Matthew 20:1-16 — Is God’s Grace Unfair? (Ep.057), A. Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost

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

Okay, so Jesus is telling a parable and he's comparing the kingdom of heaven to a vineyard.

A vineyard is a farm or a place where you grow grapes.

And he's talking about the workers at the vineyard.

To hire workers is to give them a job and to pay them to hire somebody.

So, the landowner, the person who owns the land, is looking for workers in his vineyard.

Verse 2.

He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard.

So a denarius is a normal one day's worth of pay, a silver coin that's worth one day's worth of work.

And that's what he agreed to pay them.

It's very clear, if you work for one day, you get paid a denarius.

That was early in the morning.

Verse 3, about nine in the morning, he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing.

He told them also, go and work in my vineyard and I will pay you whatever is right.

So they went.

Okay, so a little bit later in the morning, it's now nine in the morning.

He is looking for workers.

He's not waiting for workers to come to him.

He's going out and looking for workers.

And so he goes to the marketplace where people sell and buy things in the marketplace and people go to look for work.

So again, in verse four, he told them, you also go and work in my vineyard and I will pay you whatever is fair.

So they went.

You'll notice he doesn't tell them exactly how much he's going to pay them.

He just says, I'll pay you what's fair.

And they trust him and they go to work.