As in so many of Jesus' parables and teachings, we find the message of this parable shocking. As Donald Kraybill writes in The Upside Down Kingdom:

Again and again in parables, sermons, and acts Jesus startles us. Things are not like they are supposed to be. The stories don't end as we expected. The Good Guys turn out to be the Bad Guys. The ones we expected to receive a reward get chastised . . . The least are the greatest. The immoral receive forgiveness and blessing. Adults become like children. The religious miss the heavenly banquet… The kingdom surprises us again and again by turning our world upside down.

And indeed, a story in which those who labor only one hour receive the same reward as those who toil all day long confounds our usual ways of thinking. Philip Yancey asserts that there is an "atrocious mathematics" at the heart of the gospel. Writes Yancey, "Jesus' story makes no economic sense, and that was his intent. He was giving us a parable about grace, which cannot be calculated like a day's wages. Grace is not about finishing last or first; it is about not counting."