<p>20:9- see on 25:23.<br /><em>And when they who were hired about the eleventh hour came</em>- I mentioned earlier that&nbsp;<em>peri</em>&nbsp;with time clauses can mean &lsquo;throughout&rsquo;. The payment was at the twelfth hour; some had been hired at various points throughout the eleventh hour, meaning that they had worked far less than an hour. It outrages all human works-based justice to think that they received the same as those who slogged twelve hours. But this is to affront our sense of justification by works, and to demonstrate to us that salvation cannot be on the basis of works but rather on the basis of the contract / covenant which all by grace have entered into. And the parable has an even more demanding twist in its end stress, whereby those who considered this was unreasonable and felt they should be given more for their superior work are in fact rejected for thinking that. If indeed &ldquo;Go your way&rdquo; means they are fired from the Master&rsquo;s service.</p><p><em>They each received a denarius-&nbsp;</em>No employer really pays all workers the same amount as the 11th hour worker; no creditor would really cancel debts simply because the debtors can&rsquo;t afford to pay, and take nothing at all from them; no father would really give preferential treatment to a wayward son over a son who had never disobeyed him. But the point is, God acts in the very opposite way to how we do or would do. His grace to sinners makes no human sense. And He asks us through these parables of His Son to walk out against the wind and follow His example in our treatment of sinners. Our own natural sense cries out that he who works most should have the most pay; but the unreality of the parable teaches us that this principle is set aside in the way God deals with us.&nbsp;<em>Any</em>&nbsp;gift from the Father and Son is by grace alone. The elements of unreality in the parables often bring out the extent of God&rsquo;s grace. The fruit farmer =God asked His worker = the Lord Jesus to cut down a barren fig tree. But this worker had such fondness for the tree, he was so unusually concerned for it, that he pleaded that it be given some more time. This reflected the Lord&rsquo;s love for Israel, a love beyond all reason. Likewise, which wealthy person would ever arrange a banquet and invite the very dregs of society to it? Here is the Father&rsquo;s amazing grace. Sometimes we have to fill in the details another feature of the Lord&rsquo;s amazing stories in order to perceive this grace. The younger son, for example, demanded his share of the inheritance; and thus he lost his name, forfeited any claim to family membership, and openly showed that he did not wish to be part of his father&rsquo;s family. And yet he was received back with such grace and longing by the Father.</p><p>This addition of&nbsp;<em>ana</em>&nbsp;&ldquo;every man&rdquo; is to underline that they each, every one individually, received their pay. The sense would be conveyed quite adequately without the addition of this word, but the Lord wished to remind us of how each of us will personally meet the Lord at judgment day, and we will behold each of those whom we considered the little ones, inferior workers or believers to ourselves, receiving their rewards. The public aspect to the judgment process is several times brought out- e.g. the rejected will walk naked and others will see their shame (Rev. 16:15).</p>