This parable is one of my favorites in the gospels. Jesus tells the parable of the laborers to His disciples and compares this to what the kingdom of heaven will be like. The story He tells is of a landowner who hires laborers to work in his vineyard (20:2). Let’s get some background…people without work would go and stand in the marketplace throughout the day waiting for someone to hire them. The landowners would show up at the marketplace and hire people based on the amount of help needed to accomplish the work in their field. Typically, the work day started at 6:00am and ended at 6:00pm so the landowner as well as the laborers showed up early to hire workers. So with that in mind, this particular landowner goes to the marketplace and agrees with several laborers to pay them a denarius a day, which was typical daily wage. Realizing that he needed more help, the landowner returned to the marketplace at 9:00am and hired more laborers (20:3-4). The landowner again realized he needed more help so he returned to the marketplace at 12:00pm, 3:00pm, and 5:00pm (20:5-7). The evening came and the landowner told the steward of the vineyard to call all the laborers together to give them their wages (20:8). Beginning with the people who were hired last, the steward gave them a denarius which was the same pay received by those who worked all day (20:8-10). Everyone who worked that day, regardless of how long they had worked, received the same wage. Those who had worked all day were upset that they had not received more, but the landowner declares that he is good and gracious, even to those who had only worked a shorter amount of time (20:11-15). Here is the picture Jesus is trying to paint. The landowner is God the Father and the steward of the vineyard is Jesus Christ. The laborers are those who have chosen to follow Jesus Christ and carry out His work and ministry; therefore, the meaning is that those who began following Jesus Christ later in their life will receive the same reward in the kingdom of God as those who have followed Him their whole life. God is good and gracious desiring everyone to receive the blessings extended to them in spite of how long they have served Him.
Dear God, help me to be thankful for all those who are laboring together to do Your work. May I never think that I should deserve more than someone else; after all, all blessings come from You and You are good to all.
