Matthew 20:12

saying, These last have wrought but one hour, and thou hast made them equal unto us, which have borne the burden and heat of the day.

Six o'clock came, and the master gave the foreman, or steward, one of whose duties was the paying of the laborers, the command to call the workmen and pay them their wages. The order of payment is significant: He should begin with those that came and worked but one hour; commencing with the last one he should continue down the line to the first ones. Each one should receive the full amount of his hire, the amount which the householder had indicated to the steward. A very important point: According to common usage, the length of the employment decided the amount of the wages; the day-laborer that worked only a few hours received less than he that worked all day. But when those of about the eleventh hour came, they received each one his denarius, just as though he had worked a full day. Evidently there was here a case of a free gift or present, whether the other workmen wanted to consider the master as extravagant and foolish or not. But they, seeing this liberality, drew a wrong conclusion. When the first ones came, they that had been hired by regular contract in the morning, they eagerly expected a greater amount than the others had gotten. To their great chagrin, only the money named in the contract of the morning was forthcoming: Also they received each one his denarius. Now they accepted the money, but they immediately began and continued to voice their dissatisfaction. They murmured against the manager or ruler of the estate. Their complaint is excellently put, they express their contempt for the laborers of the eleventh hour. These last, they say, put in only one hour, they have spent that much time without really accomplishing anything worth speaking of, and equal thou hast made them to us, to us that have been obliged to bear the burden of the day's work, and the scorching heat of noonday into the bargain. What was one hour of late afternoon in comparison with that? And yet their pay is the same?

The application of this part of the parable to the work of the kingdom of Christ is not difficult. It teaches us both to avoid envy and to yield honors to those whom the Lord honors. "Whosoever has the gifts of Jesus and knows that we are all equal in Christ, he tends to his work gladly, though he here on earth, for this short time, be in a humbler position and station than some other one. For there it shall be arranged so that in the external life there is a dissimilarity, that one has much, the other little; that one is master, the other servant. That does not bother a Christian, but he says: In God's name, here on earth it shall not be otherwise; though I have a more difficult station than the master or the mistress of the house; though I be not so powerful as a prince, king, or emperor; yet will I not murmur about it, but gladly and willingly remain in my station, until God deals differently with me and also makes me a master or mistress. In the meantime, I comfort myself with this fact that I know neither emperor nor king has another Christ nor more of Christ than I. " And so far as the giving of equal rewards of grace to all believers, to all members of the kingdom, is concerned, there shall be no pointing to a greater amount of good works before God, as though they were able to merit anything in His sight. "All work-saints must necessarily have such pride that know nothing of the grace of God and believe to be their own what they are able to do and what they perform, and that the Lord shall not judge according to His goodness, but according to the weight and ponderousness of their works. But whosoever has realized what grace means, he is not surprised, if God gives the same reward for the small and for the great works."