A Fair Wage Has Been Paid

Matthew 20:1-19 

The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard

1 "For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. 2 Now when he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. 3 And he went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle in the marketplace, 4 and said to them, 'You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.' So they went. 5 Again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did likewise. 6 And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing idle, and said to them, 'Why have you been standing here idle all day?' 7 They said to him, 'Because no one hired us.' He said to them, 'You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right you will receive.'

8 "So when evening had come, the owner of the vineyard said to his steward, 'Call the laborers and give them their wages, beginning with the last to the first.' 9 And when those came who were hired about the eleventh hour, they each received a denarius. 10 But when the first came, they supposed that they would receive more; and they likewise received each a denarius. 11 And when they had received it, they complained against the landowner, 12 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.' 13 But he answered one of them and said, 'Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? 14 Take what is yours and go your way. I wish to give to this last man the same as to you. 15 Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things? Or is your eye evil because I am good?' 16 So the last will be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few chosen."

Jesus a Third Time Predicts His Death and Resurrection

17 Now Jesus, going up to Jerusalem, took the twelve disciples aside on the road and said to them, 18 "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death, 19 and deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock and to scourge and to crucify. And the third day He will rise again."

Jesus spoke a parable about the individual rewards He promises to the children of the kingdom of heaven according to a divine standard and not as we see fit from our ideas of what we deserve.  The story He used was of a landowner of a vineyard who hired some workers at the day’s beginning then hired more a few times throughout the day to help get the necessary work done, promising to pay them what was right in his estimation.  He hired a final group of laborers and then called them all together to get their pay at the end of the day.  He paid the first and then each group until the last were paid.  The problem arose when the ones who worked all day saw that the ones hired near the end received the same pay as they did.  Their sense of fairness caused them to complain against their master because they were convinced that they deserved more according to the more work which they had done from laboring longer than the others, especially the last ones.  They did not like that the master made them all equal while they bore the burden of the day in the heat, working harder and longer for the same reward in the end.  The master told them that he did them no wrong but fairly paid them as agreed for the wage promised them.  It was his money to reward as he saw fit and not according to their sense of fairness or good.  He asked if they had evil in their sight when looking at his good toward them all.  He reminded them that the last will be first in the kingdom and those first called to the work would be the last, insinuating that all would receive the same amount of reward for their labors for the kingdom of heaven, not according to their individual work but according to the grace of their Master in heaven who chooses to reward as He wills and not as we demand from Him by our standards of what is right or deserved or that we are entitled to as this generation often demands.  While their very well may be varying rewards according to our faithfulness (1 Corinthians 3:8, Revelation 20:12, 22:12), it is the same wage of eternal life we are given by the Master’s will according to His goodness and grace that we should be grateful for without begrudgingly demanding more than one doing less who had been called out of darkness to light later in their life to labor less.  It is His good pleasure to give us the kingdom (Luke 12:32, Philippians 2:13) and the rewards we receive are given back to God to glorify Christ and His work which we labor in here in His strength and ability in the first place (Revelation 4:10-11).  Jesus then reminded the disciples on the way to Jerusalem that He would be betrayed to the religious leaders who judged their works more deserving than God’s or any other’s, and that they would condemn and have Him crucified for them.  But He would rise again to defeat death and prove His offer of eternal life in the kingdom as their reward of grace as He sees fit to give each of them, not by how long they labored or what their works deserved (Ephesians 2:8-9, Titus 3:4-7), but of His goodness and desire to pay them what none deserved for His glory, honor, and praise.  We are never to compare ourselves and demand what we deserve, for that price is too much to pay for what we have earned (Romans 6:23) and thankfully we are paid out of the treasury of God’s grace in Christ instead.  That is why He suffered and died and why His reward of the kingdom is evenly given to all who are chosen and called.  A fair wage has been paid and we are entitled only to what the Master deems to give each of us!