Matthew 20:14

Take up that which is thine, and go thy way; it is my will to give unto this last, even as to thee.

Note the words, "take up." Can it be that some of those disgruntled workers had even thrown their pay on the ground at the chief steward's feet? The words do certainly suggest that. What an insight such conduct affords. What a wreckage of human personality comes of envy and jealousy! Envy, pride, self-righteousness, and egotism had so embittered those men that they repudiated a fair and honorable bargain, turned on their benevolent employer, murmured against him, and threw their wages on the ground!

Here, of course, is the point that most commentators find so difficult. Ancient and modern expositors alike seem to stumble on the problem, "How can people like that be represented as redeemed?" The complainers in the parable actually appear as having their wages thrust upon them after having thrown their pay on the ground. They were the ones who worked all day in the vineyard, and they were the ones who went home with their just pay. How can salvation be justly ascribed to men with such a pattern of behavior and with such an attitude?

To be sure, the difficulty might be avoided by making this incident an inert or inactive part of the parable; but it received too much stress for that. This writer views it as another example of the Father's goodness, just like that represented by the father of the prodigal son who received him, and later went and entreated the elder brother also. We conclude that God will save even people like that if they give Him half a chance to do so. If we disallow such a possibility, we fall into the same error as the "firsters" in supposing that we meek and gentle trusters of God's grace are better than THEY, and that the good householder would in some way injure US (there's that word again) if he saved sinners like them! In any case, the solemn warning in the next verse is squarely directed at all the "Us-es" in either category.