Some years ago, not to long after we had moved to Moorpark, my family and I were in West L.A. We were on our way to visit Carol’s parents. We drove by the corner of Sawtelle and Olympic where there is a gathering place for day laborers.
My son Ryan, who was then about nine, asked: “Dad, what are those men doing?” I explained that they were waiting for someone to come and offer them a job. The follow-up question came after a long pause: “Dad, is that how you got your job?”
That’s it. One day John Anderson from the Presbytery office rolled down his window and shouted: “Anyone here want to start a church in Moorpark?” I stepped forward - - and here I am. Day laborers were also common in Israel. Jesus sees the laborers in the marketplace, waiting for someone to hire them. He hears the haggling over wages and the complaining at the end of a hard day. This was not new turf. Jesus Himself labored as a builder for many years. His daily experience was with the working person.
Jesus’ parable of the laborers in the vineyard begins with a typical scene. But then it introduces elements that surprise us and make a powerful point. “If you read God as legalistic human manager -- ” Jesus says, “If you think that God is a stickler for accuracy who only pays what he must and resents that, then you don’t know God. Let me tell you what God is really like.”
The men in the market are not lazy idlers. The market is the labor exchange. Men arrive first thing in the morning, carrying their tools and their sack lunches. They wait until someone hires them. The fact that some of them are still waiting at 5 in the afternoon shows how badly they want work. Life is hand-to-mouth for these guys.
Jesus paints a vivid picture of what could happen in any village in Israel when the grape harvest is being rushed to beat the rains. The landowner goes to the market at 6 a.m. and hires a group of workers. There is no suggestion that the land-owner drives a hard bargain. He offers the standard wage. The workers accept.
But the crop is abundant and the time short. So the owner returns to the market to hire more workers. It is now 9 a.m. These men are told, “you go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will pay you.” The owner returns to the marketplace again at noon and again at 3. Each time he promises the workers “what is right.” Then he makes a final trip to the marketplace at 5. He finds a group of workers who have waited in the market all day. He puts them to work as well but makes no promise about paying them at all. They can only rely on his integrity and reputation.
The sun sets an hour later and the work stops. The workers gather around to receive their pay. Only those who worked all day know the terms of their contract. Impatiently they wait to be handed their denari. But the owner does a strange thing. He calls to be paid first those who were hired last. These men have worked only one hour. He hands each of them a gleaming denari — a full day’s pay for one hour’s work.
Can’t you picture their mouths hanging open in shock? Then the owner calls the workers hired at three, those hired at noon, and those hired at nine. And he gives each of them a full days pay as well. They aren’t quite as shocked as the first group but they are still shocked.
But the greatest shock is still to come. The group that has worked all day starts thinking, “If he’s being so generous to all theses latecomers then it has to be a bonus time for us!” But the owner of the vineyard gives each of them the same exact thing he gave the others -- a full day’s pay — but no more.
No one is cheated. The owner keeps his word all the way. But the first-hired unionize very quickly. They start making signs that read “Vineyard Owner Unfair!” and “Greater Pay For Greater Work.” They phone the Agriculture Labor Relations Board.
Let’s look at these first-hired workers.
They had worked hard all day while the sun beat down on their backs.
I know what that feels like. I sweated once.
And at the end of the day the owner has no criticism of their work. He calls their spokesman “friend.” It is precisely because they have done their work well that they are outraged that they received no more than the late-comers. These protestors are not trouble makers. They are decent people with a sense of outraged justice. They have nothing against their fellow workers. They simply feel that the owner has been unfair. If he wants to be generous, then why isn’t he impartial in his generosity? Why doesn’t he give everyone what he deserves plus a bonus for them?
But the owner tells them: “Friend, I am doing you no wrong. You agreed to work for me for a days wage and that’s exactly what I gave you. If I wish to give these others the same as I gave you, well it’s my money and it’s my choice what I do with it.”
Now we may be reluctant to say it because we know that in the parable the owner of the vineyard is God and that God is always right. But the procedure at least seems unjust. Why shouldn’t those who worked longer be paid more?
