NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

by Dr. Robert R. Seyda

GOSPEL OF MATTHEW

CHAPTER TWENTY

Part II

Verses 3-5a: About nine o’clock in the morning the man went to the marketplace and saw some other people standing there. They were doing nothing. So he said to them, ‘If you go and work in my field, I will pay you what your work is worth.’ So they went to work in the vineyard.

Jesus is attempting to teach His disciples and those religious leaders questioning His authority to understand a principle of God’s kingdom: Though you may be the first to hear it, you may end up being the last to understand it. Also, although you may be among the first to receive an invitation, you may be among the last to join. It all has to do with accepting your calling and the position assigned to you in God’s vineyard. The most important part of our Lord’s parable is the work that needs to be done in order for there to be a harvest.

Bishop Cyril continues his analogy of this parable as it relates to the spiritual aspects of God’s time for mankind here on earth. He writes: “The Lord speaks of Himself as the householder and the regulator of the kingdom of heaven. By ‘day’ He means the whole age during which at different moments since the transgression of Adam He calls just individuals to their pious work, defining rewards for them for their actions. And so ‘around the first hour’ are those at the time of Adam and Enoch; ‘at the third hour’ those in the time of Noah and Shem and the righteous descending from them, for the second time is also the second calling, when the laws were also different. The workers called ‘at the sixth hour’ are those in the time of Abraham, the time of the institution of the circumcision; those ‘at the eleventh hour’ are those just before Christ’s advent.”¹

This, of course, is part of how any teacher or preacher can assign the different parts of any allegory to mean certain things related to their spiritual content. Especially when we know that Jesus began this parable by saying that it represented the Kingdom of God. Cyril then continues: “In their time alone the question is asked, ‘What are you doing standing the whole day idle?’ for they do not have the hope of the Lord. They were godless in the world and idle in every good work; they are like those ‘standing idle in the market place,’ not groping in search of anything at all but running through their whole life to no purpose. The Lord admonishes them, ‘Why do you stand idle?’ They answer, ‘No one has hired us; for neither Moses nor any of the holy men spoke to the Gentiles but to Jerusalem alone.’ Nevertheless, the lord sends them too into the vineyard.”² While Bishop Cyril identifies these idle workers as Gentiles, it is more likely that our Lord was speaking of those believers who claimed to be part of God’s kingdom but do nothing to promote its well being and help in the planting and harvesting.

Cyril then concludes: “There are five hirings so that he may show that at each time there were sensible people and aimless ones, like the five wise virgins and the five foolish ones, according to their particular times.³ Some were found worthy, and some in their folly thought little of the coming age. At the end of life, which is evening (for the time after Christ’s sojourn until the consummation is the time after the eleventh hour, as John says: ‘It is the last hour),⁴ the householder orders their wages to be given, beginning with the last. The householder should be considered the Father using the Son as manager, not as a subsidiary but as a colleague; for He orders and regulates everything through Him, whatever He wishes.”⁵ While we do not take Bishop Cyril’s analogy as the ultimate exegesis of this parable, it does give us something to think about. After all, Jesus said it is “like” the kingdom of God.

Verse 5b: The man went out again about twelve noon and again at three o’clock. Both times he hired some others to work in his vineyard.

Our Lord continues His parable by adding additional intervals of hiring as He builds toward the ultimate point He is wanting to make concerning the compensation that each group will be given at the end of the day. This is important because the general concept among the Jews was that the longer one is involved in reading the Torah and doing righteous works the greater the reward will be in the world to come. But the Master is endeavoring to try and teach them that such thinking is valid only under the old covenant Law of good works, but under the new covenant of grace and mercy, such work plays no role in how the reward at the end is calculated since the Son of God will be doing all the work through each believer. Therefore, what remuneration the Son receives from the Father, He will share equally with all those who are obedient and follow Him.

