For the kingdom of the heavens is like a householder who went out with the early morn to hire workmen for his vineyard.
Peter had just asked what the disciples would get for leaving everything. The Lord answers with a picture of the kingdom: an employer goes out at daybreak to hire workers, and everything turns on the terms he offers.
The Lord replied to Peter on two levels before He told the story.
Peter's remark in Matthew 19:27 called it forth. "See, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?" In reply the Lord told him that faithful service will never go unrewarded. For the apostles, special honour is kept for them in the golden era when the Son of Man will sit on His throne. But the Lord saw in Peter's remark a tendency to make too much of human deeds and sacrifices, so He added the parable of the labourers in the vineyard.
The householder hires workers to labour. That is the subject of the story — not how God saves a sinner.
But the parable has in view not conversion, nor eternal life, but labouring in the vineyard. How can those who know the gospel fall into a mistake so obvious and so deep as to overlook this? It was for Christ that Simon Peter left all and followed Him. Christ drew him, not reward — though reward there is. God is not unrighteous. He does not forget any work or labour of love shown to His name in the service of the saints or of the gospel.
Early morning is only his first trip. He goes out again, and again, and the last outing is the most striking of all.
"Whatever is right I will give you." It is God who judges what is fitting. "Again he went out about the sixth hour and the ninth hour and did the same." And, remarkably, "about the eleventh hour he went out." What a heart this reveals! What infinite goodness! God recognises every service and every suffering borne for Himself. Yet He keeps His right to go out at the last moment, to bring in souls and give them what may look like a small piece of work. But He can give grace to do that little well.
The wage the master names is not a token. It is a full day's pay, and a generous one.
A denarius was a silver coin, worth far more than our penny. "The denarius a day was the pay of a Roman soldier in the time of Tiberius, a few years before this parable was spoken. We may therefore regard this as liberal pay for a day's work."
The first group settles terms before starting. The later groups simply go on the master's word. That difference is the heart of the lesson.
The principle laid down is this: we work out of confidence in Christ, not for a set amount of reward. It is grace, not law. Reward is encouragement to keep going, not the motive. Those who agreed for their denarius got their denarius; those who trusted the master of the vineyard got according to his heart. "What is right I will give," and they went on his word. Reward for sacrifice is sure when Christ is the motive of the sacrifice. But where reward is the motive of the service, it is poor pay, and in fact the whole thing is false.
When the complaint comes at the end of the day, the master does not defend his fairness by adjusting the wage. He appeals to his own goodness.
The steward is told to begin with the last hired, giving each a denarius. This stirred up the grumbling of the earliest workmen, who resented the householder's generosity. But he stopped the mouth of their spokesman at once. The injustice complained of lay only in the complainer. "Did you not agree with me for a denarius?" Grace keeps its right to bless. "Do you begrudge my generosity? So the last will be first, and the first last." The despised enjoy grace that goes beyond anything man can question. Those who feed selfish thoughts justly sink.
Readers often try to fix a meaning to each hour and each detail. One writer warns against pressing the picture that far.
The difficulty of this parable clears up if we remember one thing. A parable is a picture that shows a principle or draws a moral for instruction. So it is wrong to think that every part of a parable must carry a special meaning and a spiritual application. Once we dig into the details and try to explain each one, we miss the true lesson — and may even teach the exact opposite of what the Lord teaches.
- Call — The master goes out himself, again and again, down to the eleventh hour. Every call to work starts with Him.
- Terms — Some bargain for a fixed wage; others simply go on His word. That choice, not the hours worked, divides the parable.
- Motive — Reward is real, but it only keeps you going. Christ Himself must be the reason you serve.
- Scope — The subject is work in the vineyard, not how a sinner is saved. The parable never makes salvation a wage.
- Outcome — Those who trusted the master receive according to his heart. Those who priced their own work receive just what they asked for, and no more.
And having agreed with the workmen for a denarius the day, he sent them into his vineyard.
