July 1, 2025; Matthew 20:1-19

Daily Dose of Hope

July 1, 2025

Scripture – Matthew 20:1-19

Prayer: Lord Jesus, Show mercy on me.  I fail you over and over again.  I am not as loving as I should be.  I’m not as patient as I should be.  I don’t demonstrate compassion and justice in the way you call me to do so.  Forgive me, Lord.  Help me do better.  More of you and less of me.  Amen.

Welcome to the Daily Dose of Hope, a Deep Dive into the Gospels and Acts.  Today, we are exploring the first portion of Matthew 20.

The Kingdom of God turns things upside down. In this parable, we see Jesus emphasizing this truth. The bottom line, whether you worked all day or just for an hour, God acts with grace toward all people.

The story begins with three main characters: a landowner, a steward or manager, and people needing work. The first surprise comes when the landowner himself goes out to the marketplace to hire laborers. In spite of the unusual appearance by the wealthy landowner, the initial arrangement is typical of Jewish custom and Torah guidelines.  Workers are hired at the beginning of the day to be paid a typical daily wage at the end of their work day. But before those workers have a chance to get much work done, the landowner goes back to the marketplace to hire workers and repeats this practice all the way until the 5 o’clock hour when there is little daylight or work remaining. Those hired at nine, noon, and three are not offered a full contract but are willing to trust the landowner to pay them “whatever is right.” The five o’clock hires aren’t promised anything but the opportunity to work.

We would have thought that the landowner would have known the number of workers he needed.  But it seems evident that he is hiring workers not because there is this huge amount of work that needs to be done, but because the people need work.  The wealthy landowner is truly concerned for the workers themselves.

And then comes time for the pay.  Shocking everyone, the people who were paid at the end of the day end up receiving a whole day’s pay.  In fact, whether the person was hired at 8am or 5pm, they each got the same payment at the end of the work day.  This doesn’t make the workers hired early very happy.  In fact, they protest.  They feel like justice has not been served.

While Jesus is concerned with justice, mercy is also very high on his list.  Jesus is once again making an important point here.  If we are “good people” our whole lives, that doesn’t earn us a place in heaven. None of us are good enough; we are all sinners (Romans 3:23). We are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone. And whether we have believed in Jesus since we were 5 years old or 95 years old, we are given the same offer of grace. We are all in the same boat. God won’t be passing out MVP trophies. Rather than complaining that it isn’t fair, let’s rejoice that Jesus has offered us grace at all. Let’s be real-none of us are worthy.

Blessings,

Pastor Vicki