On the Parable That Our Lord Spoke about the Laborers Whom the Lord of the Vineyard Hired

Of the Holy One, Mar Jacob. A Memra. On the Parable that Our Lord Spoke about the Laborers Whom the Lord of the Vineyard Hired. I open my lips to speak with love, O my Lord: Son of God, grant that I may utter your riches. In you I hope, O Jacob, to receive from you all the treasures. Lord of treasures, give me your riches, that I may be filled and go forth. Reveal to me your mysteries, that I may go forth and be revealed to the whole earth, so that all of it may sing praise to your divinity. Yours are all the riches that belong to your Father. From them, grant that I may become rich and enrich those who hear me. Give me your word, which is riches for those who thirst for it. I shall receive it and cause it to be received by anyone who yearns for your abundance. May the rose of your words be placed upon my tongue from your utterances, and I shall bring forth and scatter your pleasant narratives to the hearers. All together, they shall drink life from your fountain. Your living cup intoxicates the hearer who awaits you. Your good wine at the end of the feasts goes forth to creation, so that your Father's treasure, which is hidden from the world, may be revealed. Your sweet taste has now moved my tongue; I shall receive praise for the Father who sent you, that through you all the bitter ones may be sweetened. Jesus, the honey from the interpretation of the lion of death, went forth to sweeten the bitter cups of the world that were bitter. The star that runs and calls in its terror to the places, that it may bring the lost to the Father who sent it: great praise.

To you, my Lord, the whole earth is stirred to praise you, for all creation thirsts from your divine rays. You are the water of life for all who desire and drink from you; they delight in you and are sated from the spring that is full of mercy. Your teaching is sought from Golgotha, the place of God, and it went forth and gave drink to the whole creation, which was parched. The thirsty and withered earth was sated from you, and it blossomed and became like a paradise full of blessings. Your rays rose like channels for the world, and by your teaching the whole creation is now guided. The Pishon, Gihon, Tigris, and Euphrates ceased from their flow, for from your disciples it was sprinkled upon the world and it drank. The cross became a single spring from Golgotha, and to the four directions it divided itself and now waters you. It stood on the height and opened a well opposite the depth, so that its flow might subdue the height for the whole earth. It mounted channels opposite the peoples and regions, and they all drank and were sated by your words spiritually. The whole creation, which was asleep, heard your voice, and it arose, stood up, and clapped its hands to praise you. Come, be refreshed from the teaching that is full of life, by the beloved children of the womb of baptism. Bring with you the passions of your thoughts, so that thus you may follow the course of the one who hears it.

All of you, come, if it is he who came for the sake of teaching: For all of you desire Christ, that he might live and be with you. The Gospel is a light for the souls that are in darkness; by its radiance it gave light, life, and sweetness. His words are living bread, distributed for the partaking: in the whole world, to every place that hears, lovingly. Blessings and riches he bore and brought to you from his Father’s house; and for the poor he made treasuries from his stores. The Lord of kings is himself poor, because he willed it; and behold, the whole creation is rich in his poverty. He spoke with you concerning what seemed good to him, that he might be from you; and by his teaching he salted the souls that were insipid. He himself is for us the physician, and he bore away the pains of our sickness; he himself is for us the shepherd, and he drove away the wolves that were about to destroy. He became for us bread, and drove out hunger from our souls; he himself is for us water, and quenched the thirst that was consuming us. He himself is for us the way, and led us on it that we might come to his place; he himself is for us the door, and through it he brought us in to his begetter. He himself is for us the brother, to whom we are joined, and he is with us; and he purified us with him, and mingled us with him, and he himself is from us. So that in our world he might shine like a day full of light, and dispel the darkness that had settled over the whole creation. He spoke in parables and in similitudes, building a bright path, so that by inquiry she might teach herself to follow her kinds.

