The Point of the Vineyard Parable.

Jesus made a regular habit of upending established social conventions. Jesus spent much of His earthly ministry illustrating the sharp contrast between the world and His heavenly kingdom. One of those key teaching moments is found in the preface and epilogue to Christ’s parable of the vineyard.

Christ’s story is framed with a single, simple proverb: “Many who are first will be last; and the last, first” (Matthew 19:30). The same concept is repeated at the end of the parable: “So the last shall be first, and the first last” (Matthew 20:16). An echo of the proverb is also found in the parable itself—in that key phrase in Matthew 20:8 where the landowner instructs the steward how to pay the workers their wages: “Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last group to the first” (Matthew 20:8)

The proverb is also something of a riddle. What does it mean? It’s not saying precisely the same thing as Mark 9:35: “If anyone wants to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all.” Or Mark 10:43–44: “Whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant; and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be slave of all.” Those verses elevate humility and self-sacrifice. Those are imperatives: commands instructing us to be humble servants rather than seeking prominence and power.

But the proverb that goes with this parable is an indicative, a simple statement of fact: “The last shall be first, and the first last.” What does that mean, and how would it work? In a foot race, for example, the only way for the last to be first and the first to be last is for everyone to finish simultaneously. If everyone crosses the finish line at exactly the same instant, the first are last and the last are first. Everyone ends in a dead heat.

That, of course, is precisely the point Jesus was making in the parable. Those hired first and those hired last all got exactly the same pay. All of them, from the first to the last, got the full benefit of the landowner’s generosity, in equal shares.

What spiritual lesson is woven into that story?

The lesson is actually quite simple: the story is a precise picture of God’s sovereign, saving grace. Since sinners are all unworthy, and the riches of God’s grace are inexhaustible, all believers receive an infinite and eternal share of His mercy and kindness, though no one really deserves it.

The dying thief who repented in his final moments entered paradise, where he is enjoying eternal life and everlasting fellowship with Christ just the same as Peter, James, and John, who literally gave their lives in service to the Savior.

The landowner in the parable represents God. The vineyard is the kingdom, the sphere of God’s rule. The laborers are believers, people who come into the service of the King. The day of work is their lifetime. The evening is eternity. The steward, perhaps, represents Jesus Christ, to whom has been committed all judgment. The denarius represents eternal life.

Note: this pay is not something the workers have earned. It is not given to them like a minimum wage in a fair exchange for labor done. It is far too much for that. Rather, this represents a gracious gift, a lavish endowment that exceeds the best reward any day worker could ever merit.

So this is the point: If you are a believer, you receive the full benefits of God’s immeasurable grace, just like everyone else in God’s kingdom. Your place in heaven is not a timeshare where your access is determined by the length of time you spent doing the Lord’s work. The blessings of redemption are not doled out in quotas based on one’s personal achievements. Forgiveness is not measured by weighing our good deeds against our sins, nor is it partially withheld if we have sinned for too long or too badly.

Everyone who enters the kingdom receives the full abundance of God’s grace, mercy, and forgiveness. That’s true no matter how long you have worked in God’s kingdom. It’s true no matter how hard or how easy your circumstances are. It’s true whether your service was minimal or maximal; whether you die as a martyr in the prime of life or live a fairly peaceful life and die of old age. It’s as true of those who come to Christ in adolescence as it is of those who genuinely repent of their sins at the end of a life.

When this earthly life is over, if you are a believer, you will go to be with Christ, just like that thief on the cross (Luke 23:43); just like the apostle Paul (2 Corinthians 5:8); and just like every other saint who has died since.

Heaven is not a reward for long service or hard work. Some people serve Christ their entire lives, and some for a very short time. We all enter into the same eternal life. We all will receive the same spiritual blessings in heaven.

