Has Nobody Called You Back? — sacred illustration
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Guidance & Decisions

Has Nobody Called You Back?

Matthew 20:6-7

These are workers in Jesus' parable of the laborers in the vineyard, told to His disciples after Peter asked what they would receive (Matthew 19:27-20:16).

Lord, I have sent everything out and nothing has come back. The day is nearly over and no one has called my name. I am starting to believe that being passed over is a verdict on who I am. In Your story the men standing at the eleventh hour were not standing there because they were worthless; they were standing there because no one had hired them yet — and You came for them, last, and called them in. Come down my street. Keep my hands ready and my heart from turning bitter while I wait. Give me work to do today, and let me trust that You have not forgotten where I am standing. Amen.

The Scripture

“About the eleventh hour he went out and found still others standing around. ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’ he asked. ‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered. So he told them, ‘You also go into my vineyard.’”

— Matthew 20:6-7

Prayer points from Matthew 20:6-7

  1. Thank God that the landowner kept going back to the marketplace, and that He has not forgotten where you stand.
  2. Name how long you have been waiting, the applications sent and the calls that never came.
  3. Tell Him honestly if being passed over has started to feel like a verdict on who you are.
  4. Ask Him to keep your hands ready and your heart from turning bitter while you wait.
  5. Ask for work to do today, and for the grace to rejoice when others are chosen before you.
  6. Pray by name for someone out of work or overlooked, that God would meet their needs and remind them of their worth.

About this verse

In this parable a landowner goes to the marketplace at dawn to hire day laborers for his vineyard, agreeing to pay them a denarius for the day, and then goes back again and again: mid-morning, noon, mid-afternoon. At the eleventh hour, with the working day almost gone, he still finds men standing there. He asks why they have been idle all day, and their answer carries no excuse and no self-defense: "Because no one has hired us." A day laborer who was not picked went home with nothing to feed his family that night. The landowner does not lecture them about being late. He sends them into the vineyard too, and at sundown he pays them first and pays them the full day's wage. The workers who were hired at dawn call it unfair; he calls it generous. If you have spent months being passed over, notice that being unchosen is never treated here as a verdict on the men's worth. The story's last word belongs to the owner who kept coming back to the marketplace.

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