Called to gratitude, not envy

 

My reflection today was on the parable of the landowner who went to the appointed place to hire people to work in his fields (Matthew 20:1-16).  He went out early in the morning and formally contracted with some workers for a day's wage.  They agreed and came to work in the man's fields.

He repeated the action of finding workers at several points along the day and finally at the "eleventh hour" he hired even more.  The only difference in his interaction with the workers in getting them to his fields was that he said nothing about wages to the later employees, even the ones who would only work for an hour.

The whole parable points to and culminates with the dramatic statement of Jesus, "the last shall be first and the first shall be last."  This pronouncement of Jesus and the content of the story is a little confusing for me; what's it all about?  It sure seems as though the story isn’t about violations of social justice—the landowner contracted with the workers for their day's wages, and they were paid that amount at the end of the day; so all seems to be on the square.  But what about those hired later and especially the "eleventh hour" workers?  They got the exact amount for their labor that the ones who bore the brunt of the day got!  This may not seem fair to us but who are we to second-guess the generous heart of the landowner?

Some people who know Scripture much better than I do say that the parable is applied to the Jews as the early workers laboring all day and the latter-day employees as Christians.  But that doesn't seem to line up well with how Jesus wants to point the story.

I think the key to understanding the story is the audience to whom the story is proclaimed in Matthew's gospel, "Jesus told his disciples this parable:"

The words ‘his disciples’ makes the whole difference, I believe.  He's saying to His close friends, the ones He called into service with Him, those who left everything to follow Him: ‘be careful; don't take things for granted; watch out that you put too much emphasis on yourselves and miss the most important part: the graciousness of God’.

In other words it's not up to the amount of work that’s done or how much "heat of the day" is endured, or even how well the work is done.  It all depends on God's call and invitation.  That's where we (disciples) need to focus ourselves, and not on grumbling against those we think don't deserve the wages for which we contracted. 

Again, in my opinion the parable isn’t about social justice or about labor relations.  It's point is God's generosity in giving freely to ones who don't deserve what they’re graciously given (not by “earning” God's love). and as always the response to such liberality is gratitude. 

That applies to all of us, the latter-day disciples laboring alongside of Jesus in His Kingdom.  We’re the "eleventh hour" people who receive the benefits of God' graciousness.  We’re the ones who are constantly being confounded by God's wondrous generosity.  We’re the ones called into gratitude for His Goodness.