" For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire men to work in his vineyard " (Matt 20: 1). Here, Jesus is telling that the kingdom of heaven is like this landowner who has hired men for work. It is just not that he hired them only early in the morning, but he went on to take more people in for work, i.e. four more times during the course of the day. The last recruitment of people happened at 5.00 pm, when the work hours had almost come to an end and there was only an hour left. If we are to only look at the action of the landowner, irrespective of whether the workers standing at the marketplace deserved work or even the wages for that matter, he exhibits his gracious nature. Jesus is trying to tell that the Kingdom of Heaven is similar to this landowner, who is Gracious. In the scriptures, we can see the pride of the Jews in claiming that they alone are the children of God (Matt 3: 9). Even disciples had this assumption that becaus...