Our study of a handful of the parables of Jesus has begun to teach us Enormous Lessons from Small Parables. In addition to reconstructing the immediate context of a passage and the main comparison in the parable, it is important to decide, “Who is Jesus teaching?” in the parable. The more we understand about the audience, the better we will understand the content of what is being taught. Let’s look again at the text in Matthew 20:1-16
“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. 2 He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard.
3 “About nine in the morning he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. 4 He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ 5 So they went.
“He went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing. 6 About five in the afternoon he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’
7 “‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered.
“He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.’
8 “When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’
9 “The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius.10 So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. 11 When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. 12 ‘These who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’
13 “But he answered one of them, ‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? 14 Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. 15 Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’
16 “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”
In any setting in which Jesus is teaching, most of the time a part of Jesus’ audience is constant. One audience is the disciples. The twelve disciples are almost always with Jesus. At times the twelve is reduced even more to Peter, James and John, but after the calling of the Twelve, some disciples are present when Jesus is teaching.
Jesus also expects His audience to include you. Paul tells the Corinthians “These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come” (1 Corinthians 10:11 NIV).
In this passage, who is present that Jesus is trying to teach? To find your answer, you will have to go back to the immediate context and examine Matthew 19:13 NIV.
Here are your questions for this portion of the study.
- Who is Jesus trying to teach in this parable?
- As future leaders of the church, what lesson(s) was Jesus trying to teach the disciples in this parable?
- Let’s make the parable very personal. Is there a circumstance or situation in your life to which the teaching of this parable would apply?
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