Matthew 20:1-28 – The First, the Last, Death, and Greatness

Jesus, if you recall, had just told the disciples that the rich will find it difficult to enter heaven. Peter responded by asking if the rich couldn’t get into heaven, who could? He also asked what was in it for him and his fellow disciples since they had left everything. At this point, Jesus told them about the rewards awaiting them in the new kingdom before he concluded with a somewhat cryptic phrase, “But many who are first will be last, and the last first.” I suggested this interchange emphasized our need to pray that the Father would not lead us into temptations — approaching salvation through works, producing self-made gods, and viewing wealth as both a means to enter heaven as well as a reward for following God. Although this teaching has been accessible to us in the Bible for our entire lives, we still, along with Peter, wonder what following Jesus will give us. This persistent question is why Jesus, as per his usual, continued his teaching with a parable. He began by saying,

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. 2 After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard.

Matthew 20:1-2

When reading parables we must always keep in mind that they point to the truth but they are not the truth. The kingdom of heaven is not an actual master going into his vineyard, rather it is like a master going into his vineyard. While obvious, we must always keep this fact about parables in our minds so we don’t go off the rails when interpreting a parable.

This particular parable is placed in the world of farming and economics of the first century. There are no labor laws and no government unemployment offices and, unless you had a full-time job, if you wanted to work each day you gathered in a central location and waited to be hired. I saw something like this in the parking lot of a Home Depot near San Jose, California: people lined up early in the morning hoping to be hired for a day’s wage. In this parable, a rich guy with a vineyard needed some workers so he went to where the workers hung out and hired a few for the agreed-upon price of one denarius. So far, so good. Now, let’s rejoin Jesus as he continues his parable. He said,

3 And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, 4 and to them he said, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.’ 5 So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same. 6 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?’ 7 They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’

Matthew 20:3-7

Evidently, this guy’s vineyard was fairly large and it didn’t take him long to realize he needed more workers. He headed back to the worker corral and hired a few more; he did this four more times throughout the day. These additional workers, however, were never told what they get paid, they just trusted the rich guy and followed him to the vineyard. Please note that these people wanted to work but no one had yet hired them; they weren’t idlers just standing by twiddling their thumbs. The vineyard owner did not go to these workers to berate them for their laziness; he went to hire them. Also, even though the parable doesn’t say so, it seems consistent within the context of the parable that the workers hired last were the last workers standing and waiting for work. Now, with all the available workers hired, Jesus moves the time of the parable to the end of the day when the work is done. He said,

8 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.’

Matthew 20:8

In our modern day with computerized payments, we might not think so much about this, but at that time the workers received payment on the spot. The master of the vineyard tells his foreman to, instead of paying the first workers he hired first as seems most likely, switch the order. Think about how this might have played out if he hadn’t switched the order. The first workers would receive their money and then they most likely would have left. What would they care about what the lesser workers would receive? But, by choosing to pay the last workers hired first and the first hired last he forces the workers hired first to see what everyone got paid. This reversal of order is the key to understanding Jesus’s parable. Jesus continued by saying,

9 And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius. 10 Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius. 11 And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house, 12 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.’

Matthew 20:9-12

Place yourself in the sandals of the workers hired first for just a moment. When you were promised a denarius for the day’s work you were most likely content, but now after seeing those workers hired later receive the same pay you were promised your mind probably runs in two directions. The first direction is a hopeful one as you initially think the owner of the vineyard might pay you more than he promised. But, after seeing everyone get paid the same amount, a growing sense of unfairness rises in your heart. When you are then called forward by the foreman you reach out your hand, with hope and anger battling in your heart. After the foreman drops a denarius in your hand, anger suppresses hope and you barge past the foreman and begin complaining to the master of the vineyard.

As you read this parable, keep in mind that the master could have easily avoided this confrontation by paying you first and waiting for you to leave before paying the others, but he didn’t. He switched the order on purpose.

I suppose one way to interpret this parable would be to say that the owner was a socialist and he wanted to make a point to all the capitalists that productivity and contribution should not be the basis for a wage. Perhaps Jesus wants everyone to receive equal pay so as to assure that every worker has enough to meet their most basic of needs; maybe Jesus was a Marxist, Leninist, and follower of Abraham Maslow. But there is one glaring problem with such an interpretation: the master of the vineyard, not the state, owned the vineyard. As you may guess from my subtle tones of sarcasm and irony, I don’t think Jesus introduced this parable for the purpose of discussing economic systems. However, if you, as an employer, want to implement equal pay, that is your right, but please don’t use this parable as a basis for your decision. The point of this parable is found in the reversal of order not in the amount being paid. Furthermore, this reversal of order reveals a very specific type of temptation. Jesus continued and said,

13 But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? 14 Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. 15 Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’ 16 So the last will be first, and the first last.

Matthew 20:13-16

Peter had been asking what was in it for him because he had given up everything to follow Jesus. Yet, even though Jesus had told Peter that he and his disciples would sit on twelve thrones judging Israel in the future kingdom of heaven, Jesus wants them to think beyond their rewards. Jesus wasn’t telling this parable so as to further explain the rewards received for following Jesus. Jesus tells this parable to warn us about the temptations we will feel when we see the way in which the Father chooses to reward others. The first temptation to which we fall prey is our inclination to cry foul when we think others are getting a disproportionate reward, the second is our inclination to begrudge them for their reward, and the third is our inclination to judge God for his supposed unfairness. Keep in mind, the owner of the vineyard could have avoided all of these temptations by just paying the people in the order in which they had been hired, but he didn’t: he wanted the first workers to see what the last workers received.

Jesus wants his disciples — both those hired in the first hour and those hired in the eleventh hour — to know that the Father will reward each as he sees fit. Jesus also wants his disciples, all of them, to respond to the Father’s gifts with gratitude and rejoicing, not indignation and bitterness. The workers hired at a later hour worked the fields just like the first workers chosen. They did the work of the Father as the Father had given it to them. If this parable were written from the perspective of the later group, we probably would have seen that they did not become indignant, bitter, and judgmental; rather, they were happy to have work and happy to get paid. It doesn’t take too much imagination to compare these later workers to the prodigal son who was welcomed home by the father and given a party and to compare the first workers to the older son who saw his prodigal brother return and receive their Father’s love, compassion, and reward. The older son was bitter because he never got a party, because he begrudged his wayward brother for his reward, and because he questioned the father’s fairness.

Or, if we want to see this in a more contemporary way, we would compare the first hired workers to those who have been with the church for a long time. We pat ourselves on our own backs for being in the fields for the full day and expect the Father will reward us accordingly. But when we think of the possibility that some guy could come along in the last hour of his life and, after a lifetime of crime, be welcomed into the eternal kingdom of heaven just because he spoke kindly to Jesus with his last few breaths we can quickly get miffed and question God’s fairness if we think his reward will be the same as ours. I mean, didn’t we follow Jesus from an early age? They lived in sin for their whole lifetime, shouldn’t our reward be greater than theirs? Aren’t we the Father’s favored children because we kept his laws more closely and for a longer time than those other guys?

Jesus tells this parable, not because he wants Peter to know about rewards, but because he doesn’t want his followers to give into some quite harmful temptations. Peter wasn’t asking what was in it for him because he wanted to assure that he received something; Peter said, “we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?” to know what he would receive more than the others who had sacrificed less — more than those who were hired after him.

The owner of the vineyard rewarded the last workers first so the first workers would have the opportunity to rejoice when the newest workers in the fields of the Lord received their reward. But Jesus wants us to see that this rejoicing goes both ways. Not only must we rejoice over others when they receive their reward, but we must realize others will rejoice over us when we receive our reward.

By forcing the first hired workers to see what the later workers received, Jesus helps us see that we can easily succumb to the temptation to become angry, bitter, and judgmental over what we perceive to be unjust. He also wants us to know that this sort of anger, bitterness, and judgmentalism are found along the broad way leading to destruction, not on the other side of the narrow gate. The narrow gate through which we find the difficult path avoids such temptations, but only if we hold onto the Father’s hand. This is yet another reason why we must continually pray that our Father would lead us not into temptation.

But this parable was not the end of Jesus’s teaching about temptation. In the next and seemingly unrelated passage of Matthew, Jesus reminds his disciples about something they seem to have forgotten. Matthew writes,

17 And as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside, and on the way he said to them, 18 “See, we are going up to Jerusalem. And the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death 19 and deliver him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day.”

Matthew 20:17-19

This is the third time in Matthew’s Gospel that Jesus speaks about his eventual death. I guess I could understand it if the disciples didn’t quite get it after the first time (Matt. 16:21), or even after the second time (Matt. 17:22-23), but after Jesus told them a third time, I think they would have to be willfully blind to not realize what Jesus was saying. Besides the obvious, by placing this third reference to Jesus’s death immediately after the parable about the owner of the vineyard, Jesus was making another point about Peter’s question regarding what was in it for him. If Jesus, the one the disciples were following, was going to his death, what right does any disciple have to ask for something more glorious? Jesus’s future held arrest, condemnation, mockery, flogging, and crucifixion, and after the cross had done its cruel work, resurrection, and his return to glory awaited him, but those rewards were on the other side of pain. Whatever rewards Peter had in mind, Jesus wanted him to know that the path to such rewards is not an easy one; in fact, it is, as Jesus said earlier, a difficult path running through a narrow gate. Not only are we, like Peter, continually tempted to think of glorious rewards, but we often, and willingly so, ignore the path leading to them. We also give into the temptation to think that our temporal rewards will be glorious instead of raising our eyes to see the glory of the Father’s eternal rewards.

Even after Jesus spoke about eternal rewards and then his own death, one of the first helicopter moms swooped in to ask Jesus a favor. Matthew writes,

20 Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came up to him with her sons, and kneeling before him she asked him for something. 21 And he said to her, “What do you want?” She said to him, “Say that these two sons of mine are to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom.”

Matthew 20:20-21

We finally know where the keystone cops got their inspiration. While Jesus was talking about his death, heli-mom was seemingly stuck on the idea that there was going to be a kingdom and that her sons were going to have thrones. She probably didn’t even hear the comment about the last being first and the first being last, nor did she pay attention when Jesus spoke about the vineyard owner and how he paid his workers. She saw thrones in her son’s future and wanted to make sure they got the best ones. I don’t how James and John felt about this, but I think I would have been embarrassed if that was my mom, even though I probably had been wondering the same thing and was interested in Jesus’s answer. Matthew writes,

22 Jesus answered, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink?” They said to him, “We are able.” 23 He said to them, “You will drink my cup, but to sit at my right hand and at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.”

Matthew 20:22-23

I’ve been told to always read the fine print of any document I was going to sign, but I’m not sure the disciples had been told. When Jesus asked if they could drink from the same cup, they were probably still, like the mother of James and John, thinking about their thrones in the coming kingdom. They saw power and glory swirling in a golden chalice, but Jesus saw a rough wooden goblet churning with blood and death. Jesus knew all of the disciples would face mockery and arrest and, save John, meet untimely and painful deaths. Jesus knew they would drink from the rugged wooden cup, not the golden chalice of glory, but even after Jesus’s response to heli-mom, the disciples still appeared to be clueless. Matthew writes,

24 And when the ten heard it, they were indignant at the two brothers.

Matthew 20:24

I suppose the other disciples could have been upset because James and John allowed heli-mom to plead their case, but I think their resentment arose because they got beat to the punch: each of them wanted one of the two most powerful seats in the coming kingdom: they were all thinking of the same sort of power and glory that James and John had in mind. I wonder if Jesus was at all weary of their blindness when he responded. Matthew writes,

25 But Jesus called them to him and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. 26 It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, 27 and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, 28 even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Matthew 20:25-28

Jesus replaced the words “first” and “last” with the words “servant” and “slave” so as to emphasize what he had been saying for the past chapter or so of Matthew: if you are going to be a leader in Jesus’s kingdom, you must humble yourself. Jesus’s disciples need to stop talking about rewards and glory and power and begin thinking about sacrifice and service and humility. Jesus knows that the difficult path is surrounded by many temptations that can draw our eyes to the luster of glory and the sparkle of treasures, but he also knows that if we grab the Father’s hand, he will lead us around those temptations. But glory and wealth are not the only temptations we face. We lust. We hate. We envy and demean. We want more than we have and more than we are entitled to. We have seen the kingdoms of this world and we long for the same glory that felled Lucifer.

But the kingdom Jesus came to proclaim is different. His kingdom has no room for pride or avarice or envy or lust or greed. His kingdom — the kingdom of heaven — does not have lords and kings and masters, it has servants who love the king and love one another. But we are flawed people and are tempted in every possible way. Our eyes are drawn to the wide gate and the easy way that lies beyond, but Jesus warns us that way is strewn with temptations and tells us that path leads to a kingdom of destruction. But Jesus, through his words and his actions, redirects our eyes to the seldom-trod narrow gate beyond which is a difficult path. And this path winds its way around temptations as it leads us to the heavenly kingdom of our Father. But Jesus knows we cannot walk this path ourselves; he knows we must seek the Father’s help. This is why we must follow Jesus’s command to pray that our Father who is in heaven would lead us not into temptation, and we must pray this every day, if not every hour.

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