Last Is First?

Jesus told his disciples this parable: "The Kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out at dawn to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with them for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard. Going out about nine o'clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and he said to them, 'You too go into my vineyard, and I will give you what is just.'

So they went off. And he went out again around noon, and around three o'clock, and did likewise. Going out about five o'clock, he found others standing around, and said to them, 'Why do you stand here idle all day?' They answered, 'Because no one has hired us.' He said to them, 'You too go into my vineyard.'

When it was evening the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, 'Summon the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and ending with the first.' When those who had started about five o'clock came, each received the usual daily wage. So when the first came, they thought that they would receive more, but each of them also got the usual wage. And on receiving it they grumbled against the landowner, saying, 'These last ones worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us, who bore the day's burden and the heat.'

He said to one of them in reply, 'My friend, I am not cheating you. Did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? Take what is yours and go. What if I wish to give this last one the same as you? Or am I not free to do as I wish with my own money? Are you envious because I am generous?' Thus, the last will be first, and the first will be last." (Matthew 20:1-16)

I don’t think they were envious because the owner was generous.  I suspect they were envious about the owner’s wealth, and perhaps they were angry at the owner himself especially if he was a landowner taking advantage of poor laborers.  The landowner might have decided to tweak angry workers’ noses or cruelly taunt them by doing what he wished with his own money; that is, giving the last who worked only one hour, and not in the heat of the day, the same wage as the long-hours worker.  In other words, his was an act of arrogance demonstrating his disregard for the firsts’ hard work for long hours compared to the last who worked only one hour.

My preceding interpretation is cynical.  I’m influenced by what I would define as fair compensation.  I'm also influenced by Jesus’ disdain for the wealthy who dispossessed the poor from the land they owned by using their debts as a tool to acquire their land and make them tenant farmers working for low daily wage on land they previously owned.  This is a harsh and difficult-to-accept example of the last will be first, and the first will be last.

Of course, this story might just be another of Jesus’ examples of how the last will be first, and the first will be last in the Kingdom of heaven, according to Matthew.  I suppose this is the proper interpretation.  If so, then I suspect the landowner will be last.  Again, I'm cynical.

Deacon David Pierce