Bearing Burdens in the Vineyard

Have you ever looked at things this way?

We sometimes sing a song in our books, #297 in Praise for the Lord. The song is "I Want to Be a Worker". The first verse and chorus compare working for the Lord to the kind of work that someone does in a vineyard. Essentially, a vineyard is compared to the kingdom. "I will work, I will pray, in the vineyard (kingdom) of the Lord."

It's interesting, because in Matthew 20, Jesus does exactly the same thing:

"For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. Now when he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard." (Matthew 20:1-2)

 

As I was studying to prepare a lesson based on Galatians 6:2, which reads "Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ", a study of the words bear and burdens in the original language brings someone ultimately to Matthew 20:12. It is yet another verse where both of these words (bastazo and baros, respectively) are found.

Now for a brief word study:

• Bastazo – seen some 27 other times in the New Testament, refers to carrying something (bearers of a coffin, Luke 7:14; cross, Jn. 19:17 etc) (Jackson).
  


• Baros – carries with it the idea of weight (cf. Robertson), thus it is not just a load, but something that is pressing down.
  


• The ultimate idea is that someone is carrying a load that is so heavy, that it is pressing them down into the ground!
  

Now let's put that back into the context of the vineyard. Matthew 20:12 reads:

saying, 'These last men have worked only one hour, and you made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the heat of the day.'

 

Now aside from the fact that these men were expressing their discontent at having someone who has only worked one hour receiving the same wages as themselves, notice that they had "borne the burden" all day. They had been carrying things throughout the course of their work. Now we are not told exactly what the work was, but considering that there were many people hired, and that they were carrying things, it sounds a lot like a harvest.

 

Now let's paint a complete mental picture, and you'll see where I am going with this:

 

We, as Christians, are called to bear a certain load that is appointed to us (cf. Gal. 6:5, phortion=load). BUT, sometimes as we are "working in the vineyard of the Lord" we may find ourselves in a situation where, if you will, our load becomes more than we can bear. We are carrying the harvest in, but our basket becomes so full that it is pressing us down, into the ground. We can't carry it on our own. Some may decide to give up at that point. In those times, though, we have the comfort of being able to count on our brethren coming to help us bear that burden to the end of the row. Now, once they have helped us bear our burden out to the end, we must go back to the work that is appointed to us. We can always be ready, though, to help them should their burden become too heavy to bear. What a picture of comfort and endurance! By helping to bear one another's spiritual burdens, we are fulfilling the law of Christ (cf. Jn. 13:34-35)!

 

Sources:

 

"Stronger Than Ever" – Jared Jackson, pp 50

"Word Pictures" - Robertson