Its not fair, it really is not fair, that the last labourers who worked only an hour for the afternoon should be paid the same as those who worked all day. We must be careful here: fairness works both ways, and if God treated us fairly then where would we imperfect, sin-prone people be at the end of the day? Our problem with this story is that we tend to read it with a very human view of others - we allow envy to enter and distort our view of what Jesus was actually telling us. Indeed, none of the labourers in this story got what they deserved - they got what God was willing and planning for them all the time because God's love for us is perfect.
Jesus came to save everyone - sinners, tax collectors, all of us, and God is ever patient and ever welcoming. Even at deaths door, after a terrible life, repentance and total forgiveness is possible. Todays Psalm - the Lord is my shepherd - reminds us that even when we are lost, God will come looking for each and every one of us.