Matthew 20 King James Version (2024)

FAQs

What is the main point of Matthew 20? ›

Matthew 20 records Jesus' teaching, interactions, and healing as He and the disciples continue to travel toward Jerusalem. It begins with the parable of the laborers in the vineyard. The parable follows Jesus' statements about the disciples' eternal rewards for following Him.

The parable has often been interpreted to mean that even those who are converted late in life earn equal rewards along with those converted early, and also that people who convert early in life need not feel jealous of those later converts.

The general idea of the parable is that everyone comes to the vineyard (faith) at different points in their lives. Some people are lifelong disciples of Jesus, and some people convert only toward the end of their lives. In the kingdom of God, both groups are treated the same.

A Prayer Prompted by the Parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard – Matthew 20:1-16. Heavenly Father, I count it as a privilege to serve you, so help me always to be content in my service. Help me also to be content with what you bless me with in the way of wages or rewards.

As we read through the pages of Matthew, not only do we see Jesus Christ revealed as Israel's King and Messiah, but His coming to earth as God in the flesh reminds us of His deep love for us. Now resurrected and ascended, the Lord Jesus will always be with us, even to the end of time (Matthew 28:20).

Matthew is showing that Jesus' death was not a failure but rather the surprising fulfillment of prophetic promises. Jesus came as the servant Messiah who was rejected by his own people. But instead of judging them, he is judged on their behalf and bears the consequences of their sin.

The first half of the parable of the vineyard laborers introduces several important parabolic symbols in Jesus's allegory. The landowner represents God, and His vineyard is His kingdom. The laborers are those willing to work in the kingdom of heaven. The work is the things done for God and in His kingdom.

The lesson of this parable is that God rewards us based upon the opportunities that He gives us. The later workers would have been willing to go to work earlier, but they were not given the opportunity by the employer. Had you been given a lot of money, you may have been willing to give a lot of money away to the poor.

Jesus tells the parable of the workers in the vineyard to further explain what the Kingdom of God is like.

The master of the house in Jesus' story has spent the entire day hiring temporary labor, day workers, to help with the work of his vineyard. This parable is about the kingdom of heaven, and the vineyard represents the work of the kingdom in this life for those who follow Jesus.

What is the meaning of Matthew 20 8? ›

When a master hires five groups of workers at different times throughout the day, he pays the last group the same amount that he pays the group hired early in the morning. Though that group grumbles, they received what they had agreed to earn and had not been cheated.

The bitter perspective of the grumbling workers is wrong, but the master sees them as allies, not enemies. He corrects their attitude, but insists they are friends. In this way, Jesus seems to be picturing the attitude of the Lord to those who follow Him while also, maybe, failing to appreciate His grace to others.

Matthew 20:1-7

Jesus tells the first half of the parable of the Vineyard laborers. He describes how the landowner continually goes out throughout the day to hire workers to help harvest. This is a parable about the kingdom of heaven that shows His disciples that the first shall be last and the last shall be first.

The Lord's Prayer is the pattern for prayer Jesus taught his followers. Two versions of the prayer are in the Bible: Matthew 6:9-15 and Luke 11:1-4. Matthew's version is part of the Sermon on the Mount. Luke's version is in response to a disciple's request to teach them to pray.

Summary. Jesus taught, “When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men … but when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your father who is unseen.”

Chapter Summary

Jesus tells the disciples that true greatness won't come by flaunting authority as the Gentile leaders do. Instead, they will become great by serving each other, even as a slave does, as Jesus Himself has done.

A common interpretation is that Jesus was reacting to the practice of money changers routinely cheating the people, but Marvin L. Krier Mich observes that a good deal of money was stored at the temple, where it could be loaned by the wealthy to the poor who were in danger of losing their land to debt.

Jesus wants to teach people the importance of praying with the right attitude. This parable is aimed at those who think they are very righteous and look down on others – that is, the Pharisees. Jews had to pray three times a day and people would go to the temple for private prayer.

Matthew presented evidence reconciling the Old Testament prophecies with the life of Jesus demonstrating that Jesus was the Messiah. The main message of the Gospel of Matthew is that Jesus is the Messiah that the Jews had long waited.