1 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire men to work in his vineyard. 2 He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard.”
3 “About the third hour he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. 4 He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ 5 So they went.”
“He went out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour and did the same thing. 6 About the eleventh hour he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’”
7 “‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered.”
“He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.’”
8 “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.’”
9 “The workers who were hired about the eleventh hour came and each received a denarius. 10 So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. 11 When they received it, 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 of the work and the heat of the day.’”
13 “But he answered one of them, ‘Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn't you agree to work for a denarius? 14 Take your pay and go. I want to give the man who was hired last the same as I gave you. 15 Don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’”
16 “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”
The Prophet Haggai records God’s Words which are reminiscent to our parable presented in the verses for today by the Lord Jesus regarding God’s right to do whatever He desires with His own money:
8 “‘The silver is mine and the gold is mine,’ declares the LORD Almighty.” Hag 2:8 (NIV)
He is also the owner of the cattle on a thousand hills. Psalm 50 tells us:
9 I have no need of a bull from your stall or of goats from your pens, 10 for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills. 11 I know every bird in the mountains, and the creatures of the field are mine. 12 If I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and all that is in it. Psalms 50:9-12 (NIV)
Indeed, the great Truth being that God is no man’s debtor. He will not be in arrears for any service done Him and there is never loss in working for the Almighty. The time of life is here represented by a day and the rewards for eternity. This should stir us to diligence in our work as well as to the reality of the fleetingness of our hardships and difficulties. Peter tells us:
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade--kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that your faith--of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire--may be proved genuine. 1 Peter 1:3-7 (NIV)
The matter of all eternal rewards is under the sovereign control of God Who is both just and fair. The analysis our Lord Jesus gives of our works will most certainly carry the greatest and most important weight regarding rewards. We are to continue on in the zeal that we had in the beginning – keeping our spiritual fervor serving the Lord. We are not to be idle and impoverished – God calls us all to kingdom work – not to be slothful or loiterers rather laborers. He desires for us not to be standing around all day doing nothing – frittering away precious time. The vineyard is of His planting, watering and fencing and the harvest is plentiful.
I find it interesting that the first workers hired demonstrate the same stench of envy as the older prodigal brother in the Parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15: 25-31). When we labor without love - focusing on our works and sacrifices rather than serving the One Who died for us - we open the door of our hearts for envy which is rottenness to our bones. Our motivations behind our actions are always to be checked. We are never to compare ourselves to others particularly regarding what God has called us individually to do rather we are to compare ourselves to Jesus Who through His obedience to the Father demonstrated faith for all of us to follow.
1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. 2 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. Heb 12:1-3 (NIV)