The Grace of God and the Parable of the Laborers – Is God Just?

Everyone is pleased to have the grace of God in their life but are we disturbed by it when his grace shows
up in the lives of others seemingly more generously than in our own? I am afraid that is sometimes the
case. The parable of the laborers found in Matt. 20:1-16 is a perfect example and is also an excellent
illustration of how man feels he knows more about what is just and right than God does.

The passage is too long to quote here but I will jog your memory and summarize it for you. A man had a
vineyard and needed workers. He went out to hire workers for his vineyard 5 different times during the
course of the day each time sending them directly to work as they were hired. At day’s end, as was the
custom back then, each was paid. A problem arose in the hearts of the early hires at the end of the day
when the owner of the vineyard paid those who came into the field last, late in the day, the same amount
as those who had gone to work first. They complained feeling they had been treated unjustly. “These last
men have worked only one hour, and you made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the
heat of the day.” (Matt. 20:12 NKJV)

It is easy to read this account and at first impulse feel that indeed the earliest workers were mistreated.
We have all been raised to believe in the concept of quid pro quo, so much money for so much work, pay
based on the amount of work done, the more work the more money. The last workers in this parable did
not do equal work, far less, yet received equal pay. To an American this seems most unjust but what was
the vineyard owner’s response? “Is your eye evil because I am good?” (Matt. 20:15 NKJV) The ESV
reads, “Do you begrudge my generosity?” The NAS reads, “Is your eye envious because I am
generous?” The bottom line is that they were jealous and angry over the generosity shown by the
vineyard owner to those hired last.

One must understand, and I think we do, that this parable is about God’s dealings with those who believe
and obey the gospel. God’s grace gives a man what he needs and not what he deserves. Such was the
case in this parable. His grace is not based on works, not on how much work one has done, not on how
difficult it has been, not on how long one has had to endure.

God is always just in the sense that he treats us honestly and fairly and does not go back on the word he
has given. In the parable those who went to work in the vineyard earliest in the day were glad to go, to
have the opportunity, and agreed that the wage set was fair and the work required was just. He did not
ask of them more than they could do or were willing to do.

These early workers were blessed and enjoyed grace from the vineyard owner. What had he done for
them? He had given them work. Not every man was so blessed with a job. He had given them security.
At the end of the day they knew their need to feed their family was going to be met. He had given them
dignity and self respect. They need not hang their head in embarrassment and shame as those who
could not provide for themselves and their family.

Those were great blessings in that day and they are great blessings in this day. These men were treated
not only with justice but with grace in being given these blessings. They should have been in a state of
thanksgiving and rejoicing and perhaps they were for a time – until the time they learned of grace given to
others, grace beyond what they perceived had been given to them. Envy and jealousy arose. If we are
not careful the same attitude can develop within us and for the same reason. It is the age old complaint
that men have that God is not fair. In the parable the vineyard owner is representative of God. Was he
fair? Did he do what was right?

In the parable, as the day went on, others were hired with the last being hired at the eleventh hour, quite
late in the work day. When this last set of men were hired they were told, “whatever is right you will
receive.” (Matt. 20:7 NKJV) When they were paid at the end of the work day what did they receive? They
received the same amount as did those who had worked far more hours of the day, who had endured a
much greater work load because of it, and who had borne the heat of the day. But, note what those at the
eleventh hour received - they had received was what was “right.” (Matt. 20:7)

How could that be? If I owned a business today and went out and hired men as in the parable and acted
accordingly in paying them would I be doing what was right? Most would say no. In what sense then
could this be said to be “right”? If it was “right” then it would have been wrong to have done it the way
most think it should have been done – pay based on the amount of work done.

Here is what made it “right.” Every man hired that day had an equal need – the need to feed himself and
his family if he had one which is most likely. If it is in my power to do good and make that possible for a
man can I be righteous and fail to do it? “Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to
him it is sin.” (James 4:17 NKJV)

Paul told Timothy to command the rich to “be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share.” (1 Tim.
6:18 NKJV)

In Matt. 25 who is it that is going to be condemned in the last day? “Then he will also say to those on the
left hand, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: for
I was hungry and you gave me no food; I was thirsty and you gave me no drink; I was a stranger and you
did not take me in, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’” (Matt.
25:41-43 NKJV)

“But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how
does the love of God abide in him?” (1 John 3:17 NKJV) The eleventh hour men in the parable had a
need. The vineyard owner, since he had it in his power, could not have been a just man with the love of
God in his heart and done anything other than what he did. What he did was good and right. If these
laborers had not had need they would not have been laboring so there was a need to be met that could
not now be met by any other principle.

