Matthew 13: 10-17

Matthew 13: 10-13 The disciples came to him and asked, "Why do you speak to the people in parables?" He replied, "The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. This is why I speak to them in parables: "Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand.

The part that says whoever has will be given more, doesn’t suggest a kind of privileging in which, “the rich get richer”. Rather, it expresses a relational or spiritual truth: People who commit themselves to Jesus will grow in their understanding of God and ability to keep God’s law; those who refuse to commit themselves to Jesus will discover their interest in the ways of God withering.

Matthew 13: 14-17 In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: " 'You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. For this people's heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.' But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. For I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.

Jesus is further contrasting the uncommitted crowds with His disciples by citing the verses from Isaiah 6:9-10. Their ears were hard of hearing because they didn’t want to hear. That would have meant repenting and turning their lives over to God.

The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard

There is a parable in Matthew 19:30-20:16 about a vineyard owner who goes out to hire workers for an agreed upon amount for a day’s work. Later he sends his steward out to hire more. Three more times, hours apart, more workers are hired. When it was time to get paid they were all paid equally. This upset the ones who had been laboring all along.

The parable says several different things to me:

1. People who are saved earlier than others shouldn’t feel superior. All men, no matter what stage in their life, are equally precious to God. The thief on the cross next to Jesus slid in under the wire. There’s a hymn called “To God Be the Glory” where the second verse says, “O perfect redemption, the purchase of blood, to every believer, the promise of God: the vilest offender who truly believes – that moment from Jesus – a pardon receives.”

2. We don’t earn what He gives – it’s grace.

3. God doesn’t compare our service with others, but how much we give of ourselves and we shouldn’t compare ourselves to others either.

If we are saved early in life we should be grateful that we had a chance to live with the fruits of the spirit: joy, love, peace, faithfulness, gentleness, goodness, kindness, self-control and patience. If we are saved at the end of our life we should be grateful period!

My dad was a Christian Scientist and got cancer when he was 65 years old. He died eleven months after they found it. During that time, when you could say he was in the eleventh hour of the day, or his life, our pastor who had been visiting with him during his illness baptized him.

Ephesians 2:8 says, “For by grace you have been saved thru faith and this is not your own doing – it is a gift from God.”

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