This parable, unique to Matthew, sounds surprisingly contemporary in its description of the plight of modern day laborers in the ancient world. It is a story about the nature of the Kingdom of God in which the main character is an enigmatic "owner" whose behavior, or at least in the eyes of his workers, is eccentric at best.

Reading 1 told us that God's ways and ours are not alike. The owner's behavior here could not be less like the expected behavior of even the fairest contemporary employer. Our expectations are a fair day's wage for a fair day's work. Parity is the guide...But Jesus is not offering guidelines for labor
arbitration. He is making a point about the abundance of the Kingdom of God. "Fair" has a wholly different meaning here, determined not by our small and petty notions but by God's inscrutable wisdom. In the Kingdom, unlike on earth, a "full day's wage" is a gift not an earned reward.