Labors In Vineyard

Labors In The Vineyard	Create Date: 14-Jun-2020
	Last updated: 25-Jun-2020
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Sections

1	Scriptural Passage	2	Timing of Events
3	Points of the Passage	4	Rewards are Equal in Heaven?

Scriptural Passage

The Labors in the Vineyard is a beautiful parable that primary describes one paramount point, with many wonderful other points.

Matthew 20:1-16

1 “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. ²After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. ³And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, ⁴and to them he said, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.’ ⁵So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same. ⁶And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing. And he said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’ ⁷They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’ ⁸And 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.’ ⁹And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius. ¹⁰Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius. ¹¹And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house, ¹²saying, ‘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.’ ¹³But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? ¹⁴Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. ¹⁵Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’ ¹⁶So the last will be first, and the first last.”

Timing of Events

As discussed in the topic on the Day Jesus Christ was Crucified point 7 of 16, God, as referenced in the Genesis, Leviticus and Exodus, refers to the day as starting at Sundown not at midnight. When the sun is gone in the sky, then it is the start of the next 24-hour day and it does not end until the sun, which follows the night time, no longer shows any light.

For simplicity, we can think of it is as 6pm to 6pm, which is a 24-hour period or as sunset ended to the last moments of the next sunset. Yes, the there are days with more sunshine but then the night is shorter so it still an approximate 24-hour period. The day-time hours, always begins when the sun rises and time would be equated from hours since the sun rise.

Notice the timing of the laborers, where the 1st Group would have spent from 9am until 6pm, which assumes 9 hours with no time taken for water, food or anything else. As pointed out in verse 12, the 1st Group of Laborers is confused and indignant because the 4th Group, who only worked one hour, got the same wages.

Groups of Laborers	Time of day they started
1st Group	The third hour, which is approximately 9am.
2nd Group	The sixth hour, which is approximately noon.
3rd Group	The ninth hour, which approximately 3pm.
4th Group	The eleventh hour, which is approximately 5pm.
All Groups	Completed the day's labor at 6pm.

Points of the Passage

There are many wonderful spiritual blessings to be understood with this parable. Unlike some parables, Jesus Christ did not take the time to explain this parable to the Disciples, which means it should be clearly interpreted.

Before listing the points of the parable, we all can easily relate and understand:

The Kingdom of Heaven is a direct reference to the location and place of God's Thrown. This is not the Earth.
The master of the house is the idiom for God the Father.
The Laborers are those who have Salvation and working in God's Service. The Laborer, being spoken to, is called Friend. The sometimes-overlooked point is the labors are absolutely an idiom for those who have Salvation because of the reference of the labor is liken as to an event in Kingdom of Heaven. The event should be recognized as the Judgment Seat of Christ where those who have will receive their Rewards in heaven.

There are more points to be related to who the Laborers, besides the Laborer's having Salvation. The timing of when they began their work also is an indication of when the Laborer inherited Salvation in their life:

The 1st Group of Laborers symbolizes people who made an early decision their life.
The 2nd Group and 3rd Group of Laborers symbolizes people who made their decision at some point in the middle of their life.
The 4th Group symbolizes those where at the end of their lives to make a decision.

These are the points, where the emphasis is the future Kingdom of Heaven:

God sees His Laborers and even the ones who are idle.
All the Laborers will inherit a place in the Kingdom of Heaven
The Laborers all agreed as the parable states: "agree with me for a denarius" which means the work they were doing was worth that specific reward. The reward was Salvation.
The Laborers are demonstrating Faith with works that lead to Rewards in heaven
The Laborers, while working different amounts of hours, all got entrance to heaven as an idiom of the work.
The Master in the parable made it a point to pay the laborers in reverse order, which means something more.
(a) The prevailing interpretation is the laborers are like a category of Christians who live their lives similarly after accepting Jesus Christ as their Savior. Some Christians accept Jesus Christ as their Savior early in life, but only achieve the same results as those who accept Jesus Christ as their Savior late in life.
(b) The parable uses the words "the Kingdom of Heaven is like", which is clue. Jesus Christ is not stating in the parable that the Kingdom of Heaven is exactly like which would then mean everyone is same, which is not what is being said.

Rewards are Equal in Heaven?

As discussed in point 6 of the last section, the Parable is sometimes interpreted to mean that all people who go to Heaven will get the same reward. This is a wrong connotative transfer meaning of the parable.

Scripture interprets scripture and we are given the point of the reward was based on something that the Laborers agreed to receive for the specific work being done, regardless of the timeframe. The labor points to a specific payment, which certainly points to Salvation, and as listed above, many other areas.

Rewards in Heaven is based on works and there are many specific individual rewards that can only be earned.

What to read next?

We have eternal life. Evolution is not real. When a Christian suffers is there benefits from it. Rewards in heaven. Do we Tithe? What does the 3rd Commandment tell us? What is Salvation? What is Grace and Mercy? Is there an Age of Accountability? Is there a place of unending punishment and exile form God?