracious. But the problem is the students who made A's got neither grace nor justice. They suffered an injustice at the hand of this arbitrary professor who took from their merit and gave it to those who had none, and left no good deed unpunished.

I mean, I think that simple illustration clearly shows clearly shows that such a system in a classroom is not just but unjust. Now you can have a thousand applications to that to the culture in which you live, but pay attention to how the words social justice are used in our culture today to justify all kinds of rascally undertakings like this. But in any case, in the parable, he tells the story of a guy who owns a vineyard. And as vineyards are owned today in America, if you've ever been to California, to Napa Valley, Sonoma, and you see the hundreds and hundreds of vineyards that are out there, and the story is told that you can make a small fortune by owning and operating your own vineyard. Your own vineyard. But what you need to make a small fortune in owning a vineyard is you have to start with a large fortune.

That's the only way you're going to have a small fortune. But because it's a very risky enterprise, and if it's risky today with all the sophistication that we have with soil samples and all the rest, imagine in the ancient world the planting of the seedlings and the harvesting of grapes. The harvesting of the grapes was the single most important and most critical element of their product of the vineyard. And once the grapes reached that optimal point of ripening, it was imperative that they got those grapes harvested as quickly as possible.

To wait one day in the sun would diminish the value of the wine that they were making from the grapes. And that's why we have this owner of the vineyard who has come to the point now where the grapes have to be picked from the vines. And so he goes into the town because there are people who are day laborers. They're not on the regular staff of the vineyard, but they have a need for one day.

And we see this in California. People who are working to pick the fruit in the various places there. I've been out there where you see in the daytime masses of people standing, coming out of trucks, hoping that they will be selected to go work that day for whatever wage they could make in that single opportunity.

Well, this is the way it was in Palestine. Those who were unemployed would come into the marketplace, and they would come in early so that they would have the best possible opportunity to be picked for a task. And so the owner comes in before the sun even comes up, and he hires a group of men. And he says, if you'll come and pick my grapes, I'll pay you a full denarius, which is a full day's wage, for your labor. Would you like to do that?

Yes. That's why we're here. They couldn't believe their good fortune that they were able to be selected to work in the vineyard for that money. And so they go to work, and the man sees after a short period of time that he's going to need more laborers in his vineyard in order to accomplish the task. So he goes back in the third hour, and he hires some more.

And then the ninth hour, and then the eleventh hour. And as late as he comes, there are still men standing there, been waiting all day to get just 50 cents if they could, and they hadn't been able to secure any employment from anybody that was coming around looking for day workers. And so our vineyard owner hires these men at the end, and he doesn't even specify a price with them. He says, I'll pay you a good wage.

Evidently, he had a good reputation. And so they said, fine, we'll do it. So they come, and they go to work.

And at the end of the day, all the grapes have been harvested, and everything works out fine. But now the owner tells his steward, go to the different groups that we selected at the end of the day and pay the last group first, and then incrementally down to the first group that we hired. And I want you to give all of them a denarius for their day's labor. So the steward does that, and the guys that were working there all day who held to a Marxist theory of value, a Marxist theory of labor, you know, they were outraged.

They said, what do you mean? Paying those guys a denarius, they only worked a half an hour. We've been here in the heat of the sun all day long, sweating from our brow, picking your grapes, and now you're going to pay us a lousy denarius, and you're giving that same amount to these other guys?

They're ready to go on strike. And the owner said, well, wait a minute. Didn't we have a deal? Didn't we make an agreement when I hired you back there this morning in the marketplace? I offered you this job, and I told you I'd pay you one denarius. We entered into an industrial contract, if you will. I said, if you give me the labor, I'd pay you the money, one denarius. And every one of you jumped at the opportunity to get that denarius pay. Isn't that right? You would think you would think that these guys were NFL football players or baseball players who wanted their contracts renewed every year. When they got their first contract where the owners who had all the risk financially said, I'll hire you for a five-year contract, and I'll pay X number of dollars, hoping that you'll stay healthy, hoping that you'll be productive, and I'll guarantee so much of this contract.

And after two years, the player comes back and wants to renegotiate his contract. I'm better than that. I deserve more than this. Isn't this human nature? I mean, you see it in any business, any operation.

You interview 50 people for an opening, and you call the person you select, and you say, you've been selected for that job. They're out celebrating on the town. They love it. They got the job, and they agreed that the wage was a good wage. And you promised that if they did their work, you would pay them. And six months later, they're demanding a raise. And they're saying that you're exploiting them and that you're not paying them enough. This is human nature. Now, how does that apply to the doctrine of election?

Well, first of all, when the workers were protesting against the owner, he said to them, hey, this is my vineyard. Don't I have the right to do with my stuff whatever I want to? If I want to be generous to these people over here and give them more than I offered you, I mean, for less work, why should you complain?

I was just with you. I gave you what I promised I would give you, and I just gave these people a generous bonus. And if I give it to them, what principle obligates me to give it to you? Now, I often ask people if they believe in the sovereignty of God, and I've never heard a Christian say no to that question. Every professing Christian says, of course I believe in the sovereignty of God. And if we show that that sovereignty has different applications, if I say, for example, that God sovereignly orders the creation that He made, that He rules over the stars and all of that, do you agree with that?

