Parable · Matthew 20:1-16

The Workers in the Vineyard

Workers hired at dawn and workers hired an hour before quitting time are paid the same.

Also called The Laborers, The Eleventh Hour

The point

Nobody was cheated. The complaint is not about injustice, it is about someone else getting grace.

Matthew 20:1-16

1“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard.

2He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard.

3About the third hour he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing.

4‘You also go into my vineyard,’ he said, ‘and I will pay you whatever is right.’

5So they went. He went out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour and did the same thing.

6About the eleventh hour he went out and found still others standing around. ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’ he asked.

7‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered. So he told them, ‘You also go into my vineyard.’

8When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, starting with the last ones hired and moving on to the first.’

9The workers who were hired about the eleventh hour came and each received a denarius.

10So when the original workers came, they assumed they would receive more. But each of them also received a denarius.

11On receiving their pay, they began to grumble against the landowner.

12‘These men who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the scorching heat of the day.’

13But he answered one of them, ‘Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Did you not agree with me on one denarius?

14Take your pay and go. I want to give this last man the same as I gave you.

15Do I not have the right to do as I please with what is mine? Or are you envious because I am generous?’

16So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”

Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Read the whole chapter

Using this at church

Read in church on

Lectionary 25 Year AGospel, Matthew 20:1-16

For a newsletter or sermon notes

The parable of the Workers in the Vineyard, explained in plain words. Early workers and last-hour workers get the same pay. https://freescripture.org/parables/workers-in-the-vineyard/

Lines for the next eight Sundays, on Digital Lutheran Church