8
"When the day's work was over, the owner of the vineyard instructed his foreman, 'Call the workers in and pay them their wages. Start with the last hired and go on to the first.'
9
"Those hired at five o'clock came up and were each given a dollar.
10
When those who were hired first saw that, they assumed they would get far more. But they got the same, each of them one dollar.
11
Taking the dollar, they groused angrily to the manager,
12
'These last workers put in only one easy hour, and you just made them equal to us, who slaved all day under a scorching sun.'
13
"He replied to the one speaking for the rest, 'Friend, I haven't been unfair. We agreed on the wage of a dollar, didn't we?
14
So take it and go. I decided to give to the one who came last the same as you.
15
Can't I do what I want with my own money? Are you going to get stingy because I am generous?'
16
"Here it is again, the Great Reversal: many of the first ending up last, and the last first."
17
Jesus, now well on the way up to Jerusalem, took the Twelve off to the side of the road and said,
18
"Listen to me carefully. We are on our way up to Jerusalem. When we get there, the Son of Man will be betrayed to the religious leaders and scholars. They will sentence him to death.