February 2, 2014 | Matthew 20:1-16: Marvel at Grace

For all my Christian life, the most difficult parable for me to understand is this one in Matthew 20:1-16. As I understand it, Christ is calling on us to marvel at grace. Take off your fairness goggles and put on grace goggles.

“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. ² When he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius for the day, he sent them into his vineyard. ³ And he went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle in the market place; ⁴ and to those he said, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.’ And so they went. ⁵ Again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did the same thing. ⁶ And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing around; and he *said to them, ‘Why have you been standing here idle all day long?’ ⁷ They *said to him, ‘Because no one hired us.’ He *said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’

⁸ “When evening came, the owner of the vineyard *said to his foreman, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last group to the first.’ ⁹ When those hired about the eleventh hour came, each one received a denarius. ¹⁰ When those hired first came, they thought that they would receive more; but each of them also received a denarius. ¹¹ When they received it, they grumbled at the landowner, ¹² saying, ‘These last men have worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the scorching heat of the day.’ ¹³ But he answered and said to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for a denarius? ¹⁴ Take what is yours and go, but I wish to give to this last man the same as to you. ¹⁵ Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with what is my own? Or is your eye envious because I am generous?’ ¹⁶ So the last shall be first, and the first last.”

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January 12, 2014 | Matthew 19:1-9: All the King's Horses: Marriage, Divorce & the Gospel
January 19, 2014 | Matthew 19:10-12 - What's the Point?: Marriage, Singleness, & Living for the Glory of God
January 26, 2014 | Matthew 19:13-30: What Must One Do to be Saved? 
February 2, 2014 | Matthew 20:1-16: Marvel at Grace


For more:
Humpty Dumpty & Grace
I Am Yours, Save Me
Matthew 1-18 | The King Has Come: The Gospel According to Matthew Series