“These last ones worked only one hour, and you made them equal to us, even though we bore the burden and the heat of the day.”
In this saying the complaint of the workers who were called first is revealed, a complaint that is born not from real injustice but from comparative thinking. In their grumbling there is an inner accusation against the master, that he has not kept justice and that they have made a greater sacrifice by working through the whole hot day, bearing the entire burden. Yet in reality the Lord had not promised more than one denarius, and they received what was promised. This describes the attitude in which a person, in service, begins to judge the worthiness of others with his own eyes, forgetting that God’s gift is grace, not compensation. Their words are also words of pride: they do not rejoice that the Lord has shown kindness to the others, but grumble that by that kindness the earnings of others have been made equal to their own.