Connection Church of Arlington Texas

(Matthew 20:1-16) The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire men to work in his vineyard. He agreed to pay them a certain amount of money (a denarius, the wage of a Roman soldier) for the day and sent them into the vineyard to work. The landowner goes out again at 9:00 am, 12:00 pm, 3:00 pm, and again at the end of the day and sends more workers into the vineyard. When it comes time to pay for the day’s labor, the landowner pays all of them the same wage even though some have worked from early morning and others only an hour. Grumbling against the landowner the men who worked from early morning argued they were ”entitled” to more than the others. But the landowner asked them, “Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius?”  Basically, “Didn’t we have a contract for a certain amount? And didn’t I pay you what we agreed on? Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money?

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