This scene illustrates the parable of the laborers in the vineyard, told by Jesus in the New Testament Gospel of Matthew. Jesus compared the kingdom of heaven to a landowner who hires men throughout the day to work harvesting his vineyard. At day’s end, all the workers are paid a coin, even those who began late in the day. The parable emphasizes god’s grace and reward to all the faithful, regardless of the timing of their conversion or their worthiness. “So the last shall be first and the first last.” In the late 1630s and 1640s, several Dutch artists painted the parable of the laborers in the Vineyard, notably Rembrandt himself (1637, Hermitage Museum). LAAM Purchase