Grapes of Grace, part 2

The concept of a day laborer is not a new one to the first hearers of this parable. Deuteronomy 24:15 refers to paying day laborers: “You shall give him his wages on the same day, before the sun sets (for he is poor and counts on it), lest he cry against you to the Lord, and you be guilty of sin.” Day laborers could easily have been taken advantage of. They represented a demographic of society who were not well off.

In many ways, a day laborer was even worse than a slave. Just think about it: a slave could count on waking up in a home that he didn’t pay for, work that day, and eat that night. The master of the house cared for the slave as his own. On the other hand, a day laborer was worried about the mortgage, how his kids were going to eat and how the bills were going to get paid. (A day laborer sounds more and more like today’s average American.)
 

As we look into this parable, it is important for us to remember who this vineyard owner is going out to hire. It is also important to take notice of the needs that this parable makes mention of. The first need: that of the vineyard owner: he needs workers to harvest the fruit of the vine. The second need is that of the laborers: they need work.

But when comparing the needs to one another, we see that the needs of the workers far exceed the need of the Vineyard owner. The master already has some workers and is now in a place where His work/business is going very well so he needs to hire more workers to handle the fruit of His labor. As a wealthy landowner, He can do as He wishes whenever He wishes.
 

Contrasting the need of the Master with the need of the laborers makes for a different story. The workers have needs that are not being met. They are day laborers for some reason - either they never learned a trade, they were fired for some reason, or they were too weak or too old to have regular employment. But unlike the Master who could meet his own need and find workers, they could not find work. They were at the mercy of the Master. And unlike the Master, they needed someone to show mercy - and mercy is indeed what the Master showed by hiring them.
 

The next big need of the laborers is the need for a wage. Verse 2 “After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard.” The wage referenced here, in the Bible, is not given much attention, however, to the disciples, and people of the day, upon hearing how much the workers would be getting paid, would have definitely captured their attention. 

We know that, in that day, even a skilled tradesman would consider a wage of one denarius to be a good, very generous, wage for a day’s work. So, an unskilled worker, especially a day laborer would have never made a denarius.
 

To be a Roman solder was considered to be one of the highest paid positions; they were paid very well, and they received one denarius a day (or its equivalent in salt). Another perspective of the value of a denarius, is found in Mark12:41–42. From the court of the Gentiles, where He conducted His public teaching, Jesus entered the court of the women. Against the wall of this court were 13 trumpet-shaped collection receptacles for receiving worshipers’ freewill offerings and contributions (Mishnah Shekalim).
 

From a vantage point opposite (katenanti) one of these receptacles, Jesus observed how (pos, “in what way”) the Passover crowd was putting their money into the temple treasury (lit., “the receptacle”). In contrast with many wealthy people, who gave large amounts (lit., “many coins” of all kinds—gold, silver, copper, and bronze), one unnamed, poor widow, gave two lepta. A lepton was the smallest bronze Jewish coin in circulation in Palestine. Two lepta were worth 1/64 of a Roman denarius, a day’s wage for a laborer. For his Roman readers, Mark stated their value in terms of Roman coinage, namely, a fraction of a penny.

Continued tomorrow