Imaginary gardens with real toads in them.” That’s how one writer has described the parables of Jesus. They are imaginative stories, but they relate to real life. They are imaginary gardens, but they have real toads in them. Often those toads are us.

Matthew 20:1–16 starts off with a situation common in the ancient world: A landowner needs workers, so he recruits some day laborers. As the day wears on, he needs more workers. So, he goes back several times, until it is one hour before quitting time.

But then the vineyard owner does something strange. At the end of the day, he calls everyone together and pays the men who only worked one hour the full day’s wage. This shockingly generous act creates a buzz in the crowd. The workers who labored all day quickly do the math. “If those one-hour workers got a denarius, then we’re in the money,” they are likely thinking. They expect that this is their lucky day.

So, we can understand that when the payout got down to them and the same wage is placed in their outstretched and blistered hands that was placed in the hands of those hired later, they were not happy. That’s an understatement. They were mad—mad enough to openly complain to their benefactor. The owner responds that he has paid a fair and agreed-upon sum. However else he chooses to spend his money, including being generous to those who had less opportunity to work, is up to him. The grumbling workers have not been treated unfairly. Their emotional turmoil is because of expectations based in their envy, not injustice.