Jesus continues: “When [the householder] had agreed with the workers for a denarius a day, he sent them forth into his vineyard.

It is only with the full-day workers that a wage agreement is made. The wage is a denarius for the day’s work.

The 12-hour, or full-day, workers represent the Jewish leaders who have been occupied continually in religious service. They are unlike Jesus’ disciples, who have, for most of their lives, been employed in fishing or other secular occupations.

Is that first-century fulfillment the only fulfillment of Jesus’ illustration? No, the clergy of Christendom in this 20th century have, by reason of their positions and responsibilities, been “first” to be hired for work in God’s symbolic vineyard.