He had agreed to pay the laborers a penny a day. The men who worked all day thought they should receive more than those hired later in the day, but the master paid them all alike. Just so those of us who have been Christians only a short time will receive the same heavenly reward as those who have lived a Christian life for years. Salvation is just the same to all—it takes sin out of our hearts and fills them with the love of God.
We must not put off getting saved; for Jesus said, “Watch, for ye know not the hour when your Lord doth come.” This means that we are liable to die without a warning, and we should always be ready.
The Wicked Husbandmen
ANOTHER parable is about a man who had a vineyard and let it out to husbandmen. When the time for gathering grapes came, he sent his servants to the husbandmen that they might receive the fruit. But the husbandmen took his servants and beat one and killed another. He sent other servants, and they were treated in the same way.
Last of all he sent his son, thinking they would honor him, but they caught him and killed him.
Jesus spoke this parable to the wicked people about himself at that time. Christ himself had been sent to the Jews, who had been the people of God for ages past, but who had wandered into sin. From time to time God had sent good prophets to warn the Jews, but often the prophets were persecuted.
At last God sent Jesus, his only Son, and him they killed.