Herzog

I.Parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard:
The parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard is not just a parable ideally talking about how the "last shall be first" concept that we have heard many times before.
This parable presents a typical scene in the agrarian world of Galilee and Judea during Jesus' time.
To understand what that scene is, first, one must analyze the characters in the parable, which will give the social background to the scene.
The parable is divided into two scenes where a landholder hires laborers and when they get paid.
At first, one would be puzzled regarding what social class this man is in, he could seem like a wealthy peasant or a man with property.
Who is this landholder, or oikodespotes? The term oikodespotes "immediately implies sovereign authority."
The presence of a steward, it implies that this landowner would have prodigious holdings, this man owns a vineyard, and at this time period elites were more likely to own because the crop is converted in a luxury article.
And one can also look at the fact that he takes multiple trips to go hire laborers for his vineyard. The fact that he does not even seem to count the amount of laborers he is taking, one can infer that the land was big enough that he did not even know the amount of workers he would need.
On the first trips, he compromises with day laborers for the wage and leaves it as “whatever is right, I will give you,” but as he goes through more trips he does not mention it. He shows that he has the authority to determine "what is right."
It is known that elites are "invisible" and prefer not to get in contact with laborers.
But Jesus has the purpose of creating the parable and demonstrating that the man is doing his own job, and it shows the confrontation between two social groups.

II.Who are the day laborers?
These people are known as the "expendables."
They suffer with unemployment and low wages.
Their life expectancy is brief and they are lucky to even find jobs or wages to live on and are seem to be people that have no way out of the poverty.
The big question- Why does the landholder pay the laborers from last to first?
What is the purpose in doing this versus just paying them in a regular manner? When this occurs, the first laborers complain. Why?
They have been shamed, because the landowner disregards the time and labor that they spent in the land and shows that their labor is no more valued than those who only worked for an hour or two.
They feel as they have been shamed because since the labor is worthless it shows that these laborers are worthless.
It gives the landowner a sense of arrogance and power.
What was the purpose for his action? This is a strategy to keep the oppressed under control by humiliating and degrading them.
The landowner denies this charge and calls the "leader" of this "friend," saying that he did no wrong. "Did you not agree with me for a denarius?" He uses the pretense of bargaining against them.
At the end the landowner can overrule anything they shall say.

III. What does the parable highlight?
The parable highlights the confrontation between two groups and how the ones with the most power oppress those in the bottom to keep them without power, and how they humiliate them to remind them what is their status in society.