New Testament: Matt 20.1–7

To read the Bible in a year, read Matthew 20.1–16 on January 29, In the year of our Lord Christ 2023

By Don Ruhl 

Jesus told a parable of a landowner who hired workers at various parts of the day, and yet, he paid them all the same: 

“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. Now when he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And he went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.’ So they went. Again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did likewise.”

– Matthew 20.1–5

At the eleventh hour, the employer went out and found more men, agreeing to pay them a certain amount: 

“And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing idle, and said to them, ‘Why have you been standing here idle all day?’ They said to him, ‘Because no one hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right you will receive.’”

– Matthew 20.6–7 

Jesus spoke this parable, comparing the landowner and the workers to the kingdom of heaven. Jesus does not want people standing around idle in his kingdom, but he has “hired” us to do a job. 

Questions: 

• Are you doing what the Lord hired you to do? 
• What do you expect to receive from the Lord for what you have done? 

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Don preaches with the Savage Street Church of Christ in Grants Pass, Oregon. 

Listen to his sermons here: GrantsPassChurchOfChrist.com