Matthew 20:8 Commentary and Bible Study

The steward is called to pay the workers. He does not himself decide what to pay each man, but he implements the will of the lord of the vineyard. Significantly, the steward is instructed to pay them ‘beginning from the last unto the first’. In the arrangement of the parable, this is designed to allow the first workers to have the opportunity to protest when they are paid, because they have already seen what the last workers have been given. Seeing the last workers paid a penny – the amount they too agreed to work for – those who were hired first assume that this means they are going to receive more. Up till now nothing has been said about this, and they know what they agreed to work for, but because they assume this is a works-based arrangement, they think that it would be unfair for them to be paid the same as those who have done so much less work. (Christ uses the first workers to make this point because they would have the strongest case to make, having worked the longest.) So they expect that the owner must have increased their wage by a proportionate amount. These last have worked one hour, while they have worked twelve hours. How is it fair for them to receive only the same for doing so much more? But when it comes to the pay out, to their great surprise they receive the same – exactly what they had agreed to work for.