ACC ~ Matthew 20 v1 - 16

OVERVIEW:

The vineyard is a place for the cultivation of virtues: gentleness, chastity, patience, and countless other good qualities (INCOMPLETE WORK ON MATTHEW). The workers, who are called to the task at different times of the day—early, at the third hour, at the sixth, at the ninth, at the eleventh—are those who have come forward at different ages and lived justly (CHRYSOSTOM). By “day” Jesus means the whole age during which at different moments since the transgression of Adam he calls just individuals to their pious work, defining rewards for them for their actions. (CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA). He went out early and summoned Adam and those who were with him; at the third hour Noah and those who were with him; at the sixth hour Abraham; and at the ninth hour Moses and David. At the eleventh hour he calls the Gentiles (INCOMPLETE WORK ON MATTHEW). The Lord justly gives to all “their single denarius,” the grace of the Spirit, perfecting the saints in conformity with God, impressing the heavenly stamp on their souls and leading them to life and immortality (CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA).

Some grumbled that God’s justice is flawed in admitting some into the kingdom in what seemed an untimely way. Even being last in the kingdom of God is an incalculable gift. No one should begrudge God’s generosity in allowing some who worked less to come in to the kingdom with some who worked more. God is not less good because we in our distorted perception think we have been unfairly treated. No one can boast of this gift (GREGORY THE GREAT). Heaven is free of envy and jealousy. Just as the one group received greater reward in being the first to receive it, so the other group was more highly honored by the abundance of the gifts (CHRYSOSTOM). Just as no one hires a laborer to work only so that the laborer may eat, so we too have been called by Christ not to do only what pertains to our own benefit but to do what pertains to the glory of God (INCOMPLETE WORK ON MATTHEW). The lambs and goats mingle in the church this side of final judgment, when they will be separated. On the final day the judge will separate from the ranks of the humble those who now exalt themselves on the horns of pride. This is why fewer are chosen out of so many who understand themselves to be called (GREGORY THE GREAT).

20:1 | A Householder Hires Laborers

THE HOUSEHOLDER

INCOMPLETE WORK ON MATTHEW: The householder is Christ, to whom the heavens and the earth are like a single house; the family is as it were the multitude of creatures both angelic and earthly. It is as if he built a three-storied house: hell, heaven and earth, so that those struggling may live upon the earth, those conquered below the earth, those conquering in heaven. We too, set in the middle, should strive not to descend to those who are in hell but ascend to those who are in heaven. And in case perhaps you do not know which one you ought to shun or which one you ought to aspire to, he has given you as it were a little taste of both while you live between light and darkness: night as a taste of hell, daylight as a taste of heaven. HOMILY 34. [1]

[1] PG 56:817.

LABORERS FOR HIS VINEYARD

INCOMPLETE WORK ON MATTHEW: “To hire laborers for his vineyard.” What is the vineyard of God here? Not men, as elsewhere; for men are called the cultivators of the vineyard. The vineyard is justice and in it different kinds of virtues are placed like vines. For example, gentleness, chastity, patience, high-mindedness, and countless other good qualities which are all in general called virtues. So let us note how earnestly we should cultivate the heavenly vineyard. Adam was put in paradise to cultivate it and work it, but because he neglected it he was thrown out of it. We have been put here to cultivate justice; if we neglect it, we will be cast out, just as the Jews also were cast out, of whom it was written: “Add iniquity to their iniquity, that they may not enter thy justice.” [1] The fall of those going before should be a warning for those following. But if we the followers have also fallen into ruin, those who were the first to fall deserve pardon more than we who follow. … A hired hand placed in the vineyard will not only lose his pay if he neglects it, but he will also be charged with the loss of the abandoned vineyard. So we too, if we neglect the justice committed to us, will not only have no reward, but we will also be charged for the justice that has been abolished. For God’s vineyard is not outside us but has been planted inside our very selves. So anyone who commits sin destroys the justice of God within himself; but anyone who does good works cultivates it in himself. The well-cultivated justice of God within you brings forth grapes, that is, Christ. For those who do just deeds form Christ in themselves, as is written: “My little children, with whom I am again in travail, until Christ be formed in you.” [2]

Anyone who consigns a vineyard to another to work consigns it not so much for the other’s benefit as for his own; but God, giving his justice to our understanding, gave it not for his own benefit but for ours. God does not need our labor, but we who do just work may live because of it. The owner who consigned the vineyard to someone else for his own benefit expects to receive it back in the same condition as he handed it over. How then will justice not be demanded back from us in as immaculate a condition as he created it in us, particularly as he gave it not for his own benefit but for our salvation?

