This week BibleWorm reads Matthew 20:1–16, often called the Parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard, in which the kingdom of heaven is said to be like a landowner who pays the laborers a full day’s wage no matter how long they’ve worked. We wrestle with the abject unfairness of this wage system and empathize with the workers who have labored a long day in the hot sun. Yet we also marvel at the generosity of the vineyard owner, who gives everyone what they need for the day no matter how much work they’ve done. Maybe, we think, in the kingdom of heaven people are not rewarded for the labor they provide but rather receive what they need to live a full and abundant life. If we read ourselves as the landowners, this becomes a lesson on how we should conduct our own economic practices, not only paying fair wages but giving generously until everyone has enough. And if we read God as the landowner, then this becomes a parable about God’s radical and endless generosity that welcomes more and more people into the kingdom and treats us all as people of dignity and worth.
Episode 434The Parable of the Bridesmaids (Matthew 25:1-13)
Episode 433 The Parable of the Wedding Banquet (Matthew 22:1-14)
Episode 431 Accountability and Forgiveness (Matthew 18:15-35)
Episode 430 SPECIAL EPISODE Who is the Greatest? (Matthew 18:1-14)
Episode 429 The Transfiguration (Matthew 16:24-17:8)
Episode 428 Parables of the Kingdom (Matthew 13:24-43)
Episode 427 Do Not Judge (Matthew 7:1-14, 24-29)
Episode 426 Do Not Worry about Tomorrow (Matthew 6:25-34)
Episode 425 REPLAY The Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:7-15)
Episode 424 The Beatitudes (Matthew 5:1-20)
Episode 423 Temptation in the Wilderness (Matthew 4:1-17)
Episode 422 The Baptism of Jesus (Matthew 3:1-17)
Episode 421 The Magi and King Herod (Matthew 2:1-23)
Episode 420 The Genealogy of Jesus (Matthew 1:1-17)
Episode 419 Christmas Eve Special Episode (Luke 2:1-20) REPLAY
Episode 418 Joseph’s Christmas Dream (Matthew 1:18-25)
Episode 417 SPECIAL EPISODE Biblical Women: Bathsheba (1 Kings 1)
Episode 416 Gentle Justice (Isaiah 42:1-9)
Episode 415 For a Time Such as This (Esther 4:1-17)
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