I don't understand (questions about parables)

[Laurie]

[BIBLE]

Matthew 20

The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard

1"For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire men to work in his vineyard. 2He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard.

3"About the third hour he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. 4He told them, 'You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.' 5So they went.

"He went out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour and did the same thing. 6About the eleventh hour he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, 'Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?'

7" 'Because no one has hired us,' they answered.
"He said to them, 'You also go and work in my vineyard.'

8"When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, 'Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.'

9"The workers who were hired about the eleventh hour came and each received a denarius. 10So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. 11When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. 12'These men who were hired last worked only one hour,' they said, 'and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.'

13"But he answered one of them, 'Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn't you agree to work for a denarius? 14Take your pay and go. I want to give the man who was hired last the same as I gave you. 15Don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?'

16"So the last will be first, and the first will be last."

[/BIBLE]

Why are the first last and the last first??? Why is it Godly to not give someone who worked harder and longer more money?

[BIBLE] <H5>The Parable of the Two Sons

28"What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, 'Son, go and work today in the vineyard.'



29" 'I will not,' he answered, but later he changed his mind and went.

30"Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, 'I will, sir,' but he did not go.

31"Which of the two did what his father wanted?"
"The first," they answered. Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. 32For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him.

[/BIBLE] </H5>I don't even get what this means at all...

<H5>[BIBLE] <H5>The Parable of the Tenants </H5> 33"Listen to another parable: There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and went away on a journey. 34When the harvest time approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his fruit.

35"The tenants seized his servants; they beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. 36Then he sent other servants to them, more than the first time, and the tenants treated them the same way. 37Last of all, he sent his son to them. 'They will respect my son,' he said.

38"But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, 'This is the heir. Come, let's kill him and take his inheritance.' 39So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.

40"Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?"

41"He will bring those wretches to a wretched end," they replied, "and he will rent the vineyard to other tenants, who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time."

42Jesus said to them, "Have you never read in the Scriptures:
" 'The stone the builders rejected
has become the capstone[h];
the Lord has done this,
and it is marvelous in our eyes'[i]?

43"Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit. 44He who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed."[j] 45When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus' parables, they knew he was talking about them. 46They looked for a way to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowd because the people held that he was a prophet.

[/BIBLE] </H5>What does a cornerstone have to do with vineyard people killing servants and the owners son?

<H4>[BIBLE] <H4>Matthew 22

The Parable of the Wedding Banquet

1Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: 2"The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. 3He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.


4"Then he sent some more servants and said, 'Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.'

5"But they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business. 6The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. 7The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.

8"Then he said to his servants, 'The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. 9Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.' 10So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, both good and bad, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.

11"But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. 12'Friend,' he asked, 'how did you get in here without wedding clothes?' The man was speechless.

13"Then the king told the attendants, 'Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.' 14"For many are invited, but few are chosen."

[/BIBLE] </H4>Why did the king throw out that poor man just because he didnt have the right clothes on? Maybe he couldnt afford the clothes???

[BIBLE] <H5>Marriage at the Resurrection

23That same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question. 24"Teacher," they said, "Moses told us that if a man dies without having children, his brother must marry the widow and have children for him. 25Now there were seven brothers among us. The first one married and died, and since he had no children, he left his wife to his brother. 26The same thing happened to the second and third brother, right on down to the seventh. 27Finally, the woman died. 28Now then, at the resurrection, whose wife will she be of the seven, since all of them were married to her?"


29Jesus replied, "You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God. 30At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. 31But about the resurrection of the dead—have you not read what God said to you, 32'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'[k]? He is not the God of the dead but of the living." 33When the crowds heard this, they were astonished at his teaching.

[/BIBLE] </H5>Why is God only the God of the living? And not dead??? Won't we all die one day? Or does that mean like spritually living/dead??? I dont know...

[BIBLE] <H4>Matthew 25

The Parable of the Ten Virgins

1"At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. 2Five of them were foolish and five were wise. 3The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. 4The wise, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. 5The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep.


6"At midnight the cry rang out: 'Here's the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!'

7"Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. 8The foolish ones said to the wise, 'Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.'

9" 'No,' they replied, 'there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.'

10"But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut.

11"Later the others also came. 'Sir! Sir!' they said. 'Open the door for us!'

12"But he replied, 'I tell you the truth, I don't know you.' 13"Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.

[/BIBLE] </H4>I've read that like, twice and I don't get how not having enough oil stuff to light your lamp connects...

Maybe I'm overlooking some important details???

~Laurie


</H4>

 

[jbarcher]

Parables. Dirty, dirty little things, full of cultural symbols, nuance, and require horrendous amounts of socio-historical context to understand their rhetorical points.... *shudder* Numerous questions can be asked about these parables, and 99% of them can be completely misdirected.

Anyway...

The parable of the wicked tenants
- The point about the parable (not the parable's point, that's something else) that answers your question is that for those who are going to follow Jesus, they all get the 'same' reward: eternal life. So you can't 'earn' more by trying to do more than your brother or sister.

The parable of the two sons
-


and I need to run, so I'll finish later

 

[daveleau]

Parables are intended to teach one specific point and theology based on minor points should not be pursued because it is not intended.

