Parable of the workers in the vineyard. Matthew 20 v1-16
“It’s not fair, they have got more than me, it’s just not fair”. We can all relate to those words, maybe its transported you back to a situation of apparent unfairness or injustice. We have all heard those words, most of us have said them.We are born with an inbuilt sensitivity to injustice, particularly when it is us that are affected.
Our Gospel reading today is simply shocking, we have a vineyard owner acting in a seemingly unfair, unjust manner and we are encouraged to believe that the Kingdom of God is, in some way, like that.There is something about it that we naturally find difficult.Remember that Jesus said that the Kingdom had arrived, it is now, not at the end of time. No wonder then that commentators like David Pawson and Kenneth Bailey rate it among the most difficult parables to comprehend and I have immersed myself in their teaching to help me understand it.
The parableraises questions, if it is about the kingdom of Heaven, what does it tell us about the Kingdom and its King and crucially, as a Church and citizens of thatKingdom, what are weto understand from the almost cruel reversal of payment.
There is an ancient Jewish parable about a vineyard owner who goes out in the morning and hires his workers. Half way through the day he calls one of them to join him for lunch, he talks to him as they walk in his garden and take a siesta together. At the end of the day all including the favoured worker receive the same wage.
“It’s not fair!” they cried. The owner answered them “Don’t I have a right to pay what I want, the truth is that this fellow worked twice as hard as you others and did the same amount of work in half the day”.
You can imagine the disciples expecting a reworking of that parable, or those of Isaiah 5 and 27 but what they were about to hear would challenge their understanding of justice and confront theirbad attitudes. We all love the parables that encourage and build us up but this one will challenge and may evenrebuke us, as we will see.
The Western reader needs to make a culture jump to the Middle East, where manual labourers with no regular work gather in the market place, with the tools of their trade, offer themselves for work, eager to prove their worth, in the hope that casual work might lead to a full-time position. In our parable, the Vineyard owner needed the help of the hirelings to supplement his work force, maybe at pruning or harvest time. He goes early in the day, hires the labourers, agreeing a fair daily wage of a denarius, this was no National Minimum wage, it was the Living wage, needed by a family to live each day.
The first surprise in our parable is that he returns to the market placeevery two or three hours, hiring more workers that hadn’t found employment, agreeing to pay them “what is right”; Literally “what justice demands”, except those at the eleventh hour who are promised only employment. Surely an organised employer wouldknow what work needed doing and would acquire the right number of workers from the start and not waste his time throughout the day. So, the kingdom of heaven is like a disorganised vineyard owner who is out of touch with what is going on in his vineyard?
But then comes the second surprise, the Vineyard owner calls his foreman to gather and pay the workers. If he employed a foreman, why didn’t he send him to hire workers. So, the kingdom of heaven is like a vineyard owner that employs a Foreman, then does his job for him?
The third surprise is that he calls the Foreman to pay those who worked the least hours first, not those who had laboured all day in the hot sun and deserved to get away first, but the story degenerates fast, as those who worked only an hour received a denarius, the living wage.
Now you can imagine those who had laboured all day, seeing the proceedings and thinking, “well we are bound to get a bonus”, but as the drama unfolds and those who had worked fewer hours all get paid the same, the realisation that they too would only receive a measly denarius was bound to make them angry.
And so it came to pass, they only received the denarius too. So, the kingdom of Heaven is like a vineyard owner who does not reward his employees according to merit? Maybe we are getting closer.
What is doubly shocking with this parable, is that those who had worked the longest are left to watch the proceedings. This is astounding, surely any shrewd employer would have paid them first so that they had left and would not know what others had been paid. They would return home to their wives and children, heads held high, proud that they had had gainful employment and could provide for their family, but this strange reversal of protocol puts an end to that.
This is appalling business acumen and terrible for employee relationships, he appears to be rubbing their noses in it, the tension among the labourers that worked all day was mounting. “It’s not fair” they cried and understandably so, ““These who were hired last, worked only one hour and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.”
But this is not the cry of the under-paid or those who were treated unjustly, it was the complaint of the fairly paid who could not tolerate generosity. As the owner questioned “Or are you envious because I am generous?”” It is not a story of an owner who is “unfair” but a story of one that is “more than fair”.
So he answered one of them, “I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go”. The word translated as “friend” isone with which you would address a stranger and it speaks to me of one who is a stranger to the compassion and mercy of the owner. Surely that was what motivated him to return to the market place, he wasso concerned for the wellbeing of the villagers that he himself returned again and again to check that all had received gainful employment and could support their families.
