Unjust Pay?

ANYONE who feels that they are not paid what they are worth can appreciate the reaction of the workers in the parable about the wages that Jesus told in Matthew 20:1-16. He spoke of an employer who hired workers for a full day, others for two-thirds of a day, others for half a day, and others for even less. Yet he paid them all the same wages (Matthew 20:9-11). Naturally those who had worked longer demanded, “What’s going on here?” (Matthew 20:11-12).

Notice that none of the workers was employed before the landowner hired them (Matthew 20:3, 6-7), and thus they got their jobs due to the employer’s goodwill and not to anything they brought to the situation. Furthermore, the landowner promised the first group fair wages of a day’s pay, and he promised the others an undetermined amount (“whatever is right”). As it turned out, he paid them all an entire day’s wage.

Jesus was trying to help people grasp something important about grace in the kingdom of God. His followers had been asking earlier about the kingdom’s makeup and benefits (Matthew 19:16, 25, 27), and in this parable He was not encouraging unjust pay scales and discrimination. He was illustrating the nature of God’s grace in terms that His followers could understand.

In the kingdom of God, grace is given because of the nature of the Giver, not the worthiness of the recipient. Receiving God’s grace is a privilege for sinners who, after all, really deserve nothing but condemnation.

Courtesy of Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Commentary
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.