PAY EQUALITY

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

“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. 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.”

Matthew 20:1-16

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

There are Christians who are in their latter years of life who have always been connected to Jesus from their very earliest years of life. They can claim decades of attachment to their Savior and service to His causes, countless hours of work for the cause of the Gospel.

There are also Christians who never knew Jesus until they became adults. They had never been taken to church as children and were raised by parents who never made faith in Jesus a part of the family lifestyle. These Christ-followers came to Jesus on their own terms in life and committed themselves to His calling to help others find the salvation they discovered.

And then there are believers who find Jesus very late in life, possibly by way of some major life event that brought them to a place of need, to a place where they found Jesus. These elder believers may have left behind many, many years where they did nothing for the cause of Christ but that wouldn’t discourage them to do what they could do in their latter years for as long as the Lord would still allow them to live.

Question: Of these three groups, is there one who will get a higher level of everlasting life than the other?

The answer is no. All will gain the same reward, not perishing but inheriting a place in the kingdom where they will abide with God and Jesus forever.

It’s the ultimate pay equality, each group receiving the same payoff for the work that they did in Jesus’ name.

This is the truth Jesus is trying to get across as we look at the opening sixteen verses of Matthew, Chapter 20, where we find Him telling another parable. Look again at His words here:

“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. 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.”  Matthew 20:1-16

The scene here is a landowner’s vineyard and the recruitment of workers, the vineyard being representative of the harvest field, a field ripe with people needing to hear the Gospel and have a chance to gain their salvation. And of course, the workers in the vineyard are none other than Christians in the harvest field working for their Savior to bring non-believers from death to eternal life through Jesus.

So what happens in the parable?

People end up being sent into the vineyard at different times of the day.

One group was out working early in the morning, agreeing to be paid a denarius for their day’s work. They knew their payoff before they went to work and accepted it without complaint.

The scriptures tell us that the landowner went into the marketplace around “nine in the morning” and found some people just standing around doing nothing. The landowner made an offer to them saying:

“You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.”

He didn’t tell them how much they would be paid. He just told them that whatever they received would be right. And so they went out to the vineyard and joined those who had been working.

This process, the landowner going into the marketplace to recruit workers while promising pay that would be right, occurred at noon and again at three with the same results. Those who wanted to take the landowner up on his offer left, went to the vineyard, and got to work.

Finally, nearly at the end of the workday at five in the afternoon, the landowner goes into the marketplace one final time and unsurprisingly, there were still people standing around unemployed which prompted the landowner to ask:

“Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?”

To which they replied:

“Because no one has hired us.”

And with that, the landowner told them:

“You also go and work in my vineyard.”

Well, it was not long after this final group was recruited that evening came and it was time to pay the workers, a task given to the foreman by the landowner who provided this direction:

“Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.”

And so the foreman began to disburse payment for the day’s labor.

The group hired at five in the afternoon, the last group who went into the vineyard came and were each given a denarius, the same amount promised to those who had went into the vineyard first. This caused the first workers to be buoyed up with hope believing that if those who had worked a few hours received the wage they had been promised then surely they would be paid more since they had been working longer.

Unfortunately, that’s not what happened.

For the scriptures tell us that when those who had been hired first came up to the foreman to be paid, each received only a denarius, the same amount given to the group who had only worked a few hours. We see where there was an immediate feeling of injustice felt by the first group of workers who waged the following complaint against the landowner:

“These who were hired last worked only one hour and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.”

In the minds, it seemed like a fair grievance to file. For pay equality didn’t seem like it had happened, not even close. They felt they deserved to be rewarded more than those who only worked a fraction of the time they did.

So how did the landowner respond to their objection?

We find the answer through these words:

“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.”

There had been an agreement. The workers who went out in the early morning hours to work the vineyard had agreed to labor for a denarius. The landowner delivered on his end of the pact. What he chose to do with his money in regard to the others was his business and prerogative. The laborers had no right to tell the person who hired them how he should spend what he had.

The same applies to anyone who has answered the call to work for Jesus. Everyone, no matter how long they have actually labored in the harvest field will receive the same payoff when that harvest time is over. Everyone will gain salvation and the chance to live with God and Jesus forever, their labors finished.

Think of it as the best retirement plan ever.

In the end translation, we have no right to tell Jesus how to reward anyone who chooses to go to work for Him, even of a person only works for a short time in comparison to the years we may have worked. We shouldn’t begrudge the pay equality that is salvation but rather rejoice and be glad with every person who will receive the payout when their labors are over.

For glory awaits and the best is yet to come in the way of everlasting life for all those who are in Christ Jesus. It’s the good news of the Gospel.

Until then, it’s time to continue our kingdom work in the harvest fields, responding with gladness to the call of our Savior.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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