Grow Guide | March 5, 2023
Carry On - 2nd Sunday of Lent
Matthew 20:1-16
Connecting Questions
Children are very concerned with fairness from a young age. Do you have a story about children you know and love struggling with a seemingly unfair situation?
Have you or a loved one experienced job loss, or struggled to find employment? What was it like?
Context
We are now in the second week of the liturgical season of Lent and continuing a sermon series called “Carry On.” The title comes from the mission statement of Easter Lutheran Church to “grow in faith and carry on the work of Jesus Christ.” Throughout the five Sundays in Lent, and the Wednesday midweek services, we will reflect on what we’ve learned from Jesus, the Great Teacher, and how we can apply it to our lives. What will we do to carry on the work of Jesus in our daily lives—both as individuals and as a faith community?
This week’s reading is unique to Matthew’s Gospel. Jesus tells a parable about a generous landowner who pays the workers in his vineyard an equal amount regardless of the hours they worked. It reminds us that God’s justice can be quite different than our sense of justice. God is not concerned with fairness, but is instead concerned with wholeness. As with many of Jesus’ parables, you may hear it as challenging or comforting depending on your life situation and circumstances.
Look at the Book
Read Matthew 20:1-16.
What comforts you in this passage? What challenges you?
How many times does the landowner seek workers?
What angers the workers who toiled all day (vs. 12)?
Ponder how people in different contexts would experience hearing this parable. How would someone who is experiencing food insecurity hear it? Someone struggling to find work? Someone who has worked as a manager in a business? A child?
Read Matthew 19:30, the verse that immediately precedes Jesus’ parable.
Why do you think the writer of Matthew included the parable of the laborers in the vineyard right after this verse?
How does the parable illustrate Matthew 19:30?
Is the landowner a good businessman? Why or why not?
What does the landowner prioritize?
In verse 15, the landowner asks the grumbling workers (those who were paid fairly for a full day’s work but are upset that those who worked less hours received the same payment) “…are you envious because I am generous?”
This verse could be translated, “Is your eye evil because I am good?”
Compare and contrast the two translations. Does your Bible translate verse 15 differently?
What is delightful about this parable? What does it tell you about God’s vision for the world?
Taking it Home
Reflect on the ways God is extravagantly generous in your life.
How does Easter Lutheran Church live out Jesus’ vision in Matthew 20:16 (the last will be first, and the first will be last)? How do you live it out in your own life?