We dont know - but i think the parable is teaching us about God’s unconditional and complete love. He loves those who come to faith last, as much as he loves those who come to faith early in life. On a more macro level, the Jews, to whom God first revealed himself, will be “last” to receive the gospel, but neverthless will enjoy the fullness of God’s love as their bretheren, the Gentiles, who responded to the gospel first.At mass yesterday, the priest talked about a parable in the bible concerning workers in a vineyard and how some workers who were plucked from the marketplace late and taken to the vineyard, received the same daily wage as the workers who had been working in the vineyard all day long. My question is: were the workers who arrived after the initial group, late due to 1. ignorance, or 2. stubborness and sinfulness.
If you think about … that is true about the first group also … we are all in the same boat. This is the old look at how good I am compared to those others.At mass yesterday, the priest talked about a parable in the bible concerning workers in a vineyard and how some workers who were plucked from the marketplace late and taken to the vineyard, received the same daily wage as the workers who had been working in the vineyard all day long. My question is: were the workers who arrived after the initial group, late due to 1. ignorance, or 2. stubborness and sinfulness.
I believe the parable speaks on two levels:6 About the eleventh hour 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.’
It really sounds like the workers were not ‘late’ through any particular fault of their own, rather that they too had been looking for work, but were simply unlucky and hadn’t been selected to work for anyone that day.
Makes it seem like the vineyard owner might not have really in need of workers at that point and might have taken them in simply out of compassion.
This is very well said. God’s call works differently for each and every one of us. Some, like the prodigal son, take a lifelong journey to come to God’s call. Others, like his brother, respond much sooner. The wages that God gives are up to him, and him alone, to decide.Robbinson has it right.
There are those who have lived pretty pure lives, managing to avoid wallowing in sin. And there are those like me, who wallowed in sin for 30+ years before coming to the truth. Assuming we all make it to Heaven, should I be jealous of those who didn’t have to go through what I did? Should they be jealous of me for not working life-long to avoid sin? That parable tells me, no.
We get to the vineyard when the Master brings us there. The wages are His grace, paid as He chooses.
Thank you, Jesus!
Ruthie
I like your priest’s take on this parable. What a wonderful illustration of God’s care for us, in that he knows and understands us so much better than we know ourselves.Our priest brought up another good point relating to this parable. The workers that were called later may have been elderly or disabled in some way. The owner of the vineyard may have summoned them later knowing they could not handle the full day’s work, but still needed the money to support their families.
Thus, God calls us when He knows we able to hear His call, and only gives us the work he knows we can handle.