There are some parables of Jesus that might seem… well, offensive to us. Of course we are fine with the parables about seeds sown on different types of ground… confident that we are in the good soil. We love the parable of the “Good Samaritan” as it puts those self righteous hypocrites in their place. But what about this parable, the parable of the “crazy farmer” who hires people, honest hard working folk, at different times during the morning… then at the last hour, he hires the slackers who are just hanging around trying to avoid being chosen.
Well, if that was all there was to it, and he paid the slackers for their one hour, we’d think he was fair and fairly charitable in hiring those slackers for that last hour of clean up work. Nice of him to give them an hour of work, given that they probably had families to feed. But then the farmer tells his manager to pay the workers, beginning with the most recently hired. And as the one-hour slackers are getting paid, the full day workers are getting pretty excited. They see that these guys got a full days pay and so, of course, they are surely going to get much more than they were originally promised. When they are paid the same as the others, they are furious. This is unfair! We bore the weight of the load! We toiled away through the noonday sun! We worked our fingers to the bone! And now he gives us no more than those slackers who were hanging out in the market, probably up to no good all day!? This is offensive, we should get what we worked for.
Then the landowner reminds the workers that they received what they were promised. Why begrudge the others of his generosity? This is one of the many times that we read in the bible about God’s justice being different from humanity’s justice. Why does the sun shine on the good and the evil? Why does hardship affect mean people as well as charity workers? The pressing question I have at the moment is why does the Baptist Seminary have power and my campus still doesn’t… We should not seek to compare ourselves or think we deserve better from God because of our length of service or our personal sacrifice. This brings to mind a story in my dad’s church as I was growing up. The church was gearing up for a major building campaign because our numbers were growing and we did not have a proper sanctuary yet. But there were some disagreements on certain issues, some questions about design and costs. One member of the church, very intent on making his voice heard, demanded that because he and his family had been members of the church since the time that they met in a schoolhouse, that he should have more say in the direction the church was taking. But that’s not the way things work in the Presbyterian church… and it’s not the way it worked in the vineyard described in the parable. Jesus is making it clear that we “are made equal” in his eyes. Remember the early bird workers said, “You have made them equal to us.”
Some may ask, “So what is my motivation to work harder or to serve more in church?” Let me turn the tables a bit and suggest that maybe it is not that the hard workers are getting what they need… but that the late workers were given money for their work and additional money to support their needs for that day. They received blessing. I know a story about two brothers, let’s call them Billy and Jonny Jones… er… Smith, yeah Billy and Jonny Smith. OK, well Billy always did his chores and worked very hard to get his assignments done. Jonny, on the other hand, was a bit of a day dreamer and sometimes would just head out on a beautiful Saturday afternoon to play in the woods or run in the fields around their house. Billy resented Jonny for this greatly… still does. What Billy resented more was the amount of love and positive regard Jonny got from their parents. Eventually Jonny would get his chores done but how could his parents love him as much as they loved Billy? Was that fair?
The parents of course, didn’t love their children based upon who finished chores nor based upon who had the greater merit. They loved their sons period. Jonny probably needed more attention and care because he was so wild and undisciplined. So the attention the parents gave was not because of a greater love, it was in proportion to the needs of the child. If we compare this with the workers in the vineyard, we can see that the landowner gave the workers pay as they had need, not as they had merited. One denarius is said to have been enough to feed one large peasant family for one day. The landowner extended that generosity to touch the lives of even the workers’ children. And so is the generosity of our Holy God. Remember in our Exodus reading that “The Israelites did so, some gathering more, some less. But when they measured it with an omer, those who gathered much had nothing over, and those who gathered little had no shortage; they gathered as much as each of them needed.” God provided to each family as they had need regardless of how much they actually gathered. Isn’t that amazing! I had never considered that connection before preparing for this sermon and yet there it is… right in front of us.
God’s economy of justice is clearly not the same as ours. If it were, given the same metaphor in this parable, no one would get paid and we’d all be kicked out of the vineyard for sleeping on the job. But, again, I believe focusing on the works and merit of the laborers (maybe even the needs of the laborers) is not the point.
I don’t think the need of the workers is the entire purpose of this story. Remember that Jesus begins the story with the phrase, “The Kingdom of Heaven is like…” The essence of the story rests in God’s abundant generosity. The focus being on the landowner’s charity rather than on the merit or works of the laborers. Consider how the landowner paid the workers. The full day workers were made to wait and watch as the landowner was being generous with the last hired. Why would Jesus set up the story like this? If the last hired were paid last then no one would be the wiser; the full day workers would have never known and there would have been no conflict or complaint.
I think there are two reasons Jesus presented the situation so that the landowner actions were clearly seen by all the workers. The first is so we would see how God is glorified by showing great generosity to all. The second is so that when we do question and complain, God reminds us to take the focus off ourselves and our efforts; and put it back on God. So again, in this parable, God is glorified by giving love and grace freely, fully unmerited by us regardless of our best efforts; AND we are taught to remove the focus from our own deeds and merit or the deeds/merit of our brothers and sisters, but rather to recognize that this grace that has been poured out on us by an overly generous and loving God.
Some might say, “Well, that’s nice but it’s still not fair.” Well, thank God that he’s not fair. I was thinking about how I would fare in this vineyard; about what time of day I would have been hired. Well, I’m not that much of a morning person so I definitely wouldn’t have been there too early. But I did wonder if my labor and merit were key to my salvation or key to God loving me, where would I stand. I think most of us would agree that we don’t do all that we ought and we do do a few things we oughtn’t. So thank God for not being fair.
As I was preparing this sermon, I was reminded of a time when one of my favorite singers, Derek Webb, was giving a performance in Lexington. He had just heard about a new mission effort to build wells in Africa called “The Blood:Water Mission.” He was very excited about this effort and told us all about how they only had one paid staff person so all the money was going to Africa to dig wells for these impoverished families; families who otherwise would spend half the day walking to get water and the other half walking back home… and we think we have it bad with no electricity. What struck me deeply and what makes me remember his words was that after he got done passionately telling everyone about how important this was (you could tell he felt very strongly about this), and how there was a bucket in the back of the church if you wanted to put a buck or five in… well, after all that, he said, “I want to be clear. Whether you put money in that bucket or not, God still loves you the same. Whether you show your love for your neighbor in Africa or don’t, you can’t cause God to love you more or to love you less. Because before you were born and before those people even existed or had any need, Jesus loved them perfectly for you… and He did so on your behalf.”
You see, the vineyard is getting harvested, with or without your effort. We put so much effort on ourselves but do we think that God cannot accomplish mission without us? Someone will be found to complete God’s purposes… and what a blessing it would be if that were you or I. If you join in the effort in the morning you will be loved and loved fully by the landowner. If you show up at the last hour, you will still be loved and loved fully by the landowner. It all comes from the generosity of the landowner, God… it’s not about us. Those laborers who work all day would be more blessed to rejoice for the blessing that the landowner has bestowed upon the latecomers. Those who arrive late are brothers and sisters, joining us in the great blessing of working as laborers in the vineyard.
I think this parable encourages us to take the focus off ourselves and others; to not compare ourselves with one another; but rather to put the focus on God and how we are called to live rejoicing in one another’s blessings. God loves generously, go and do likewise.
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