Laborers in the Vineyard: Exposition of 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."

Though several primary meanings of this parable are possible, we must consider its context of being surrounded by very similar language: many who are “first will be last, and the last first” (Mt. 19:30 and 20:16). [1] The parable is set in a wider circle of context (19:13-20:28) explaining that the kingdom of heaven is drastically different than any earthly kingdom, for it is founded upon God’s humbling grace. “God’s grace makes some who are last first,” and it is man’s responsibility to accept and properly use the free gifts of God with humility.[2]

It follows the structure of two thirds of Jesus’ parables by having a “master figure” and “two contrasting subordinates” (those who worked all day and those who were hired at the end of the day).[3] As Davies and Allison observe, it closely parallels the Parable of the Prodigal Son (Lk. 15:11-32); in both parables, the master figure shows “unexpected generosity” towards an undeserving subordinate, causing the other subordinate to become resentful and complain of injustice.[4] In both, the master figure responds by benevolently explaining his “extravagant generosity.”[5] In both stories, the underlying imploration is that it is far better to accept God’s mercy than to oppose it in lieu of standing on one’s own merit.[6]

In response to the charge of God’s unfairness, the master in the parable responds, “Friend, I am doing you no wrong” (v. 13). The following rhetorical questions (vv. 13b-15) show the master’s gifts are given “not because they are earned, but because he is gracious.”[7] In the kingdom of heaven, no one receives less than what they deserve; some receive far greater. Therefore, neither may charge God with injustice. Further, in God’s kingdom, he defines what is just and unjust.

The immediate application for Christians today is that we should not expect to receive certain blessings because of our own merit. This kind of thinking is rooted in a comparison of ourselves to others, and the root of that impulse is pride. This passage teaches us to be humble, having been given more than we deserve through the blood of Jesus. It is only by Christ’s merit that we are will receive our eternal reward.

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[1] For nine possible meanings, see W.D. Davies and D.C. Allison, Jr., A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on The Gospel According to St. Matthew (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1997) 67-68.

[2] D.A. Carson, “Volume 8 (Matthew, Mark, Luke)” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary (Grand Rapids: Regency, 1984) 428.

[3] W.W. Klein, C.L. Blomberg & R.L. Hubbard, Jr., Introduction to Biblical Interpretation, Rev. Ed. (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2004) 413.

[4] Davies and Allison, Gospel According to St. Matthew, 69.

[5] Ibid.

[6] C.S. Keener, A Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999) 483.

[7] Carson, “Matthew,” 428.

Helpful Presuppositions to Understand the Bible

Everyone approaches the Bible with presuppositions. It doesn't matter who you are; you can't escape it. Your culture and life experiences will shape the way you view Scripture. This explains how so many interpretations can come from the text. It explains different theological viewpoints, heresies and cults. Man is depraved, and throughout history, has interpreted texts to his own liking and benefit. In fact, only by the illumination of the Holy Spirit can man rightly interpret God's Word. The goal should not be to eliminate presuppositions, but to read the Bible with the correct ones.

1. The Bible is the authoritative, infallible Word of God. The Bible calls its readers to have faith in this (2 Tim. 3:16-7, 2 Pet. 1:17-21). It is God's full and final revelation, all that man needs to know about God and nothing that we don't.

2. The Bible centers on the life and work of Jesus Christ. The gospel is the starting point for understanding the Bible. Christ has died! Christ has risen! Christ will come again! Jesus has fulfilled/will fulfill all the promises of the Old Testament by these three acts. (Lk. 24:13-47, 2 Cor. 1:20)

3. The Bible is a book about God, not man. It is the story of the Triune God's redemptive work in history for his own glory and our good. It is not primarily an instruction book or a road map for us, but tells us what God has done for those who believe. We are called to respond to what God has done, but that is not the primary focus. (Col. 1:15-20, Isaiah 6:1-7)

The most damaging presupposition of our time is humanism. In a culture that tells us that it's all about us, it's hard for us to imagine that the Bible is not all about us. This affects our understanding of the Bible in varying degrees, from the prosperity gospel to more subtle interpretations. But it is not specific to our time or culture. Adam's original sin in the garden was derivative of thinking he could be like God. From what the Bible reveals about the rebellion of the devil, it is from the same spirit of pride. That prideful self-centeredness which motivates us to glorify ourselves instead of God has always been present through the sinful nature of man. The beauty of the gospel, however, is that Christ became man and defeated our sinful nature by living a perfect life, dying on a cross for our rebellion and rising to intercede for his enemies made friends by his blood. Thanks be to God!

Exposition of Deuteronomy 21:18-21

For the context of this post, see first paragraph of previous post. On the surface, this is a very problematic passage. Did God really mean for his people to kill their own sons? How does this apply to us today under the New Covenant?

18"If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and, though they discipline him, will not listen to them, ¹⁹then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gate of the place where he lives, ²⁰and they shall say to the elders of his city, 'This our son is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.' ²¹Then all the men of the city shall stone him to death with stones. So you shall purge the evil from your midst, and all Israel shall hear, and fear.

Deuteronomy 21:18-21 explicates the negative human consequences of the Fifth commandment (Deut. 5:16). As Craigie notes, those guilty of not honoring their fathers and mothers are under the wrath of God.[1] This passage pertains to a son exhibiting apathetic and unrepentant dishonor towards his parents. It is contained within a section of Deuteronomy in which the original given law is being expounded upon for the sake of clarity and application.