Peter had just asked what he and the others would get for leaving everything. The Lord answered with a story about a landowner hiring workers for the day. Everything turns on this second verse. One group settles the terms at dawn. Every group hired later trusts the owner instead.
The wage named here was not a token sum. It was the standard rate for a full day's work, so the deal struck at dawn was a fair one.
The English penny in the Authorised Version is misleading, and the Revised Version kept it. The Roman denarius was worth about eight pence of our money. It was the daily pay of a soldier, and the daily wage of a working man (Matt. 20:2).
The owner hires workers at different hours. Yet the wage fixed at dawn sorts them all into two kinds, and one kind matches the question Peter had asked.
In fact there are only two classes: those who agreed on the amount they were to receive, and those who left themselves in the hands of the Master to give what he thought right. The first, we take it, are the "first," and the second the "last" of Matthew 19:30. The first also represent, we have no doubt, the spirit of Peter, as expressed in his question, "What shall we have then?" So the Lord brings before us the right and the wrong spirit of service. The wrong spirit finds its motive in the reward it expects. The right spirit draws its energy from the will of the Master. The one thinks of the value of the work done; the other thinks of the Master for whom the work is done.
The owner sends these men into his vineyard to work. That one fact fixes what the parable is about.
It ought not to be in question that in this parable it is not salvation but service that is the matter in hand. It is sad that in every age the tendency has been, and still is, to confuse the two, to the deep injury of both. For if we mix them, no one who honestly feels how unprofitable his own service is can be sure of his salvation, or ought to be.
The owner fixed this wage before anyone had worked an hour. That is the difference between the first group and all the rest. It decides what each one receives at the end.
The principle is this: we work out of confidence in Christ, not for a set amount of reward. It is grace, not law. Reward is an encouragement to keep going, not a motive. Those who agreed for their denarius got their denarius. Those who trusted the master of the vineyard got according to his heart.
Where pay is the reason for the work, the joy of the work itself is gone.
If we bargained with Him about it, we would lose the holy and precious privilege of serving Him altogether.
At the end of the day the early workers protest. The owner does not defend his generosity — he simply points back to the terms of verse 2, and that settles it.
The only injustice was in the man who complained. "Did you not agree with me for a denarius?" Grace keeps its right to bless. "Do you begrudge my generosity? So the last will be first, and the first last." The despised enjoy grace that overflows beyond anything man can question. Those who indulge selfish thoughts sink, and they deserve to. God, who never fails in righteousness, keeps His right to act according to His own goodness.
The hiring language belongs to the illustration. Commentators warn against reading it as a description of how God actually deals with those who work for Him.
God does not "hire" labourers the way men do when work in His vineyard is in question. That idea is man's misunderstanding of His way. The lost son in another story, still far from home, may talk about the "hired servants" in his father's house. We are not to take that as a picture of the real truth. And the whole design of the parable here is to warn us, by how it ends, against such twisting.
- Agreement. The wage fixed at dawn was a full day's pay for a day's work. The owner cheats no one.
- Two classes. One agreement splits the workers in two: those who settled terms, and those who trusted the Master to give what was right.
- Service. The owner hires these men to work. So the parable is about service and reward, not about how God saves a sinner. Mix the two, and both suffer.
- Motive. Those who bargained got what they bargained for. Those who trusted got according to the Master's heart. Reward cheers the worker on; it is not why he works.
- Sovereignty. The owner answers the complaint by pointing to the agreement. God never fails in righteousness, and He stays free to act in His own goodness.
And having gone out about [the] third hour, he saw others standing in the market-place idle;
This verse opens the parable of the workers in the vineyard. From the third hour on, the master names no wage for the workers he calls — only a promise — and that difference carries the whole lesson.
Much confusion around this parable comes from reading it as a picture of how people are saved. One writer traces the trouble to the way we crowd God out of His own story:
Why has the parable that opens chapter 20 caused such confusion and disagreement, from long ago until now? It is because man looms so large in his own eyes that no room is left for the sovereign grace of God. Now this is the very thing the Lord asserts here. Godly men may, and must, allow that grace more or less clearly when it comes to His saving souls. But the Lord claims it for His dealings with service too. It ought not to be in question that the parable is about service, not salvation. Sadly, in every age the tendency has been to confuse the two, to the deep damage of both.
