A Day’s Wages Series

This evening’s message is entitled “A Day’s Wages,” and it’s taken from what is commonly called “The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard.” This parable speaks of the reward or payment for one’s labor in the kingdom. There is a story among Aesop’s Fables that addresses the reward for one’s labor; which is the fable of “The Ants and a Grasshopper.” The story goes like this:

As the Ants were [gathering] their provisions one winter, a hungry Grasshopper begged a [favor] of them. They told him, that he should have [worked] in the summer, if he [didn’t want to lack anything] in winter. Well, says the Grasshopper, but I was not idle neither; for I sung out the whole season. Nay then, said they, you will [then] do well to make a merry year of it, and dance in winter to the tune that you sung in summer.(1)

In this fable, we heard how the grasshopper didn’t have any food to eat during wintertime because he had sung all summer long instead of gathering provisions. When winter came he begged the ants for help, but they told him to dance in the winter to the same tune that he had sung in the summer. Likewise, there are many people who spend their life enjoying the passions and pleasures of this world instead of living for Christ. One day, however, winter will come and the Day of Judgment will arrive; and people will have to dance to the same tune that they have sung in this life.

If we have accepted Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord and have worked for the Lord by helping others come to know Him, then we will have a sweet reward. If we have played around all our life, never confessing Jesus Christ as Lord, then we will have to suffer death like the grasshopper; except ours will be a spiritual death.

Hiring of the Workers (vv. 1-7)

1 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. 2 Now when he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. 3 And he went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle in the marketplace, 4 and said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.’ So they went. 5 Again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did likewise. 6 And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing idle, and said to them, ‘Why have you been standing here idle all day?’ 7 They said to him, ‘Because no one hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right you will receive’.”

So, what is the symbolism contained in this parable? Who or what do the landowner and the vineyard symbolize? The landowner represents the God of Israel. The vineyard represents the Lord’s kingdom, which is comprised of both Jews and Gentiles. When the Lord hires laborers at different time periods to work in His vineyard, this represents God extending a call for all people from all ethnicities to accept Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord and enter into the kingdom of heaven; and anyone who accepts Him will become a citizen of the kingdom.

Notice that when the laborers were hired, they were hired at different times. The times mentioned here are literal. “The sixth hour was always noon, and the third hour and ninth hour came at approximately 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. The eleventh hour was approximately an hour before sunset.”(2) Even though the times are literal, they can also be viewed as symbolic. In verses 1 and 2, the landowner hired his first set of laborers to work in the vineyard. Spiritually speaking, this group of workers represents the first people called to be kingdom citizens. If this is true, then what people group was included in this first dispatch of laborers?

According to J. R. Graves, the different hiring times represent the calling of “two classes of people – the Jews and the Gentiles.” He said, “Those who were first called, and entered, represent the Jews, to whom the gospel was first preached.”(3) The first hiring, or calling, is observed in Matthew 15:24 when Jesus said, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel” (NIV). This parable establishes the Lord’s calling as being extended first to the Jewish people; however, we understand that many of the Jews would reject Jesus as the Messiah. Therefore, since many would reject Him, there would be other hiring times established.

Jesus’ parable not only told of His ministry to the Jews, but it was prophetic of His future ministry to the Gentiles. Graves said, “The hiring of the laborers at different hours of the day represents the calling of the Gentile nations at different periods in the gospel dispensation.”(4) This means that all non-Jewish or Gentile people, from the time of Peter’s rooftop vision in Joppa (Acts 10:9-15) to the present day, would be allowed to receive salvation through Jesus Christ. The door to the kingdom of heaven is open to anyone, no matter what race or background he or she may be. All that is necessary to receive eternal life is to repent and confess Jesus Christ as Lord.