Matthew 20
New Catholic Bible
Chapter 20
The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard.[a] 1 “The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. 2 After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius[b] a day, he sent them into his vineyard. 3 Going out about nine o’clock,[c] he saw some others standing idle in the marketplace. 4 He said to them, ‘You also go into my vineyard and I will give you what is just.’ 5 When he went out again around noon and at three in the afternoon,[d] he did the same. 6 Then, about five o’clock,[e] he went out and found others standing around, and he said to them, ‘Why have you been standing here idle all day?’ 7 They answered, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You too go into my vineyard.’
8 “When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Summon the workers and give them their pay, beginning with those who came last and ending with the first.’ 9 When those who had started to labor at five o’clock came, each of them received a denarius. 10 Therefore, those who had come first thought that they would receive more, but they were paid a denarius, the same as the others. 11 And when they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner, 12 saying, ‘These men who were hired last worked only one hour, and yet you have rewarded them on the same level with us who have borne the greatest portion of the work and the heat of the day.’
13 “The owner replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am not treating you unfairly. Did you not agree with me to work for a denarius? 14 Take your pay and leave. I have chosen to pay the latecomers the same as I pay you. 15 Am I not free to do as I wish with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’ 16 Thus, the last will be first and the first will be last.”
17 Jesus Predicts His Passion a Third Time.[f] As Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside by themselves and said to them, 18 “Behold, we are now going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death. 19 Then they will hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and scourged and crucified, and on the third day he will be raised to life.”
20 The Son of Man Has Come To Serve.[g] Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came to Jesus with her sons and made a request of him after kneeling before him. 21 “What do you wish?” he asked her. She said to him, “Promise that these two sons of mine may sit, one at your right hand and the other at your left, in your kingdom.” 22 Jesus said in reply, “You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the cup[h] I am going to drink?” They said to him, “We can.”
23 He then said to them, “You shall indeed drink my cup, but to sit at my right hand and at my left is not in my power to grant. Those places belong to those for whom they have been prepared by my Father.”
24 When the other ten disciples heard this, they were indignant at the two brothers. 25 But Jesus called them over and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones make their authority over them felt. 26 This must not be so with you. Instead, whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, 27 and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your servant. 28 In the same way, the Son of Man did not come to be served but rather to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.”[i]
29 Two Blind Men Receive Sight.[j] As they were leaving Jericho, a large crowd followed Jesus. 30 Two blind men were sitting by the roadside, and when they learned that Jesus was passing by, they shouted, “Lord, Son of David, take pity on us.” 31 The crowd rebuked them and told them to be silent, but they only shouted even more loudly, “Lord, Son of David, take pity on us.”
32 Jesus stopped and called them, saying, “What do you want me to do for you?” 33 They said to him, “Lord, grant that our eyes may be opened.” 34 Jesus, moved with compassion, touched their eyes. Immediately, they received their sight and followed him.
Footnotes
- Matthew 20:1 The parable of the workers in the vineyard teaches that the promised kingdom is a gift of grace and not a wage. For salvation is not the fruit of a commercial contract but consists in a communion of love, a filial response on the part of humans to the initiative of God, who offers them his friendship. Christians who do good cannot boast of rights before God. They should merely do all they can to correspond with God’s call and render themselves ever less unworthy of his friendship.
- Matthew 20:2 Denarius: a Roman coin that was the normal daily wage at the time—what a Roman soldier also received.
- Matthew 20:3 Nine o’clock: literally, “the third hour.”
- Matthew 20:5 Noon . . . three in the afternoon: literally, “the sixth hour . . . the ninth hour.”
- Matthew 20:6 Five o’clock: literally, “the eleventh hour.”
- Matthew 20:17 At the moment when he starts out for Jerusalem, Jesus clearly confronts the drama of his sacrifice. This third prediction of the Passion is much more detailed than the first two.
- Matthew 20:20 The apostles were still dreaming of an earthly Messianic kingdom and seeking an important role in it. However, their recompense would be a gift from the heavenly Father, not a right of their own. Jesus’ mission in the world was to save human beings and not to assign them their prize.
- Matthew 20:22 Drink the cup: in the idiom of the Bible, this meant to meet suffering (see Isa 51:17; Jer 25:15; Ps 75:9).
- Matthew 20:28 As the suffering Servant (Isa 53), Jesus has come to expiate the sins of all, offering the Father his own life as the price of the ransom, i.e., as the supreme expression of love.
- Matthew 20:29 Until the very end Jesus is the one who hears the cry of the distressed, the one who gives human beings light and calls them to follow him.
