“The First Shall Be Last” | Matthew 20:1–16

Show Notes

Episode 759: 
In this episode, we unpack the parable of the vineyard workers found in Matthew 20. This story illustrates the concept of God's grace and the idea that fairness, as we understand it, is not always aligned with divine justice. We discuss how the landowner in the parable pays all workers the same wage, regardless of how long they worked, prompting a discussion about the nature of God's generosity and kindness.

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You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun in practical ways. Well, good morning, good morning, assuming that you're watching in the morning. Yeah, I guess true course most people do. Or happy afternoon or goody, goody, goody, or good night sleep. Remember that video that we did. Oh yeah, you were great in that. Go back to twenty nineteen and watch that or not because they may not want to. October of twenty twenty, twenty twenty. That's right, that's when you started. I forgot Actually it might have been actually in November actually because it was relational vampire relational lampires. Yeah, some good news, yep. Jeff standalone then Relationship Press did a great job on that man with great acting. Hey, so my name is Chris. This is Kyle. We are the Bible Guys today because Jeff is out of town and we've been had we had we've had a great discussion on great Yes. Yeah, we're Jesus and the Outsiders. Jesus and the Outsiders, and we're talking about famous sayings of Jesus. In the past, we've described it as what if Jesus had a podcast, he would actually talk about his famous sayings, but really it's it's a series about the famous sayings of Jesus. And today he's going to be talking about how the first shall be last. But before we do that, we have a segment that I'm very fond of Would you rather? Because it asks a ridiculous question and it forces you to make a choice between two bad choices. Gotcha? All right? You want to read the first one? Sure? All right, here we go, Chris. Yes, would you rather have a pet lama that follows you everywhere? Or a parrot that constantly roasts you? You know what? I think that people would get sick of the lama because lama spit, they smell right, and they're very large. So if I'm going through like a rotating door in New. York, that'd be tough with the lama, right, that's how you lose it. But the parrot, But the parrot could be on your shoulder, right, and parrots it would have actually be humorous. Yes, and even though it get irritating, I would enjoy it very much. Yeah. I would say that the llama might make you some friends to start, people who want to be aroun because the lama is following you. But I feel like the parrot keeps friends around for a while. Yeah. I mean it's just been like, hey, that guy with the parrot that constantly, Yeah, that's good. It's like, oh, I can't wait to get the guy in the room. Right, yep, as long as you don't have too much of that gred percent, eventually you're like, okay, we got so the parrot. Yeah, I'm gona agree with the parrot. I feel like the lama. Yeah again, I feel like people think it was super cute until it's not. That's for sure. Yep. Okay, so parrots for both of them. Right. Would you rather have a vacuum that sings show tunes or a fridge that judges your snack choices? What was that? I tapped you because I realized you're to read that one as my bad. Sorry. I thought you were tapping me because they said show tunes. No no, no, no, that bad because you started speaking and I was like, oh h I anologizing, Hey, dude. I totally thought that's what Jeff would have done. Jeffould have said show tunes no definite all right here? Would you rather have a vacuum that sings show tunes, or a fridge that judges your snack choice. Well, there's no comparison here. You would have to loathe show toots right. First of all, how often do you run your vacuum? Yeah? And for how long? My wife every day? Yeah? Okay, right, but for how long though? Twenty minutes max? Fifteen? Yeah, fifteen? Probably right? And so and it's hopefully it's pleasant, Hopefully they're not off key, right, Hopefully the vacuum doors had a saying yes, right, yes? Or at fridge that judges your could you imagine. That'd be kind of funny, though, every. Time you go into the fridge it's judging you. Last and last. It's like a motivational thing. You're like, You're like, I want that fridge is going to when I pull that food out there. It was a tactic for only some right get shamed. I would say, like, for instance, I'm thinking, once again, since I've already brought up Jeff, I would say that Jeff would laugh at the judging because he and I are the same personality. We sort of love that. You know, he roast his brothers all the time, that sort of his love language, and he and I roast each other so, and he wrote you heroes everybody right, So he would laugh and he wouldn't mind it it uh and you would ignore it, yeah right. Yeah, that's what we do. You just ignore one, any good one. But most people aren't like us. Most people would be like feeling bad. Like my wife, Yeah, she would be like, oh mine too, way, like I will pay you to get rid of these fridgs. So and I like show tunes, so I would definitely definitely say the vacuum that sings shows. Yeah. I would say that the fridge does not bother me that much because I do think it could be funny slash, yeah, motivational, but I don't see that. And