The parable of the workers in the vineyard illustrates the aphorism in Matthew 19:30: Many who are first will be last, and the last first.[1] Anglican theologian E. H. Plumptre argues that the division of the chapters at this point is "singularly unfortunate, as separating the parable both from the events which gave occasion to it and from the teaching which it illustrates. It is not too much to say that we can scarcely understand it at all unless we connect it with the history of the young ruler who had great possessions, and the claims which the disciples had made for themselves when they contrasted their readiness with his reluctance".[2]LutheranPietistJohann Bengel argues, likewise, that a link is to be made with Peter's enquiry in Matthew 19:27: "See, we have left all and followed You. Therefore what shall we have?" [3]
This parable is only related by Matthew.[4] It asserts that "the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard".[5]
Verse 2
Now when he [the landowner] had agreed with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard.[6]
Bengel notes that the landowner deals with the first group of labourers by legal contract, promising to pay an agreed sum, and with the others "more by mere liberality".[3]
Verses 9 through 12
Many details of the parable, including when the workers receive their pay at the end of the day, the complaints from those who worked a full day, and the response from the king/landowner are paralleled in a similar parable found in tractate Berakhot in the Jerusalem Talmud.[7]
Verse 16
So the last will be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few chosen.[8]
Dale Allison suggests a reading of this verse according to which Jesus himself is seen as "the last (in his sufferings and death) who will be the first (when God exalts him)".[9]
18 "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death, 19 and deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock and to scourge and to crucify. And the third day He will rise again."
This third announcement or prediction of the manner of Jesus' death follows on from Matthew 16:21 and 17:23.[16] The three classes of Jesus' antagonists have now been revealed: the Jewish leaders (16:21), one of the twelve, who will betray him (17:23), and (here) the Roman authorities.[17]
Verse 20
Then the mother of Zebedee’s sons came to Him with her sons, kneeling down and asking something from Him.[18]
The mother of Zebedee's sons, James and John, is known to have been Salome, "as we learn by comparing Matthew 27:56 with Mark 15:40".[19] Her request is described as "ambitious".[20] Matthew's text here is "more graphic" and detailed than Mark's parallel (Mark 10:35).[19]
Verse 22
But Jesus answered and said, "You do not know what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?" They said to Him, "We are able."[21]
While this dialogue is initiated by Salome, Jesus directs his answer to James and John themselves.[19]
Departure from Jericho
Matthew's narrative portrays the healing of two blind men taking place as Jesus, his disciples and a great multitude leave Jericho, although their passage back over the River Jordan and their arrival in Jericho are not described. The Ethiopic version, uniquely, reads here "as they went out from Jerusalem".[22]
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