And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his steward: “Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last and going to the first.”
In this verse the key moment of the parable arrives: the hour of payment. At the end of the day, in the evening, the owner of the vineyard instructs the overseer (who can be understood as Christ’s representative—an angel or a figure of a judge) to call all who have worked and pay them. Yet the owner commands that they begin with the last, that is, with those who have worked the least. This is intentional, so that the first may see how the last are paid, and through this the parable’s main message is revealed: that God’s grace surpasses human calculations. From this point the mystery of equal reward begins to be unveiled, which may seem unacceptable to the proud, but for those who live by grace it is a great consolation.