The Father Revealed in the Son^(A)

²⁵ At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father,^(B) Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.^(C)

The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard

20 “For the kingdom of heaven is like^(A) a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard.^{(B) 2} He agreed to pay them a denarius^[a] for the day and sent them into his vineyard.

³ “About nine in the morning he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. ⁴ He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ ⁵ So they went.

“He went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing. ⁶ About five in the afternoon he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’

⁷ “‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered.

“He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.’

⁸ “When evening came,^(C) the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’

⁹ “The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. ¹⁰ So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. ¹¹ When they received it, they began to grumble^(D) against the landowner. ¹² ‘These who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat^(E) of the day.’

¹³ “But he answered one of them, ‘I am not being unfair to you, friend.^(F) Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? ¹⁴ Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. ¹⁵ Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’^(G)

¹⁶ “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”^(H)

²⁵ I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land.^{(A) 26} Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon.^{(B) 27} And there were many in Israel with leprosy^[a] in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian.”^(C)

¹¹ Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad^(A)—in order that God’s purpose^(B) in election might stand: ¹² not by works but by him who calls—she was told, “The older will serve the younger.”^{[a](C) 13} Just as it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”^[b](D)

¹⁴ What then shall we say?^(E) Is God unjust? Not at all!^{(F) 15} For he says to Moses,

¹⁶ It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.^{(H) 17} For Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”^{[d](I) 18} Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.^(J)

¹⁹ One of you will say to me:^(K) “Then why does God still blame us?^(L) For who is able to resist his will?”^{(M) 20} But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God?^(N) “Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it,^(O) ‘Why did you make me like this?’”^{[e](P) 21} Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use?^(Q)

²² What if God, although choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience^(R) the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction?^{(S) 23} What if he did this to make the riches of his glory^(T) known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory^(U)— ²⁴ even us, whom he also called,^(V) not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?^(W)

Stand Firm

¹³ But we ought always to thank God for you,^(A) brothers and sisters loved by the Lord, because God chose you as firstfruits^[a](B) to be saved^(C) through the sanctifying work of the Spirit^(D) and through belief in the truth.