As I read the passage about the vineyard workers I notice several things.
- This is a parable, which is important to know, because anyone who made a habit of doing this wouldn’t have any workers for early morning…they would all wait and come later in the day. Therefore, this isn’t meant to make good business sense, it’s trying to tell us something else. Since the parable is about heaven (first line: “the kingdom of heaven is like…”) we know that Jesus is trying to relay a truth about heaven. That would seem to be the fact that everyone is going to receive the same reward in heaven.
- I’m really stretching here, but why not?… The different starting dates are probably the different times in human history that people have accepted Christ. It would seem that some will be accepting Christ right up until the hour before He returns, and brings His reward with Him. I notice that Jesus didn’t add anything about paying people who didn’t show up until it was time to be paid. You had to be working when it was “pay time”. I doubt very seriously that those who aren’t serving Christ when He returns will have any “second chance” to receive the reward. I’m making a mental note to myself to “stay in the field and don’t complain about your pay”. Oh, one more thing: Did you notice that it was Jesus who went looking for workers? No one came to Him and asked to be hired. He is the one who extends the invitation.
I spoke briefly about the fact that Jesus warned His disciples about His upcoming death before any of it happened. I wonder how much of Scriptural prophecy is meant to warn us of what will happen, but we haven’t understood it? With so many years to process it, you would think we would be prepared, but as I read the Bible I understand that hasn’t always been the case for the human race.
In this account, it’s the mother of James and John that makes the audacious request to sit at the left and right of Jesus. In yesterday’s reading it didn’t mention Moms involvement. In fact, I hadn’t considered that any of the parents of the disciples might have been disciples themselves. Was it just mom, or did Dad leave his fishing boats behind? I wonder how many other family members and neighbors were all following Christ together? It would mean they already had a network of friends and a level of trust developed before they knew Christ. That would enable them to grow spiritually at an accelerated level.
Yesterday only mentioned one blind man, but today we “see” that there were two. Of course there were so many more miracles than we will ever know about. For every one miracle that has been written about I imagine there were hundreds more. Perhaps even thousands more. I am reminded that we are only getting a small sample of the whole story. The camera is always focused on Jesus, as it should be, but that doesn’t permit us to see the large crowd of disciples or hear much of their struggle. As I mentioned a few moments ago, James and John had a parent along with them. At least I think she was traveling with them. For all we know, she might have just been there for the day.
Chapter 21 begins with an image of authority and ownership. Jesus is receiving the cheers of the crowd and the praises of the people. I have seen returning heroes who were uncomfortable with this type of worship, but Jesus is not…because He rightly deserves it. He deserves it because of who He is before He was born on earth, as well as for who He is right at this moment, and who He is tomorrow, and the next day. Jesus is worthy!
And, Jesus has authority. He has a right to clear the temple…it’s His temple. Sometimes I read this passage is think about the fact that Jesus seems angry. But today I see Jesus “owning” the temple as He arrives. Many others might have felt like: “hey, this sort of thing isn’t right…but what can we do? The whole system is corrupt”. We might say that because we don’t have personal responsibility for or identity with the organization. We know that something should be done, but we also understand that we aren’t the governing body who can make such decisions. This is not the case with Jesus. He walks into the temple and immediately sees the corruption and decay, and is offended by it. Because He takes ownership, He also takes action.
Here’s a thought: Why chase people out this time? Jesus had been in the temple before and hadn’t done this. Why now? I think it’s because He knows that His time on earth is finished, and He doesn’t have to keep a low profile anymore. He can reveal Himself fully, because it’s time to bring His earthly ministry to a close.
I hope the parable of the evil farmers comes up again before we move away from this in the reading. I want to think about it in print, but today this seems to be getting a little long.
Faithfully,
PR