Matthew 20:1 – 16

¹“For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard.  ²After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard.  ³And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, ⁴and to them he said, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.’  ⁵So they went.  Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same.  ⁶And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing.  And he said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’  ⁷They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’  He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’  ⁸And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.’  ⁹And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius.  ¹⁰Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius.  ¹¹And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house, ¹²saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’  ¹³But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong.  Did you not agree with me for a denarius?  ¹⁴Take what belongs to you and go.  I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you.  ¹⁵Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me?  Or do you begrudge my generosity?’  ¹⁶So the last will be first, and the first last.”