The Last Will Be First
‘You also go into my vineyard,’ he said, ‘and I will pay you whatever is right.’ Matthew 20:4 · Berean Standard Bible
He tells them, 'Go work in my vineyard, and I'll pay you what's fair.' They trust him and go.
Notice these workers don't get a contract — they just trust the owner to do right by them.
The landowner makes a promise, and the workers take him at his word.
No negotiation, no contract. Just a promise and trust. That's already a different kind of arrangement.
The landowner promises these workers 'whatever is right' (ho ean ē dikaion) — no specific wage, requiring them to trust his justice.
The shift from a negotiated contract (v.2) to a trust-based promise is theologically significant: grace operates on trust, not contract.
The landowner makes a promise based on his own sense of justice, not a fixed agreement.
The second group receives no contract — only the owner's word. Their willingness to trust sets up the parable's climax.
2He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard.
3About the third hour he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing.
4‘You also go into my vineyard,’ he said, ‘and I will pay you whatever is right.’
5So they went.
6About the eleventh hour he went out and found still others standing around. ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’ he asked.
Read all of Matthew 20 — Workers hired at day's end receive the same wage as those who sweated since dawn. God's generosity offends our scorekeeping instincts.
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