NOTES for Mat 20:1-16
Today’s reading is a parable well known to many, usually called the parable of the laborers of the eleventh hour. This is undoubtedly a parable of the Kingdom, as in this case is clear both from the text—the vineyard in most biblical parables symbolizes the Kingdom of God or the messianic Kingdom, a symbolism rooted in the prophetic tradition—and from the context (v. 16; Mt 19:30). Paradoxically, its subject is the injustice of the reward received in the Kingdom by those who sought it and served it.
Indeed, from a human perspective, hardly anyone would call equal payment for labor of unequal duration fair. Yet this is precisely the situation here (vv. 8–12). In response to the laborers’ indignation, however, the owner of the vineyard rightly points out that they had agreed to work for a definite wage, which they received in full. They therefore have nothing to complain about, at least as far as they themselves are concerned, and everything else is none of their business (vv. 13–15).
At first glance, we see a typical example of leveling, which has never encouraged anyone to work. On the other hand, we also see a typical and characteristic manifestation of such traits of fallen human nature as greed and envy. A denarius a day was by no means poor pay by the standards of Judea in Gospel times, and no one had promised those who came to work first that they would receive more. One might say that every laborer was paid well for his work, and in that respect no one went away wronged. Resentment and envy arose not because some laborers did not have enough money, but because some suddenly decided that they deserved more for their work than others. By earthly standards, by the laws of our still untransformed world, they were right.
But the point is precisely that our arithmetic does not apply to the Kingdom. In the Kingdom, each person receives not according to merit, but as much as he needs in order to live, and to live a full life of the kind possible only in the Kingdom. Then it ceases to matter how much each person managed to do on the way to the Kingdom. In fact, when the first laborers were hired, they might have thought themselves fortunate: they had found work and knew from the morning that they would not be left without money. Those who had stood in the marketplace all day waiting for an employer probably began to think by evening that they would find no work that day. It is the same with the Kingdom: those who began their path toward it earlier have it much easier, at least because they know that they have found their way and are already moving in the right direction without wasting time.
In essence, the Kingdom is already open to everyone walking toward it, provided that he does not leave the road or turn back. The fate of those who stand waiting is not yet determined. For them, the Kingdom is only a possibility, and while they remain motionless it is unknown whether they will realize that possibility. But all this matters only while the journey lasts. When it is completed, only one thing will matter: the Kingdom has come.