Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Matthew · About this commentary
The Laborers in the Vineyard
Matthew 20:1-16
1 “For the Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who was the master of a household, who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. · WEB
Everyone is paid the same regardless of hours worked, and the men who worked longest are the only ones unhappy.
"The Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who was the master of a household, who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard" Matthew 20:1.
The parable belongs to Matthew alone, and it is attached to what has just been said — it opens with for, and it closes by repeating the line about the first and the last Matthew 19:30. It is an explanation of that saying aimed at men who have been promised thrones and are counting.
The day-laborers standing in the marketplace were the bottom of the economy, hired by the day and eating that night only if someone hired them. A denarius was the standard day's wage. The owner goes out five times, and by the eleventh hour — an hour before sundown — the men still standing there have failed to be hired all day. Their answer when asked is not laziness but the plain fact: "Because no one has hired us" Matthew 20:7.
"Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning from the last to the first" Matthew 20:8. The order of payment is deliberate. Paid the other way around, the first men would have taken their denarius and gone home content. The arrangement guarantees they see what the latecomers get.
"These last have spent one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat!" Matthew 20:12.
The complaint is not that they were underpaid, and they know it. The word is equal. What they cannot bear is that a distinction they had earned has not been recognized, and it is worth granting how reasonable that is. By every standard of fairness in employment they are right.
"Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Didn't you agree with me for a denarius?" Matthew 20:13. The reply concedes the contract and holds them to it. They received what was agreed; nothing was taken from them. And what they are angry about did not cost them anything — which is the tell, because envy always argues in the language of justice.
"Isn't it lawful for me to do what I want to with what I own? Or is your eye evil, because I am good?" Matthew 20:15. The question turns on the difference between a wage and a gift. The first men negotiated a rate; everyone hired later was told only whatever is right and went on the owner's word. They worked all day for a wage. The others worked for a person, and the parable's sympathy is with them.
Read against the road to Jerusalem it is pointed enough. The twelve have left everything and are asking what they will have; the parable says the last man hired gets the same eternal life, and that the men who have served longest are in the most danger of resenting it. Grace that can be calculated has already stopped being grace, and a laborer who is owed nothing cannot be cheated.
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