Bible Study Matthew 20.1-16

Bible Study – Matthew 20.1-16 – The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard Q1 In what circumstances did Jesus tell this parable? What specific question or remark was he responding to? Q2 How would you express in a single, short sentence the single main point Jesus is making in telling this parable? Q3 Can you relate any experience of seeing unemployed people standing in a marketplace hoping to be employed for the day? Have you been in the position of one of the unemployed or the landowner in this story? Q4 How many times does the landowner go to the market during the day, and at what times? Do you find anything unusual or surprising about this? Q5 Of the five different groups of workers who are taken on during the day, what do you notice about the terms on which they are employed? Q6 Putting yourself in the position of one of the workers taken on at the beginning of the day, how might you feel as each additional group arrives? Q7 Verse 8, at the centre of the parable, reveals the landowner’s instructions to his steward on how the wages are to be distributed. Does anything in this verse surprise us (as readers/hearers)? Q8 How different would the story play out if the first workers to be taken on had been paid first and the last workers to be taken on had been paid last? Q9 What do you make of the complaint made in verses 11 to 12 and the landowner’s reply in verses 13 to 16? Can you think of any other biblical examples of similar complaints and replies? Q10 This is one of those parables which ends without resolution. If you were writing the story, what would happen next? Q11 Are there any other conclusions you feel we can draw from this parable?