with his parables he formed his kingdom while he was teaching: by its small images the whole world was inflamed. In one place, among the virgins, he formed it, and at the feast and the lamps of the wise. In another place, he likened it to a measure and to the surplus of the great wealth that comes in sheaves to the master of the house. There is also where he formed it by a small loaf of leaven, like a tree, and in it: the shoot of its branch he placed. And again, by the small leavened bread that he likened to that which its hidden meaning the woman kneads and leavens the whole and it becomes pleasant through it. And along with these, again, he formed his kingdom by the master of the house who went out and hired laborers for the vineyard to work with him. Let us now speak concerning this parable that the Son of God made when he formed his kingdom with laborers. He said that this kingdom of the house of God is like the man who went out to hire laborers for his own vineyard. And he called laborers in the morning of the day and fixed their wages, for each one of them, and they entered and worked diligently. And at the third hour, he saw other laborers and called them: "Enter, come, come to his work alongside the first ones." And at the sixth hour, again, he hired others for his work, without distinguishing how much wage they would receive from him.

And at the ninth hour he saw other laborers and brought them in: for he intended his entire vineyard to be cultivated by them. And after this, the master of the vineyard went out at the eleventh hour: and he saw other laborers standing idle. And the master of the vineyard began to speak, while he was distressed: about the laborers who had ceased from work the whole day. Why are you standing idle, you have come and are empty, you have come: and without doing any work you have been wandering about the whole day. Why did you not work, you have come with your companions: in the vineyard where it is possible to give life to those who cultivate it? Why are you standing idle, your curse is with him the whole day: and evening came and you have come standing like shameful ones. The laborers say: No one gave us wages to work with him: nor did the master of the vineyard call us to his work. He says to them: Go, even you, the vineyard desires: laborers of the hour who are ready to do work for everyone who comes to it. And the laborers came, and it was evening, and they received wages: and the master of the house called his stewards and said to him: Rise, give good wages to the laborers who worked with us: and give to the others a denarius, a denarius, what you give. From among them, begin and to one of them give a denarius: and thus equally give to the others and to the first ones. And the master of the house arose to give wages as he was commanded: and he gave to the others, to each one of them, one denarius.

The first ones, then, who saw the wage that was given to the later ones, supposed that they were taking something more than their companions. And it was thought that if to the later ones he gave a denarius, to the first ones, how much would he give, what is fitting? But the master of the house gave to the later ones and to those after them, and to the middle ones a denarius, without increase. And all of them passed by, and the first ones came to receive their wage, and again he gave thus a single denarius, without addition. When, then, that first laborer saw the denarius, he grasped it in his hand, while it was grievous to him and he would not take it. His wage was small, and because he had hoped for something more, he despised the smallness and sought to be angry with him over the wage. And he began to speak, while he was accusing the master of the house, because he had equated and given to the later ones as to the first ones. He says: For if I have labored the whole day, behold, from morning in toil and weariness and sweat, I have endured the heat and borne the burden of the whole day, and what have I gained if the wage is like that of the later ones? For in one hour, behold, these have taken a denarius; twelve hours are owed to me if you judge fairly. For a denarius for the hour and for twelve hours, one denarius—is that not injustice, to take thus, as you say?

Do not let the matter of the wage escape you, O lord of the vineyard. Let it be equal for you, whether one labors or does not labor. It is not because you have added to the later workers that I have a complaint. But because you have wronged me, I am aggrieved. You have added to these who are without toil, and they have taken a denarius. Look at me, that I have toiled, and add also to me, if it is good in your sight. Then the lord of the vineyard began, in his uprightness, to reprove that first worker, saying to him: "Your wage is cut off from what you suppose; you are upon an excess. See, I have not wronged you; do not treat me as if I were deficient. One denarius: your portion is cut off with you, when you received it. Behold, take this denarius, good, from me, if you are content. If I have given more to your companion, are you the loser? For you, I have not wronged you from that which was done for you. If it is good in my sight, for you from yours, what is your loss? For as you have confessed, behold, I have given you one denarius. Two I have not cut off, for I have only one. I give also to the later ones and to the first ones. I have not diminished you, I have not deceived you, I have not lessened you. The cutting is known, and the word stands; the complaint is about what? Perhaps your own eye is evil, and you are aggrieved because you have made your companion equal to you in good wages.

