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Anyone have thoughts on Matthew 20?

Weird chapter about the workers doing less but being paid the same. Seems like a broken incentive.

Assuming you’re referring to Matthew 20:1-16, I think it’s about two things.

1. An instruction not to be jealous or resentful of others. Most prominently to not be resentful of those who are latecomers to God, especially if you’ve been following Christ and working for His kingdom for many years, but I do think more generally as well.

2. The sanctity of contracts and agreements. Each one of the workers agreed to the offer presented, both those who were hired in the early morning and those hired at the eleventh hour and they all received what they agreed to. Verses 13-15 especially highlight this.

Hope you’re having a blessed day!

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Discussion

average_bitcoiner 2y ago

Wifey related perspective 1 to me.

God gave us free will so what’s the incentive for the disgruntled workers to work again in the vineyard for the employer?

Paul 2y ago

Perhaps if the parable were a real business the vineyard owner would have this trouble, but the reason for that is scarcity. Labor is scarce, vineyards are scarce, grapes are scarce, and money *should be* scarce.

Even so, it’s important to view the parable through the lens of salvation rather than taking it literally. Scarcity itself is a result of the fall (Genesis 3:17) so we should keep it in mind that God’s economics are not necessarily the same as human economics.

God’s salvation is not a scarce good. My salvation does not take away from yours, which removes any legitimate concern about how I came to acquire my salvation. The lifelong Christian should be happy, not jealous, of the deathbed convert.

I think the parable makes more sense if you don’t view it through the lens of scarcity in the economic sense as rules of scarcity don’t apply to a superabundant good like God’s salvation.

Hodloevsky 2y ago

If you look at the reward/daily wage as a metaphor for Heaven, then it’s an undeserved reward as it is, for both the full-day and part-day workers - Incentive remains? Ie. If we got paid 25 btc for a day’s work, and the employer paid the same to some half-day contractors, we’d still be incentivized to do it again. And we’d probably be happy, for everyone involved, to be compensated so well.