What was that principle? The principle of grace. God is a God of grace. If we are his children we too
must have grace for others. When we take the position everyone has to earn all he gets then that locks
us all out of heaven “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Rom. 3:23 NKJV) Remember
this parable is in reality about spiritual matters, not economics.

Many who work hard and make a living develop an attitude toward those who have been less fortunate
than themselves. It goes something like this. See me, see what I have done, anyone could have done
the same and would have if they had any get up and go about them and were not so shiftless. Look at
me. Vanity, pride, arrogance all fit into one body made of dust to which it will in due time return. I have
even heard preachers talk along this line.

It would be good to look closer at the eleventh hour laborers. In the parable when the vineyard owner
was preparing to hire the eleventh hour workers he quizzes them before doing so and asks them, “Why
have you been standing here idle all day?” (Matt. 20:6 NKJV) Their answer is, “Because no one hired
us.” (Matt. 20:7 NKJV) It was not that they were lazy, not that they had not been seeking work. It may
well have been simply a matter of not being in the right place at the right time. I say that because the
vineyard owner had been seeking day laborers evidently all day long hiring it seems about any who would
answer the call. He only runs into these men at the eleventh hour and yet they had obviously been here
long enough to have been passed over by other employers as per their answer to the vineyard owner’s
question.
Why were they passed over? Was it unwillingness to work? They went to work at the eleventh hour
knowing the work day was pretty much over and that they could not realistically expect anything close to a
full day’s wages yet they went being willing to work for what they could get. They had been passed over
but it was not because of failure to seek work or unwillingness to work. People are passed over for
employment for a great many reasons that have nothing to do with character in the least little bit and yet
we so often see their plight as their fault for look at us, we raised ourselves up by the bootstrap and if they
have any grit about them they would do the same.

We, if we are not careful, see ourselves, because we were hired, as worthy, as talented, as deserving
while looking down on the other guy who was not hired. We can sin in our attitude toward others if we are
not awfully careful and it is not just a matter of attitude but also of judging. Where is compassion and
mercy? Where is grace?

I do not judge those first hired in the parable as regards their attitude toward the eleventh hour workers for
their attitude was not revealed save in one particular. They, in concern for self only, lost sight of
compassion for others who had a like need (provide for myself and for my family). How easy that is to do.
It is easy to do but it is still sin.

Were the first hour workers treated fairly? Most certainly for they got exactly what they had been happy
to agree to. Had they of been paid in private and left unaware of what the later laborers received they
would have walked away fully satisfied and content. But, as it was, they were made jealous by the
generosity of another, one who gave grace.

Bible teaching is that we “rejoice with those who rejoice.” (Rom. 12:15 NKJV) The proper attitude is to be
happy and thankful for the good fortune of others. I think we know this but we have to battle human
nature (which tends towards jealousy and envy) and overcome it if we are to become the person of
character that we need to be having the kind of attitude God would have us have. Those first hired in the
parable fell short in this respect.

Jesus used the parable about the laborers in the vineyard to teach how God’s grace works for those who
become Christians. We become Christians at different stages in life and in different circumstances and
environments. Some have much longer to live and labor as soldiers of Christ than do others. Likewise
some suffer much greater persecution than do others with the apostles being perfect examples of that.
Yet, we all, if we will live faithfully unto death, receive the same inheritance.

Is it fair? Would you have it any other way? If it is your son, your daughter, your wife, your husband, your
mother or dad who is the eleventh hour worker you would have it no other way. Give praise to God for his
grace. We are pleased with his promise to us no matter what hour worker we end up being and rejoice in
the grace he gives others. No, we would have it no other way. We will not complain and we are
overcome with joy to know there is hope even yet that some will come to work at the eleventh hour, even
some of our loved ones.