8th Sunday after Pentecost
Text: Matthew 20:1–16
Theme: Denarius and the evil eye
1. In the Name of the Father…Amen.
1. The text for this morning is from the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 20,
verses 1-16:
Matthew 20:1–16 (ESV)
1“For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out
early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard.
2After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them
into his vineyard.
3And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the
marketplace,
4and to them he said, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is
right I will give you.’
5So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour,
he did the same.
6And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing. And
he said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’
7They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You
go into the vineyard too.’
8And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman,
‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to
the first.’
9And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them
received a denarius.
10Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more,
but each of them also received a denarius.
11And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house,
12saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal
to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’
13But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did
you not agree with me for a denarius?
14Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker
as I give to you.
15Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do
you begrudge my generosity?’
16So the last will be first, and the first last.”
– This is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
1. Another text for our consideration is from Matthew 19:27–30
27Then Peter said in reply [to Jesus}, “See, we have left everything and
followed you. What then will we have?”
28Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, in the new world, when the
Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will
also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
29And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or
mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold
and will inherit eternal life.
30But many who are first will be last, and the last first.
– This is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
1. Grace, mercy, and peace from God our heavenly Father and from our
Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
1. Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let us pray:
826 Hark, the Voice of Jesus Crying
1
Hark, the voice of Jesus crying,
“Who will go and work today?
Fields are white and harvests waiting—
Who will bear the sheaves away?”
Loud and long the Master calleth;
Rich reward He offers thee.
Who will answer, gladly saying,
“Here am I, send me, send me”?
Introduction
1. What does all this mean?
1. “For the kingdom”?
1. What triggered this parable?
2. Well, that whole episode of the rich young man, who couldn’t
get into the kingdom because he wasn’t free enough to turn
his back on his
money and his importance.
3. He had Jesus right in front of him with open arms, and that
didn’t free him up to leave it all and run with Jesus!
1. What is with this parable that we hear about today?
1. That certain householder went out early in the morning to hire
laborers for his vineyard.
2. “After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent
them into his vineyard.”
1. Boy, for a holy man who only cares about us going to heaven, Jesus
sure talked a lot about money!
1. “And going out about the third hour he [the landowner] saw others
standing idle in the marketplace, and to them he said, ‘You
go into the
vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.’ So they
went. Going
out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same.”
(verses 2–5)
1. Okay. Now the householder is starting to sound a little impractical.
Where’s he going with this?
1. “And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others
standing.
2. And he said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’
3. They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ ”
4. Ever get picked last for a sandlot baseball game?
5. They were still hanging out where day-rate workers hung out
because no one saw any use for them.
6. “He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’ ” (verses 6–7)
1. (Oops) The Lord of the vineyard wanted to see that what the 6-a.m.
guys got was the same as the latecomers and vice versa.
1. One hour to quitting time.
1. By the time the guy punches in and gets his apron and tools it’s
going to be time to knock off!
1. The householder was either stupid or was intentionally out to make a
point, and we know he’s not stupid.
1. So here it comes:
1. “When evening came, the owner [lord] of the vineyard said to
his foreman [steward], ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages,
beginning with the last, up to the first’ ” (verse 8).
2. Notice how the lingo changes all of a sudden?
3. What happened to the “master of a house” [householder]?
4. Now he’s “the ‘owner’ [lord] of the vineyard.”
1. By changing the title of the employer, Jesus is telling them and us
what the parable is about.
1. He’s not pushing communism.
2. This isn’t a parable about how we’re supposed to run our
vineyards.
3. It’s a parable answering Peter’s question:
1. “What do we get?”
2. “Pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the
first.”
3. The lord of the vineyard wanted the 6-a.m. guys to see what
the latecomers got paid.
1. “And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of
them received a denarius” (verse 9).
1. A denarius!
2. (Ugh) Look at what he gave those guys! They just got here!
1. “Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive
more” (verse 10a).
1. Look at what he gave those guys!
2. They just got here!
3. This guy is generous!
4. If that “loafer” got a denarius, can you imagine what we’re
gonna get?
5. I am about to do something I normally don’t do:
1. Leave the pulpit during the sermon.
2. Make my way out into the congregation.
3. Ask a few people a question or two to make a point, to put
ourselves into this parable.
4. Give each person a “denarius” (dime)
5. Return to the pulpit.
1. “But each of them also received a denarius” (verse 10b).
1. A denarius? A denarius!
1. They filed a grievance.
2. They were insulted!
3. I’m no Wall Street whiz, but at 6 a.m. they were thrilled to
work for a denarius, and now at 6 p.m. the denarius had devaluated
significantly.
1. And once you hear their complaint, you know the Lord Jesus is talking
about religion.
1. He’s talking about being a Christian, that is, being one of his
disciples.
2. Because it sounds so familiar!
1. “These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to
us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching
heat” (verse 12).
1. In an effort to avoid the point, the Talmud retells the story with
the owner commending the laborer for doing more work in two
hours than the
others did in a full day.
1. But that’s not part of the parable.
2. The householder called the unwanted near the end of the day.
3. That’s the point.
4. They somehow got this idea that he came seeking them because he
needed them!
1. We may also assume the householder profited from the workers working
in his vineyard.
1. But that’s not part of the parable either.
2. That sounds familiar too.
1. A father started to have his son work with him in his
machine shop when he was thirteen years old.
2. The father didn’t do that for himself.
3. Things were harder for him with his son there, not easier.
It took longer to show his son how to do it than just to
do it himself, not
counting when he had to do it over after I made junk.
4. None of that was for him.
5. It was for his son, so he wouldn’t stand idle all day, like
those day-rate workers in the parable.