Be aware that we have been hired as laborers. If we have been hired as laborers, we ought to know what our tasks are, for a hired laborer cannot be without a task. Our tasks are the works of justice, not to till our fields and vineyards; not to amass riches and pile up honors but to benefit our neighbors. And though we can do this tilling and amassing without sin, yet they are not our tasks but our daily occupations.

No one hires a laborer to work only so that the laborer may eat. So we too have been called by Christ to do not merely what pertains to our own benefit but to do what pertains to the glory of God. The hired hand, who only works so that he may fill his belly, wanders purposelessly about the house. So we too, if we do only what pertains to our benefit, live without reason on the earth. And just as the hired hand first looks to his work and then to his wages, so we too are Christ’s hired hands and first ought to look at what pertains to God’s glory and to the benefit of our neighbors. … Charity and true love toward God “does not insist on its own way” [3] but desires to perform everything to the wish of the beloved—then to what pertains to our own benefit. HOMILY 34. [4]

[1] Ps 69:27 (68:27 LXX).

[2] Gal 4:19.

[3] 1 Cor 13:5.

[4] PG 56:817-18.

20:2 | Negotiating a Wage

THE VINEYARD AND THE WORKERS

CHRYSOSTOM: What then does the parable mean? For it is necessary first to make this clear; then we will unravel the other point. By the vineyard he means the commandments of God, and the time of working refers to the present life. The workers—those called to the task at different times: early, at the third hour, at the sixth, at the ninth, at the eleventh—are those who have come forward at different ages and lived justly. THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW, HOMILY 64.3. [1]

[1] PG 58:612; NPNF 1 10:394.

A DENARIUS A DAY

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: He gives to all “their single denarius,” which is the grace of the Spirit, perfecting the saints in conformity with God and impressing the heavenly stamp on their souls and leading them to life and immortality. FRAGMENT 226. [1]

[1] MKGK 229.

20:3-5 | Hiring at Different Times of the Day

THE DAY AS THE HISTORY OF REVELATION

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: Avoiding ambition, the Lord speaks about another householder, being himself the householder and the regulator of the kingdom of heaven. By “day” he means the whole age during which at different moments since the transgression of Adam he calls just individuals to their pious work, defining rewards for them for their actions. And so “around the first hour” are those at the time of Adam and Enoch; “at the third hour” those in the time of Noah and Shem and the righteous descending from them, for the second time is also the second calling, when the laws were also different. The workers called “at the sixth hour” are those in the time of Abraham, the time of the institution of the circumcision; those “at the eleventh hour” are those just before Christ’s advent. In their time alone the question is asked, “What are you doing standing the whole day idle?” for they do not have the hope of the Lord. They were godless in the world and idle in every good work; they are like those “standing idle in the market place,” not groping in search of anything at all but running through their whole life to no purpose. The Lord admonishes them, “Why do you stand idle?” They answer, “No one has hired us; for neither Moses nor any of the holy men spoke to the Gentiles but to Jerusalem alone.” Nevertheless the lord sends them too into the vineyard. There are five callings so that he may show that at each time there were sensible people and aimless ones, like the five wise virgins and the five foolish ones, according to their particular times. [1] Some were found worthy, and some in their folly thought little of the coming age. At the end of life, which is evening (for the time after Christ’s sojourn until the consummation is the time after the eleventh hour, as John says: “It is the last hour”), [2] the householder orders their wages to be given, beginning with the last. The householder should be considered the Father using the Son as manager, not as a subsidiary but as colleague; for he orders and regulates everything through him, whatever he wishes. FRAGMENT 226. [3]

[1] Mt 25:2.

[2] 1 Jn 2:18.

[3] MKGK 228-29.

20:6 | Why Do You Stand Idle?

