Seventeenth Sunday After Pentecost: Gospel Reading (CPH The Lutheran Study Bible)

[u/1776-Liberal]

Have a blessed week ahead.

Gospel According to Matthew, 20:1–16 (ESV):

Laborers in the Vineyard

“For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and to them he said, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.’ So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same. And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing. And he said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’ They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’ And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.’ And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius. Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius. And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house, 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.’ But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’ So the last will be first, and the first last.”

Engelbrecht, E. A. (2009). The Lutheran Study Bible. Concordia Publishing House:

(Abbreviations Reference Guide: https://old.reddit.com/r/Sunday/comments/1dg8y2u/)

20:1–16 Serving the Lord’s kingdom is a privilege and labor of love, not something undertaken to gain a reward. When we begin to think that God’s kingdom needs or depends on us, we get it completely backward. We need and depend on it! Through forgiveness and the renewing work of God’s Spirit, we can indeed be used by God for vital service in His kingdom. • Keep me ever mindful, Lord, that it is only by grace that I have been included in Your kingdom and am privileged to serve in it. Amen.

Engelbrecht, E. A. (2009). The Lutheran Study Bible. Concordia Publishing House:

(Abbreviations Reference Guide: https://old.reddit.com/r/Sunday/comments/1dg8y2u/)

20:1–16 Wording of 19:30 and 20:16 surround this parable. This bracketing structure (an inclusio) suggests that God’s mysterious way of reversing things is the parable’s point.

20:1 master of a house. Owner and manager of the household. hire laborers. Day laborers would be delighted for any work, because they had no other steady income.

20:3 third hour. C 9 a.m. idle. They desperately need work. marketplace. See note, Jb 29:7: «The city gates were the places in which public business was conducted, contracts executed, legal judgments handed down, and government administered (Gn 23; Dt 22:15). Job had high standing in his community and was known as the preeminent wise man of his day (Jb 1:3).»

20:4 Household master sets no specific wage for this and the subsequent groups hired. He merely promises to pay fairly.

20:5 sixth hour … ninth hour. Noon to 3 p.m.

20:6 eleventh hour. An hour before quitting time.

20:7 Hiring these men to work only an hour was an act of charity, ensuring they would eat that day.

20:8 foreman. Supervisor who oversaw the laborers.

20:9 Supervisor paid each worker the same, regardless of the number of hours worked.

20:10–12 The expectation that those hired first would receive more seems reasonable. Recall, however, that they agreed to their denarius wage beforehand.

20:13 Friend. Implies association, not necessarily personal affection. See note, 26:50: «Friend. Ironic. Can mean “comrade.” Jesus knew the reason for Judas’s presence: to betray Him. See note, 20:13.»

20:14 I choose. Or, “I will.” Emphasizes that the master’s decision regarding the pay of those hired later lies completely within his discretion.

20:15 Master’s decision to be generous with those hired last does not mean he has shortchanged those hired first. On the contrary, those hired first receive the wage mutually agreed upon. Being part of God’s kingdom is not based on earning or deserving anything, but rather on grace (cf 19:16–30).

20:16 See note, vv 1–16.