In the parable of the workers in the vineyard, we are confronted with what we might consider an unfair situation. The owner of the vineyard goes out and hires workers, starting in the early morning and ending close to sundown. But no matter what time of day the workers are hired, all get the same daily wage, even if they only worked for one hour.
Most of us probably will think how very unfair it was that some had to labor all day and others got to waltz in at the last minute, but everyone got the same reward. In fact, the characters in the parable felt the same way and most likely so did Jesus' audience.
Up Next in Year A
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26th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A)
It is helpful to understand the context in which Jesus was speaking when he taught in parables. In the case of our Gospel passage this week, Jesus had been preaching and teaching in the Temple when the chief priests and elders began questioning his authority. In response, Jesus tells them about t...
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27th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A)
It's said there are only a few basic plots for most stories. What the storyteller does with the plot—the twists and turns that are added—is what makes a story memorable. In this week's Gospel, Jesus takes a story of a vineyard, which would have been very familiar to his audience, and gives it an ...
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28th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A)
Who doesn't love a party—especially when someone else is footing the bill? Well, in today's Gospel we hear about several people who turned down an invitation to a banquet. And not just any old banquet, but a feast put on by the king! These people even went so far as to kill the servants who invit...
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