Mining a Parable
Jesus, a true holy rascal, said the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who, having settled with workers on a day’s wage, hired them early one morning to harvest his vineyard. He hired more workers midmorning, and did so again midafternoon, and again in the late afternoon. When the day’s work was done, the landowner paid all his workers the full day’s wage he had agreed upon with those he hired at dawn. Those who had labored for the entire day complained: Is it fair that those who worked only an hour or two be paid the same as those who worked a full day? The landlord explained that it was his money and he could do with it as he pleased.
Remember, the landlord represents the kingdom of heaven. If the parable ended here, Jesus’s point would be that the kingdom is a socialist paradise where everyone receives the same pay no matter how much or how little work they do. Jesus doesn’t end the parable here, however, but rather with the capping phrase “So the last will be first and the first will be last” (Matthew 20:16).
This sounds like a rebuke. In fact, it is the true revelation.
Parables speak on several levels at the same time. For some, they are morality tales. For others, they are extended metaphors or similes. For holy rascals they are Molotov cocktails. RR