This week’s readings are all from Matthew 20-21. Click here to see a full listing of each day’s reading and the full chapters of Matthew 20-21. Full readings of each day’s smaller segments of the readings will be posted on this site during the week.
20 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. 2 And after agreeing with the workers for the standard wage, he sent them into his vineyard. 3 When it was about nine o’clock in the morning, he went out again and saw others standing around in the marketplace without work. 4 He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and I will give you whatever is right.’ 5 So they went. When he went out again about noon and three o’clock that afternoon, he did the same thing. 6 And about five o’clock that afternoon he went out and found others standing around, and said to them, ‘Why are you standing here all day without work?’ 7 They said to him, ‘Because no one hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go and work in the vineyard too.’ 8 When it was evening the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages starting with the last hired until the first.’ 9 When those hired about five o’clock came, each received a full day’s pay. 10 And when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more. But each one also received the standard wage. 11 When they received it, they began to complain against the landowner, 12 saying, ‘These last fellows worked one hour, and you have made them equal to us who bore the hardship and burning heat of the day.’ 13 And the landowner replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am not treating you unfairly. Didn’t you agree with me to work for the standard wage? 14 Take what is yours and go. I want to give to this last man the same as I gave to you. 15 Am I not permitted to do what I want with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?’ 16 So the last will be first, and the first last.”
Today's Reading
For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard
The landowner is an oikodespote, the 'ruler of the house.' In this case, 'house' refers to the entire household: family, property, and servants.
Or are you envious because I am generous?’
Literally, this is 'Or is your eye evil because I am good [agathos]?'
Someone with an 'evil eye', then and now in the Middle East and Mediterranean, is viewed as a person who is envious and greedy, desiring for themselves what others have even to the point of wishing harm. The thing desired could be possessions, status, relationships, etc. Even today the evil eye is seen as a spiritual force, resulting in what could be understood as a curse upon or the will for evil forces to affect the person(s) envied. To ward off the evil eye, amulets/charms, talismans, prayers, and counter-curses are used. Even today anti-evil eye amulets can be seen hanging from some doorways in the Mediterranean world and in the Middle East.
Earlier, Jesus warns his followers that greed and the evil eye corrupts completely:
“Do not accumulate for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and devouring insect destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But accumulate for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and devouring insect do not destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
The eye is the lamp of the body. If then your eye is pure, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is evil, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mamon [money and possessions].”
(Matthew 6.19–24)
Jesus is really appealing to our innate sense of fairness to help us grasp that grace is not bound by fairness. Grace redeems the moment Christ is received. Period. And for that we rejoice!! 🎉
Shelley, thank you for bringing some light to this passage. It is so simple, this thing called grace and yet so hard for many of us to grasp fully.