New Testament : The Parable Of The Workers In The Vineyard? When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, “Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.” The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. “These who were hired last worked only one hour,” they said, “and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day” (Matthew 20:8–12).
Jesus often uses parables to reveal what the kingdom of heaven is like. He portrays how one enters the kingdom and who the different characters are. In this Parable of the Laborers or Workers in the Vineyard, there are things that He tells the disciples and us about the grace of God and that God is always more than fair. Here is a discussion on this parable and what Jesus means in giving it.
The master of the house would seem to be God and the vineyard is the place where those servants who have been called to work for the master as laborers will enter into the work. The laborers are those who have been called and saved by God. They enter into the work or their calling by God under the guidance of the master, which is Jesus Christ. In another place in the Scriptures, Jesus uses this symbolism of believers being used by God to labor for the Lord as in Matthew 9:37-38 where He says “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”
A more careful reading of the parable offers an alternate meaning behind Jesus’ words. The eleventh hour workers in the parable represent people who have not heard of Jesus previously. When questioned as to why they are not working, they reply in verse seven that “no one has hired [them]” (Matt. 20:7, NKJV). Even in the “deathbed conversion” interpretation of the parable, the fact that all workers receive the same wages does not indicate that Christians are given a free pass in life as long as they repent before they die. Instead, the parable assures us that there is no advantage to having been born a Christian and that all are likewise saved not by their works but by the goodness of Christ.
He said to them, “You also go and work in my vineyard” (Matthew 20:1–7). Jesus’s story begins with a landowner hiring day laborers. Early in the day, the landowner heads out to the location where workers-for-hire wait to be employed for the day. He picks up a handful of laborers and promises them a day’s wages. As the morning progresses, the landowner heads back into town to pick up a few more workers. This time he doesn’t make them a specific promise about payment. He tells them that they shall be paid “whatever is right.” Happy for the work, the laborers head to the vineyard. Twice in the heat of the afternoon, the owner heads back into town. Seeing unhired laborers, he puts them to work. He doesn’t discuss pay in either of these instances. See additional info on the The Parable Of The Workers In The Vineyard video on YouTube.