the negative with the vacuum that sing show tunes, I don't see the negative at all. Oh I would look forward to yeah, yeah, there you go. Yep. I just I can't even imagine I'd look forward to it. I'd be like, oh, yeah, that's not bad. Let me vacuum. It's not a bad one. All you do. The windows I was not a bad one at all. All right, let me read number three and four? Right, yeah you gottam all right, there we got number three. Would you rather only eat with chopsticks or only eat with a tiny spoon. That's rough. Okay, So because I do not, I'm embarrassed at this. I do not know how to use oop sticks. I could say. Well, the other thing too about me is I am I do struggle with patience. I'm not saying impatient, but I struggle with patience. So whenever it comes to chopsticks, it just feels like I'm like, I'm just gonna grab before I come, grab a spoon and just get this over with. Yeah, you know what, I love chopsticks. I love them. I love them. Yeah, I've learned to eat noodles with chopsticks. Really, so I could I could actually eat like put tie with chop sticks. Obviously with soup you have to have a spoon. Yeah right, so it's not a universal thing. And this is saying only eat with chopsticks, you'd have to drink your soup. Right. And also I would say I probably should learn how to use chopsticks because could you imagine eating soup with a tiny spoon? That would be like for impatient people, that would be. Maybe the worst. Well, to be honest with you, a tiny spoon with steak, Oh, it wouldn't be good either. Yeah. No, right, so I'd rather use chopsticks for steaks. Oh, I'd use my hands if I had those options. Oh yeah, well but all as you were allowed to use a knife. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, but it's saying, you know, I'm assuming eating things bring up to your mouth. Yeah right, so you can cut it. Yeah, I'd go chopsticks for that reason, although i'd have to learn. So yeah. So I'm going to say Shop six two because I like them. And how could a billion Chinese people be wrong? Right, that's true. Come on, they know what they're doing. They know what they're doing. They're smarter than they can't be wrong. That's right. By the way, that's a movie club, Come on, Michael, how can a billion Chinese people be wrong? What's it from? It's from the Lost Boys? Oh okay, throwbacks. It's actually a movie about vampires. Okay, I'm true, right something like that. Acknowledge that? Yeah, yeah, but no, no, it was wasn't. The famous actor or actors in there, no, believe it or not. The main star was a no name guy. But it did have some famous people in it. The kids were short of famous. Okay, So anyway, all right, Number four would you oh Keith Sutherland? Okay, so that was the vampire. Keith for Otherland, Yeah, from twenty four that's right, legendary show. Yeah he was young then. Anyway. Number four, would you rather be stuck in a room with fifty Would you rather be stuck in a room with fifty clapping robots? Or one mime who won't break or who won't break eye contact? Are you kidding me? This is the most random question. One mime who won't because you didn't get through that, one mime who won't break eye contact? So stuck in a room, right, but how stuck in. The r Yeah, let's throw a number out there. Let's say twenty four hours. Yeah, twenty four hours, fifty clapping robots or one mime who won't break kaikn. I'd have to choose the mime, yeah, I mean only because fifty clapping robots, I'm assuming they're metal. Yeah, I'm assuming because the room is I mean it's not going to be acoustically treated, yeah, which means like my ears will be bleeding. Yes, right, so I'd have to choose the mime. Yeah. I think the mime's uncomfortable, like very uncomfortable, like I'm not going to get pass effect that is odd, right, and just be staring at it like that would be weird. But I would say that, Yeah, the annoyance after a while of the robots, I'd have to choose the mime as well. Yeah, fifty clapping robots. Wow, just as a funny site. That is a wild question. It is, it is all right, We'll give you the right, last one, last one. Would you rather be known as the person who always has a snack but never shares or the one who laughs like a dolphin? Again? Pretty random? Wow, these are random. I would definitely rather be known as the person who laughs like a dolphin. It's not even a question really, because it's saying. It's saying very specifically here that your reputation is a person who never shares. Yes, and that's unacceptable. Yeah, so it is as unacceptable as laughing as a dolphin is in public. I would much rather choose that and then be able to try to explain that a way as I'm sorry, it's the way that I laugh, as opposed to having a bad reputation of a person who ever shares. Yeah, you've hearn meet people like that who you'd say, like thirty type of people that always has a snack but would never share it. Um G whiz, that's a great question. I'm I'm not sure that I can peg that on a single person. Yeah. Probably. We don't want to use any names either. He's curious because when I read the description, I was. Like, huh, well, I mean, I wouldn't say their name anyway, But I'm not sure I really know somebody who's that selfish, do you. I there has been people in my life. There was one person in particular. I remember we go on these like like golf outings and be a bunch of people together, and this one person would like have his own like like cooler and it