Mateus 20

The desperate landowner

1 "For the kingdom of the heavens is like a certain landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. 2 And agreeing with the workers for a denarius a day he sent them into his vineyard. 3 And going out about the third hour [9 a.m.] he saw others standing idle in the marketplace. 4 And he said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard and I will give you whatever is right.’ So off they went. 5 He went out again about the sixth hour, and the ninth, and did the same. 6 Now about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing idle, and he says to them, ‘Why have you stood here idle all day?’*How did he know they had been there all day? He had seen them, and had himself refused to hire them until the end. As his desperation level increased, he became less and less choosy about the quality of the workers [I take it that for some reason the grapes had to be collected that day; any that were left until later would be lost]. As the Church is in its eleventh hour, or later, it seems to me that we see God doing just like the landowner—He is using some rather ‘unusual’ workers. 7 They say to him, ‘Because no one hired us.’ He says to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and you will receive whatever is right.’*Perhaps 1% of the Greek manuscripts, of objectively inferior quality, omit the last clause (as in NIV, NASB, LB, TEV, etc.). 8 So when evening had come the owner of the vineyard says to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wage, beginning at the last to the first.’*Presumably the usual procedure would be to pay the first ones first, so they could head for home; by inverting the order the owner provoked the confrontation. What about our own notions of ‘fairness’? People who trust in Christ at the end of a misspent life get to go to Heaven, just like those who have served God all their lives. Of course there is the matter of rewards, but they scarcely compare with the fact of spending eternity in Heaven, rather than Hell. 9 The eleventh hour ones came and each received a denarius. 10 So when the first ones came they supposed that they would receive more; yet each of them also received a denarius. 11 When they received it they began grumbling against the landowner 12 saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you made them equal to us who bore the burden and the heat of the day!’ 13 But in answer he said to one of them: ‘Friend, I am not wronging you. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? 14 Take what is yours and go. I wish to give to this last one just as to you. 15 Or is it not permissible for me to do what I want with what is mine? Is your eye evil because I am good?’ 16 Just so the last will be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few are chosen."*Just 1.5% of the Greek manuscripts, of objectively inferior quality, omit the last sentence (as in NIV, NASB, LB, TEV, etc.).