Rhyming Redsong: Matthew 20 (The Vineyard and the Workers; The Greatest in the Kingdom; Jesus Heals Two Blind Men)

Rhyming Redsong: Matthew 20 (The Vineyard and the Workers; The Greatest in the Kingdom; Jesus Heals Two Blind Men)

“For heaven’s kingdom, this is what it’s like:
an owner of some land went out to hire
in early morning, workers for his vines,
those of his vineyard. He agreed to pay
them a denarius as one day’s wage
and to his vineyard, in there, he sent them.
‘Bout nine o’clock, in morning’s time, he went
out and saw others in the marketplace,
there standing, doing nothing. He told them
‘You also go and, in my vineyard, strain,
and you, whatever’s right, is what I’ll pay.
So they went. ‘Bout noon, he went out again,
and ‘bout three in the afternoon to find
more workers. In the afternoon, ‘bout five,
he went out and still others, he found, whom,
just standing ‘round. He asked them, ‘Why have you
been standing here all day long, doing naught?’
“They answered, ‘No one has hired us, because.’
“He said to them, ‘You also go and work,
my vineyard, in!’ When evening time, towards dark,
the vineyard owner, to his foreman, said,
‘The workers, call, and them, their wages pay
beginning with the ones who were hired last
and going on until you reach the first.’
The workers who were, five o’clock, ‘round, hired,
the afternoon, in, a denarius,
what each received. So when they had arrived,
those hired first, they thought payment, more, was just.
But each of them, just one denarius,
what they received. How, grumbling, they began,
when they received it, the landowner, ‘gainst:
‘These, only one hour worked, who were hired last,’
they said, ‘Them, equal to us, you have made,
who’ve borne the burden of the work, the day,
its heat.’ But answered, he, to one of them,
‘I am not, unfair, being to you, friend.
Did not, for one denarius, agree,
you, to do work? Now take your pay and leave.
I want to give the one who was hired last
the same as I gave you. Do not I have
the right to do what I want with my stuff,
my money, or is it you’re envious
because to them I was so generous?
So the last will be first, first will be last.’”

Now Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
He took the twelve aside along the way.
“Jerusalem,” is what he said to them,
“we’re going there, and he will be conveyed,
the Son of Man, unto the priests who’re chief,
and to those ones, the law is what they teach.
To death, they’ll, him, condemn, and then convey
him over to the Gentiles to be mocked
and flogged and crucified. On the third day,
he will be raised to life and resurrect’d.

The sons of Zebedee, their mother, then,
to Jesus, with her sons, together, came,
and kneeling down, a favor asked of him.
What is it that you want?” he asked. She bade,
“Grant, in your kingdom, one of these two, that,
my sons may sit upon your right, your left,
and there the other, at, their proper rank.”
“You don’t know what you’re asking,” Jesus said
to them. “Can you drink the cup I will drink?”
“We can,” they answered. Jesus said to them,
“Indeed, you’ll drink from my cup, but to chose
who sits at my right, left is not for me
to grant. These places, they belong to those
for whom my Father, has prepared, these seats.”

Indignant with the brothers, two, they were,
the ten, when all about this, they had heard.
Together, Jesus called them and he said,

“You know the rulers of the Gentiles, that
they lord it over them, they exercise,
their high officials, their authority
o’er them. Not so with you, contrariwise,
whoever, great ‘mongst you, to be, aspires
must be your servant, and whoever yearns
to be first must become your slave–just like
the Son of Man did not come to be served
but to serve and, as well, to give his life
for many as a ransom, sacrifice.”

As, leaving Jericho with his discip’es,
was Jesus, large crowds, followed, he’d acquired.
Two blind men, sitting, in the road, its side.
When they heard, Jesus, that he’d pass them by
in a short while, they shouted, this, they cried:

“Lord, Son of David, mercy, on us, show!”

The crowd rebuked them and them, they implored
to quiet, be, but all the louder, how
they shouted. “Mercy, have on us, O Lord,
the Son of David!” Jesus stopped, inquired
of them, “What do you want me to do for
you?” he asked. “Lord,” they said, “we want our sight.”
Compassion on them, Jesus had that more,
and touched their eyes. Immediately they
received their sight and followed him that day.