If that seems inequitable, remember that it is far more than any of us deserve. The benefits of the kingdom are the same for everyone because we are redeemed in the first place only by God’s grace, and nothing else. That’s truly good news for you and me; we don’t have to earn our way into the kingdom. Blessings on the journey.

There's No Place like Home.

I remember taking some graduated high school seniors on a short term mission trip to Jamaica. We had so much fun teaching the village kids with a VBS style agenda all week. But one of our guys got really sick to his stomach and the last night there wanted me to take him to the hospital. We could not go, he wanted his mom and it was a reminder there is no place like home.

Home is our anchor. For many of us in Texas, we endured the brunt of last week’s winter storm in our home. Some of us did without electricity, gas and water but even so, we had the comfort of being in our home with our family. There’s just no place like home.

As believers in Jesus, we must remember that our home is not here on earth. This is a place we are passing through. We have a built in desire to go back home. Each of us has a God-hole in our innermost being that will never be filled until we are reunited with our creator. Paul tells us as much in 2 Corinthians 5:8, “We are fully confident, and we would rather be away from these earthly bodies, for then we will be at home with the Lord.”

When we are finally at our real home with Jesus, we won’t have to worry about COVID or federal taxes or cancer or out-of-stock grocery stories or death or wearing a mask or anything that is defined by our fallen state. Whatever disability you have to work around, in heaven, it will not exist! Why? Because we’ll be home reunited with our Creator whose promised to make everything new (see Revelation 21:1-4)!

How can we have hope? Because of your identity. You belong to God. This idea goes all the back to the exodus account of God freeing his people from their enslavement in Egypt. And God, through his Son Jesus Christ, has freed us from our enslavement to sin as well. He has brought us from darkness to light. See, our identity is not in your job, or your bank account, or your family name, or your relationships…our identity is in Jesus Christ. The minute you reconcile that idea, your life will be transformed.

The transformation you see reveals itself in your life and how you interact with those you see everyday. The world looks at how you respond to what’s going on around you and says, “Wow! This person is so different. How are they able to respond this way?” So because this world is not your home, you respond in a way that brings Jesus glory. When you are cut off in traffic or when the wait staff gets your order wrong or when a coworker lies to you or when a family member takes advantage of you. Your response is offered in the way Jesus has changed you. You don’t answer the way the world would because your citizenship in heaven requires you answer the way Jesus would.

Your time here on earth is short. Eternity is forever. Live in such a way as to positively draw attention to our brother and king, Jesus. Remind those around you that your been changed. Let your actions speak loudly that you recognize your home is not here but in heaven. Blessings on your journey.

Buried Treasure

The 1985 movie, The Goonies, was incredibly fun, adventurous, and well worth the money spent on the movie ticket. It’s a story about some kids who find a map to buried pirate treasure in Oregon. The treasure is guarded by one-eyed Willy, the captain of the pirate ship. The kids need to find the treasure to pay off the foreclosure on their house so they stop at nothing to find it. Everything they do indicates where their treasure is located…on that pirate ship and in their home.

You’ve had moments when your heart was set on something. Maybe it was that first date with that girl or guy you just couldn’t stop thinking about. Or maybe it was the certain college you had to attend to get the degree that would launch your heart-felt career.

Jesus talks about our treasure as well in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6. He says, “Don’t store up treasures here on earth…Store your treasures in heaven. Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will be as well.”

Jesus tells us truth about what we already know deep down. But if you’re a disciple of Jesus, it asks us to truly consider what we are pursing. Like the goonies who left everything to find the treasure, are you willing to give up everything, sacrifice everything, let go of everything in order to discover the treasure that Jesus wants to give you?

The write of Ecclesiastes reminds us in chapter 3, everything is meaningless here on earth. So if that’s true, and I believe it is, it calls us to set our mind on things above. It calls us to let go of any earthly treasure we are pursing to embrace the eternal treasure that Jesus calls us to hold on to. In the end, we’ll discover what Jesus offers is more valuable than any treasure we considered on earth. Blessings on your journey.