Or do you think that I have no authority over my own, as I wish? Make equal and give also to the later ones and to the first ones. Take what is yours as is fitting for you, and if I wish, I will also make your wages equal with yours—it is not yours. The mercy of the Lord of the vineyard gave wages to the later workers as to the first ones, with a good heart. Now press on toward the spiritual meaning and the interpretation of that which clothes the word with beauty. His writings lead to the sea of water, and within the sea he casts and hides the pearl from the merchants. And he who interprets, like a diver, descends after it, searches the depths and brings up the pearl with him. When it has come up, behold, it is delivered to the merchants, and all their profit increases from it, from what they have acquired. Like a diver, he would descend into the reading, so that he might bring up with him the word of life, the pearl. O hearers, receive the word like merchants, and profit and become rich, all of you, from it spiritually. The buyer of the pearl gives its price; come, take freely the word of life that is full of wealth. The mind descended, plunged into the scriptures, though it was not equal, and it examined and understood the pearl of the house of God. And behold, now the hour has come that it has cast it upon the hearers; take it in your hands, the bright daughter, and be adorned with her.

He opened his mouth with parables, our Lord, as it is written. And with his homily, he sang new melodies to the whole world. The words of the Lord, who was idle over the superfluities, are hidden. And he saw and beheld the hidden beauties in his parables. Hear now what the Lord is, the master of the house, and what the vineyard is, and what the laborers are whom he hired. And why in the morning, and at three, and at six, and at nine, and also at eleven, the master of the vineyard received laborers. And why was that steward commanded to give wages to the later laborers before the first ones? And what is that debt which to the later ones, and that which to the first ones, the steward gave without addition? That God who established the worlds is the master of the house. And the vineyard is that labor of righteousness. And the laborers are the race of the sons of Noah, whom he called, that they might live well and become heirs in the kingdom. The first laborers were those of the house of Adam, who at the beginning, at the dawn of the world, to work for him, brought Noah. And that debt which was cut off for the first ones, that he gave his beloved son to the later ones at the end of times. And these laborers of three hours, if you look, are those of the house of Shem, Noah, whom Noah established over his labor. And of six hours, those of the house of Abraham in the land of Aram, who turned their garments to righteousness like the first ones.

And these are the laborers whom the great Moses of the nine hours hired, and Jesus son of Nun, and the whole band of righteousness. And all the laborers who have no God entered and were hired. In the vineyard of the Lord, which is the course of righteousness. And the path of the righteous went forth from Adam, and reached unto Noah, and passed by Abraham, and the path crossed to the great Moses of the nine, whose course was long on the mountains of righteousness. And these laborers in the vineyard of the Beloved, diligently, these who toiled for four watches and brought forth fruit. And they all ran while laboring in righteousness, from the house of Seth and Enosh from the beginning of the great world. And those of the house of Noah were added and lived righteously, and Abraham and Isaac arose and labored diligently. And Moses came with his divine prophets, and they were good laborers in the vineyard and were established in it. And they arose like shoots and put on the compassion of new life, and were beautiful in the vineyard of spiritual fruits. And they bore the evil burden of the world in their revelations, and endured the affliction of compassion for the images of emptiness. And they uprooted thorns and the forest of error from the lands, and cleansed the branches and the bodies from evils. And with humility and purity and holiness, they cultivated their lives and produced fruits of faith.

And after these, when the world of completion drew near, as if to say when the day of baptism arrived, the lord of the vineyard went out with eleven from Aphartā, and he saw the nations empty, destitute, and without labor, lowly, prostrate, also idle and slumbering, sleepers who slept the whole day without work, a people who were throughout the world without knowledge, and without the course of righteousness and rectitude. And they did not enter and labor in the house of God with faith, and they did not produce good fruits of commendation for the lord of the vineyard. But they spent his time, the time of the world, in evil life, and in error, the time of the world in evil life, and in error of love of images of emptiness. And the lord of the vineyard saw these when they were idle, and he began to rebuke and reproach and to announce and proclaim: "Why are you idle, standing the whole day, and empty, standing from the labor of righteousness? Why are you thus sleeping from good deeds, and there is none who calls in righteousness and faith? Why have you thus spent the times and finished life, and you are standing sleeping from labor and from reason?" The day passed, the world ended. "Rise, idle ones, gather yourselves in this hour, the beloved hour of repentance.