6. Perhaps you have seen this sign:
1. Shop rates: $30/hour
2. $50/hour if you want to watch
3. $75/hour if you want to help
4. This sign is cute and yet very true!
1. Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, you sit here today as 6-a.m.
disciples of Jesus not because he needs your help.
1. This is all for you, so that you can know him here, you bear
the heat of the day, not idle, but with the Lord of the
vineyard, hearing
his words, which are spirit and life, speak to you, so you
can live the
life of the world to come with him, here and now, and go into the
marketplace with him to rescue those who are idle.
1. The lord of the vineyard didn’t raise up the 5-p.m. guys to be equal
to the 6-a.m. guys. He raised up the 6-a.m. guys to be equal to
the 5-p.m.
guys!
1. “The last will be first, and the first last” (verse 16).
3. (Aha) The denarius was a gift!
1. The denarius was a gift!
1. But they were insulted.
1. So he answered one of them and said, “Friend, I am doing you no
wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius?” (verse 13).
1. He calls him friend, but it’s so sad here.
1. Because the Greek word used here for “friend” is not the
regular word translated “friend.”
2. The word is hetairos.
1. It means more than friend, it also means comrade.
1. This word occurs only two other sad times in the New Testament.
1. “And he [a king giving a wedding banquet] said to him [a
guest], ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding
garment?’ And he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants,
‘Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness.
In that place
there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth’ ” (Matthew 22:12–13).
2. The other occurence: “And he [Judas] came up to Jesus at once
and said, ‘Greetings, Rabbi!’ And he kissed him. Jesus said to him, ‘
Friend, do what you came to do’ ” (Matthew 26:49–50).
3. “Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for
a denarius?”
1. You were fine with that until you saw me being good to someone else.
1. So he told the 6-a.m. guys:
1. “Take yours and leave. I wish to give to the 5-p.m. guys as I
give you.”
1. I don’t ever want to hear my Lord say, “Take what belongs to you
and go,” like being thrown out of the wedding.
2. Or talking to us like we are Judas.
3. Sad and scary!
1. Then he said, “Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs
to me?” (verse 15).
1. And, we can translate, “Or is your eye evil because I am good?”
2. Remember the prodigal son’s older brother?
3. He had that same evil eye.
4. He didn’t believe in grace.
5. A party? For him? You’re kidding me, right?
1. This isn’t the first time Jesus talked about an evil eye.
1. “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy
[sincere], your whole body will be full of light, but if your
eye is bad
[evil], your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the
light in you
is darkness, how great is the darkness!” (Matthew 6:22–23).
1. And here’s the worst part of having an evil eye.
1. All the blessing of God goes right by your eye and you don’t
even see it.
2. The lord of the vineyard says, “Friend, all that time it was you
and me:
1. you and me in church
2. you and me in the Word,
3. I in you, you in me,
4. you and me loving others.
5. Was it all nothing to you?”
4. (Wow) St. Luke’s story of the thief on the cross illustrates this
parable.
1. Being with Jesus Is the Denarius!
1. St. Luke’s story of the thief on the cross illustrates this parable.
1. “Today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43).
1. If anyone ever punched in right before quitting time, it was this
guy.
1. He lived out his own disaster, right up to that moment, and he
winds up with the big denarius!
2. And theologians like to call this a unique bestowal of
salvation.
3. But they all miss the point.
4. The salvation of the dying thief is not unique at all.
5. It’s just shows so clearly how it really is for everybody—that
everybody who goes to heaven steals heaven on her or his deathbed.
6. We’re all the ones who show up at 5 p.m.!
7. The denarius was a gift!
8. Jesus died on his cross for the privilege of giving it.
9. Jesus bore the heat of the day, the day that the Lord had made
and earned that denarius, that gift.
1. And those of us who have been so blessed that we’ve gotten to spend
more time in the Lord’s Vineyard, not alone, not careening
toward hell all
our lives, not lost and without hope and without God in the world
(Ephesians 2:12) but Christians all our lives, like you kids,
disciples all
our lives, not only workers in his vineyard but also branches in
him who is
the vine, kids,
1. Being with Jesus Is the Denarius!
1. Coming into his vineyard at 6 a.m.
1. This isn’t an insult.
2. It isn’t a burden.
3. It’s a bonus!
4. It’s a blessing!
5. (Yeah) And there’s a day coming when Jesus will remake all things.
1. And we won’t bear the heat of the day forever.
1. There’s a day coming when Jesus will remake all things.
1. When he began answering Peter’s question before the parable,
1. “Amen I tell you, that in the regeneration,” there’s this beautiful
word: regeneration.
1. It literally means “Genesis again,” beginning again, the new
creation.
1. When the Son of Man sits on his throne in glory, the twelve will also
sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. “And
everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or
mother or wife or children or lands, for [Jesus’] name’s sake,
will receive
a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life. But many who are
first will be
last, and the last first” (Matthew 19:29–30).
Conclusion
1. We will live to see the Son of Man sitting on the throne of his glory.
1. And we won’t care about first or last, because we’ll be so glad to be
remade as we were meant to be in him.
1. And we’ll be so glad for every hour, every minute we spent in this
vineyard with him while the day was still hot, this vineyard right here,
right now, burdens and all, while so many still stand idle in the
marketplace, waiting for us, on behalf of the Lord of the
Vineyard, to call
them to joy.
1. Amen.
1. Let us pray:
826 Hark, the Voice of Jesus Crying
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Let none hear you idly saying,
“There is nothing I can do,”
While the multitudes are dying
And the Master calls for you.
Take the task He gives you gladly,
Let His work your pleasure be;
Answer quickly when He calleth,
“Here am I, send me, send me!”
Text: Public domain
1. The peace of God, which transcends all understanding, guard your
hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
1. In the Name of the Father…Amen.