Wednesday in the 20th Week of Ordinary Time, August 17, 2022

Matthew 20, 1-16

Jesus told his disciples this parable: “The Kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out at dawn to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with them for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard. Going out about nine o’clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and he said to them, ‘You too go into my vineyard, and I will give you what is just.’ So they went off. And he went out again around noon, and around three o’clock, and did likewise. Going out about five o’clock, he found others standing around, and said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’ They answered, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You too go into my vineyard.’ When it was evening the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Summon the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and ending with the first.’ When those who had started about five o’clock came, each received the usual daily wage. So when the first came, they thought that they would receive more, but each of them also got the usual wage. And on receiving it they grumbled against the landowner, saying, ‘These last ones worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us, who bore the day’s burden and the heat.’ He said to one of them in reply, ‘My friend, I am not cheating you. Did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? Take what is yours and go. What if I wish to give this last one the same as you? Or am I not free to do as I wish with my own money? Are you envious because I am generous?’ Thus, the last will be first, and the first will be last.”

The Lord’s describes the Kingdom of heaven through parables.  Each of these parables teaches a different aspect of it.  The Parable of the Pearl, for instance, tells us of the excitement with which we ought to proceed in our lives, spurring us on to reduce our dependence on anything other than God.  It can also be read as describing the Lord’s own excitement and zeal for acquiring us for his Kingdom.  He presents these aspects in narratives because of the effectiveness of narratives in not only conveying information but also making us feel involved with the characters who learn something necessary for their happiness.  The Lord does not want us only to know about the Kingdom but to be so thrilled by it that we will do anything to possess it.

In the present parable about the Kingdom, the Lord takes a different route and presents a situation calculated to rile us up.  In doing this, he exposes imperfections in us that we still need to correct.  As in his previous parables, he sets before us a situation familiar to the people of the time as well as to us today: a landowner goes to town to hire help for his harvest.  In any time of any size in our country, groups of mostly young men cluster in various public places, sometimes outside a convenience store, hoping to be hired for construction or other work.  A manager comes by in the morning and hires the people he needs, packs them into his truck, and heads to the site.  In the Greek text of the parable, we learn that the owner of the vineyard offers to pay the men the going rate, a denarius for the day’s work.  This may sound like poor wages, but the value of a denarius at the time of Christ could purchase enough bread and vegetables (more expensive than bread) and perhaps fish (for one meal) for a small family for one day.  As the day wears on, the owner, keeping careful track of the progress being made, goes back in hopes of hiring additional help.  He even goes out an hour before sunset, when the work would have to end for the day.  All of this we can readily picture and sympathize with.  

When it comes to paying his workers, however, we grow uneasy.  The owner pays the last hired first of all so that the other workers, who may have put in ten or twelve hours of labor, feel insulted.  The first hired should be paid first so that they can go home to rest before the others.  Additionally. The first hired are forced to witness that the owner is paying the full day’s wage to those who worked only the last hour of the day.  This also seems like an insult, but they tell themselves that they will now be given more as a matter of fairness.  But when they are paid no more than the originally agreed amount, they are outraged, and we share in that.  This seems very unfair.  But the owner reminds them that what he has done is completely fair: no one was cheated.  The owner simply decided to pay the last hired extra generously.  It is, after all, his money to do what he wishes.  He may be foolish in paying the last hired this way, but this in no way equates to defrauding the first hired.

The real problem in the parable is that the owner paid the last hired in such a way that the first hired could not fail to notice this.  If he had paid his workers according to custom, the first hired would not have known what the last hired were paid.  It was as if the owner wanted the first hired to know that he was both a just man and also a merciful man.  If he had paid the last hired for the work they had done, they would not have made enough money to eat themselves, let alone to feed their families.  He wanted his workers to know this about him, to know the truth about the man they had worked for.

And this is the God we worship, who gives everyone every chance they need to be saved, and who rewards us more than generously for whatever work we do for him.  In being employed in the Lord’s vineyard of this world, we can be confident that he will take care of our needs and even go beyond this.  He has more than enough love for all of us.