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If you are like me and most people I know, the parable of the workers in the vineyard is hard to understand and appreciate. This parable that Jesus told is recorded in Matthew 20:1-16. Jesus set the context of the parable with the statement,

“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard.”

matthew 20:1-2

The context of this is a parable is the kingdom of heaven.

According to the parable, a vineyard owner hired some workers for the day to work in his vineyard. Those first workers began early in the morning, and they agreed to work for a denarius. The comments in the margin of the NIV translation notes that a denarius was the usual wage paid for a day’s work at that time. This makes sense so far.

As the parable goes, the vineyard owner went back out to the marketplace throughout the day, and he continued to solicit people to come work in the vineyard, saying, “I will pay you whatever is right.” And so, additional workers began working at 9:00 AM, at noon, at 3:00 PM, and again at 5:00 PM.

When the work day ended at 6:00 PM, the vineyard owner told his foreman,

“Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.”

Mathew 20:8

Beginning with the workers who started at 5:00 PM, each one was paid a denarius. The workers who began at 3:00 PM were also paid a denarius, and so on.

When the workers who began the day early and worked through the entire day stepped forward, they expected to get more than the other workers. Each one, however, only received a denarius.

They naturally began to complain to the vineyard owner about the unfairness of the vineyard owner. Why should the workers who worked only an hour (or three hours or just half a day) receive the same compensation as the workers who worked all day? Doesn’t that seem unfair?

The early workers agreed to work for a denarius; they got what they agreed to work for; and a denarius was, in fact, the going rate of compensation for a day’s work. From that standpoint, the wage they were paid was fair, but why should a worker who worked for only one hour be paid the same wage?

The relative compensation seems patently unfair to us. Though the first workers got what they bargained for and got what was considered to be a fair wage, the later workers got the same wage for less work.

One thing I had not noticed before is that the point of this parable is to provoke our sense of fairness. How do we know that?

Go back and look at verse 8: Jesus says the vineyard owner specifically informed the foreman to pay the last workers first … in front of all the other workers. If he had paid the first workers first, they would have gotten what they expected, been satisfied with it, and left – not knowing that the later workers were paid the same wage. Instead, he made a point of paying the last workers first.

This parable “works” precisely because it offends our sense of fairness. It seems God expects it to offend us! But what does that say about God?

The lesson Jesus wants us to learn from this parable, therefore, is in that sense of unfairness. It seems He wants us to feel the weight of it.

I think it’s important to note, also, that the workers who started at the break of day got exactly what they agreed, what they expected, and what was considered fair for the work they performed – all things being considered equal. The unfairness they felt was in the workers who put in less time getting paid the same amount.

The vineyard owner makes this point when he said, “I am not being unfair to you…. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius?” (v. 13)

In a sense, the unfairness was not to the workers who worked the whole day for a day’s wage; the “unfairness” was to the workers who worked fewer hours and got paid the same amount. The “unfairness” was in favor of the workers who didn’t earn a day’s wage. The later workers were happy to receive the same amount because they knew they had not earned the right to be paid the same as the workers who began first thing in the morning.

Further, because the early workers were paid a fair wage that they agreed to receive for the work they put in, they weren’t complaining simply because their sense of justice was violated. They got just what they deserved. To be brutally honest, it seems they were just jealous.

The wage paid to the later workers wasn’t unfair to the workers who were paid a day’s wage for a day’s work. The workers who received a day’s wage for an hour or several hours or a half a day of work wouldn’t call it unfair; they would say the owner was being generous.

Indeed, that is the point the vineyard owner in the parable makes. The lesson is that God is radically, “unfairly” generous.

This theme is prominent in Scripture. The example of the prodigal son (who insisted on getting his inheritance immediately and squandered it) comes to mind. When he came to his senses and returned with his tail between his legs, his father unexpectedly and generously received him and celebrated his return. (And the older son was jealous.)

The thief on the cross is another prominent example. He got the punishment his crimes deserved. He lived an unrighteous life, but Jesus offered him eternal life, though he didn’t deserve it.

Indeed, the radical, “unfair” generosity of God lies at the heart of the Gospel. The “wages” of our sin is death, but God graciously and generously offers us life.

Remember the context of this parable? Jesus said, “This is what the kingdom of heaven is like…?”

This parable is not about wages and hours (to use modern concepts). It isn’t an example of the way we should treat our fellow humans; it’s about God’s generosity in offering eternal life to all people who will receive it.

The truth is, of course, that none of us merit eternal life, and there is nothing we could do to earn it on our own efforts. The most righteous person on earth cannot earn God’s unmerited favor.

Only one person ever was righteous enough to earn his way to eternal life, and that person was Jesus. The rest of us have fallen short, but God incarnate extends His arm to us to lift us out of our fallenness and to give us the favor we do not deserve.

This parable isn’t just a theoretical story like a fable. It had real world implications for the Jews who heard Jesus tell the parable. They had carried the burden of the covenant God put on them from the time of Abraham, and it had cost them dearly. I will explore that dynamic in a future article.