"For the kingdom of heaven is like an NFL owner who went out early in the morning to hire men to work on his gridiron. He agreed to pay them millions for the season and sent them into his stadium.
About the third hour he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. He told them, 'You also go and work in my football field, and I will pay you whatever is right.' So they went.
He went out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour and did the same thing. About the eleventh hour he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, 'Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?'
'Because no one has hired us,' they answered.
He said to them, 'You also go and work in my stadium.'
When evening came, the owner of the team said to his foreman, 'Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.'
The workers who were hired about the eleventh hour came and each received millions. So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received millions. When they received it, they began to grumble against the owner. 'These men who were hired last worked only one hour,' they said, 'and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.'
But he answered one of them, 'Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn't you agree to work for millions? Take your pay and go. I want to give the man who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?'"
Matthew 20:1-16 (New International Version)Follow us on Twitter@HHReynolds or Click Here to get HHR in your inbox.
