The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard

 

20 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. 2 He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard.

3 “About nine in the morning he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. 4 He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ 5 So they went.

“He went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing. 6 About five in the afternoon he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’

7 “‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered.

“He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.

8 “When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’

9 “The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. 10 So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. 11 When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. 12 ‘These who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’

13 “But he answered one of them, ‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? 14 Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. 15 Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’

16 “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”

This Sunday’s gospel reading is a bit challenging. It seems to say, and is commonly understood to say, that late conversion from a sinful life is as good as remaining faithful and doing good all life long for getting into heaven. This suggests that heaven is an up or down thing, in or out. Yet elsewhere in the Bible, and in Catholic teaching, it is not: everyone must pay for their sins in Purgatory, and some saints are greater in heaven, seated closer to the throne. So what point is being made here?

I think two details in the story may be important. First, while the owner of the vineyard promises the first batch of workers a specific wage, one denarius, he makes no specific promise to any of the later groups: they work for whatever he is prepared to pay them. He promises nothing at all to the last group; not even to pay them. Second, the late hires are not idle by choice, but because no one has hired them. They were there, seeking work. They are not in the position of sinners, and have no debt to pay in purgatory.

The distinction seems to be, not between the righteous throughout life and sinners who convert late, but between those who do the right expecting reward, and those who do the right in trust in God, because it is right. The former will get their reward, for God is just. But the latter are preferred.

In fact, this implies hierarchy in heaven: “The last shall be first” means the hierarchy is reversed, not abolished.

Those who think only of what is right, what work there is to do, rather than of advantage, shall be rewarded first, perhaps with less labour in purgatory, or with fewer actual meritorious deeds required.