The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out at dawn to hire laborers for his vineyard. 2 After agreeing with them for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard. 3 Going out about nine o’clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, 4 and he said to them, ‘You too go into my vineyard, and I will give you what is just.’ 5 So they went off. [And] he went out again around noon, and around three o’clock, and did likewise. 6 Going out about five o’clock, he found others standing around, and said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’ 7 They answered, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You too go into my vineyard.’ 8 When it was evening the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Summon the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and ending with the first.’ 9 When those who had started about five o’clock came, each received the usual daily wage. 10 So when the first came, they thought that they would receive more, but each of them also got the usual wage. 11 And on receiving it they grumbled against the landowner, 12 saying, ‘These last ones worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us, who bore the day’s burden and the heat.’ 13 He said to one of them in reply, ‘My friend, I am not cheating you. Did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? 14 Take what is yours and go. What if I wish to give this last one the same as you? 15 [Or] am I not free to do as I wish with my own money? Are you envious because I am generous?’ 16 Thus, the last will be first, and the first will be last.”
This passage deliberately presses the nerve of “that’s not fair.” A landowner pays the same day’s wage—a denarius—to crews hired at dawn and to those hired near sunset. He even pays the latecomers first so everyone has to watch. By any ordinary ledger, more hours should mean more pay. Yet no one is cheated: the first workers receive exactly what was promised, and they are paid promptly, as Israel’s Law required for day laborers. What provokes anger is not injustice but generosity. Hence the master’s piercing question: “Are you envious because I am generous?” (literally, “Is your eye evil because I am good?”)—that is, are you resentful because mercy has been shown?
Read in context, this answers Peter’s anxious, “We have given up everything and followed you. What will there be for us?” (Mt. 19:27). Jesus frames the parable with the saying, “the last will be first, and the first will be last” (Mt. 20:16; 19:30), signaling that the Kingdom does not run on seniority. The denarius symbolizes the one inheritance—life with God—given to all who enter His vineyard. The story affirms justice (promises kept) while unveiling a deeper truth: salvation is a gift, not a wage. “If You, Lord, keep account of sins, Lord, who can stand?” (Ps. 130:3); and God Himself says, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways” (Is. 55:8-9). Seen this way, each laborer receiving a denarius is not a slight to the early workers but the mercy without which none of us could stand. That is why the “unfairness” feels sharp in a world of contracts and comparisons; grace confounds our instinct to measure ourselves against others.
Scripture’s wider story prepares us for this. Israel is God’s vineyard (Is. 5:1-7); the Torah commands prompt, fair pay (Deut. 24:15; Lev. 19:13). When God shows mercy beyond expectation, the envious reaction recurs—from Jonah sulking over Nineveh’s pardon (Jon. 4) to the elder brother resenting the father’s feast in the Parable of the Lost Son (Lk. 15:25-32). The point is not that effort is meaningless; to labor with the Master all day is itself a gift (1 Cor. 15:10). The point is that the Father is free to give the same Life to those who arrive late.
Read in this light, Jesus is not denying the value of early fidelity; He is curing rivalry. By reversing expectations—paying the last first—He warns disciples against status-comparison and recenters everything on the Father’s free initiative (cf. Rom. 4:4-5; Eph. 2:8-9). Scripture itself shows both paths: God appoints Jeremiah from the womb (Jer. 1:5) and forms Timothy “from childhood” in the sacred writings (2 Tim. 3:15), yet He also calls Zacchaeus in midlife—“today salvation has come to this house” (Lk. 19:1-10)—and welcomes the repentant thief into Paradise at the eleventh hour (Lk. 23:39-43). The single denarius fittingly signifies the one inheritance—life with God—shared by those who enter the vineyard, whether from Israel’s “first hour” or the Gentiles’ “eleventh.” No one is wronged; the promise stands. What jars us is generous goodness. The Church’s early preaching often read the “hours” as the stages of life: whether we come early or late, we receive the same Christ.
In a world that prizes performance and keeps score, this parable challenges our habits. We easily slip into spiritual bookkeeping—who started first, who “deserves” more—but Jesus calls us to rejoice in every act of mercy. The vineyard is God’s, and the wage is God Himself. When grace lifts a latecomer, mature disciples don’t audit the books; they join the celebration.
Lord of the vineyard, heal my envious eye. Teach me to labor with gratitude, to welcome the latecomer without comparison, and to rest in the freedom of Your generous love. Amen.
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Sources and References
- Holy Bible, NABRE (2011): Mt. 19:27-30; 20:1-16; Is. 5:1-7; 55:8-9; Deut. 24:15; Lev. 19:13; Ps. 130:3; Jon. 4; Ex. 16:18; Lk. 15:25-32; 18:9-14; 19:1-10; 23:39-43; Rom. 3:23-26; 4:4-5; Eph. 2:8-9; 1 Cor. 15:10; Jer. 1:5; 2 Tim. 3:15.
- Orchard, Bernard, et al., eds. A Catholic Commentary on Holy Scripture (1953).
- Faculty of the University of Navarre. The Navarre Bible: Matthew (2008).
- Chiu, José Enrique Aguilar, et al., eds. The Paulist Biblical Commentary (2018).
- Brown, Raymond E., et al., eds. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary (1990).
- St. John Chrysostom, Homilies on Matthew (c. 349-407).
- St. Augustine, Sermon 87: On the Laborers in the Vineyard (354-430).
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