THE THIRD, NINTH AND ELEVENTH HOURS

INCOMPLETE WORK ON MATTHEW: And just as the hired hand spends the whole day in his lord’s work and only one hour feeding himself, so we too ought to spend every hour of our life in the work of God’s glory and only a fraction in our own earthly interests. And just as the hired hand is ashamed to enter the house and ask for bread on a day when he has not worked, how will you not be ashamed to enter church and stand before God’s gaze when you have done nothing good in God’s sight? He went out “early” and summoned Adam and those who were with him; “at the third hour” Noah and those who were with him; “at the sixth hour” Abraham and those who were with him; “at the ninth hour” Moses and those who were with him, or David and those who were with him, [1] for to these he gave the testaments. “At the eleventh hour” understand the Gentiles, because now we stand on the very edge of the world, as John testifies in his letter, saying: “Children, it is the last hour.” [2] According to the apostle some part of the twelfth hour has now passed, for he says, “Salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed.” [3] That was the eleventh hour. Now, in our time, the twelfth hour is not yet complete, but without a doubt little time remains. We are in the twelfth hour. HOMILY 34. [4]

[1] HE DEATH OF JOHN THE BAPTIST | MATTHEW 14:1-12

[2] 1 Jn 2:18.

[3] Rom 13:11.

[4] PG 56:818.

20:7-8 | Paying All the Laborers

BEGINNING WITH THE LAST

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: The last ones, receiving the generosity of the Master instead of troubles, are first to receive their reward, since all those after the Lord’s coming have become—through baptism and the union with the Spirit—“sharers in God’s nature” and are called sons of God. … For the prophets too have become sharers in the Spirit, but not in the same way as the faithful, since the Holy Spirit is in some way like a leaven for the souls of the faithful and changes the entire man to another condition of life. And so we have become “participants in God’s nature,” and openly we cry “Abba, Father.” The more ancient peoples did not receive the same grace. So Paul too says, “For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship.” [1] The ancients then received a spirit of slavery without the honor of adoption. Since therefore we really are first to receive a denarius, we must of necessity be said to be honored above the rest. FRAGMENT 226. [2]

[1] Rom 8:15.

[2] MKGK 229-30.

20:9 | Each Received a Denarius

READY TO OBEY

CHRYSOSTOM: So what was the point of this parable and what does it want to accomplish? To make those who convert in their extreme old age more earnest and to make them better and not to let them think they have less. He introduces others who are angry over the rewards of these elders, not so as to show them pining or eaten with envy—far from it—but to show that the elders enjoy such great honor as even to cause envy in others. This we too often do when we say, “The fellow criticized me because I thought you worthy of such great honor,” when we have not been criticized and do not really wish to abuse him but just to show him how large a gift the other enjoyed. But why did he not hire them all at once? As far as concerned him, he did hire all. But if all did not listen at the same time, the time difference was caused by the inclinations of those called. And so some are called early, some at the third hour, some at the sixth, some at the ninth hour and some at the eleventh when they were about to obey. Paul also makes this same point when he says, “When it pleased him, separating me from my mother’s womb.” [1] When did it please him? When Paul was ready to obey. For God wished it even from the beginning, but Paul would not yield; then it pleased him when he too was ready to obey. In this way too Christ called the thief, though he was able to call him even earlier, but he would not have obeyed. [2] For if Paul at the beginning would not obey, how much less would the thief have obeyed. Some may say, “No one hired us.” As I said, we should not busy ourselves too much about every detail in the parables. But here it is not the master of the house who said this but those workers; he does not contradict them, not so as to perplex them but to draw them to him. For that he called all—as far as concerned him—to him from the first, even the parable shows when it says that “he went out early in the morning to hire.” THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW, HOMILY 64.3. [3]

[1] Jer 1:5.

[2] Cf. Lk 23:40-43.

[3] PG 58:613; NPNF 1 10:394.

20:10 | Each Received the Same

THEY THOUGHT THEY WOULD RECEIVE MORE

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: Among these [workers] the first seem to have toiled more than the last as having been subject longer to the devil’s fanaticism—sin and death and corruption not yet being overpowered. If examined on an equal basis, the matter supposes that more is owed to the earlier workers, because they lived their life when death and the devil ruled; for this is “the burden of the day and the scorching heat,” when not even the dew of the Spirit was present to help men to righteousness. FRAGMENT 226. [1]

[1] MKGK 229.

