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 540 The Resurrection of the Body (1 Corinthians 15:1-26 & 41-47)
Episode 539 The Greatest of These Is Love (1 Corinthians 13:1-13)
Episode 538 Unity in the Cross (Acts 18:1-14 & 1 Corinthians 1:10-18)
Episode 537 The Church in Thessalonica (Acts 17:1-9 and 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10)
Episode 536 The Disciples' First Miracle (Acts 3:1-10)
Episode 535 Waiting for the Spirit (Acts 1:1-14)
Episode 534 Easter without Jesus (Mark 16:1-8)
Episode 533 SPECIAL EPISODE Good Friday (Mark 15:16-41) REPLAY
Episode 532 SPECIAL EPISODE The Last Supper (Mark 14:12-42)
Episode 531 The Triumphal Entry and the Anointing at Bethany (Mark 11:1-11 and 14:3-9)
Episode 530 The Markan Apocalypse (Mark 13:1-8, 24-38)
Episode 529 Loving God and Neighbor (Mark 12:28-44)
Episode 528 The Parable of the Tenants (Mark 12:1-17)
Episode 527 The Healing of Bartimaeus (Mark 10:32-52)
Episode 526 The Eye of the Needle (Mark 10:17-31)
Episode 525 The Last Will Be First (Mark 9:30-37) ASH WEDNESDAY SPECIAL EPISODE
Episode 524 Who Do You Say That I Am? (Mark 8:27-9:8)
Episode 523 Sending the Disciples (Mark 6:1-30)
Episode 522 Healing Interrupted (Mark 5:21-43)
Episode 521 Making the Demons Tremble (Mark 5:1-20)
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