7. ‘No one hired us,’ they answered. ‘Well, then, you also go and work in the vineyard,’ he told them.
8. “When evening came, the owner told his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, starting with those who were hired last and ending with those who were hired first.’
9. The men who had begun to work at five o'clock were paid a silver coin each.
10. So when the men who were the first to be hired came to be paid, they thought they would get more; but they too were given a silver coin each.
11. They took their money and started grumbling against the employer.
12. ‘These men who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘while we put up with a whole day's work in the hot sun — yet you paid them the same as you paid us!’
13. “ ‘Listen, friend,’ the owner answered one of them, ‘I have not cheated you. After all, you agreed to do a day's work for one silver coin.
14. Now take your pay and go home. I want to give this man who was hired last as much as I have given you.
15. Don't I have the right to do as I wish with my own money? Or are you jealous because I am generous?’ ”
16. And Jesus concluded, “So those who are last will be first, and those who are first will be last.”
17. As Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside and spoke to them privately, as they walked along.
18. “Listen,” he told them, “we are going up to Jerusalem, where the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the teachers of the Law. They will condemn him to death
19. and then hand him over to the Gentiles, who will mock him, whip him, and crucify him; but three days later he will be raised to life.”
20. Then the wife of Zebedee came to Jesus with her two sons, bowed before him, and asked him a favour.
21. “What do you want?” Jesus asked her.She answered, “Promise me that these two sons of mine will sit at your right and your left when you are King.”