was like his own thing. Yeah you know. It was just like it was no, no, no, don't touch that's his stuff. It was like oh yeah, all right, yeah yeah, go man, come on to pullen, give me, hit me the co now get your own jeez. Yes. Anyway, So, hey, what a great segment that was, And we went too long on that. Would you rather so we're gonna go right into Matthew chapter twenty. Here's a bad transition. Would you rather play that game again or would you rather get into the Bible. Ooh, that's it. I forgot the transition. Yeah, what would you rather do? I would rather Kyle get into the Bible. Let's do it then? Perfect, all right, Matthew, Chapter twenty, starting in verse one, we're going through verse sixteen. It's it's the title here is. Jesus tells the parable the vineyard workers. Says this for the Kingdom of Heaven is like the landowner who went out early one morning to hire workers for his vineyard. He agreed to pay the normal daily wage and sent them out to work. At nine o'clock in the morning, he was passing through the marketplace and saw some people standing around doing nothing, so he hired them, telling them he would pay them whatever was right at the end of the day. So they went to work in the vineyard at noon, and again at three o'clock. He did the same thing. At five o'clock that afternoon, he was in town again and saw some more people standing around. He asked them, why haven't you been working today? They replied because no one hired us. The land owner told them, then go out and join the others in my vineyard. That evening, he told the foreman to call the workers in and pay them, beginning with the last workers first. When those hired at five o'clock were paid, each received a full day's wage. When those hired first came to get their pay, they assumed they would receive more, but they too were paid a full day's wage. When they received their pay, they protested to the owner, those people worked only one hour, and yet you paid them just as much as you paid us, who worked all day in the scorching heat. He answered one of them, friend, I haven't been unfair. Didn't you agree to work all day for the usual wage? Take your money and go. I wanted to pay this last worker the same as you. Is it again the law for me to do? Oh? Sorry? Is it against the law for me to do what I want with my money? Should you be jealous because I am kind to others who I love that? Should you be jealous because I am kind to others? Then it says so those who are last now will be first then, and those who are first will be last. Did you know, by the way, that this was my very first message at Hardon? No? No, wow? Yeah, So we were just talking about that. We were saying the Vampire's member. Oh yeah, so I got hired. October eleventh was my first message twenty twenty. We were in a series called Some Good News Yeah, and I preached this passage. And the point is that the question of the title, the title of the message was is God fair? Remember? And then the answer, based on this passage was God is not fair? Right? God is not fair. Now, first of all, when people hear that concept, before I give the rest of them of the title or the rest of the point, I should say, people might have a problem with that. What do you mean God's not fair? Well, fairness ended in the garden of Eden. Right, God is not fair at all. Fairness, by the way, is something that we all want. We all want our coaches to be fair. We want our teachers to be fair, we want parenting to be fair, we want our bosses to be fair. And yet at the same time, fairness can be a thing that is, you know, not a good thing. For instance, like, hey, they got to raise and I didn't. That's not fair. Actually it is, they produced and you didn't. They're talented and you're not. It's like there are some things where it's like fairness is not what is demanded. Not every kid is going to be on the field at all times, right, at all plays the NFL. If everybody got the same amount of time playing, it would be more like it wouldn't exist. Right, Yeah, it was all fair. Yeah. So so fairness isn't always a high value. And to be honest with you, it isn't always a great night. Right. So as people demand fairness for the sake of fairness is it's it's not a great concept. So the question is is God fair? And and and the answer is absolutely not, and then and then and then the extension to that answer is He's incredibly unfair in our favor or to our favor. Both are grammatically correct, but God is unfair to our favor in our favor. So, in other words, he if we gabble, we deserved. If you wanted God to be fair, then we'd all be in hell, right. And it's like, it's like, we don't want God to be fair. The last thing you want is for God to be fair, because God gives to us that which we don't deserve, and that's called grace. Yep, right, the unmerited, unwarranted and unmerited favor of God. But God, God decides to not give us what we do deserve, which is called mercy. So he holds back right, mercy that spares us and grace that favors us. And so the thing I love about this is really that concept, the concept that God doesn't even apologize. No, you know what it is. It's the it's the no explanation explanation. Right. So they're like, hey, I demand an explanation. How did you give those guys who only worked one hour all this money? And he says, I don't have to even answer you, right, I could do what I want with my own money. And by the way, I'm not unfair to you. Take