Parables Bible study #2 
  
 The Workers in the Vineyard
Mathew 20: 1-16
posted:Wed May 17, 2000 8:19pm

"The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out at dawn to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with them for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard. Going out about nine o'clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace. and he said to them, 'You too go into my vineyard, and I will give you what is just.' So they went off, and he went out again around noon, and around three o'clock, and did likewise.
Going out about five o'clock, he found others standing around, and said to them, 'Why do you stand here idle all day?' They answered, 'Because no one has hired us.' He said to them, 'You too go into my vineyard.' When it was evening the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, 'Summon the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and ending with the first.' When those who had started about five o'clock came, each recieved the usual daily wage. So when the first came, they thought they would recieve more, but each of them got the usual wage. And on recieving it they grumbled against the landowner, saying, 'These last ones worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us, who bore the day's burden and the heat.' He said to one of them in reply, 'My friend, I am not cheating you. Did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? Take what is yours and go. What if I wish to give this last one the same as you? Or amI not free to do as I wish with my own money? Are you envious because I am generous? Thus, the last will be first, and the first will be last."
the study questions

1) Why do you think the landowner paid each worker the same?

2) How do you think you would have felt if you had been the longest and hardest working worker there, and had gotten paid the same wage as the others?

3)How does this parable relate to everyday life?

4) What to you think the morral/lesson of the parable was?

5)What do you think the ladowner ment when he said "the last will be first, and the first will be last"?

6)Would you have paid them all the same wage if you had been the landowner? Why or why not?

7) What do you think each thing/person stands for?

8) Can you relate to this parable? How?