Jesus’ story makes no economic sense, and that was his intent. He was giving us a parable about grace, which cannot be calculated like a day’s wages. The employer in Jesus’ story did not cheat
the full-day workers. No, the full -day workers got what they were promised. Their discontent arouse from the scandalous mathematics of grace. They would not accept that their employer had the right to do what he wanted with his money when it meant paying scoundrels twelve times what they deserved. Significantly, many Christians who study this parable identify with the employees who put in a full day’s work, rather than the add-ons at the end of the day. We like to think of ourselves as responsible workers, and the employer’s strange behavior baffles us as it did the original hearers. We risk missing the story’s point: that God dispenses gifts, not wages. None of us gets paid according to merit, for none of us comes close to satisfying God’s requirements for a perfect life. If paid on the basis of fairness, we would all end up in hell. (PHILIP YANCY, WHAT’ SO AMAZING ABOUT GRACE)
The lesson of this parable is that God rewards us based upon the opportunities that He gives us. The later workers would have been willing to go to work earlier, but they were not given the opportunity by the employer.
Had you been given a lot of money, you may have been willing to give a lot of money away to the poor. But if God gave you only a little money, you were not given the opportunity to give away lots of money. Still, if you are faithful with the small opportunities that God gives you, God will reward you with just as much as someone who was faithful with large opportunities that God gave them. He is perfectly fair.
Jesus concluded the parable of the vineyard workers by saying, “And so it is, that many who are first now will be last then; and those who are last now will be first then” (Matthew 20:16). Some who are faithful with the small opportunities that God gives them, now “last” in the eyes of people, might receive more reward than one who is “first” in the eyes of people but who is unfaithful with the bigger opportunities God has given him.
Are you being faithful with the opportunities God has given you?
(DAVID SERVANT)
A comment by Saint Augustine deserves mention. He says that those asked to go into the Lord’s vineyard early in the morning must not say: “Why should I tire myself out when I can go at the last hour and receive the same reward? When you are called, come. The reward promised is indeed the same but the great question concerns the hour of working. No one promised you that you will live until the eleventh hour. Take care lest what he by promising is prepared to give you, you by deferring take away from yourself.”
(JAMES B. BUCKLEY)