1st Draft

Prodigious amounts of stories in the bible, are like comparisons and similes between real life stories and the kingdom of God. The parable of the workers in the vineyard is one of the many stories in the Gospel of Matthew that help Christians understand and unfold the great mystery of what the kingdom of God really is. In all parables there is a conflict or situation that we must learn from, and the conflict or situation is history that is why is written down in a book, and even now in the year 2007 some of the conflicts seen or heard about from the bible are still existing today.
The parable of the workers in the vineyard is an example of confrontation between to different social classes. The lesson of the parable is far beyond, “The last shall be first, and the first shall be last.” Jesus stretches truth in order to show what is reality. The overarching question in this parable is mostly about why did the land owner did what he did. Why did he go to the market several times during the day? Why did he go himself, rather than his steward. The parable is comparison between the story and the kingdom of God. Since the landowner was the one that made the deal with the workers directly and there was no middle person, this showed the interaction that happened when both groups met without people of lower class only talking to those whom are just right above them, but rather with the highest power. The parable shows that the landowner is a wealthy and powerful man. When the landowner bargains with the day laborers, whom he first picked up, he said to them that he shall pay them whatever was right. This showed that the landowner has the power to determine what was right. The day laborers are clearly people whom are poor, and do not have any source of income and would be happy with what they were given. It is interesting the fact that the landowner was the one that made all the deals with the day workers, but when it came the time for them to get paid he sent his steward to do it. It is like the comparison between the kingdom of God is a place where many different and types of people confront each other for the first time.
The story tells that the day laborers are gathered until the eleventh hour of the day, why would someone want to even pick up workers at that time, knowing that they shall be paid the same amount as those whom worked for longer. The parable shows that the landowner is just trying to get the job done, while at the same time he is trying to help those whom he has seen need the job. One denarius is the quantity they bargained on, but when it was pay time, those whom had come first did not expect that amount for all the work they had done. They wanted more, according to their judgment whatever was fair. The parable shows the relationship between the elite and the poor, how the elite used and exploited those whom couldn’t stand up against them due to the differences in their economical standings. The parables reveals the truth of how the pyramid of powers is a interdependent pyramid, because if the day laborers did not exist the job the land owner, an elite, needed to be done would have not been done and he would have to do the job that he paid for it to be done. This helps reveal and define what the kingdom of God is, and who is part of it. The parable opens new doors and ways to interpret the kingdom of God as a place where we are all welcome and economical or powerful standing does not matter.