This past summer one of our grandsons asked if he could do some work for us to earn some money, so we asked him to come over to trim a garden tree. After he started my husband thought it’d be a good time to ask another grandson to go pick up some bags of mulch to spread in our garden. So we asked the first grandson to stay and help spread the mulch too. A couple of hours later our other grandson delivered the mulch to our house and both grandsons worked together to spread the mulch. We paid them both the same amount.

Later, the first grandson, humbly asked me if he should maybe get paid more because he started working earlier in the day by trimming the tree. I smiled as his request immediately brought to mind the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard in Matthew 20:1-16. I lovingly declined his request and told him that this would better serve as a biblical lesson as this was very similar to one of Jesus’ parables. I also reasoned with him that although the other grandson did start later in the day, he got to rest on the couch while waiting for the other grandson to bring the mulch. The other grandson also had to drive his truck to the Home Depot from his house which was about 12 miles away, wait for the pick-up order to be ready, load 25 bags of mulch, and deliver it to our house. 

In the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard the landowner hired groups of workers at different times throughout the day and at the end of the day he paid them each the same amount, regardless of how long they worked.  The workers who started working earliest complained that they should get paid more than the ones who started working late in the day.  They accused him of being unjust. The landowner explained he paid them fairly, and that as the landowner he has the right to choose whatever he wants to do with his money, and with that which He owns. 

The workers in this parable represent both believers in Christ and Pharisees, or at very least, those who do not yet understand the grace and mercy of God. The landowner represents God. The landowner, whose decision to pay all the workers the same amount was actually an act of mercy, not of injustice. God’s grace and mercy are shed abundantly upon all those of His choosing. “For he says to Moses, ‘I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”Romans 9:15. In addition and most certainly, God’s grace is more than sufficient to redeem all those who believe. 

“For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and to them he said, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.’ So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same. And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing. And he said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’ They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’ And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.’ And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius. Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius. And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house, saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’ But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’ So the last will be first, and the first last.” Matthew 20:1-16

Essentially, the message of verse 16, “the last will be first, and the first last,” is that no matter how long or how hard a believer works during his lifetime, the reward of eternal life is the same for all believers in Christ. While there’re also scriptures that teach of additional rewards in heaven based upon an individuals service to Him, the ultimate reward of eternal life is equal for all believers in Christ regardless of length of service.   

“For He says to Moses, ‘I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.’ So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy.” Romans 9:15-16