And they say, oh yeah, I believe that. And I say, well, okay, how about His law? Does God have the right sovereignly to impose His law on them? Does He impose moral obligations upon you as God? Yes, of course.

I believe that God has that sovereign right. And everybody's on the same page until you get to the question of God's distribution of His grace. Now, are you saying that God gives grace to some people that He loves?

Yes. Did God call Abraham out of paganism and Ur of the Chaldeans and did not do the same thing for Hammurabi? Did Paul receive a vision of Jesus on the road to Damascus that came out of the blue while He was on the way to destroy the Christian church, had done nothing to deserve any salvation whatsoever, and here Jesus in His glory appears to him on the road and He's wonderfully converted? Did Jesus do that for Pontius Pilate or for Caiaphas?

Of course not. Now, when Paul spells out the doctrine of election, particularly in the ninth chapter of his epistle to the Romans, he said, It is not as though the word of God has taken no effect, for they are not all Israel who are of Israel, nor are all children, because they are the seed of Abraham. But in Isaac your seed shall be called. And he goes on to say, And not only this, but when Rebekah had conceived by one man, even by her father Isaac, for the children not yet being born, not having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, for God's sovereign purpose, for God's pleasure, the good pleasure of His will, that His purpose according to election might stand, not of works, but of him who calls. It was said to her, The older shall serve the younger. And as it is written, Jacob, I have loved, but he so have hated. Now Paul knows human nature, and he anticipates the reaction. He said, What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Do you hear the cry? That's not fair.

They hadn't even done anything. And God sovereignly, for the purposes of His election, to show forth His mercy, chooses one and rejects the other. Now I'm going to draw a little circle here on the board. And this circle represents the concept of justice. Now everything outside this circle can be put in the negative category of non-justice, that which is not justice but is non-justice.

But for purposes of illustration, I'm going to put a little boundary there, put another circle out here. And everything in this circle out here is non-justice, but there's more than one kind of non-justice. Here, we have a non-justice that is injustice, and that is unrighteous and evil.

Right? Over here, we have grace or mercy. Is there anything evil about grace? Of course not. Is there anything wicked about God's being merciful?

No. When God is gracious, He does not commit an injustice. He does commit a non-justice. So what happens is, for those whom He elects and saves sovereignly, receive His grace. Those who do not receive His grace receive what?

His justice, exactly what they deserve. Now do we really believe that God is sovereign in His grace? Paul goes on to answer this question, is there unrighteousness in God?

God forbid, by no means. Did not God say to Moses, I will have mercy over whom I will have mercy? God sovereignly has the right to be generous in His mercy to one without being required to give it to the other. And we see in this parable that the workers who worked all day long got justice.

The owner of the vineyard committed no crime against them. He was perfectly just. He fulfilled his half of the bargain.

They had nothing about which to complain. The other people, on the other hand, received more than they bargained for. They received grace.

They received mercy. Nobody in the parable received injustice except the landowner who was slandered by these workers who were angry at him for being gracious to some other people. But the kingdom of God is like that. And we need to understand God, who is the owner, has in His ownership the sovereign authority to be gracious to whom He will be gracious. The laborers who complained thought that the master didn't have a right to use his own resources however he wanted.

Just as this master wasn't unjust in his treatment of the laborers, God is never unjust. You're listening to Renewing Your Mind as we wrap up Dr. R.C. Sproul's series, The Parables of Jesus. We'd love for you to contact us today to request this 12-part series. Just give a donation of any amount to Ligonier Ministries.

You can find us online at renewingyourmind.org, or if you prefer, you can call us with your gift at 800-435-4343. Our president and CEO, Chris Larson, has joined me here in the studio. And Chris, I know you join me in thanking our ministry partners who are listening to us right now.

The ministry partners are the ones who are carrying the work of Ligonier further and farther. And so we're now able to reach millions of people around the world every single month, and that's increasing. And so many more people are discovering Ligonier Ministries, Dr. Sproul, the teaching fellows, and you'll hear that in this next testimony. I can't hardly express in words how much the Renewing Your Mind program and Dr. R.C. Sproul and all the teaching fellows, how that's changed my life, how it's equipped me.

I think sometimes about the parable of the sower and how even though I was a Christian, I think God's word had fallen on shallow soil. And through the ministry partners and the expansion of Renewing Your Mind, the program, I have had an opportunity myself to have the soil fertilized with the truth of God's word. And I can't think of anything more important than this program being able to continue to do that, to have even further outreach and to reach more people in more places in the world with the truth of God's word, which is the foundation for everything. And so what you hear in that testimony, Lee, is how the word of God came into someone's life, and then they want to share that word with more people. And this is the beautiful reciprocity of what we're involved in here. And so I would say to our listeners, if you've never supported Ligonier Ministries or if you've never taken that step to become a ministry partner, consider doing so today.

Could you tell them how they could do that, Lee? Glad to do that, Chris. Our number is 800-435-4343. But you can also sign up online to become a ministry partner at renewingyourmind.org. Renewing Your Mind is the listener-supported outreach of Ligonier Ministries. Thanks for joining us today, and we hope to see you right back here next week.