Verse 6-7: About five o’clock the man went to the marketplace again. He saw some other people standing there. He asked them, “Why did you stand here all day doing nothing?” They said, “No one gave us a job.” The man said to them, “Then you can go and work in my vineyard.”

This hiring takes place very late in the day. So those given a job already know they do not have much time to work since the sun will be going down pretty soon. Again, if we think of this “day” as the length of time for the work of Christ to go on until He returns to reward all those who have been faithful to Him, then it would be easy to liken this group to those who accept Jesus as the Christ and receive Him as their Lord and Savior a short time before He returns. At the same time, it can also be applied to those who have spent a good part of their lives not being engaged in the work of the kingdom of God, but finally are convinced to get involved before their day of opportunity is over.

One early church scholar offers this analogy: “Just as the hired hand spends the whole day in his lord’s work and only one hour feeding himself, so we too ought to spend every hour of our life in the work of God’s glory and only a fraction in our own earthly interests. And just as the hired hand is ashamed to enter the house and ask for bread on a day when he has not worked, how will you not be ashamed to enter the church and stand before God’s gaze when you have done nothing good in God’s sight? He went out ‘early’ and summoned Adam and those who were with him; ‘at the third hour’ Noah and those who were with him; ‘at the sixth hour’ Abraham and those who were with him; ‘at the ninth hour’ Moses and those who were with him, or David and those who were with him, for to these he gave the testaments. ‘At the eleventh hour’ understand the Gentiles, because now we stand on the very edge of the world, as John testifies in his letter, saying: ‘Children, it is the last hour.’⁶ According to the apostle some part of the twelfth hour has now passed, for he says, ‘Salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed.’⁷ That was the eleventh hour. Now, in our time, the twelfth hour is not yet complete, but without a doubt, little time remains.”⁸

I’m not sure if the anonymous early church writer who penned these words years ago could have imagined that they would still be written about, discussed, interpreted, and debated some 1400 years later, nor do any of us during this dispensation know how many more years this will go on. But one thing the Master wants all of us to know is that no one will be cheated out of anything He and the Father have prepared for us all, no matter how short their service to Him may be. After all, Jesus’ ministry was only about three and a half years long, and yet His was crowned King of kings forever.

Verse 8: At the end of the day, the owner of the field said to the foreman of all the workers, “Call the workers and pay them all. Start by paying the last people I hired. Then pay all of them, ending with the ones I hired first.”

As we can see, it was the custom of those days to pay workers at the end of each day. This is what gave rise to the term, “day’s wages.” But the irony of this particular pay day is that those who were hired last were paid first. This sets up what will become the final word in this parable. Cyril of Alexandria gives us his view of what this means: “The last ones, receiving the generosity of the Master instead of troubles, are first to receive their reward, since all those after the Lord’s coming have become – through baptism and the union with the Spirit – sharers in God’s nature’ and are called sons of God.… For the prophets too have become sharers in the Spirit, but not in the same way as the faithful, since the Holy Spirit is in some way like a leaven for the souls of the faithful and changes the entire man to another condition of life. And so we have become ‘participants in God’s nature,’ and openly we cry ‘Abba, Father.’ The more ancient peoples did not receive the same grace. So Paul too says, ‘For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship.’⁹ The ancients then received a spirit of slavery without the honor of adoption. Since therefore we really are first to receive a reward, we must of necessity be said to be honored above the rest.”¹⁰

From this we can take that Cyril is saying the Jews who received the first covenant will be the last to receive the benefits of that covenant with Abraham, while those Gentiles who received the last covenant will be the first to benefit from the promises made to Abraham. This is certainly a logical conclusion since Jesus was speaking to Jews, not Gentiles. But the main point remains the same: whether first or last, the payment is the same. Yet, some may question, “Is that fair?” We don’t know all that God has in store for those who devote their lives to serving Him and bringing Him honor, praise, and glory here on earth. But I’m sure that when all is revealed it will measure out properly because He is always spoken of as a fair and just Judge.