Life with the Landowner

Text: Matthew 20:1–16 ESV

What must it have been like to sit under the teachings and the preaching of Jesus? We know from the gospels that Christ’s teachings, Scripture readings, preaching, and responses to questions were unlike any other teachings, readings, preachings that had ever been given. It was not uncommon for bystanders to say, “a new teaching with authority” (Mark 1:27 ESV) and “we never saw anything like this” (Mark 2:12 ESV). 

When the Pharisees asked the temple guards why they had not arrested Jesus, they said, “No one ever spoke like this man” (John 7:45 ESV). When Jesus was finally arrested and the mob in the Garden of Gethsamane said, “Are you Jesus of Nazareth?” And Jesus responded, “I am he.” John reports that the entire horde “drew back and fell to the ground” (John 18:6 ESV). 

The words of Christ caused demons to confess, put sinners at ease, stones to drop, and dead men, boys, and girls to rise. We ought, unlike Martha, but very much like Mary, be brought to a standstill in eager anticipation at the feet of Jesus. And I think that the story of these two women, Mary and Martha (Luke 10), inform us greatly about the postures we bring to the word of God—a doing, distracted, and assuming posture of learning, or an attentive, submitted, and at rest learning posture. Does Jesus have you like He had Mary, or does he have you like he had Martha?

All preaching, but especially the preaching of Jesus should (in the words of Pastor SM Lockridge):

• Stretch your mind (inform and instruct you to think like you have never thought)

• Tan your hide (correct, and convict you to repent over previously unseen sin)

• Warm your heart to worship (ought to give you gospel security/surety, and this should lead to godly expression of lives and lips surrendered to Jesus)

• Provoke the will (challenge you to application in follow the Master’s Plan)

As we consider these 4 aims— I want us in the context of life with our Landowner and life in the vineyard (Matthew 20:1-16) to learn the way the Landowner loves and to value your life in the vineyard!! (Certainly not despise it, or bear with it, but you would eagerly embrace it.) God has a way of loving you that levels us and elevates us at the same time. It makes us all equal and it's incredibly elevating!

Under this I want to call attention to two main observations:

1. You have a landowner. (I want you to know how he relates with you)

2. You are a laborer. (I want you to know how you relate with him)

“For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house (landowner) who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard.” (Matthew 20:1 ESV)

Jesus starts out by comparing the kingdom of heaven to this landowner and laborer illustration. So, in effect, he is saying, “what is the worldview, what’s the ideology, and what is the air/scent of his current and coming kingdom of heaven that I am instituting?” By kingdom of heaven, I mean the reign and rule of Christ over all things that are being brought to completion and consummation over the new heavens and the new earth. We can sniff this kingdom now as it is taking territory from the Prince of this world, but we will see it in full one day when the prince of this world is executed and expelled. 

Parables—what they are & why they were told.

And so this chapter begins with a parable. A parable, or short story packed with and pointing to spiritual truths, is sometimes told as a simile. A simile, as most of us can probably remember, is a comparison made by using the words “like” or “as.” A metaphor is a comparison without the words “like” or “as.” A parable is often a short story told by Jesus using ordinary objects, people, and experiences to communicate at least one spiritual truth. 

That is briefly what a parable is. But why were parables told? They were not just told to dumb things down for Jesus’ followers. They were told and would distinguish/reveal between those who had or were given the ears to hear and those who did not have (or were given the) ears to hear. For those who had listening ears and seeing eyes—these parables would open up the secrets of the kingdom. But for those who had deaf and dull ears, the parables would lead to confusion and complexity. That’s why we observe from Jesus at the end of some parables, “He who has ears, let him hear” (Matthew 13:9, 43). 

I would like to use this as a moment to pause and to direct, devote, and dedicate your ears to Jesus. Does He have your ear? No, not just confessionally or generally, but does He have your ear, literally?

• Regularly – you routinely listen to him daily/weekly.

• Convictionally – meaning you value His words over and above your own. 

• Prayerfully — you ask Him to reveal and reinforce His Will for you. 

• Corporately — in many counselors there is victory and you defer to them in your life. 

• Practically — you actually do what he says.

I would like to offer us a verse to consider as we seek the Lord to clean out our ears and carve out a special place for his voice. You see, a dog clearly knows its owners’ voice. He knows his owner’s call above all the other voices seeking his response. But we, as Christians, sadly don’t know the owner’s voice as we should. We either ignore it or just show disinterest. But here is a verse to reverse that lack of voice:

“The Lord God has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary. Morning by morning he awakens; he awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught.” (Isaiah 50:4 ESV) 

We see the relationship, don’t we. Taught ones have teaching tongues. And teaching tongues come from being taught. Therefore, what do the taught (or humble) have? They have ears. The humble ones hear!! So, I ask again, does Jesus have your ear?

Jesus puts it this way after a teaching time after healing a blind man:

“Jesus said, "For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind." Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and said to him, "Are we also blind?" Jesus said to them, "If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, 'We see,' your guilt remains. (John 9:39-41 ESV)

And this gives us the spirit by which to approach the sermons and parables of Christ, “God, I am deaf, dumb, and blind…” Show me that I might see. 

