Pastor Taylor Shippy - Matthew 20:1-16
"The Parable of the Vineyard Workers" may be the worst offender of Jesus’ seemingly poor arithmetic… The most flagrant and attention-grabbing example of Jesus’ bad math...
Almost everyone can sympathize -- if they haven’t already outright identified -- with who we believe are the ‘victims’ of this story, and their seemingly justifiable discontentment and frustrations with the payroll system of the vineyard owner. But Jesus strangely presents this as a secret to the Kingdom of God…
What if our frustrations with this parable all stem from reading this parable from the wrong character’s point of view? We often read this as a story about the plight and slight of relatable blue-collar workers, but what if that’s not the focus of the story at all? What if the main character in this parable is actually the boss? That the central focus of this story isn’t the employees; rather, it’s the employer. The landlord. The vineyard owner. A compassionate employer.
