"The Kingdom of Heaven is like a landowner who went out early one morning to hire workers for his vineyard. He agreed to pay the normal daily wage and sent them out to work. [At nine o'clock … noon … three and five he hired others] telling them he would pay them whatever was right … That evening … when those hired at five o’clock were paid, each received a full day’s wage. When those hired first came to get their pay, they assumed they would receive more. But they, too, were paid a day’s wage … They protested to the owner, 'Those people worked only one hour, and yet you’ve paid them just as much as you paid us who worked all day in the scorching heat.' He answered one of them, 'Friend, I haven’t been unfair! Didn’t you agree to work all day for the usual wage? … I wanted to pay this last worker the same as you. Is it against the law for me to do what I want with my own money? Should you be jealous because I am kind to others?'" (Mt. 20:1-16)

All disciples of Jesus Christ want to be like him; to be transformed into his image. He said we are to follow his example. He also taught us to be like the Father. "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father who is in heaven, for he makes his sun rise on evil people and good ones and sends rain on just and unjust [for He loves them all] … You shall therefore be perfect, even as your heavenly Father is perfect (Mt. 5:43-48). The construction of this last sentence makes it both a commandment and a promise. How wonderful! We know that when we see Jesus, we shall be like him (1 John 3:2).

So what does our parable teach us about the Father and about ourselves? God acts towards us in sheer grace and out of unconditional love. His heart is to bless the undeserving and to challenge any "holier-than-thou" attitude in his followers. God is not answerable to man for what he does with his rewards. "Should you be jealous because I am kind to others?" is literally "Is your eye evil because I am good?" "The evil eye was sometimes thought of in terms of miserliness. They were objecting to the landowner's sheer generosity" (Leon Morris).

We need to beware of a spirit of entitlement; that somehow God is in our debt because we believe we have served him well. We need to guard against being jealous of others for whom everything seems to go well, or who have had breath-taking spiritual experiences that are way beyond our own, or who are the recipients of abundant material blessing. And we need to cultivate David's attitude: "We will shout for joy when you are victorious" (Ps. 20:5) and obey Paul's directive to "rejoice with those who rejoice".