PART 16 B

PARABLE ON AGREEMENT OF WAGES

"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 set amount 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. So he told them, 'You also go and work in my vineyard and I will pay you whatever is right.' Then they went to work. The landowner 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?' '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 were paid the set amount. When those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also was paid the set amount. When they received it, they began to complain 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 carried the burden of the work and the heat of the day.' The landowner answered one of them, 'Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn't you agree to work for the set amount? 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? Are you envious because I am being generous?' So the last will be first and the first will be last."

YESHUA FORETELLS EXECUTION

Yeshua continued going up to Yerushalayim. He took the twelve disciples aside and said to them, "We are going up to Yerushalayim and everything that the prophets wrote about happening to Me will happen. The Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief Kohanim and Soferim. They will condemn Him to die, but will turn Him over to the Gentiles to be mocked, shamed, spit on, flogged and executed. Yet, after the third day He will be raised to life!" But they did not fully comprehend any of the things He said. They were amazed and afraid, because the meaning was hidden from them.

AMBITION OF YA'AKOV AND YOCHANAN

Then the mother of Zavdai's sons came to Yeshua with her sons {Ya'akov and Yochanan} and, kneeling down, asked Him a favour. "What is it you want?" He asked. She said, "Grant to me that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other at your left in your Kingdom." "You don't know what you are asking," Yeshua said turning to them. "Can you drink the cup I am going to drink? Or be immersed in the mikveh I am immersed in?" "We can," they answered. Yeshua said to them, "You will surely drink from My cup, but to sit at My right or left is not for Me to give. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared by Avi." When the ten {other Shaliachim} heard about this, they were infuriated with the two brothers. So, Yeshua called them together and said, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles govern over them and their high officials exercise authority over them. That will not be the situation with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant and whoever wants to be first must be your slave; in the same way as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to offer up His life as a ransom for many."

BLIND MEN NEAR YERICO

As Yeshua and His disciples were coming to Yericho, a large crowd followed Him. Two blind men were sitting by the roadside and when they heard that Yeshua was going by, they shouted, "Adonai, Son of David, have mercy on us!" The crowd rebuffed them and told them to be quiet, but they shouted even louder, "Adonai, Son of David, have mercy on us!" Yeshua stopped and called them. "What do you want Me to do for you?" He asked. "Adonai," they answered, "we want our sight." Yeshua had compassion on them and touched their eyes. Immediately their sight was healed and they followed Him.

VISIT TO ZAKKAI'S HOUSE

They entered and passed through Yericho. There was a man there named Zakkai, who was the head of the tax collectors and rich. He sought to see Yeshua and who He was and couldn't because there was a crowd and he was short in height. So Zakkai ran in front and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see Yeshua, because He was headed that way. When Yeshua came to the place, He looked up and saw Zakkai and said to him, "Zakkai, hurry down from there, because today I must lodge at your house." Zakkai hurried down and joyfully accepted Him. When they saw it many murmured, "He has gone to be a guest with a man who is a sinner." {At dinner} Zakkai stood and said to Adonai, "Look Adonai! Half of my goods I will give to the poor and if I have taken anything from any man by false accusation, I will restore it four times over." Yeshua said to him, "This day Salvation [Yeshua] has come to this house, since Zakkai also is a son of Avraham. For the Son of man has come to seek out and save those which were lost."

PARABLE OF TEN FUNDS

Yeshua then spoke this parable, because He was nearing Yerushalayim and because they thought that the Kingdom of Elohim would soon appear. "A nobleman went into a far country to receive a kingdom to himself and then return. He called his ten servants, then handed them ten funds and said, 'Be busy trading until I come back.' But his citizens hated him and sent out a message after he left which said, 'We will not have this one to rule over us.' When the nobleman returned after having received the kingdom, he commanded the ten servants to whom he had given the funds to be brought to him, so he could find out how much every man had gained by trading. The first came and said, 'Adonai, your fund has increased ten times.' So the nobleman said to him, 'Well done good servant! Because you have been trustworthy in very little, take your authority over ten cities.' The second servant came and said, 'Adonai, your fund has increased five times.' In the same way the nobleman said, 'You take charge over five cities.' Then another one came and said, 'Adonai, look. I have your fund for you which I have kept secure in this cloth. I feared you because you are a man to be feared. You take what you did not lay down and harvest what you did not sow.' The nobleman said, 'Out of your own mouth I will judge you, you wicked servant! You knew that I was a man to be feared, taking what I did not lay down and harvesting what I did not sow. Why didn't you give my fund to the bank, so that at my coming I could have required my own with along with interest?' So the nobleman said to those standing by, 'Take the fund from him and give it to the servant who has ten times the amount. For I tell you, that everyone who has will be given more and the one who has nothing, even what he has will be taken away from him. And, those enemies of mine, who did not want me to rule over them, bring them here and execute them in front of me." When he had spoken this Yeshua continued to travel, ascending up to Yerushalayim.

YESHUA ANOINTED AS PESACH LAMB

The observance of the holy feast of Pesach was near and many went from the country up to Yerushalayim before Pesach, to purify themselves. Many sought for Yeshua and spoke among themselves, as they stood in the Mikdash, "What do you think? Will He come to the feast or not?” Both the chief Kohanim and some P'rushim had given an instruction, that anyone knowing where Yeshua was should declare it, so that they could arrest Him. Six days before Pesach Yeshua came again to Beit-Ani, to the house of Eliezer Ben Shimon the leper, who had been dead and then raised from the dead by Yeshua. There they made Him a supper and Marta served. Eliezer was one of those who sat at the table with Him. Then Miryam took an alabaster container of ointment, a very expensive perfume and anointed the head and the feet of Yeshua. She wiped His feet with her hair and the house was filled with the aroma of the ointment. One of Yeshua's disciples, Yehudah Kir'yot Ben Shimon, who would betray Him, asked, "Why wasn't this ointment sold for three hundred coins and given to the poor?" He did not say this because he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief and carried the treasury bag and he was responsible for what was in it. Other disciples also complained against her. "Let her alone and do not worry her," Yeshua instructed. "She reserved this for the time of My burial. Because the poor will always be with you and you can do good to them whenever you want, but you do not always have Me here. She has done what she could and I tell you, wherever good news is proclaimed throughout the world, what she has done will be spoken as a memorial to her." Many of the Yehudim found out Yeshua was there and came, not to see Yeshua only, but also to see Eliezer, whom He had raised from the dead. The chief Kohanim consulted on how they could execute Eliezer also. Because of him many of the Yehudim did not follow the leaders, but trusted in Yeshua instead.