20:11 | They Grumbled at the Householder

NOT MURMURING

GREGORY THE GREAT: But we can ask why those who were called, even though late, to the kingdom are said to murmur. No one who murmurs receives the kingdom of heaven, and no one who receives it can murmur. Our ancestors up to the Lord’s coming, however righteous their lives, were not let into the kingdom until he came down, who by his death opened up the paradise that had been closed to the human race. Their murmuring means that they lived in such a way as to obtain the kingdom and yet were kept for a long time from obtaining it. … We who come at the eleventh hour do not murmur after our labor, and we receive a denarius. After our Mediator’s coming into the world, we are led to the kingdom as soon as we leave the body. We obtain with no delay what our ancestors obtained only after waiting a long time. FORTY GOSPEL HOMILIES 19.4. [1]

[1] PL 76:1156; CS 123:81 (Homily 11).

20:12 | The Burden of the Day

YOU HAVE MADE THEM EQUAL WITH US

CHRYSOSTOM: What does this parable wish us to understand? For what is said at the beginning does not agree with what is said at the end but appears totally at odds. For in the first part he shows all enjoying the same rewards and not some being thrown out and some being brought in. And yet he himself, both before the parable and after the parable, said the opposite, that “the first will be last and the last first,” that is, first before the original first; [those who worked all day] do not stay first but become last. To show what this means, Jesus adds, “For many are called, but few are chosen”; so in a double way he criticizes one group and encourages and consoles the other. The parable does not say this, but it says that they will be equal with the just and those who have toiled much. “You have made them equal to us,” it says, “who have carried the burden and the heat of the day.” THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW, HOMILY 64.3. [1]

[1] PG 58:612; NPNF 1 10:393-94.

20:13 | You Agreed for a Denarius

I AM DOING YOU NO WRONG

CHRYSOSTOM: But the question is whether the first ones, who were righteous and pleased God and who shone brightly from their labors through the whole day, at the end are possessed by the lowest vice, envy and jealousy. For they saw the others enjoying the same rewards and said, “These last ones worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us, who bore the weight and the heat of the day.” Even though they were not going to be penalized or to suffer any loss of their own pay, with these words they were angry and displeased at the blessing others received. That was proof of envy and jealousy. And what is more, the master of the house, in justifying and defending himself to the speaker, convicts him of wickedness and the lowest envy, saying, “Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last as I give to you. Is your eye wicked because I am good?” THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW, HOMILY 64.3. [1]

[1] PG 58:612-13; NPNF 1 10:394.

20:14 | I Choose to Give

THE POINT OF THE PARABLE

CHRYSOSTOM: What then is to be understood from these words? From other parables also it is possible to see the same point. The son who was righteous is shown to have suffered from this same fault when he saw his prodigal brother enjoying great honor, even more than himself. [1] So just as the one group received greater reward in being the first to receive it, so the other group was more highly honored by the abundance of the gifts; and to these that righteous son bears witness.

What then can we say? In the kingdom of heaven there is no one who justifies himself or blames others in this way; perish the thought! That place is pure and free from envy and jealousy. For if the saints when they are here give their lives for sinners, how much more do they rejoice when they see them there enjoying rewards and consider their blessings to be their own. For what reason then did he use this figure of speech? A parable is being told, and it is not necessary to examine everything in a parable to the letter. But when we have learned the point of the parable as composed, we should reap this harvest and not be overly particular about further details. THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW, HOMILY 64.3. [2]

[1] Lk 15:28-30.

[2] PG 58:613; NPNF 1 10:394.

20:15 | Do You Begrudge My Generosity?

IS YOUR EYE EVIL BECAUSE MINE IS GOOD?

GREGORY THE GREAT: The householder said to them, “I wish to give to this last one as I give even to you.” And since the obtaining of his kingdom comes from his good will, he properly adds, “Or am I not allowed to do what I wish?” It is always foolish to question the goodness of God. There might have been reason for loud complaint if he did not give what he owed but not if he gives what he does not owe. And so he adds, “Or is your eye evil because I am good?” [1]

But no one should boast of his work or of his time, when after saying this Truth cries out: “So the last will be first and the first last.” We know what good things we have done and how many they are; we do not know with what exactitude our judge on high will investigate them. Indeed, we must all rejoice exceedingly to be even the last in the kingdom of God. FORTY GOSPEL HOMILIES 19.4. [2]

[1] RSV: “Or do you begrudge my generosity?”

[2] PL 76:1156-57; CS 123:81-82 (Homily 11).

20:16 | The First Last

[1] Tit 1:16.

[2] Jas 2:20.

[3] Ps 40:5 (39:6 LXX).

[4] PL 76:1157; CS 123:82 (Homily 11).