The Labourers in the Vineyard
Towards the end of September, the grape harvest ripened in Palestine, and close on its heels the rains came. If the harvest was not gathered in before the rains came, then it was ruined. Any worker was welcomed, even if he could only work for an hour.
Now as far as pay was concerned, it was normal to earn a silver coin (a denarius) for a day’s work that began at sunup and lasted until sundown.
In this panel the owner of the vineyard, with his bag of coins, pays one denarius to the labourer who had been there from the crack of dawn. The expression on the worker’s face is anything but thankful. In fact, it’s full of anger and frustration. The problem is that all the workers received the same pay, whether they had worked an hour or a day.