Matthew 20
EasyEnglish Bible
Jesus tells a story about some workers in a field
20 Jesus said, ‘I will tell you a story to show what the kingdom of heaven is like. There was an important man who had a field where he grew grapes. He went out early in the morning. He wanted to find some people who would work in his field. 2 The master agreed with the workers that he would pay them one silver coin for a day's work.[a] Then he sent them to work in the field.
3 The master went out again about three hours later. He saw some other men standing in the market place. They had no work to do. 4 So the master said to these men, “You also go and work in my field. I will pay you the right amount of money.” 5 So the workers went to the master's field and started to work.
The master went out again at noon, and he went again three hours after that. Both times he sent men to his field to work. 6 Two hours later, at five o'clock, he went out again. He found more men who were standing there. And they had no work to do. The master asked them, “Why are you standing here all day and you are not working?”
7 The men said to the master, “Nobody has asked us to work for him.”
So the master said to them, “You also go now and work in my field.”
8 Then the evening came. The master of the field spoke to the man who had authority over the workers. He said to him, “Tell the workers to come here. Pay them their money. Begin with the workers who started to work at the end of the day. Finish with the workers who started first.”
9 The workers who had come to work at five o'clock in the evening received one silver coin each. 10 The workers who had come to work first thought that they would receive more than the other workers. But each of them also received one silver coin. 11 When they received their money, they were not happy. They told the master that he had not been fair to them. 12 They said to him, “Some of these other workers came last and only worked for one hour. But you have paid them the same money as you paid us. And we have worked all day in the hot sun.”
13 Then the master said to one of the workers, “My friend, I am being fair to you. You agreed to work for one day and to receive one silver coin. 14 Take your money and go home. I choose to give this last man the same amount of money as I gave to you. 15 It is my money. I can choose what to do with it. I want to be kind to people and give them more than we agreed. Does that make you upset?” ’
16 Jesus then said, ‘So, one day, those people who are not important now will become the most important. Those people who are very important now will become the least important.’
Jesus talks again about how he will die
17 Jesus and his disciples were going towards Jerusalem. As they walked along, Jesus took his 12 disciples away from the other people where he could speak to them alone. 18 ‘Listen!’ he said to them. ‘We are going to Jerusalem. There, someone will deliver the Son of Man to the leaders of the priests and the teachers of God's Law. These Jewish leaders will decide that I must die. 19 Then they will take me and they will deliver me to people who are not Jews. They will laugh at me. They will hit me with whips. Then they will kill me on a cross.[b] But after three days, I will become alive again.’
The mother of James and John asks Jesus for something
20 Then the mother of James and John took them to see Jesus. (Their father was Zebedee.) She went down on her knees in front of Jesus. She asked him to do something good for her.
21 ‘What do you want me to do?’ Jesus asked her.
She said, ‘One day, you will be king. Then I want my two sons to rule with you. One may sit at your right side and the other one at your left side. Please will you do this?’
22 Jesus said to them, ‘You do not understand what you are asking for. I will have much pain and trouble. Are you ready to have the same pain?’
James and John replied, ‘Yes, we can do that.’
23 Jesus said to them, ‘Yes, that is true. You will have pain and trouble like mine. But I cannot promise that you will sit at my right side or at my left side. My Father God has chosen the people who will sit there. He has prepared the places for those people.’
24 When the other ten disciples heard about this, they were angry with the two brothers. 25 Then Jesus told all the 12 disciples to come to him. He said to them, ‘You know the things that rulers of other countries do. They show that they have great power over their people. The leaders of those countries use great authority over their people. 26 But you should not be like that. The person who wants to be great among you must become your servant. 27 The person who wants to be the most important person among you must work hard for everyone else. 28 Even the Son of Man himself came to earth to be a servant to other people. He did not come here to have servants who must work for him. No, he came to die so that many people can be free.’
Jesus causes two men to see near Jericho
29 Later, Jesus and his disciples were leaving Jericho. A large crowd of people followed him. 30 Two men were sitting at the side of the road. They were blind. But they heard that Jesus was walking past them. So they shouted, ‘Master! Son of David![c] Please be kind to us and help us.’
31 The people who were in the crowd were angry with them. They told them that they should be quiet. But the men shouted even louder, ‘Master! Son of David! Please help us!’
32 Jesus stopped there. He asked the two men, ‘What do you want me to do for you?’
33 ‘Sir,’ the men replied, ‘we want to see again.’
34 Jesus felt sorry for the two men. He touched their eyes and immediately the men could see again. So they followed Jesus along the road.
Footnotes
- 20:2 A person usually received one small silver coin when he worked for one day.
- 20:19 At this time, the ruler's soldiers would kill bad people on a cross. Soldiers fixed them to a big cross made from wood. They remained on the cross until they died.
- 20:30 ‘Son of David’ is another name for the special person, the Christ, that God would send to save his people. It is another name for Jesus.
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