This parable challenges our understanding of Justice, we to easily join the centuries old chant of “equal work, equal pay” as the understanding of Justice. Remember the pay disputes in the BBC this summer. It is as if the owner is saying to the workers and Jesus is saying to us all, “I have treated you justly but there is a jealousy that arises of others and an anger that canarise towards the Father when he shows grace to those you may view as undeserving. I am not only just – I am also merciful and compassionate, because mercy and compassion are part of justice”. (K Bailey)
The parablegives us a picture of a God who does not reward us on the basis of merit but bestows on us equal worth and goes out again and again, calling us to his vineyard, treating us with the same compassion and mercy. It points to the meaning of the Incarnation and crucifixion of Jesus, against the expectation of his class, the vineyard owner does not remain distant. His compassionleads him to go to the hurting himself, demonstrating his deep concern as he demonstrates costly love for the poor.
“The vineyard owner chose to give more of himself, the workers wanted to take more for themselves He chose to be poorer at the end of the day, the workerswanted to be richer at the end of the day”.(K Bailey)The parable shows us a Kingdom that is established on mercy and grace - not merit and greed.
The story stops abruptly with the words; ‘So the last will be first, and the first will be last.’” What has that got to do with justice?
If the parable was just about Gods compassion then why would there be that part about snubbing those that worked all day. Matthew revealsthe context of the parable but it may surprise us to learn that the hearers were the disciples, not the Pharisees, not the Jews.
It is preceded by the story of the Rich young man that wanted to follow Jesus, but when Jesus said to him that to be perfect he should sell everything he had, give to the poor and follow Him, the man went away sad because he wouldn’t leave his wealth behind. It was then that Peter blurted out, in characteristic style, “We have left everything to follow you! What then will there be (in it) for us?’
Jesus said to them, ‘Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first.”
Peter had missed the point, he still had the hangover of the Judaic understanding of works and merit. Was he still driven by his own desire for self-advancement and recognition? It is as if Jesus, rather than turning on Peter and saying, “You have missed the point again, don’t you listen to what I am saying”. says; “you will receive your reward, why are you worrying about it” and then tells them this parable. It reminds us that an attitude of self-advancement and one-up-man-ship has no place in the Kingdom of God. In the Kingdom of Heaven there should be no rivalry or jealousy.
The parable stops…. but does not end, because the hearers then as now, take their place centre stage, we are compelled to finish the parable ourselves, applying it to our own lives. What about you? What about me?
Do we have a skewed understanding of Justice, do we live out lives of compassion and mercy towards the unloved, un-lovely and undeserving.Zechariah 7v9“‘This is what the LORD Almighty said: “Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another.”
Secondly, the parable shows us a collision of attitudes; that of the worldly and the heavenly kingdoms and it is occurring in the very people that he told the parable; the disciples. The vineyard owner was able to say to the disgruntled workers, “the breakdown of relations is not a result of my actions but of your attitudes, you have been given what was fair yet you are envious because I am generous”.(D Pawson)
Do we go through life with an attitude that easily says “its not fair”, when others appear to get more than they deserve, or we make calculated comparisons between ourselves and others. It will result in the breakdown of our relationships and health. It makes us self centred, breeds resentment, envy and anger. These attitudes have no place in the Kingdom of Heaven, no place in the Church, they should have been discarded at the gate when we entered the Kingdom,“for the Kingdom of Heaven does not operate on what a man deserves to get but on what The Lord delights to give”.(D Pawson)
Attitudes based on merit, serving the Lord with one eye on the reward to come,will taint a Christians ministry. It results in begrudging others contributions, or envying the gifts, blessings and opportunities that God pours out on others. What if a new Christian came into our church and was a better singer than me, (obviously that would be unlikely!)Or was blessed with a healing ministry, prophecyor wisdom that you always longed for. You can see how pride and envy could creep or pounce in.
Did the disciples learn from the parable? perhaps not. Matthew frames the parable with Peter’s question of “what’s in it for us?”before, and after - James and John’s request that they sit on a throne each side of Jesus in his Kingdom. This was after two and a half years of being Jesus’ disciples. It was divisive and made the other disciples angry. We must be vigilant that attitudes like that do not take root in the Church. Jesus said that whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant. This is the meaning of the first being last and the last being first.
What is expected of us in our relationships to others? The Prophet Micah said this
“He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”
Micah 6:8
Justice is the minimum (but remember that that is based on compassion) and on that foundation build mercy, and just in case we start to get proud of our attitude, to walk humbly with our God. (D Pawson)
What about you, what about me?
Let us pray