Another writer presses the same point from the other end. If the single coin paid to every worker stood for eternal life, the results would be damaging:
Suppose the penny, which everyone receives alike, means salvation. Then a man would have to work for salvation and earn it as a labourer. This strikes at grace and at the work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross.
The word behind "idle" here is not a neutral description. It carries blame, and it reaches past work to words:
The Greek word argos (perhaps from a, 'not', and ergon, 'work') is applied to things as well as to people, and it involves blameworthiness. In Matthew 12:36, every "idle" word that people speak will have to be accounted for. It is translated 'idle' in Matthew 20:3, 6; 1 Timothy 5:13.
Yet standing idle is not always the worker's fault. One writer separates two conditions we often lump together:
There is a difference between being idle and being lazy; a man may be idle because he does not know what to do... The men in the parable were ready to work, but did not know what to do. A lazy man is one who knows what he ought to do and does not do it.
The first workers settled on a figure. After that the master names no figure at all, and the later the call, the less the worker has to hold on to:
The later in the day a worker is called, the more the thought of a fixed agreement drops away. Those who go into the vineyard depend more and more on the goodness of the householder to give them as he sees fit. To those called at the third hour he says only, "Whatever is right I will give you." At the sixth and ninth hours, "what is right" becomes a slimmer and slimmer hope. For those at the eleventh hour, nothing at all seems to be said of this. Everything rests with the owner of the vineyard, to give as he pleases, or not.
The workers at the third hour had only the master's word to go on. One writer finds in that the whole basis of service:
Clearly the Lord lays down the true source and principle of service. It is confidence in the one who calls... Those at the third hour went to work on his word, "whatever is right I will give you," as did those at the sixth and ninth hours.
This does not cancel reward; it puts reward in its place. One writer draws the line between what moves a worker and what cheers him along:
The principle is this: work out of confidence in Christ, not for a set reward. It is grace, not law. Reward is encouragement to keep going, not the motive. Those who agreed for their penny got their penny. Those who trusted the master of the vineyard received according to his heart. "What is right I will give," and they went on his word.
- Called. The master keeps going out — at the third hour and beyond — so the day is never too far gone for a fresh call into the vineyard.
- Idle. The word carries blame. Yet a man can stand idle because he is ready to work and does not know what to do. That is not laziness.
- Trusted. From the third hour on, no wage is agreed. The worker leans on the householder's word, and each later call leaves him leaning harder.
- Motive. Confidence in the one who calls is the true spring of service. Reward encourages the worker along the road. It is not the reason for setting out.
- Result. Bargainers get their bargain. Those who trusted receive according to the master's heart. That is why the parable is about service, not about how people are saved.
and to them he said, Go also ye into the vineyard, and whatsoever may be just I will give you. And they went their way.
The master of the vineyard goes back to the market at the third hour and finds men standing idle. He sends them into the vineyard on very different terms from the first group: He names no wage, and promises only to give what is right.
People have argued about this parable for centuries. One writer traces the confusion to a single cause:
Why has there been such perplexity and disagreement, from ancient times to now, about the parable that opens chapter 20? It is because man looms so large in his own eyes that no room is left for the sovereign grace of God. Now this is the very thing the Lord asserts here. Godly men might and must more or less admit it when He saves souls; but the Lord claims it for His dealings with service. And it ought not to be in question that the parable deals with service, not salvation. Sadly, in every age the tendency has been to confuse the two, to the deep injury of both.
The householder names no figure. He keeps the decision in His own hands:
"After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace" (verses 2-3). This is not grace in the sense of salvation. "Whatever is right I will give you." It is God who judges what is fitting. … It is the sovereignty of grace in giving as He pleases; not only in saving, but in rewarding in the time of glory.
