Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard

thumb|The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard by A.N. Mironov The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard (also called the Parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard or the Parable of the Generous Employer) is a parable of Jesus which appears in the New Testament. It has been described as a difficult parable to interpret. Quotes about Bible For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard.About nine in the morning he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ So they went.He went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing. 6 About five in the afternoon he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered.He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my 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.’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?’So the last will be first, and the first will be last. Gospel of Matthew 20:1-16 NIV. Others What is told in the parable fits such a pagan, the parable about the vineyard workers who misappropriated the vineyard and acted as if the owner did not exist; and insofar as he is brought up in Christianity, what they are reported to have said also fits him: “Let us kill the son, and the vineyard will be ours.” The life of every human being is God’s possession; the human being is his bond servant. But one cannot kill God; on the other hand, as is said, one certainly can kill the thought of him. Søren Kierkegaard, Christian Discourses (1848), V The Care of Presumptuousness, Hong translation P. 66-67. More important than the fact that the workers who arrived first receive a higher wage is that they recognise the goodness of the Lord and know that they have no right to make demands of Him and that they must therefore be content with the grace of being able to serve Him. No form of envy should arise in the Church. It is true that the conduct of the master in this parable may seem hard to swallow for good Christians, since the principle of a “fair” proportion between work done and wages seems to be the criterion by which, in this world, a master's way of acting is considered just. All the more so when it comes to God! But grace is never within man's power to dispose of and calculate. Who could determine what God owes to a person who dies young or to another who recognises His call in old age? Man must imitate God, loving Him and not being petty. Adrienne von Speyr, Le parabole del Signore (Gleichnisse des Herrn, 1966), translation into Italian by Giuseppe Reguzzoni, Jaca Book, Milano, 2008, pp. 89-90. ISBN 978-88-16-30459-8. See also Kingdom of God External links Workers in the Vineyard Category:Parables of Jesus