Some have attempted to interpret the parable to eliminate the difficulties. They suggest that the first-hired didn’t work well — that they took lots of coffee breaks and a two-hour lunch and spent the rest of the time jawing with each other. They suggest that those who worked shorter worked harder and accomplished more — with the 5:00 workers being absolute speed-demons. But you won’t find anything in the parable that says that. Jesus’ concluding words stress the generosity of the owner — not his accurate evaluation of the amount of work done.
The parable suggested that God is much more concerned with meeting peoples needs than he is with keeping his books balanced — or even getting the work done.
This parable is about grace. Grace never does less that justice demands. But grace has the freedom to do much more. The owner has the right to be as gracious as he chooses and to whom he chooses as long as he keeps his word to all.
God is the owner. He gives abundant rewards. But how much and to whom is his decision. He may call workers at different times of the day. When the final reckoning comes, He will demonstrate his freedom to decide who is paid how much.
The workers who had worked all day grumble. “These last worked only one hour and you have made them equal to us, who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.” They confuse grace for injustice. They begrudge the owner’s generosity because they think it is unfair to them. The owner replies: “Did you not agree with me for a denari? Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give this last as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or is your eye evil because I am generous?” Evilness of eye was used to refer to jealousy.
Now, note from the Bible that Jesus tells this parable to his disciples in response to a question asked by Simon Peter. Peter watches the rich young ruler walk away and realizes that the ruler is rich though he is not with Jesus and that Peter, who is with Jesus, is poor. So Peter says to Jesus: “Behold, we have left everything to follow you; what then will there be for us” Jesus replies: “Truly I say to you, that you who have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers of sisters, or father or mother, for my name’s sake, shall receive many times as much - - and shall inherit eternal life.”
I’m pretty sure that Peter likes that answer. But then Jesus adds some words that shock him and us: “But many who are first will be last and the last, first.”
Peter’s question is very natural. “What do we get out of following you?”
Now Jesus could have said that anyone with that kind of attitude doesn’t understand what it means to follow Him at all. But He doesn’t. Jesus assures Peter and the others that there is indeed a great reward in store for them and for all who follow Him. That’s us too! It’s just that we can’t anticipate just how grace will work because God doesn’t measure the way we measure.
You’re all aware that lawyers and doctors seldom give away any advice without charging for their time. A doctor and lawyer are at a party. While they are talking, a woman approaches the doctor and complains about a sore leg. The doctor listens and then tells her to apply cold compresses, keep the leg elevated, and take aspirin. After she leaves, the doctor says to the lawyer: “I think I ought to send her a bill.” The lawyer replies, “yes, I think you ought to send her a bill.” The next day the doctor sent the woman a bill and the lawyer sent the doctor a bill.
Nothing comes free in life. The workmen know that. They are to be paid according to their contract. And they are.
But then there are these others who were paid for work they have not done and for time they have not worked. So the first-hired are no longer happy with their wages. The sight of that denari in the other worker’s hands turns their eyes “evil.” They don’t remember that the landowner is free – just as we can often forget that we have no claim on God except for his claim on us – His eternal love and what He chooses to give because of that love. Lasts comes first in story not because they have done good enough work but because they have a good Lord.
Now this parable of the laborers has never enjoyed the popularity of the parable of the Samaritan or the parable of the Prodigal Son. Maybe this is because it is set in the world of economics rather than in the realm of personal encounters or family relationships. But I suspect that the real reason for its lack of popularity is that we secretly find ourselves in sympathy with the first workers. We’re on their side.
We find ourselves asking if the workers who complained didn’t have a point – that the landowner could at least have demonstrated his uneven generosity in a less provocative way -- or whether the landowner didn’t reach and defend his rather arbitrary decision in a high handed way.
This parable triggers more defensive responses than most of the parables of Jesus. Who feels any sympathy for the priest and the Levite who passed on the other side of the road to avoid the wounded man? But who does not feel some sympathy for those who have borne the heat of the day and have seen others just as greatly rewarded – those who have had their hopes raised of receiving a substantial bonus – only to be handed that same old denari?
