Enlisting Backup

Enlisting Backup

Matthew 20:3-7, NIV

About nine in the morning he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. 4He told them, “You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.” 5So they went. He went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing. 6About 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.”

Setting the Scene

There were twelve hours in the Middle Eastern workday, roughly measured from sunup to sundown, or about six in the morning to six in the evening. Here the landowner in the parable hired four other shifts of workers throughout the day, in addition to those he had hired early in the morning. In each case, quitting time remained the same.

When the landowner hired the original crew, he negotiated a day’s wage. With the second crew, he promised to pay “whatever is right,” an agreement which seems to have carried over into each of the remaining three groups hired. With the sun an hour from setting, the landowner approached the last group. The previous three crews he hired with little discussion. But he asks this final group why they have been “standing here all day long doing nothing.” We are not told why this group was overlooked during the previous three trips by the landowner. Their answer is a helpless “because no one has hired us” that drives home the point that a day or a life can be wasted if a relationship to the landowner is never established.

Harvests maintain their own timetable. Ripening fruit will not wait until the workers get around to it. A harvest delayed becomes decay. The landowner sees value in the work of the final group even though they will be employed only an hour. In the economy of the parable, the landowner is committed to getting the harvest; the cost is secondary. In the meaning of the parable, God sees value in our lives even if commitment comes at the final hour.

Getting Personal

What were you doing when the landowner found you, and how has your life changed since then?

How are you working today for your landowner?

Almost invariably, adult believers express regrets over the time wasted before they knew the Lord. Jesus’ parable makes it very clear that surrender is ultimately more significant than the timing of surrender, as long as there is daylight left.

Talking to God

Pray for those you know who, in the eleventh hour of their lives, still have not accepted the gift of salvation. Pray that the Lord of the harvest will bring them in to serve him too.