1. A denarius was a fair amount of money, just to let you know.
2. I don’t know what kind of days we’re talking about here; but imagine…the first group (the ready group that got out of bed early) goes to work, then the next group comes in three hours later, another three hours later (six hours in!!!), another three hours later (nine hours in!!!), another two hours later (eleven hours in!!!). Wow…those must have been long work days. I don’t work twelve hour shifts! Can you imagine busting your tail in a vineyard for that long!
3. Notice that the owner never said he how much he’d pay the later people, except that he would be fair. Ok…
4. Do you feel sorry for the people who were waiting around at the eleventh hour? I mean, where were they in the morning? Is this like that movie, “Cinderella Man,” where work was that hard to get? I don’t know how I feel about these guys. While these guys are waiting to work, the other guys have been working for eleven hours!
5. OK…so it’s time to get paid. Now, if we were going by modern thought, wouldn’t you pay like this: the original crew gets a denarius (as promised), the next guys get 3/4 of a denarius, the next get 1/2 of a denarius, the next get 1/4 of a denarius, and the final crew would get a paltry 1/12 of a denarius. Seems fair, right?
6. Whoah! The 1/12 workers received a WHOLE denarius! Man…ok…so, like the first guys, I’d be thinking, “Well, I worked 12 times as much; so maybe this dude is going to give me 12 denarii!!!” I’d have been wrong…
7. They got what they were promised (a good day’s wage). So…what’s the problem?
8. Did they have a legitimate gripe? Why or why not?
9. Man…this is a tough story for me because, I’m not going to lie, I’m always comparing myself to others. It’s wrong. Doing that only leads to pride or shame. But, I do it. And, this would just seem unfair. But, then again, isn’t this guy simply being gracious, feeding all the families of the workers in his field? What’s wrong with that? I know, in our modern sensibilities, we would think that this would make the last people think that they didn’t have to work hard to get their money and thus perpetuate a culture of laziness. Hmm…
10. So…WHY do you think this story reflects the kingdom of God?
11. Could you imagine what it would be like to be a disciple of Jesus and hear Him say that He is going to be betrayed, condemned, mocked, flogged, crucified, and raised? I think I would think that Jesus was telling some kind of metaphorical story. I couldn’t believe that that would be real. Place yourself in their shoes. What would you have thought?
