The Grape Harvest is Ready: It's 5:30am ... Jesus' Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard: Matthew 20:1-16

The grape harvest is ready and the farmers are desperate to finish the picking. It’s 5:30am, the eastern sky is turning a pinkish hue and the sun is climbing behind the vine-clad hills. The market place in this small town is filling up now as the hired workers gather, hopeful of a full day’s work - if not, the kids and wife go hungry ...

Look, the strongest workers are being picked first while others wait, sitting around but still hopeful.  After three hours, one of the landowners returns; it’s a desperate situation: the sky looks threatening and the grapes must be harvested before the onset of the rains; he picks a handful of workers and they quickly exit the market place for the fields. 

Another three hours, it’s noon, and the grape grower is here again  ... he doesn’t seem fussy: the older workers are picked now; they’re slower but willing. The harvest is ready, the grapes must be picked – no time to be wasted. 

At 3.00pm the grape grower visits the market place yet again ... but now the shadows are lengthening. Again, he picks some workers and takes them away. There’s little hope now of any work but the remaining men are desperate and some sit idle waiting just in case and, to their surprise, at 5.00pm, with one hour to go before the working day is over, the farmer returns again; this one is certainly not choosy, he’ll take whoever is willing.  He’s desperate; he just wants workers in the vineyard.

It’s 6.00pm: the day is over and the hired workers line up for the foreman to give them their wages. What a surprise! This can’t be right? Everyone is being paid the same! The last are ecstatic; the first are angry but the grape grower says he is playing fair; he is giving them all the agreed wage. Do they begrudge his generosity?
 
What is Jesus saying? He’s challenging our attitudes: Don’t think you are better than anyone else, Peter, James and John, because you were the first to follow Me! You mature, long-in-the-tooth Christians! Don’t look down on your new brother or sister! God has welcomed them and loves them the same as you! He has no favourites.

Have you ever stood in that awkward place at school of team picking? You were the last to be picked? The slowest runner, the least nimble player? The marks of inferiority were branded upon you, the least, the lowest. God’s kingdom is one of equality, a brotherhood and not a hierarchy. We can never look down on anyone again; God picked us all; He loves us all the same.

Jesus is challenging our practice too: His kingdom is one of equality and sharing. The practice of the early Jerusalem church stemmed directly from the parables and teachings of Jesus: “For there was not a needy person among them, for all who were owners of land or houses would sell them and bring the proceeds of the sales and lay them at the apostles' feet, and they would be distributed to each as any had need.” (Acts 4: 34,35)

Jesus is challenging our attitudes and practice; He is also challenging our perception of what God is like: in the person of the landowner we see a shadow of the vast mercy, grace and generosity of God.