The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard
All the labourers get the same wage — and grace offends the ones who worked all day.
A landowner hires workers throughout the day — at dawn, and at the third, sixth, ninth, and eleventh hours — and pays them all the same wage, beginning with the last. The all-day workers grumble, but the owner answers: is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good?
The parable
And when they came that were hired about the eleventh hour, they received every man a penny. But when the first came, they supposed that they should have received more; and they likewise received every man a penny.
Those hired last received a penny — and the first supposed they would receive more.
Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good?
Is thine eye evil, because I am good?
What it means
The parable turns on a scandal of grace. The workers hired at the eleventh hour, who laboured barely an hour, receive exactly the same wage as those who bore the burden and heat of the whole day. By the logic of fairness, the all-day workers have a grievance — and Jesus lets them voice it.
But the owner has cheated no one; he pays the first exactly what they agreed. Their real complaint is not injustice but generosity — his generosity to others. Their eye is evil because he is good. The parable exposes the human heart's resentment of unearned grace given to those we think deserve less.
The kingdom does not run on merit or seniority. The thief on the cross, saved in his last hour, receives the same paradise as the apostle who laboured for decades. So the last shall be first, and the first last — a warning to everyone who would turn God's grace into a payroll and begrudge it to the latecomer.