Looking Out For Number One

In today’s Gospel Lesson, Jesus is speaking to the disciples in parables. He tells the story of an employer who needs workers for his vineyard. He goes into the market place of the city to look for unemployed men waiting to be hired. He finds some day laborers and they agree on a price for a day’s work. As the day goes on, more laborers are needed and more are hired at the same wage. When the time comes at sunset for the workers to be paid, the employer tells his foreman to pay all the workmen the same wage, beginning with those who were hired last. Each worker is to receive a full day’s pay. The workers who were hired first and worked the longest begin to complain, and even challenge the employer. They try to tell him how to manage his business. “The last worked only one hour,” they grumble, “and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden…