Parable of the Vineyard Workers

The Parable of the Vineyard Workers is a parable found in only one of the Gospels: Matthew 20:1-16. This illustrates the value of openmindedness, charity, and the availability of full salvation and paradise even late in life.

The powerful logic of this parable fits perfectly with the concept of infinity, which is typically the same however it is reached. But suppose the master paid the later workers even more. Then the logic would be more like the Widow's Mite, which is one of the few Omissions in Matthew. And, indeed, there can be greater infinities.

## Contents

* 1 Summary
* 2 Spiritual Interpretation
* 3 Mathematical Logic
* 4 References

## Summary[edit]

Early in the morning (around sunrise, or 6 AM)[1], the owner of a vineyard hires workers, and agrees to pay them a penny for their work.

He goes again at the "third hour" (roughly 9 AM) and hires more workers, and again at the "sixth hour" (roughly noon) and the "ninth hour" (roughly 3 PM), each time agreeing to pay them a penny. He then goes again at the "eleventh hour" (roughly 5 PM, or one hour before the day's end), is surprised to see people still looking for work, and hires them as well.

At day's end he calls in the workers to pay them, beginning with the last workers hired, who he pays a penny each. When he calls in the next group, they expect to be paid more for their longer shift, but get the same penny as the others. They begin to grumble, whereupon they are reminded that they agreed to the wage, and in any event, it's the owner's money to spend as he pleases, and apparently he has infinite wealth. The objections are illogical to his spending his infinite wealth.

## Spiritual Interpretation[edit]

The most common interpretation is that the vineyard owner represents God, and the laborers represent those who have trusted in Christ. The differing hours represent differing times of when a person trusts in Christ (the early hours representing small children; the later hours representing older adults). Regardless of whether a person is saved at a young age, or later in life (including on one's death bed), they still receive the same eternal reward (salvation from sin and ultimately admission into Heaven). Nobody has a valid complaint about the reward: God was not obligated to save humanity (as He made no such provision for Satan and his demons), and in any event there is nothing more valuable than Jesus' saving work on the Cross to pay for our sins.

## Mathematical Logic[edit]

The parable also conveys truths about mathematical logic unknown at the time of Christ. Jesus explains surprising truths about infinity, zero, and set theory. It would take nearly 20 centuries before mathematicians caught up.

Only in set theory is it true that "the last will be first, and the first last," as stated by the conclusion of the parable. Outside of set theory that statement ostensibly appears to be false.

Only if infinity exists can a master pay everyone the same wage, no matter how hard or little they work. Infinity is synonymous with God.

The existence of infinity in turn implies the existence of zero, based on the inability to diminish infinity by anything more than zero. Zero—the zero difference between the "wages" paid, and the jealousy that results—is synonymous with the lack of God in this story.

A silver lining to the parable is how it demonstrates that communism can create more jealousy than capitalism does, through the jealousy of those who work less and yet get paid as much.

## References[edit]

1. ↑ The times referenced are based on how Jewish culture counts time, which starts the morning hour at sunrise -- roughly equivalent to 6:00 AM under the Roman system of time, and ends each calendar day at sunset -- roughly around 6:00 PM, at which time a new day begins. The first workers are thus hired around sunrise, or 6 AM.