Ep. 99: Workers in the Vineyard

MATTHEW 19:30 - 20:16

CLICK HERE for the corresponding blog post in Yeshua Adored

It will be convenient here to group together the last series of parables. Most, if not all of them, were spoken on that third day in Passion week; the first four to a more general audience; the last three to the disciples, when, on the evening of that third day, on the Mount of Olives. He told them of the ‘Last Things.’

We begin with the parable of the labourers in the vineyard. It tackles the very character of the Kingdom and of work in and for it. The principle which Jesus lays down is, that, while nothing done for him shall lose its reward, beware of self-righteousness in your expectations. Spiritual pride and self-assertion can only be the outcome either of misunderstanding God’s relation to us or else of a wrong state of mind towards others.

We think here of those who were ‘last’, the Gentiles from the east, west, north, and south, the converted publicans and sinners and of others. The labourers who murmured were guilty either of ignorance in failing to perceive the sovereignty of grace - that it is within his power to do with his own as he pleases - or else of malice instead of with grateful joy. ’The first shall be last, and the last first.’

This is an extract from the book, Jesus : Life and Times, available for £10 here (Finalist for Academic Book of the year at 2023 CRT awards)