your money and go your way. I've been I've been very fair to you because here's the wage we agreed upon him. He doesn't even pretend to say why he did what he did. He said, I can do what I want. Yeah, and I read it twice there. But I like when he turns it on him said, should you be jealous because I am kind to others? Right? That's like that's a but I know for me, Like just in this New Living Translation Bible, the Chronological Life Out Vacation Study Bible, here's a couple of points on there that they that they bring up is that this parable speaks especially to those who feel superior because of heritage, position or having spent so much time with Christ, and to new believers. It's a reassurance of God's grace. And then as it goes down, it says, I love this part. It says, many people we don't expect to see in the Kingdom of Heaven will be there. The criminal who repented as he was dying, will be there, along with people who have believed and served God for many years. Do you resent God's gracious acceptance of the despise, the outcast and the sinners who have turned to Him for forgiveness? Have you been Have you ever been jealous of what God has given to another person? Instead, focus on God's gracious benefits to you and be thankful for what you have, Oh man. And and now if you if you want to break down the hermaeutics of this passage and go word by word, and there's obviously there's a there's a study that could you know, reveal a lot, but even just uh, phrase by phrase also right, so phrase by phrase, what you realize is that Jesus is a master story of them because he sets the precedents and he says he hired him at the beginning of the day. Well, first of all, the Jewish calendar is different than our calendar, so we have midnight to midnight is a day, but in the Jewish calendar it was six am to six am. And the reason why is they called the sun. You know, the time of the sun it was day, and the time of the you know, all through the night was evening, and so twenty four hour period began with sunrise and it ended, you know, at sunrise. So anyway, all that to say, that's the reason why some of your versions in the Bible may say on the third hour, on the sixth hour, on the ninth hour, right on the eleventh hour, because what they're doing is they're taking it from six am. But this version translates for us. This version says nine am, noon, and then five pm. And then we know that the day ended when the sun went down, because they said this man only worked one out, which means that the shift was a twelve hour shift. So we literally know that. So Jesus is a master storyteller because he says these guys agreed to twelve hours, and he agreed them to pay a denarius denarius was actually determined in the book of Deuteronomy, or maybe it's Leviticus, one of those two as affair day's wage. It was also the same wage that a Roman would get working for the whole day. So denarius was a very fair thing. So imagine the first century listeners. They're like, Okay, once upon a time, there's a guy who owns a vineyard, and this guy agrees to work for all day and he agrees on a denarius. Everybody's like, I'm with you, Like that is very fair. So they started out the listeners were like, it's very fair. And then he finds somebody nine o'clock, and I love how Jesus says, I'll pay you what is right. So Jesus doesn't even indicate what he's going to do, and so Jesus is literally adding suspense, right. I mean he is a master scriptwriter, because everybody who's listening goes, ooh, I wonder what that is. They've worked three hours less. Then he found somebody at noon, I'll pay you what is right? Only half a day, only six hours? I wonder what that is. Then at five o'clock, one hour right, and then he gives them a denarious. Whoa, And he starts with the denarius for the for the one hour guy, and he works backwards. So they all got to witness it. Even the listeners are on the edge of their seat. What the one hour guy got a denarius? They're wondering. It's so masterful and obviously he's God, right, But all I have to say this, there's a reason why we love good stories. There's a reason why we can find the Gospel in stories. You could find the Gospel played out in almost anything. You know. I watched the Bible, guys. I think it might have been this morning, like literally the morning of this record, and and and in the morning of the recording. We talked about how there was how the Bible was shown in certain movies. We talked about the matrix But dude, you could literally preach a whole movie and call it the gospel according to the. Matrixes people did back in the day. They would do a series like yeah, yeah, you could. Do the Gospel according to Harry Potter. And some people are like, oh blassph me, But I'm telling you, the Gospel is in Harry Pottery. The Gospel is in the Lord of the Rings, right, And I believe that obviously. It's what I'm what I'm meaning is as I'm meaning that the overall arching story of a hero sacrificing for another is the story of salvation. And you can find it in other stories, and those are the stories that grab our attention. Those are the stories that make the most money, those are the stories that are most popular. And the reason why is because the Gospel is in you and the Gospel is in me. There's a deep rooted sense where we want that story. We long for that story in our souls because that's the story of the Gospel that is in you. I would say too, I