You did not labor in it, in the blessed vineyard of the house of God. The nations say, "We do not know the wages of the laborers," with them; and because of this they are idle and empty. There is no law, no commandments, no ordinances, nor prophets, nor revelations of truths. They do not know wages, they do not know how to learn or to become wise; they do not know how to enter, to go in and labor in the house of God. They called Abraham from within Aram to the land of Canaan; and they called Isaac to be a sacrifice on the mountains of Jebus; they called Jacob for the sake of the ladder of the heavens; Joseph, whose son gave bread to all of Egypt; Moses was set in authority over the revelations of prophecy; and Aaron the priest entered and was entrusted for the sake of God. He ascended, went up to Mount Sinai for the sake of the Hebrews; and he ate the bread of manna, the people from the cloud; he drank the pure water from the rock; and he cast down the Jordan, to enter the land of the Amorites. Joshua son of Nun uprooted before her the high walls; and the sun of Gibeon opened the gates before her entry. David went after her, brought her for the sake of God; and Samuel shone and served her in the house of refuge. Elijah lived and laid waste the land while teaching her; and the prophets made her as servants.

The prophets taught her and showed her and fixed her wage. And they brought her in to labor in the house of God with their exhortations. But the nations do not know the wage of the laborers. And no laws or commandments were established for them from above. Nor did a prophet arise among them to prophesy for them. Nor a herald to show them the vineyard to labor in. And behold, they are left like strangers and like outsiders. And they are idle and empty and void. And there is no hirer, no seeker, no king, no master of the wage to entice them to come and work with him. They do not know, and if there were one who would hire them, behold, they stand and see and are able to labor like diligent ones. And the master of the vineyard opened his door to the nations of the earth. And the cause of the labor of the whole creation entered the house of God. At the end of the world, at the conclusion of times and ages, all the nations entered the great house by the eleven. And they began a course of beautiful things diligently. And they sowed and clothed themselves in righteousness corporeally. And they broke and cast away their idols and their images. And they ran a strong course on the path of faith. And they knew the Father and believed in the Son, and honored the Spirit. And all of them became chosen vessels for the divinity. The eleven entered and took the judgment of repentance, that they might show the wage of all righteousness to our Lord.

The first ones who sowed and slept with their generations have passed away. And behold, the later ones are weary at the rock of the full one who is satisfied. The later nations were the first ones in the body of the Son, for they put on his clothing from within the waters of baptism. Far off are Noah, Abraham, and the house of Moses. And the later laborers took the wage, and behold, they are rich. The tax collector is justified, and behold, the violent one laughs in the garden. Even the harlot who oppresses and strangles the Son of God. Far off is Moses, and behold, the sinner has kissed his feet and anoints him with oil and tears lovingly. Abraham, who was wont to go about so that he might see his day, has passed away. And behold, all the nations are looking at her in his uprightness. When all the lives of the world and Uphio had perished, the nations perceived that there is a God, immediately they clung to him. They ascended by the eleven and were bound to her in repentance. And behold, they have put on the Son of God corporeally. At the end, when all the sacrifices were completed, they gave themselves, and behold, the first ones were in the preaching of the full one of life. The later laborers, the nations, came who ascended by the eleven on the path of the five letters of the laborers, the lord of the vineyard. By the five senses stands the body of the Son of man. Five books there are of the Torah of the full one of mysteries. Five covenants the Lord established with humanity. Five sacrifices the letters of the laborers, the lord of the vineyard.

