|
First
Reading
|
Psalm |
Epistle |
Gospel |
| Jonah 3:10-4:11 |
|
Philippians 1:21-30 |
Matthew
20:1–16 |
I was the older child in my family and so I understand why, on first hearing the parable of the vineyard workers, it may annoy some of us who feel that we have borne the full heat of the day. It was a hard lesson to learn that just because I had been with my parents for five years before my sister was born and I had given them most of my attention, my parents did not love me more than my sister. Much later in life I experienced the situation from a very different side, that of a parent when my three-year-old daughter discovered that her mother not only had a baby brother, but as a totally added surprise, two baby brothers for her all at once.
The parable of the vineyard owner and workers is not about labor relations, it is about family relations. Jesus starts off, as everyone would expect. An employer negotiates with workers to work in the vineyard. Both agree on a contract paying a fair wage. From what we can tell, a denarius a day was a living wage with which a worker could adequately feed and clothe his family. However, significantly less than a denarius would bring severe hardship and ultimately destitution.
Those who could not find work would naturally become more anxious as the day wore on. An employer who discovered a group of laborers who had not been hired for the better part of the day held the upper hand and it was very tempting for such an employer to exploit the situation and pay the part time workers, who were now desperate to work for anything, proportionally quite less. In Jesus’ parable the vineyard owner hired all who had not been hired and sent them into the vineyard. Note, unlike the first workers who knew what they were getting and had the security of an agreed contract, the part time workers were only told, “You will be paid what's fair.”
Now if Jesus had ended the parable here, there would be no controversy. Most of Jesus’ hearers, would have said, “Fine, we're glad everyone was put to work,” and then would have gone home and promptly forgotten the parable. But Jesus doesn’t do that with his parables. Jesus always puts in a hook.
When the time came to pay the workers, instead of logically first giving the workers who had worked for the full day their agreed wages, he paid the part time workers first, and gave them a full day’s living wage. Instead of taking advantage of the situation and using it as an opportunity to victimize, the part time workers were given enough to adequately provide for their families. This was unusual in and of itself, but with Jesus there’s always more. When the full time workers came to be paid, they were all given their full contract wage. That’s when the trouble started. “It isn’t fair,” the cry went up. “We deserve more.”
Yes, you who have been the younger siblings of your family just don’t know how we who have been the eldest have blazed the trail, and educated and worn down our parents to get the privileges and benefits you practically take for granted. But I would remind all who are the oldest that if you want a loving relationship to mature and grow between siblings and among other members of your family, the demons of envy, jealousy and resentment have to be conquered.
When I was a young priest I was fortunate to have a bishop that I was quite fond of and who was always both wise and supportive. He would tell the young priests of his diocese a story of when he was a young curate. At the end of a hard week he went to his rector and complained about all the people he had visited that week that seemed to have stored up and unleashed upon him a storm of complaints and criticism. It was so unfair and he certainly hadn’t done anything to deserve the venom that people attacked him with. “Young man,” said the senior priest and rector, “if you got what you deserve, you would go straight to hell.” I’ve obviously remembered that story and, in turn when appropriate, have enjoyed telling it to some young and naive priests of today.
Yes, the parable of the vineyard workers and owner has the power to annoy us. People of faith are called to get over it and make the transition from the usual economic relationships of the world to the vision of how relationships in God’s family are to be. God wants everyone together at the table; God wants us all to have enough food to eat. That is why God’s kitchen of grace never closes whenever you show up. Sometimes the grace of the Spirit is discovered at age 25, and sometimes at age 75. Nonetheless, God rejoices whenever the Spirit works upon us. God keeps inviting us all to the table, and will not give up, even near the end of our day.
And I offer this to you in the name of the Living God, Amen.
