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Allow
me to
put you into the context of why Jesus gave the parable of the workers
in the
Vineyard. In Chapter 19:16-22, a rich man comes to Jesus asking,
“Master, what
good deed must I do to inherit eternal life?”
Jesus looked at the man with love and told him to sell his
possessions
and give to the poor. The man went away sorrowful because he had great
possessions. Between the man and Jesus, between the man and eternal
life, there
was something blocking his way--Possessions.
Peter,
observing the exchange of words between Jesus and the rich man, asks
Jesus, "We
have left everything, what will be our reward?" Jesus’
answer was quite
generous, ". . . everyone who left everything for my sake, will receive
a
hundredfold, and will inherit eternal life". However,
Jesus warns
them with this shrewd
response: “But many who are first will be last, and the last will be
first”. (19:30).
Remember
the ambitious request of James and John to sit at Jesus’ right hand and
left
hand in the kingdom. Positions, power and money were and are still the
game in
too many Christian hearts. With all
these questions and requests, Jesus is caught up. He must give an
answer. He
has to explain how the Kingdom of God operates. For Jesus
the
rules of
the Kingdom of God are very different from
those of
this world. This reminds us of what has been read in the first reading,
in the
book of Isaiah “ My thoughts are not your thoughts, my ways are not
your ways”
In fact “My ways are above your ways and my thoughts are above your
thoughts”.
Jesus
wants us to shift
from “this-world
thinking to Kingdom-thinking”. Hence,
he gives the parable of the workers in the Vineyard.
Let
us look
at the parable: The parable starts wonderfully well. A landowner goes
out to
hire laborers for his vineyard. He hires those who are available for
work
after securing their agreement to a fair wage and they go to work. He
goes
personally to hire them at 6, at 9, at 3 and lastly at
5 PM. It is interesting to
note that
those hired early have a clear contract-they are to be paid a
denarius-a day’s
wage. Those hired at nine, noon and three
o’clock, the landowner promises
to pay them
what is right. For those hired at five o'clock, there
is no mention of
money.
The shock,
the Surprise comes at the end of the day or
figuratively at the end
of our
lives for God is a “God of Surprises”. The Landowner
starts paying the
workers.
He begins with the last ones, those hired at 5 o'clock they are given a
denarius, a full
day’ wage. (They worked only for one hour). The all
day-workers do not
complain.
They smell generosity, and they can hardly wait to see their paycheck.
However,
when their time comes, the all day-workers also receive a denarius, one
day’s
wage as contracted. At that point, they complain. Their complaint is
not that
they should receive more money but that the landowner has made the
latecomers
equal to them. They got up early (you know the pains of getting up
early),
worked through the heat of the day, only to be made equal to the Five
o’clock guys.
It’s not fair. Is God, God? In fact, is life fair?
(A)
Can
you imagine someone, one of the disciples, standing at the foot of the
cross,
hearing the final conversation between the repentant thief and the Lord
Jesus, and hearing Jesus words, “Today, you will be with Me in
paradise”. I
think that disciple would say, ‘That’s not fair, I have been with You
through
thick and thin for over three years and this guy, You have known him
for a few
hours and you are telling him that he is going to be with you in
paradise? That’s
not fair!" Certainly, the disciple would be right: It's not fair. Its grace.
Nevertheless,
God in his goodness and
love decides to bestow it! Grace is never fair
because its grace. “My ways are not your ways – they are above your
ways”.
(B)
Imagine,
Paul the
persecutor of
Christianity being called into service as the Apostle of the Gentiles,
and the
other apostles saying, “It’s not fair, we walked with You. This man
tried to
pursue us to death, and now You are giving him the position of the
Apostle of
the Gentiles. It’s not fair”. No, it’s more
than fair, its grace! God
surely
has not violated his blessings upon the other disciples. He has
simply decided
to give to a disciple something that is particularly undeserved. The
question
is, "What do we learn from all this and
the parable?"
(1)
All the rewards
of the Kingdom are rewards of Grace; they are a
reward of God’s generosity. They are not ours by right.
Does that mean,
we should sit back, relax and take life easy and expect grace. St Paul says
that we should work
for our
salvation with “fear and trembling” and leave the rest to God.
(2) We
learn that God’s rewards are
not according to human measure and
perception.
We need to see God as benevolent or else envy will take control of us.
“The
last shall be first, the first last”. Jesus, in the parable, is saying
that those
who by human measure/standard, human perception might be the people
that we
think would get the most honor, glory and blessing from God may turn
out not
to. Those often overlooked, neglected, least noticed, yet faithful in
their
service, turn out to be first.
We
also
learn that we should not relate to God in some sort of “This for
That”
relationship--to think that I can earn his favor, I can earn
eternal
life. We should seek goodness not because we will earn a reward from
God, but
because it is good--for God is Goodness. In the end, when all is said
and done,
we need to realize that every good gift from God is a gift of grace.
After all,
when we have done all our duty, the Lord Jesus says, we need to say, we
are but unworthy servants and we have only done our duty and
we leave
everything to God’s grace, generosity and Mercy.