The first group settled the price before they started. These men had nothing but the owner's word, and going on it was itself an act of trust:
The first group held to justice; they got exactly what they had agreed on. The last enjoyed their master's grace. And notice that they accept the principle of grace, of confidence in it. "Whatever is right I will give!" That is the great point of the parable — confidence in the grace of the master of the vineyard, and grace as the ground of their action. But who understood it? Someone like Paul might start late, because God called him then. He could still be a stronger witness to grace than the workers who had been at it since the first days of the gospel.
Fixing a price with God would cost the worker something he cannot afford to lose:
True servants of Christ have drunk of His grace. They are governed by one desire: His glory and the blessing of their fellow men. They are full of gratitude for the grace that lets them serve such a Master. The holy and precious privilege of serving Him would be completely lost if we bargained with Him about it.
The reward is real. But everything turns on which comes first for the worker — Christ or the pay:
The principle laid down is this — working out of confidence in Christ, not for a set amount of reward; grace, not law. Reward is encouragement to keep going, not the motive. Those who agreed for their penny got their penny; those who trusted the master of the vineyard got according to his heart. "What is right I will give," and they went on his word. The promise of reward for sacrifice is there when Christ is the motive of the sacrifice. But where reward is the motive of the service, it is poor pay, and in fact the whole thing is false.
One writer applied this to his own service:
We are not to grow weary in doing good. In due season we will reap, "if we do not give up." … The principle of Matthew 20 is "Whatever is right I will give you." So he went and worked and trusted. Trusting Christ is a great matter. I would have very little to show for my work; I feel it sometimes. … But … if I only have His approval, how content I should be!
- Call — the men stand idle until He comes to the market. The work starts with His invitation.
- Confidence — He fixes no wage. They go on His word alone, and that trust in the master's grace is the point of the parable.
- Concern — the parable is about service, not salvation. Mixing the two damages both.
- Cost — bargaining with God for terms would destroy the very privilege of serving Him.
- Compensation — He decides what is right. Reward cheers the worker who is already following Christ. Make it the motive, and the service is false.
Again, having gone out about the sixth and ninth hour, he did likewise.
The verse opens with the third-hour workers going out on nothing but a promise. Then the owner goes out twice more, at midday and mid-afternoon, and hires on the same terms. Those few words hold the pattern the whole parable turns on: a master who keeps coming back, and workers who trust his word instead of a fixed wage.
The parable counts hours from sunrise, the way its first hearers did. Their clock does not run like ours.
The day was divided into twelve hours, generally counted from sunrise to sunset. In Palestine this varied: about ten of our hours in winter, about fourteen in summer. So a summer hour was nearly half as long again as a winter one. Scripture hours are now usually counted from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. That makes the third hour our 9 o'clock, the sixth hour our 12 o'clock, and the ninth hour our 3 o'clock in the afternoon.
"He did the same" points back to the words spoken at the third hour, not to the bargain struck at daybreak. Only the first group settled on a price.
The workmen called first agreed to the terms. Those at the third hour went to work on his word: "whatever is right I will give you." Those at the sixth and ninth hours did the same. The last group at the eleventh went simply at his call: "You go into the vineyard too."
Across the hours, the master says less and less. At last he promises nothing at all.
As men are called to work at later and later hours of the day, the thought of a fixed agreement drops away more and more. Those who go into the vineyard become more dependent on the goodness of the householder, to give them as he sees fit. To those called at the third hour he only says, "Whatever is right I will give you." At the sixth and ninth hours, "what is right" becomes a thinner and thinner hope. For those at the eleventh hour, nothing of the kind seems to be said at all. They are left wholly to the owner of the vineyard, to give as he pleases, or not.
These repeated trips tell us what the master's heart is like. And they do not stop at the ninth hour.
"Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same." And, remarkably, "about the eleventh hour he went out." What a heart this tells! What infinite goodness! God recognises every service and suffering done for Himself. Yet He still keeps the right to go out at the last moment, to bring in souls and set them to what might seem a small service. But He can give grace to do that little well.
The workers of this verse never fix a price. That silence is the point. They act on trust in the master, and the parable makes that its great lesson.
