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““For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. Now when he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And he went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.’ So they went. Again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did likewise. And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing idle, and said to them, ‘Why have you been standing here idle all day?’ They said to him, ‘Because no one hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right you will receive.’ “So when evening had come, the owner of the vineyard said to his steward, ‘Call the laborers and give them their wages, beginning with the last to the first.’ And when those came who were hired about the eleventh hour, they each received a denarius. But when the first came, they supposed that they would receive more; and they likewise received each a denarius. And when they had received it, they complained against the landowner, saying, ‘These last men have worked only one hour, and you made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the heat of the day.’ But he answered one of them and said, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what is yours and go your way. I wish to give to this last man the same as to you. Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things? Or is your eye evil because I am good?’ So the last will be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few chosen.””Matthew 20:1-16 NKJV
What stood out to me this time was this:
“And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing idle, and said to them, ‘Why have you been standing here idle all day?’ They said to him, ‘Because no one hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right you will receive.’”Matthew 20:6-7 NKJV
Or, boiled down even more:
“Because no one hired us.”
The part of this parable that I’ve been long familiar with is Jesus’s response to the complainers at the end. Here, I can actually identify with the complainers. Despite all “day” (proverbially speaking) working, they got what they deemed a modest wage (which the text states that they had agreed to) compared with those who only worked right at the end for a few minutes but still somehow got the same wage. But Jesus’s response, as “unfair” as it might seem, refers back back to the aforementioned highlighted statement that we the readers get to know, but the proverbial workers in the parable do not have insight into: the workers who only worked the last hour did not necessarily choose to be lazy; according to Jesus, the only reason they didn’t work was because no one hired them. This calls to mind something Paul writes later:
“How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?”Romans 10:14 NKJV
(Yes, for context’s sake, Paul goes on to also say, “how can the preachers preach unless they are sent by God?”)
Nonetheless, the point still stands: those latter-hour laborers were only able to labor when somebody actually stepped up and hired them.
This actually dovetails into a sort of deeper topic regarding who God chooses to do His work first as opposed to later.
“but glory, honor, and peace to everyone who works what is good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For there is no partiality with God.”Romans 2:10-11 NKJV
As the second half of the above passage states, there is no partiality with God. As such, when the text talks about God giving glory, honor and peace to the Jew first, it follows God’s plan from the Old Testament when He told Abraham He would favor him and use his descendants to be a “shining light” example of God’s glory and holiness to the rest of the world, but it does not preclude people of other tribes from coming to know this same God and enter into a relationship with Him.
The bottom line is, I get the sense that this same principle applies to what Jesus was talking about in the original passage in this post. When God created every human being that ever existed, He had assignments for them. Because He’s God, He also got to choose where each of their starting points are.
(As a side note, I’m still very much wrestling with this, especially as new revelations come to light regarding deceptions that were present in the environment in which I grew up and then remained for a significant chunk of my adulthood. These revelations have been significant because they have been giving insight into why I made certain decisions or reacted the way I did to different opportunities as an adult when they presented themselves.)
The point is that not everyone is born into a family that goes to church and professes Jesus Christ as their King and Savior. Many are born into families and cultures that are outright hostile to Christianity. Yes, God set that up, but also know that for many people, He’s given dreams and visions of Jesus as the Son of God, and to where these dreams and visions similarly tear down religious and cultural strongholds that these people believed. He does give an opportunity for all to be saved. Yes, certain people grow up in families and communities that believe, serve, worship, and honor Christ and Lord, and it is they who started working in the proverbial vineyard since early morning. But there are many others who only came to faith during one’s midlife, or even quite late in their life. These are the people who were hired at noon or late in the afternoon. I cannot explain the decision to pay everyone the same, outside of what the text already has said:
““For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. Now when he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard.”Matthew 20:1-2 NKJV
“But he answered one of them and said, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what is yours and go your way. I wish to give to this last man the same as to you. Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things? Or is your eye evil because I am good?’”Matthew 20:13-15 NKJV
In other words, it is best that we stay in our own lane regarding our expectations of life and of rewards. There’s a reason the devil likes to get people to compare themselves to others. It’s to stir up strife and division. Part of trusting God, as hard as it is, is to understand and agree that, because He’s God, He gets to make the rules; we don’t get that privilege.
“Peter, seeing him, said to Jesus, “But Lord, what about this man?” Jesus said to him, “If I will that he remain till I come, what is that to you? You follow Me.””John 21:21-22 NKJV