What does Matthew 20:11 mean?
Perspective changes everything. The group of workers hired early in the morning agreed to work a full day in exchange for a denarius each (Matthew 20:1–2). They have done their work. Now they receive their pay right on time, before the sun sets, as the law of Moses required (Deuteronomy 24:14–15). This is the pay they signed on for, given when it was due. Everyone should be satisfied.Instead, these workers grumble at the master of house. One thing has changed. They have learned what someone else was paid. Those who worked only an hour late in the day have received the same pay as them. Worse, they had briefly expected to be paid more than the original agreement, assuming the master of the house would be generous with them instead of merely honoring their agreement. That failed expectation and change of perspective left them grumbling and complaining despite being treated exactly as they had agreed.
Matthew 20:1–16 is a parable illustrating what Jesus meant in saying that some of the last will be first and the first last in the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 19:30). When a master hires five groups of workers at different times throughout the day, he pays the last group the same amount that he pays the group hired early in the morning. Though that group grumbles, they received what they had agreed to earn and had not been cheated. The master insists he has the right to show generosity to whomever he wishes. Jesus concludes by saying, again, that the last will be first, and the first last. Themes found in this parable are echoed in the later portion of the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:25–32).
Jesus illustrates His earlier comments about how some of the "first will be last, and the last first" (Matthew 19:30) with a parable about hired workers. He then clearly tells His disciples about His impending death and resurrection. The mother of James and John asks Jesus to make her sons number two and three in His kingdom. Jesus tells the disciples that true greatness won't come by flaunting authority as the Gentile leaders do. Instead, they will become great by serving each other, even as a slave does, as Jesus Himself has done. He then heals two blind men immediately before entering Jerusalem.
