"Getting Paid" Matthew 20:1-16; Deuteronomy 24: 14-15

A fairly familiar parable.  Often known as the parable of the "Workers in the Vineyard" because it is about workers hired to work in the vineyard.  Read the parable and think about what other titles might work for this parable.  here are a few suggestions:

Parable of the Less than Brilliant Businessman -- who is going to pay the workers who are hired for just the last few minutes the full day's wages?

Or Parable of the Workers No One Wanted: the ones hired at the last minute had presumably been passed over for work up until that moment.  Why did no one want to hire them?  I don't think Troy has a place, but I know lots of towns that have a corner in town where you can drive up and hire workers for the day.  The small town in VA where my grandmother lived had a corner like that and there is a corner in my mother's town that has one as well (in fact, they have built something like a bus shelter there to provide cover from the weather for those waiting to get hired.  I assume that as people come by to hire day laborers, the one who look like the best workers get hired first (at least, that's how I would do it).  I would also note that in both those instances, the people waiting to do the day labor were minorities.

Or Parable of the Disgruntled Employees:  Can you imagine the scene when the workers who had been there all day discover that they received the same compensation as those who arrived late in the day?  Notice that the employees were paid in reverse order.  I wonder if the ones who had been there all day were glad that the other workers had received generous compensation, particularly since they might suppose that they will get a bonus beyond what they had agreed to earlier in the day.  I bet they were pretty angry when they realized they received the same wage.

Or Parable of the Unpredictable Businessperson:  In response to the complaints from the first workers, the owner basically says "I can do what I want, and besides, you received the compensation that you agreed to work for when I hired you."  An unpredictable owner might be nice to have if it means bonuses; not so nice if it means less money than the worker thinks he or she deserves.

How might you title this parable?

A couple of other things to note:  The wage being paid by the owner provides a subsistence wage for the worker.

I do not believe the intent of this parable is to focus on an economic policy or business plan.  In some contexts, this parable is used to point to economic policies that lean toward socialism or communism.  But, for those of us who are in a position to set wages, it ought to cause us to ponder what criteria we use.  Can we live "business is business" in one part of lives without seeing how our faith in a gracious God might impact those decisions.