In the broader context of the Torah, this passage is vital to understanding the kind of covenant people that Yahweh wants to possess the Promised Land, the kind of community with which he wants to have relationship. He will not tolerate unrepentant disobedience even from those who are born into the people Yahweh declares to be his own through his redemptive work (Deut. 7:6-8). To disobey paternal authority had implications beyond the family. As McConville observes, “the family unit is an essential part of the larger political and religious fabric. Respect for parents was therefore a basic element in a right attitude to the whole society and indeed to God.”[2]

God has revealed himself as a loving Father, one who knows what it is to love and discipline his children. Hosea 11:1, 8-9 is a promise Yahweh makes to Israel, his children, that because of his love for his people he will not destroy it. It is difficult to imagine that any parent could hand over his son, though rebellious, to be executed, even for the good of the community. As McConville notes, “there is no evidence of such measures actually having been taken in the OT.”[3] However, the fulfillment of this passage and Hosea 11 is the death of the obedient son, Jesus, as a representative of a disobedient people. God the Father did the unimaginable, giving up his own son, who was “numbered with the transgressors” (counted rebellious) that the rebellious son who deserved death (God’s chosen) might be spared and renewed into right relationship with the Father.[4]

Because Jesus died for these sins, Christians should not punish them by death in state or communal practice. Also, this is incompatible with Jesus’ ethics. Christ’s fulfillment of this passage doesn’t diminish that God takes this sin very seriously. On the contrary, it shows that it was worth dying for. Therefore, Christians today should take the principle of respect for one’s parents, grandparents and elders in general very seriously.

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[1] P.C. Craigie, The Book of Deuteronomy (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1976) 284.

[2] J.G. McConville, “Deuteronomy,” in Apollos Old Testament Commentary, eds. D.W. Baker and G.J. Wenham (Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 2002) 331.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Jn. 3:16; Is. 53:12

Exposition of Genesis 12:10-20

So it's regrettably been a while since I've posted anything. I do not lack interest, but only time. This post is a "copy and paste" post. It is a copy of the first hermeneutical assignment due in my Biblical Interpretation class. In the class, we have several short (one page, which can be more difficult than writing five) assignments to interpret different Biblical genres (Narrative, Law, Psalms, Wisdom, Prophecy, Gospels, Parables, Acts and Epistles) from passages given to us. The first passage given was Genesis 12:20-13:1. I was asked to interpret the passage within its narrow and wider circles of context and to answer questions mostly regarding application today.

¹⁰Now there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land. ¹¹When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to Sarai his wife, "I know that you are a woman beautiful in appearance, ¹²and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, 'This is his wife.' Then they will kill me, but they will let you live. ¹³Say you are my sister, that it may go well with me because of you, and that my life may be spared for your sake."¹⁴When Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful. ¹⁵And when the princes of Pharaoh saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken into Pharaoh’s house. ¹⁶And for her sake he dealt well with Abram; and he had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male servants, female servants, female donkeys, and camels.

¹⁷But the LORD afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife. ¹⁸So Pharaoh called Abram and said, "What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? ¹⁹Why did you say, 'She is my sister,' so that I took her for my wife? Now then, here is your wife; take her, and go." ²⁰And Pharaoh gave men orders concerning him, and they sent him away with his wife and all that he had.

This passage reveals God’s faithfulness to his covenant promise even when the recipient of the promise is unfaithful. Chapter 12 begins with the calling of Abram to take his family away from all that is familiar to a place not yet revealed to him. He goes because he trusts that God will bless him and make him a blessing. As Wenham notes, “After the great expectations aroused by the first episode in the Abraham cycle, this second one surprises us by the unheroic performance of the hero.”[1] No later than v. 13, his doubt is apparent. Telling the Egyptians that they are siblings is at best a half-truth, for she is his half-sister.[2] In leaving out the fact that they are married, he risks his own marriage, thereby risking the fulfillment of the promises of 12:1-3.[3] The promise is saved only because of divine intervention, God afflicting Pharaoh and his house with great plagues (v. 17).

In its wider literary circle of the Old Testament narrative, it is the first revelation that the Lord will intervene at times to protect his blessings.[4] At different times he provides plagues (Gen. 12:17, Ex. 7:14-12:32), famine (Gen. 42-46), miracles (Ex. 3-4, Ex. 14), strength (2 Sam. 22:40) or whatever else was necessary for the preservation of his covenant people. Though his people may doubt, deceive, dismay or disobey, he will go to great lengths to fulfill his promise, for, as Ross notes, His word is at stake.[5] This theme reaches its apex in the life and work of Jesus Christ, who went to the greatest length to redeem his people from their sin by taking it upon himself and destroying it at the cross.

Christians today can derive a greater trust in God from this passage. A Christian can know that when his life circumstances are not going the way he had hoped, he should not resort to deceitful practices. God is in control and working all things for the good of his people (Rom. 8:28). We understand the promises of God much more richly than Abram could have. As Hamilton notes, this certainly does not give Christians the excuse to be disobedient. But this passage gives believers security that God will act and has acted on their behalf when they are unfaithful.

Though Abram is the father of those who believe, he is not set up as an example to follow in this particular passage. Should one mistakenly discern this to be the case, one might conclude that God needs our help or our wisdom to fulfill his promises. Abram is a model for Christian living is that he perseveres in following the Lord’s call, but only because of God’s commitment to him.

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[1] G.J. Wenham, “Genesis 1-15,” in Word Biblical Commentary, eds. D.A. Hubbard and G.W. Barkert (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1987) 290.

[2] V.P. Hamilton, The Book of Genesis: Chapters 1-17 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1900) 381.

[3] A.P. Ross, Creation and Blessing: A Guide to the Study and Exposition of Genesis (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1998) 270.

[4] Ibid., 276.

[5] Ibid., 277.