“But he answered one of them, ‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’
Matthew 20:13-16 NIV
“So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”
In the parable of the workers in the vineyard, Jesus tells of a landowner who hired a series of people to work in his vineyard. Some worked all day, while others were not hired until an hour before the end of the day. At the end of the day, the landowner paid the workers, starting with the last hired and working back to the first. The ones who had only worked an hour received a full day’s wages. So the first ones hired expected more but were disappointed and complained when they received the same amount.
Like all of the parables that Jesus taught, this parable illustrates a spiritual truth about the kingdom of heaven. The landowner in this parable is God. We are the ones called to work in his field. The pay we receive when we stand before him, in the end, is eternal life. And the parable is teaching me that my reward for following Jesus for over 50 years will not be greater than the one whose service is brief.
But this parable is not really about me and my reward at the end. It is about God and his generosity toward all who come to him and faithfully serve. All who surrender to his will and faithfully serve him are adopted into his family and inherit eternal life. It does not matter how long we served. It does not matter how gifted our service was. Or how important or insignificant we might seem in this life. What matters is the generosity of God, who gives freely to all who come.