The first covenant established Adam in the house of the gods, and the second, Noah the righteous, son of the line; and the third with Abraham, the good friend; and the fourth of Moses, and the fifth, of the Son of God. In the morning, and the third, and the sixth, and the ninth, and also the eleventh, and again to the other covenant in the world, there is no other limit. And there are no other senses for man except five, and no other seas except five measures. And there is no teaching after the completion of the uprightness, which in the fifth the world is completed and all of it ends. Also man, in five measures as in stages, came to ascend and until he is fulfilled to become a man. He is a child, and after that also a youth, and after a boy he becomes a young man, and he becomes a man. Behold, childhood and youth and boyhood and young manhood, and until the measure of man it reaches. And after this measure of five, there is no place that again additions to the measures of the living may be made. The world has reached the measure of five, that of the upright, and it has been completed and behold, a man, and again it does not increase. The time of the child, that first Adam, has passed, and of the youth Noah the righteous who sat on the earth, and of Abraham the boy who ran with God, and the time of Moses the young man, the vigilant and divine.

And the last covenant came, the fifth, that of the Messiah. The covenants were completed, and now it is the end for the steward. The morning passed in which the laborers went up to the great vineyard. And the covenant of three bright hours passed. And the one of six passed, and also that of nine heats. And behold, at the eleventh cool hours the world runs. The noon passed and the heat of the ninety-nine subsided. The evening inclined, and behold, the world has touched the clouds. Oh, at the eleventh they slowed the race in repentance. The last peoples were the first in righteousness. The word of the Lord is very like a pearl. And the faces of light fill all who see it. Woe to the one who spent the multitude of his days in vanity. He gives his hand to the parable of the Son of God. (And woe to the one who sinned, and in his idleness and his youth, and his generation reached the end of his life while he was scattered. Oh, to you, old man who is bent and bowed from old age, and seeks to return again at the eleventh and be received. The hour of life is fixed for you; if you are prepared, in it you can obtain all life without end. The evil one cast you into errors when you were sinning. See, the door will not be closed before you if you repent. It will not be said to you, How now is there an opportunity for you to be received in repentance, since you were idle?

There is no strength in you that you might repent of your soul for the sake of supplication. Nor is a fast easy for you that you might wear a hair-shirt like an ascetic. Nor does your body give its hand to labor and toil. You have sinned much, and how will you please if you repent? Your strength is weak, your light is deficient, and your body is feeble and frail. So now, what of the work of righteousness? These thoughts give evil counsel to the one who sins, that he should cut off his hope and not approach repentance. But you, a laborer of the eleven, do not be divided: with the first ones your wage will be set if you repent. The Son of God loves the last laborers, for even he at the end of times came and plowed the earth. You took the stone of youth when you were sinning, and in idleness your days passed in evil life. That remainder of life, small as it is, give to God, who accepts even one hour of work from a laborer. He has determined how the Lord gives wages, and he has placed his testimony among the last laborers, how beloved they are. He has given a key to the door of repentance, that if one works for one hour, he is first. O sinner, who has brought forth evil, evil is the chain of his years. Behold, the master of wages has opened his door and poured out his treasures. And at the end of your life, if you repent, he will count for you a wage from the worthless ones.

But you have strength for the labor of righteousness. Give your will to God, and it will be accepted. Cease from sin, that which has toiled for you a great burden. And be for righteousness, which you do not see. Pass from iniquity even now that your days are finished. And be a final worker who receives a good wage. Sit and guard your soul, and be a disputant for your standing. When your thought covers you, be ashamed of your evils. Say to your soul, "O erring one, be quiet, for you are lost." Seek the Shepherd even with a sign, and he is able to find you. The sins of wolves have scattered you among the mountains of the forest. Enter the fold of the One who adorns the sick. The day has mounted, and behold, the shadows of death surround me. Be for me a sun in the evening, my Lord, and I will see your light. Do not let the day of death set for me outside your vineyard. Good is your vineyard; accept the hour of repentance. My times are finished while I labor in vain. Accept the end of the feast of my life, which is yours. For repentance there is no time that is not its time. And if a man reaches the gate of Sheol, it does not destroy it. As long as the soul stands and dwells in the body of the sinner, there is hope of repentance for all sinners. As long as it runs in the veins and members, there is a place for both sin and righteousness.

