Scripture Daily

Context No. 2571 of 4322 · Matthew

Context · Reflection

Matthew 20:1-6: in context

1“For the Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who was the master of a household, who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. 2When he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. 3He went out about the third hour, and saw others standing idle in the marketplace. 4He said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.’ So they went their way. 5Again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did likewise. 6About the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing idle. He said to them, ‘Why do you stand here all day idle?’

Jesus tells of a landowner hiring workers for his vineyard. He goes out early and hires a crew for a day's wage, then goes out again at nine, at noon, at three, and even at five in the afternoon, the eleventh hour, finding people still standing idle. Why do you stand here all day doing nothing? he asks them, and sends them, too, into the vineyard, promising to give them what is right.

What stands out in the setup is a master who keeps going back out. He does not fill his crew in the morning and forget the rest; he returns again and again, right up to the last hour of the workday, still looking for the idle to bring in. No one is written off for having stood around too long. The eleventh-hour workers had not been rejected; they simply had not yet been called, and when the call came, it was not too late. It is easy to conclude that the hour is too late for me, or for someone I have given up on. The master's habit says otherwise. He is still going out.

Do I believe it is too late for me, or someone I have written off, to be called into God's work, when the master still goes out even at the eleventh hour?

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