love that because you know it's taking back to the the first century when he's telling the story, and you got to think when he's saying, when they sell the story, some people, I mean they got they got upset about this, like they're mad, they're they're like no, no, no. And a part of it is because the way the structure and the rules and the religion and tradition it was all about, you know, meeting quotas and standards and like it's all those things. And then Jesus starts breaking it down, like you're saying, like it's not fair. But he starts breaking it down in a way that like it doesn't make sense because it's it's like the good news of Jesus and what he did. It doesn't make sense the fact that it's available to anyone everyone, that somebody can literally be on their deathbed and say today, I've decided, if they've truly surrendered their life over to Jesus, that they can have that moment and they can actually join us in heaven. Like I read earlier the thief on the cross, Jesus doesn't say, okay, before we you know, I take you before you die, I need you to get off the cross and go get baptized, or he needs you to get off that cross and go attend to local synagogue. No, he just literally is like he's just saying to him, hey, today, you'll be with me in paradise. And it has to do with the faith, and it has to do with that surrender that because I do think that there's going to be a lot of people in heaven that we're going to be surprised who made it, But also shouldn't we have the same humility. I'm surprised I made it. I'm surprised. Well, thank god, I don't deserve that. If you truly understand what he's the grace and the like you said, the mercy that he's given us, you have no choice but to have humility if you ever get to the point where you start to think that you're above somebody or start to I guess, score people or rank people in that way, which is what the Pharisees did all the time. Like, you start to look a lot like a Pharisee when you start acting like that. You know, and we don't want to be on that side. And you know, Jesus always has a master comparison. Right, there's a point in the story. And and the point of this story is, you know, the people listening, most likely it doesn't say so, but most likely wait, wait a minute, wait a minute. Actually I'm going back on my words here because I'm going back, it says. Then Peter said to him, we've given up everything to follow you. What will we get? Then Jesus replied, and then he answers, and then he goes directly into for the Kingdom of Heaven is like a landowner, right, so and so yeah, and then and then also they asked another question who in the world, who in this world can be saved? Right? So this is a this is a long conversation. This is the reason why Jesus is telling these stories. But anyway, the point is is that the masterful comparisons are we try to ask ourselves who are we in the story? Right? So you know the prodigal son, you know the Pharisees who were grumbling, they were the older son and they were the point of the story, right, And so who are we in this story? Well, the entitled Christians are the ones who are the twelve hour, full day Christians who say, wait a minute, you know they shouldn't be able to get the full day's wage, right, There's no doubt about it. They don't deserve what I've worked hard for. That's correct, and there's some legitimacy there, right. But here's what I would like to bring out or bring to light, and that is if you go down that line of thinking and you say, okay, who are the twelve hour workers? Who are the nine hour workers? Who are the six hour workers? Who are the one hour workers? And another way to say it is who are the eleventh hour people? Right? And the answer is we all are it's the same answer as the five hundred silver coins that you're forgiving of. Right, we are the eleventh hour workers, every single one of us are. We're all saved by grace, we're all forgiven. We're all the ones who get unexpected, undeserved forgiveness. And not only do we do it for salvation that think about it. Every single time you screw up, and then you screw up again, and then you mess up again, and then you don't mean to, but once again we fail God, or you know, or we willfully sin, or we're just too tired and we neglect, or we walk away, or we're apathetic, or we're depressed, or you know, we feel guilty about our choices. We know that it's wrong, but you know, we just we're just gonna do it anyway because we want to do what we want to do, all these different things that we do, knowing that that that's not the right thing to do. God offers continual forgiveness that never stops. That's right, unconditional grace that is unending. And so all of us are the eleventh the room. All of us are. That's good. No, I thought that was great man, great way to end it. And great, great story, and it's something I think that as some anybody, anybody who's new to the faith or maybe even somebody's been a Christian for a long time, can really glean some insight from this passage for sure. Hey, let's end this podcast by you being me and I'll be you because Jeff always lets me sign off. Yeah, so you sign off and I'll do what you do. Go ahead, all right, cool, all right, signing off. We're the Bible. Guys. My name's Chris. This is no. I didn't mean that I thought you you being me, but I just. Thought I repretend I was gonna try to pretend to be you. Hey, guys, we'll see tomorrow. Yep, you