To Labor Is to Rest: How Divine Order Works
In Matthew 20:1-16, we find an interesting parable that many find confusing and problematic. This selection is the story of the landowner who paid his laborers the same wage when they worked in his vineyard, regardless of how much time they actually worked. But from a metaphysical understanding, the story is filled with practical applications for spiritual growth.
There are a few curiosities I want to point out before I go from the literal to the metaphysical. The literal perspective leaves us a little inorganic when we explain the landowner’s treatment of the laborers and his feeling about them.
Verse 1: Come unto me all of you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. That’s what the Christ promised us if we follow His teachings. To labor is to rest — rest in the knowledge that all of our hard work pays spiritual dividends when we seek to know the Christ of us.
Verse 2: the usual daily wage – The denarius was the typical wage. In today’s money, it would be 25 cents.
Verse 3: He went out about 9 o’clock. Generally work began at 6 a.m., so 9 a. m. would have been the third hour. He went out a second time at noon and again at three and finally at five; 12 noon is the sixth hour, 3 is the ninth hour, and 5 is the eleventh hour (the commonly held belief is that the 11th hour means the last minute, with time running out, etc.)
Verse 7: He hires the ‘eleventh hour group’ and mentions nothing about their wages. He simply gives the instruction to “go and work in my vineyard.”
Verse 8: All of the workers were paid at the end of the day. This would have been in accordance with Leviticus 19:13b, ‘Do not hold back the wages of a hired man overnight.’ The landowner paid the last workers first and then paid those who been hired first. So those who worked all day witnessed how much those were paid who worked less hours than they did.
Verses 10-11: The workers who were hired first believed they would receive more, but they received the same amount as those who were hired at the end of the day. If this story is taken literally, you can see the problem here. The laborers who put in a full day’s work didn’t receive any more pay than those who only worked one hour (from 5 to 6 p.m.). It just doesn’t seem fair, does it? Some scholars speculate that those hired later were more experienced and deserved to be paid the same. Others suggest that those hired later performed different responsibilities requiring more expertise which justified their pay. No matter how you look at it, the literal interpretation is unfair and upsetting.
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