Grapes of Grace, part 1

Mathew 20:15-16 “Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’ 16 So the last will be first, and the first last.”
 

Matthew 9:37-38 “Then He said to His disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; 38 therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.’”
 

In this parable, the harvest has come and the vineyard needs extra support to help reap the fruit of the fields. The extra help needed would be above and beyond the regular staff; they couldn’t possibly take in this harvest by themselves. The regular staff in the vineyard work, doing the daily, ongoing work of God’s Kingdom, would be missionaries, pastors and church staff.
 

The success of the harvest is not because of the quantity of the grapes, if there were no workers to harvest, you could have one of the greatest harvests there ever was but no one to gather it in. The grapes would rot on the vine, in the vineyard. The Landowner does not want this, so he would go out and hire extra workers. It is this way in the church. We pastors are like the regular help. We are plugging away all season long but harvest time is coming and we can’t handle it alone.   

Remember the Kingdom of heaven is like this parable. For clearer understanding, the Landowner (Master of the house) and God are depicted as the same; Jesus would be considered the Foreman, while the workers are those called by God to salvation.
 

The landowner (God) is in search of those who are ready to work. Who is it that would be hired? He would be hiring a day laborer. Contextually, in the time of this parable, a day laborer was someone who didn’t have a source of employment; someone who most likely was unskilled as to the daily operations of the vineyard. A day laborer would be someone who would get up, dress and go to the market square and stand in line with others, waiting, hoping to be chosen by a master. A day laborer would have been someone who would be dependent on whatever he could earn in that day to feed his family.
 

I saw many instances of this when I was in Afghanistan. At first I didn’t understand why, in the middle of town, there were all these men gathering, all seeming to be doing nothing but waiting for something. Then my host explained it to me, using the example of this parable to help me understand.

I think having this understanding can help us appreciate the Lord’s Prayer, “Give us this day our daily bread…”

Continued tomorrow