How many tears are shed upon the face! There is mercy that forgives the sin of the guilty. How easy for you to weep, easy for you to seek mercy. And if there is weeping, there is forgiveness for all sinners. Even this sick one, when he lies on the bed of pains, if he entreats for forgiveness, it is easy for him to receive. In that hour, if a person draws near to God, that hour is better than a span of good life. But when a person is seized by the jaws of Sheol, repentance is not far from her power. Rather, the ship of life has anchored at the silent tomb. Wealth does not depart from the repentant. As long as you live, you are a penitent, if you wish. But if death overtakes you, it snatches away your repentance. In the tomb alone the door of repentance is shut, so that it does not give the dead one the opportunity to repent in the place of perdition. Even in the hour of death, there is a place for repentance, and good deeds are accomplished in it, if you wish. Even when the soul departs from the members, if the good will remains, you will find life. When death stands at the door and shoots an arrow, hasten to distribute your deeds righteously.

If there is one who has sinned, the face is full of tears, and he goes and enters, so that perhaps by tears the door may be opened and your distress be relieved by him. If there is a laborer who has not received his wage, even he has his own, so that you may not be troubled at the crossing if he meets you. If a widowed woman, wronged by you, has cried out and been released, the door of the judge's house is shaken by her voice. If from an orphan you have taken something, give him his own, for through him the door of orphans is well received. If by the sins of the body you have been seized, a loose rein, send letters to the solitaries and the saints. And add, weep, and spread yourself out, and reveal your shame, and seek from them a plea for mercy for your sake. It is the hour of life, and there is a place for righteousness. At the eleventh hour, the course of good things has entered; hasten. Look at that house which, in need, was knocking you down, and sell yourself to it, water to the mountain that is not watered for you. Bring out and place that tattered garment for its fellow beneath, this garment for that covering, for its fellow bread. Call the poor and the needy, and by their hands send a gift to the mountain, so that you may be consoled when you pass and enter. Seek from your heirs, and add, come, and announce, come, so that they may not be distressed if you are anxious to save yourself. And whoever is distressed, a great measure is fitting for you, which desires that you be burned when you inherit your deeds.

Bestir your soul for the sake of the surplus at the hour of death. For at every tribunal you will grieve over the many tears that you have wept. Strive for the contracts, and cast them into the fire, for it is the receiver that is from you. And say: Let the contracts be given to the one who is satisfied, so that you may not approach. You have run in the world, and there is no great profit in vanity. Spread yourself out before the door is shut in your face. You have no cause to say, "I did not feel my wage," for behold, the master of the wage is stretched on the cross and is calling out to you. Behold, his hands are spread out, and he stands on the skull, and he calls to everyone: "Come to the vineyard of righteousness." A loud voice cries out from the cross, and the earth trembles, and it awakens all the idle to repentance. Behold, a judgment is placed in your hand: the body of the stump, and your support will work for a good wage, for you are not idle. Your servant is sealed, both for the first and the middle ones. Be wise at the hour of the life that is standing for you. Cut off the wombs from the source of iniquity that you have cut, so that your receptacles may be illuminated by their shadows. Pay your debts while you are in your place, among your acquaintances, for in that place the fire will demand all debts. Look at the cross as at that serpent of bronze, and seek from it the remedy that heals your wounds.

It is the hour: you have need of forgiveness in faith. For it never turns back, but takes all its tolls. Even the tax-collector was fixed in the tesserae and would cover over, and they would strike him with the arrows of death against the skull. And in that very hour of death he sought mercy and found it, as he sought because he sought in faith. With the good wage that he gave to the last ones, he gave the heart to the one who comes at the end of his days to repentance. So that the world might learn that everyone who comes receives it. Blessed is the first one who gave to the last ones a good wage. Completed: On the laborers of the lord of the vineyard.