The parable of the virgins waiting for the groomsman-
Christ is telling us to prepare for the Second Coming. We do not know when it will be, so we should prepare ourselves for His coming. The ones with the shortage of oil did not prepare and were busy preparing when Jesus returned. Hence they were lost.

The parable of marriage in Heaven-
The question about marriage in Heaven is a difficult one. I will do some research and get back.

Parable of the Wedding Banquet-
This one is also discussing following God's teachings. The man did not follow as he should. He did not prepare himself for entry to the banquet. The man was not poor, but misused his goods for other things. The banquet was of lesser importance, so he was cast out.

Parable of the Tennants-
Jesus is recounting th history of the Jewish people in this parable. The Jewish people had thrown out God's messengers trying to bring them to Him. Finally, God sent His Son and they killed Him. Jesus is the capstone and the cornerstone. He is saying that the Jewish have rejected the very foundation of God by casting out Christ.

The parable of the 2 sons-
One says he will do a task but doesn't. The other says he will not do it, but eventually does it. God does not want those that say they will follow but not. He wants those who will follow regardless of whether they initially denied to follow or not.

Parable of the workers in the Vineyard-
This is a parable of salvation. God does not save based on works. He saves based on Faith. Those who were saved by grace earlier or saved by grace before doing a list of great works for God are not going to receive a better salvation than those who are saved later.
In regards to the first will be last and the last will be first...Jesus is saying that those who boast and try to be first will be discovered. God wants servitude. He wants us to help everyone of every societal stature. We are not too good to wash the feet of a bum on the street. Those who do these things will follow God's Will better than those who give millions and decry their good deed as blessing them exceedingly.

 

[daveleau]

The passage of the resurrected in Heaven-
This is not a parable, but a record of the Sadducees attempting to trap and confuse Jesus. The Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection. They were trying to trap Him. Christ quotes God's statement that He is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. This was stated at a time after Abraham had physically died. He is saying that He is not the God of the dead, showing the Sadducees that Abraham Isaac and Jacob are alive in Heaven. So, Christ was refuting the beliefs of the Sadducees. The parable is not saying anything about spiritual death or physical death. It is saying that resurrection will occur and that God will preside over those whom are resurrected. The Sadducees thought that once we were dead, we would not be resurrected and would remain dead. They were a strange and small sect of powerful men in Israel. The main difference between the Pharisees and Sadducees was regarding resurrection after death.

 

[Laurie]

Ooo, thanks! It makes sense now.

 

[Steve Petersen]

For more, I recommend The Parables: Jewish Tradition and Christian Interpretation by Dr. Brad Young. Excellent material drawing upon Jewish traditional sources and parallels.

 

[linssue55]

Here is the answer to your first parable............


Labor Unions
"For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire men to work in his vineyard. He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard. "About the third hour he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. He told them, 'You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.' So they went. "He went out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour and did the same thing. About the eleventh hour he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, 'Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?' (Matthew 20:1-6)


Labor union workers are illustrated in Matthew 20:1-6. They have bargained with the land owner for a day's wages and they have a union contract for that day. Therefore, they were under contract to management. The land owner (capitalist) needed more labor, so he went out and hired non-union labor. Why? Management invests the money and makes the policies. Labor does not dictate to management under divine establishment principles. It was the policy of this capitalist (land owner) to hire all the non-union labor he could find and to treat them right. Under the Laws of Divine Establishment, capitalists (those who put up the money) and management have the sole right to make policy for their business. Neither government nor labor has any right to make policy under free enterprise nor to dictate policy to business.

Note that the non-union labor did not bargain with management, but left it up to the discretion of management as to what they should receive for that day's work or part of a day’s work. The spiritual application here involves the understanding that the actions of the labor unions in this example are like those of a legalistic and blindly arrogant believer. In this example, the actions of non-union labor are like those of a grace orientated believer operating with genuine grace humility.

3. The Influence of Cosmic System Evil

About the eleventh hour he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, 'Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?' "'Because no one has hired us,' they answered. "He said to them, 'You also go and work in my vineyard.' "When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, 'Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.' "The workers who were hired about the eleventh hour came and each received a denarius. So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. 'These men who were hired last worked only one hour,' they said, 'and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.' "But he answered one of them, 'Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn't you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give the man who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?' "So the last will be first, and the first will be last." (Matthew 20:6-16)


Rewards for believers in eternity depend on the policy of God, not the arrogance, legalistic, and man-centered standards of cosmic evil and blind fundamentalism. God does not bless the believer in time nor reward the believer in eternity on the basis of the arrogant standards of cosmic evil. Arrogance is always critical of grace. When arrogance becomes critical of grace, it is under the evil of Satan's cosmic system.

The "first" are those under the influence of cosmic system evil and have blind arrogance. The "last" are those under the influence of maximum metabolized Bible doctrine in the soul. They have true grace orientation to life. Therefore, they have true humility. The "last" are those spiritually mature Christians who avoided the influence of cosmic system evil in their lives. They will be "first" in heaven which means they will be first in blessings and rewards.