So when the original workers came, they assumed they would receive more. But each of them also received a denarius.
And when they had received it,.... The external privileges of the Gospel dispensation, an inheritance among them that are sanctified, and a right unto it, on the foot of free grace, they murmured against the good man of the house; who had been so kind and liberal, to those who came last into the vineyard, and had done no injury to them, but gave them a full reward.
Verse 10. They supposed that they should have received more. They had worked longer; they had been in the heat; they supposed that it was his intention to pay them, not according to contract, but according to the time of the labour.
But when the first came, they supposed that they should have received more--This is that calculating, mercenary spirit which had peeped out--though perhaps very slightly--in Peter's question (Mat 19:27), and which this parable was designed once for all to put down among the servants of Christ.