How is this parable both like other parables/unlike parables?

Well, to start with, Jesus had parables that He initiated both by others and then just by himself. Now, was Matthew 20 initiated by Jesus directly or in response to Peter’s response in Matthew 19:27, “See we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?” We don’t know if Matthew 20 is a direct and timely response to that statement, but it is no doubt connected in Matthew’s gospel account. 

So, what are some examples of parables initiated by Jesus? Well, take his sermon on the Mount, where at the end Jesus compares those who listen to His words to wise builders upon the rock and those who fail to listen to His words like fools who build upon the sand. Again, in his teachings in Matthew 13 where He taught the crowds around the sea and compared the kingdom of heaven to a sower who sowed seed, or like a treasure hidden in a field. Well then, another major category are those parables which are the response of Jesus, (i.e. the Parable of the Good Samaritan, “How can I gain eternal life?”) 

Another example of when parables were used is when Jesus used them to respond to indictments. Jesus tells the parable of the Rich man and Lazarus when the “Pharisees, who loved money were ridiculing Him… “ (Luke 16:14). Jesus, in Luke 7, when Jesus is in Simon’s home and Simon is judging Jesus for being touched by a sinful woman. Jesus responds to Simon’s judgment by responding with the parable of the money lender who cancelled the debts of two people…which one loves him more (Luke 7:36-43).

Probably the most famous parable in response to indictment is the parable of the Prodigal Son. Luke chapter 15:1-2 says: 

“Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear Him. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled saying, ‘This man receives sinners and eats with them.” (Luke 15:1-2 ESV) 

So, Jesus tells this parable of a response to that indictment. Jesus wants to correct their understanding of God. They thought Him to be one way, and Jesus was showing them He was another. 

Now, the parable of the Prodigal Son has some key features that this parable in Matthew 20 has:

#1 – The parable titles that are often bolded in your Bibles (i.e., parable of the prodigal Son or Parable of the laborers in the vineyard), as you probably know, are not inspired text. They are subtitles put in after the inspired Word has been translated to help give us structure in our Bibles. And while they are mainly helpful, sometimes they can unintentionally mislead. These subtitles are meant to be good reference points for us but not trusted to re-interpret Scripture. Just as the Parable of the Prodigal Son doesn’t quite capture the main point of the story, because it’s actually mainly about the FATHER figure, so too does the Parable of the laborers in the Vineyard not accurately capture the main character of Matthew 20:1-16. It's not the laborers, but the Landowner. 

#2 –  We are intentionally left in the dark on the response of the laborers after they hear the response of the Landowner. Just as in the Parable of the Prodigal Son, we do not know how the older Son reacts to his Father’s mercy to his younger brother. We do not know if he ever enters the house. And this forces the hearer in real life and the reader today to think and place themselves in the story and answer the question, “when we get the kingdom philosophy all wrong (that it operates much differently than you thought), how will you respond? Will you be corrected and won over or resist and refuse?”

Now, as we jump into this parable, where is Jesus when he teaches his illustration (geographically and timeline)? Matthew 21 tells us that Jesus is entering Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, so we are a little over a week before His execution and resurrection. In this week leading up to Jesus’ death, we do see a concentration of parables dealing with two main topics:

1. How is God going about inviting and gathering his people into His kingdom?

2. How are we supposed to live between Jesus’ first coming and last coming? (Basically, what does our time look like until he returns and what are God’s expectations?) 

The Parable in Summary: Matthew 20:1-16

In summary, we have a landowner hiring the unemployed into His vineyard during 5 different intervals throughout the day. Then, at the end of the day, he pays them equally and that’s where the angst and resentment starts. The landowner challenges the workers who were hired first and confronts their idea of justice/fairness and turns it on its head. In essence, Jesus says, isn’t it fair that all the unemployed have a chance to equal heavenly reward—after all, we are all here, because of Me aren’t we? It’s my generosity that is the source of your salvation, not your heritage, law-keeping, or good-doing. 

Their idea of justice is the longer you work or the longer you have been in the religious system the more you shall receive or be respected. This train of thought can most easily be attributed to the Pharisees who thought that their adherence to the law and their longevity of law-keeping produced an inequality between them and the sinner and tax collectors. The Pharisees are the ones in the Bible who cry, “Not fair…” But this parable shows us whether you have been in the kingdom vineyard since early morning 6:00am or you didn’t get in until late afternoon 5pm, there is an equality that our Lord establishes and believes exists whether you choose to believe in it or not. 

So, whether you were like Simeon, and held Baby Jesus just after He was born or you might have been like the criminal on the cross who didn’t get get a glimpse of Jesus till he was close to the grave, God redeems us equally, not conditionally:

#1 – All the hired men were equally unemployed – Level playing field at this point. All these men are without purpose, without identity, without provision…They are not bringing things to the table that are no more special or more grand than the others. They are humiliated men, without honor, and in great need and cannot bear the shame of standing around at the unemployment corner with no job and no bread to bring home to their families. So the famous hymn goes, “Nothing in my hand I bring, only to the cross I cling.” Isaiah 55:1-2 presents us such a good image. 

“Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.” (Isaiah 55:1-2 ESV)

I want to meet your needs!! And none of you is more needy than another. You are all helpless and hopeless apart from my hiring! 

A small word of encouragement: If you were hired later in life. Don’t pity yourself, and no one ought to harbor pride against you. It doesn’t matter when you get into heaven, it matters if you get into heaven. Whether you have been in the vineyard for 10 years or 50, all the promises of God are in full effect from day one! And no one ought to say, “that’s not fair!”

#2 – All the men were hired at the personal initiation of the Landowner – They did not pursue the landowner, they were far from him. They did not seek him, He sought them!! He employed them so graciously and kindly. Now, a couple of things to note about the Landowner:

• The foreman does not appear until payment time. In most middle eastern farming systems of this time, the foreman would have also sought out the laborers. And he would have done it once! But what do we see? The landowner himself. The owner of the Estate is the one who comes personally to hire and employ the jobless into His Vineyard. This shows us the precise ministry Christ Himself had. When a woman has lost her coin, she is the one who finds it. When a shepherd has lost his sheep, He is the one who searches for it. When a Father loses a son, He is the one who runs out to greet him. [Luke 19:10 says it so plainly, “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost.”] This parable teaches us that God’s ministry in Christ was one of personal responsibility and personal relationship. When he bids someone to come to his kingdom. He comes to them and kindly calls them Himself, not someone else. When God decided to call us He did not send us His secretary, but His Son. And you and I are so unworthy to deal with His Son. God, in Christ, certainly does not honor the Creator/Creature distinction by sending his Son. He does not relate to us casting light on our inequality by forcing us to relate through some intermediary. He relates face to face. And maybe the landowner’s personal presence leads us to another oddity

• When He hires the first set, he tells them plainly he will give them a fair and living wage—a denarius. But the ones he hires for the third, sixth, and ninth hour He just tells them, “I will give you what is right.” And to the last group at the eleventh hour he does not promise them anything. There is clearly trust with the landowner and winsomeness evident in the landowner to command such an army of men. They believe He will do them right. 

#3 – All the men who were hired were paid because of the compassionate choice of the landowner – Their payment was not based on a performance review (your conduct) or hourly (how long you have been there), or overtime (man, you have really sacrificed and done special things). Their wages came at the generous will of the landowner. The early workers retort, “you have made us equal with them” and the Landowner replies, “Don’t resent my generosity; You will not place conditions on my compassion. You will not give it boundaries or put it in a box. Do you think I owe you more because you were picked first?? I could have just as easily picked others first. Get that thinking about SELF out of here. There is no room for that distinction in my kingdom.”

Now, this is obviously a very compassionate move by the landowner (meaning his hiring of such hordes of men). And this gets reinforced, I believe, when we realize why the Landowner hires these unemployed men. At first glance it appears that the landowner needs these men to complete an important project or harvest. But if we look again, we will see that the Landowner’s Choice has nothing to do with Him, and everything to do with them. No, the landowner miscalculates and misfires on his needs 5 times throughout the day. We see that He actually returns to the marketplace and hires more and more men just because there are more unhired men. It’s the compassion and kindness of the landowner that wants to redeem the humiliation of these men into honor and their shame into salvation and so he sends them into the vineyard! For God, it's just to seek and save those who are lost, jobless, and without hope. 

My hope is that you would know this elevating and leveling love of the Landowner! Oh, how this landowner loves and oh, how he loves you. And that love isn’t because of you, but it's for you! And if he’s not giving it because of you, then you can’t actually lose it. That’s the flip side of it not being conditional. 

A Word on Life in the Vineyard

Though this isn’t the intention of this parable, I do want to point out a similarity with how this worker responds to this seeming injustice and how we might be thinking about our own lives in the vineyard. Let me read for us Matthew 20:12:

“saying, 'These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.'” (Matthew 20:12 ESV)

Let me be very, very clear, this is not the response of a saint who values his or her life in the vineyard. In essence, I have been out here in the heat wave, breaking my back, sacrificing, serving your every wish, living under your rules, purposes, doing your work and he hasn’t even broken and sweat and you are going to treat us the same? Either pay me more, or I wish I hadn’t had to work in the vineyard till 5pm either. Really?? You are basically saying, “I just wish I had become a Christian later.”

What an ignorant thing to say, and a backwards way of thinking. Every growing believer I know, who didn’t know Jesus early in life wishes they had. They wish they would have had a believing family, convictions about relationships, morals, and marriage earlier. A concept of grace and real meaning to live by and mission to live for. They would have died to know earlier. And many of us say, It would have been nice to have had some fun and freedom and then come into the vineyard. I wish I could have become a Christian later, or have had some more life experience. And I would say, “shame on us.” Shame on us that we would prefer the idle, unhired, unwanted, purposeless life that the unemployed suffered from in the parable. Everyone looks into the vineyard from the outside and they want in. And most of you are. And I would just put before that we ought to act like we are proud to be, thankful to be there, blessed to be there, humbled to be there, and at the landowners service while we are there! Relish every second of every day you live under the lordship of this Landowner. 

You have a landowner, you are a laborer!