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 350 The Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:7-15)
Episode 349 The Eye of the Needle (Luke 4:16-21 and 18:18-30)
Episode 348 What Does the Lord Require of You? (Micah 6:6-15 and 7:1-7)
Episode 347 Economics and Holiness (Leviticus 19:9-18 and 33-37)
Episode 346 Biblical Faith and Debt Forgiveness (Deuteronomy 15:1-11 and 24:10-15)
Episode 345 Pentecost (Acts 2:1-21 and Philippians 4:4-7)
Episode 344 Living the Christ Hymn (Philippians 2:1-13)
Episode 343 May Your Love Overflow (Philippians 1:1-18a)
Episode 342 Paul in Athens (Acts 17:16-34)
Episode 341 Of Jailers and Slave Girls (Acts 16:16-40)
Episode 340 The Conversions of Paul and Ananias (Acts 9:1-19a)
Episode 339 Jesus Appears to Thomas (John 20:19-31)
Episode 338 Come to the Tomb (John 20:1-18)
Episode 337 Good Friday SPECIAL EPISODE (John 19:23-42)
Episode 336 The Executed King (John 12:12-19 and 19:16b-22)
Episode 335 The Trial Before Pilate (John 19:1-16a)
Episode 334 What is Truth? (John 18:28-40)
Episode 333 Peter’s Denial (John 18:12-27)
Episode 332 Jesus Washes the Disciples’ Feet (John 13:1-17)
Episode 331 The Resurrection of Lazarus (John 11:1-44)
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