Today’s passage: Matthew 20:1-16
Helpful thoughts:
- People who waited in the marketplace for daily work assignment were generally less skilled workers. They were waiting around in the marketplace day to day because they did not have a steady job.
- The master of the house paid the last workers first, giving them a denarius. Those who had worked all day would have assumed that they were to receive an increase from what they had been previously promised.
- Since this parable is said to be about the kingdom of heaven, we can conclude that the owner is God, the foreman is Jesus, the vineyard is the kingdom, the laborers are believers and the denarius is eternal life.
Questions to consider:
- Which laborer are you? Are you a believer who has started work later in the day or been less productive? Are you a laborer who has been working long and hard?
- Why might it upset someone if a person were to convert on their death bed? What would be the motive for that kind of frustration?
- What would we need to remember that would cause us to rejoice when ANY person at ANY time in their life was given eternal life?