The first held to justice. They received what was agreed on. The last enjoyed the grace of their master. And notice this: they accept the principle of grace, and put their confidence in it. "Whatever is right I will give!" The great point in the parable is just that — confidence in the grace of the master of the vineyard, and grace as the ground of their action.
Because these workers earn pay, many readers take the parable as a picture of how people are saved. Commentators reject that reading.
Some of these interpretations are altogether wrong and contradict Scripture. One of them explains the denarius, or penny, as eternal life and salvation. If the penny that all receive alike really meant salvation, then a man would have to work for salvation and earn it as a labourer. This strikes at grace and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. No, the question of the parable is not the question of salvation.
Commentators differ on how far to press the details. Some match the hours to set groups: the apostles, the early Christians, and workers of our own day. Gaebelein warns that in a parable "it is not at all correct to think that everything must have a specific meaning." Chase every hour, he says, and you will miss the true lesson.
- Call. The master goes out again at midday and mid-afternoon. He keeps coming back all day, right down to the eleventh hour.
- Terms. "He did the same" repeats the third hour's offer, not the morning's bargain. He names no wage, only what is right.
- Trust. As the day goes on, the promise shrinks. Those hired lean on the owner's goodness, not on a contract.
- Grace. The first held to justice and got the agreed price. The last trusted the master's heart and enjoyed grace. That trust is the true ground of service.
- Caution. The pay stands for service and reward, not for salvation. Salvation earned as a labourer would strike at grace and at Christ's work on the cross.
But about the eleventh [hour], having gone out, he found others standing, and says to them, Why stand ye here all the day idle?
Peter had just asked what the disciples would get for leaving everything to follow Jesus. This parable is the Lord's answer. So when the householder goes out one last time and finds men still standing with nothing to do, two questions press: may God call whom He wants, when He wants? And what makes service worth anything?
He has already hired at dawn, and at the third, sixth and ninth hours. Now, with one hour of daylight left, he goes out again.
And, remarkably, "about the eleventh hour he went out." What a heart this shows! What infinite goodness! God recognises every service and every suffering done for Himself. Yet He keeps intact His right to go out at the last moment, to bring in souls and give them what might look like a very small piece of service. But He can give grace to do that little well.
The word behind "idle" is not neutral. It carries blame, and Matthew 12:36 uses it of the words we speak — quoted below in an older translation.
The Greek word argos … applies to things as well as to persons, and involves blameworthiness. In Matthew 12:36, people must give account for "every 'idle' word that men speak". The same word appears as "idle" in Matthew 20:3, 6 and 1 Timothy 5:13.
Yet these men were not refusing work. One writer draws a line between two kinds of standing still:
There is a difference between being idle and being lazy; a man may be idle because he does not know what to do. … They were ready to work, but did not know what to do. A lazy man is one who knows what he ought to do and does not do it. How shameful is laziness!
Read the hiring scenes in order and something shifts. The first group settles terms. The later groups get less and less to hold on to. The last get nothing but the call itself.
In those called to work at various hours of the day, we find the thought of a fixed agreement given up more and more. Those who go into the vineyard depend more and more on the goodness of the householder to give to them as he sees fit. To those called at the third hour he says only, "Whatever is just I will give you." At the sixth and ninth hours, "what is just" becomes a slimmer and slimmer hope. To those at the eleventh hour he says nothing of this at all. They depend wholly on the owner of the vineyard, to give as he pleases, or not.
The eleventh-hour men have only one thing to go on:
Clearly the Lord lays down the true spring and principle of service. It is confidence in the one who calls. … The last batch at the eleventh hour went simply at his call: "Go into the vineyard also." … Grace reserves its title to bless. The despised enjoy grace that overflows beyond every claim of man, while those who give way to selfish thoughts rightly sink.
A popular reading treats the day's wage as eternal life. One writer rejects that, and gives the reason:
One wrong interpretation explains the denarius or penny as meaning eternal life and salvation. … That this is wrong hardly needs saying. The salvation of the sinner is not in view here at all. If it were true that the penny, which all receive alike, means salvation, then man would have to work for salvation and earn it as a labourer. This strikes at grace and at the work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross.
The parable is about service and its reward. So it exposes the worker who keeps score.
Human pettiness, even in true saints, tends to price its own service and magnify its own labours in the Lord's vineyard. But remembering what each soul owes to its Redeemer rebukes all such notions. … Love is the only true motive. Scripture gives every statement about final reward as encouragement only.
- Called. The householder goes out one last time, with the day almost gone. God keeps His right to call at the last moment, and to give grace to do a small task well.
- Idle. The word carries blame, yet these men were ready to work. Idle can mean not knowing what to do; lazy means knowing and not doing.
- Trusting. Each later group gets less to bargain with, until the last go on the call alone. Confidence in the one who calls is the true spring of service.
- Not salvation. The wage cannot stand for eternal life. Otherwise man would earn salvation by labour — and that strikes at grace and at the cross.
- Rewarded. Reward is encouragement, not motive. Love is the motive, and selfish scorekeeping only sinks the one who indulges it.
They say to him, Because no man has hired us. He says to them, Go also ye into the vineyard [and whatsoever may be just ye shall receive].
The men found at the eleventh hour have a reason for standing about: nobody had put them to work. His reply is the shortest call in the parable — no terms, no figure, just a word sending them into the vineyard.
Their answer clears them of a charge that is easy to make. One writer uses their answer to separate two things people often confuse:
There is a difference between being idle and being lazy; a man may be idle because he does not know what to do. We are familiar with the parable of the labourers. At the eleventh hour of the day the householder went out into the market-place. He found men standing there and said to them, "Why do you stand here idle all day?" They answered, "Because no one has hired us." They were ready to work, but did not know what to do. A lazy man is one who knows what he ought to do and does not do it.
The hour is almost gone, and the owner is still searching the market-place. One commentator sees God's heart in it:
And, remarkably, "about the eleventh hour he went out." What a heart this tells! What infinite goodness! God recognises every service and suffering done for Himself. Yet He keeps intact the right to go out at the last moment, to bring in souls and set them to what might seem a little service! But He can give grace to do that little well.
Across the parable the promise of pay grows thinner with each hour, until it disappears. One writer traces the pattern:
As the householder calls workers at the later hours, the thought of a fixed agreement is given up more and more. Those who go into the vineyard depend more and more on his goodness to give to them as he sees fit. To those called at the third hour he says only, "Whatever is just I will give you." At the sixth and ninth hours, "what is just" becomes a more and more slender hope. At the eleventh hour, nothing of the kind seems to be said at all. These men are left wholly to the owner of the vineyard, to give as he pleases, or not.
Commentators differ here, because the manuscripts differ. Some keep a closing clause in verse 7 that promises whatever is right. Others leave it out:
The Fifth Company go into the vineyard at the eleventh hour with no promise at all, if we omit, with the best authorities, the last clause of verse 7.
Much confusion around this parable comes from treating the day's wage as eternal life. One commentator names the problem and its cost:
Some interpretations of this parable are altogether wrong and contradict Scripture. Among them we mention the explanation of the denarius or penny as meaning eternal life and salvation. Luther taught this, and many other commentators after him. That it is wrong hardly needs saying. The salvation of the sinner is not in view here. If the penny, which all receive alike, meant salvation, then a man would have to work for salvation and earn it as a labourer. This strikes at grace and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross.
Nothing in the account suggests these men had been holding back. One writer draws out what that says about God's timing:
God gives according to His goodness and His grace. There had been no refusal of the invitations among the last (vv. 6, 7): God called them when the moment that pleased Him arrived.
One writer sets beside the parable a man who came in at the very end:
Many who thought themselves to be first may be seen to be last, and many who came in late may get a first place. The dying thief came in at the eleventh hour, surely, but his one short hour of witness to Christ was given at a time when all had forsaken Him.
- Idle — standing in the market-place is not proof of laziness. These men were willing, but no one had hired them. A lazy man is one who knows what he ought to do and does not do it.
- Called — the owner goes out again with the day almost gone. God keeps His right to bring in souls at the last moment. He gives grace to do a small service well.
- Trusting — each later group gets a thinner promise than the one before. The last men hear no figure at all. They depend wholly on the owner's goodness.
- Serving — the wage is not eternal life. Make it salvation, and salvation becomes something a labourer earns. That strikes at grace and at the cross.
- Rewarded — the timing was God's, not theirs. He called them when it pleased Him. One late hour of witness can come first of all.
But when the evening was come, the lord of the vineyard says to his steward, Call the workmen and pay [them] their wages, beginning from the last even to the first.
The working day is over. The owner turns to his manager with an order: call the workers in and pay them, but start at the wrong end — with the ones hired last. That order turns the whole parable, and it raises two questions. What are these wages, and why does the payment run backwards?
Everything here depends on where the owner sent the workers. One writer makes that point, then sorts the workers into two groups by how they agreed to work.
It is essential to notice that this parable is about service, because the workers are sent into the vineyard. There is also no doubt that it grew out of Peter's question: "See, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?" ... In fact, there are only two classes. There are those who agreed on the amount they were to receive. And there are those who left themselves in the Master's hands, for him to give what he thought right... All this comes out when the steward settles with the workers. Obeying his lord, he begins with the last, and everyone received a penny.
The workers earn their coin by labour. One commentator names a common mistake about that coin and shows what it destroys.
This parable puzzles many readers of the Bible, and all kinds of interpretations have been attempted. Some of them are completely wrong and contradict Scripture. One of them explains the denarius, or penny, as eternal life and salvation. The salvation of the sinner is not in view here at all. If it were true that the penny, which all receive alike, means salvation, then a man would have to work for salvation and earn it as a labourer. This strikes at grace and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross.
The reversed order is not a stray detail. It is the owner honouring something he prizes in the workers who came without a contract.
But the master of the house placed great value on the trust the later comers showed. They were confident that his mind was right, and they had faith in his word. He had a right to do what he wanted with his own money. He valued faith so highly that he gave the last the same as he gave the first. And when he handed out the money, he began with the last. So the last were first and the first last.
Every man received one coin. Some conclude from this that all rewards are equal. One writer answers by weighing the coin against the hours behind it.
People argue that all were rewarded alike. But not so. The point of the parable is, that all were rewarded. Not that all were rewarded alike. There is a great difference between a penny a day and a penny an hour... The dying thief did come in at the eleventh hour. But he gave his one short hour of witness to Christ at a time when everyone had abandoned Him.
Once the steward pays the last, the first start calculating. Their complaint shows what they had agreed to and what they had forgotten.
But when the first heard about it, they began to think themselves entitled to more — they who had borne the burden and heat of the day. But the master reminds them that all was a settled thing before they entered on their work. In their selfishness, they forgot both the terms and the righteousness of the man they were dealing with. If he chose, out of the generosity of his heart, to give the last as much as the first, what was that to them? God maintains His own rights.
So two motives can drive the same work. One writer states the principle that decides between them.
The principle is this: work out of confidence in Christ, not for a fixed amount of reward. It is grace, not law. Reward is an encouragement to keep going, not the motive. Those who agreed for their penny got their penny. Those who trusted the master of the vineyard got according to his heart: "Whatever is right I will give you," and they went on his word. The promise of reward for sacrifice holds when Christ is the motive of the sacrifice. But where the reward is the motive of the service, it is poor pay, and in fact the whole thing is false.
- Called — The owner sends workers into his vineyard. So the subject is service and its reward, not how a sinner is saved.
- Contracted or trusting — Two groups work in that vineyard. One fixed a price first; the other took the Master at His word.
- Paid — At evening the steward hands out one coin to each. Read that coin as eternal life, and salvation becomes wages earned.
- Reversed — The owner pays the last first, because he prizes the trust that asked for no bargain.
- Revealed — The first grumble and show their selfishness. All were rewarded, but not all alike. God keeps His right to be good.