One reason we chose this parable for our Lenten study is that is sure to trigger a lot of good discussion in our small groups — or it will if you let it get personal. One thing I enjoy about this congregation is the general willingness to engage with God’s word.
Let’s bring it in here. Let me get pointed.
Some of you have enjoyed hating Jane Fonda ever since the Vietnam War. She is now you sister in Christ. How are you going to deal with that?
Or how do we who have lived our lives for Christ for many years react to some eleventh hour convert on death row receiving the same salvation we receive? Here’s a clipping about a cop killer in Arkansas who was executed by lethal injection. Asked if he wanted to make a final statement he said, “Yes, I got baptized and saved.”
Pretty convenient, isn’t it? Don’t our long-standing faithfulness, obedience, and responsibility count for something? We’ve borne the ministry in the heat of the day. Where is our reward? We ask along with Peter: “Jesus, what do I get out of following you?” The parable becomes personal. And God asks us: “Do you also begrudge my generosity?”
There is a little book of satire for Pastors titled, How to Become a Bishop Without Being Religious. One chapter is titled “How to be Impressive in the Pulpit.” One suggestion is for the pastor to mentally subtitle every sermon, “How to Use the Christian Faith to Get What You Want.”
Well, regardless of this book, I must tell you that the purpose of the Christian faith is not to get what we want. Paul says that God will give us much more than we can ask or even think. But what that is will be His choice. We cannot put God in our debt.
The first hired workers find that the owner does not behave in a way that they, or often we, recognize as logical. Perhaps that’s the point of the whole parable. Grace is not mechanical. God is bigger than Aristotelian logic. He does not have to be the God of logical results. He is free, completely free, to be the God of illogical blessings. The only thing that God cannot do is to be untrue to His own self.
God is free to be generous to whom He chooses and to the extent that He, Himself desires. He will never do less than He has promised. But he is free to do much more and it is no business of our whom He does it for. That is what Jesus is saying in this parable.
There are, however, in closing, several points about Christian relationships that are worth considering from this parable.
First, beware of watching other people. When we get our eyes off Jesus, and start watching others, symptoms show up. We start to envy them and what they have. Our eye becomes evil toward them and toward God because we start feeling that God has given us a raw deal. As a commentator named J.A. Bengel writes about this passage, “It is wicked to wrong God; but worse still to think oneself wronged by God. And men think this oftener than one would suppose.”
We must face the fact honestly – that it is sin for us to measure ourselves against each other and compare what God has given us to what God has given them. Our fellow believers belong not to us but to God. It is his business to evaluate their work and assign their wages. Paul asked the Romans: “Who are you to judge another man’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.” When we keep our eyes on other Christians, they come between God and us. We are called to be co-laborers with the Lord -- not competitors against the Lord’s people.
Second, we must never allow a spirit of resentment to blind us to a chance to love. The owner of the vineyard offers the first hired workers more than their just wages – he offers them a secret gift. He offers them the opportunity to love – the chance to rejoice in the well-being of others – the possibility of saying, “yes” to people in need. But they refused the gift because their eye became evil. Jealousy got in the way of love.
And third, this parable is a warning to the disciples. Peter and the others are in on the ground-floor of the Kingdom. At a later time, others will come in. And they must learn now that all men and women, no matter when they come in, are equally precious to God -- even Samaritans -- even Gentiles like most of us.
In the same way, there are people today who think that because they have been member of a church for a long time, that the church belongs to them and they can dictate its policy. They resent the intrusion of new blood and the rise of new leaders with new ways of doing things. These people need to learn that the church doesn’t work on a seniority system where longevity equals a greater voice. Too many don’t learn, and become what is know in the minister trade as AAOEL’S – Angry, Alienated, Old Ex Leaders.
Other times, the old hands are all too glad to have the new hands come to the harvest so they can “retire” and let the new ones do it all, saying, “We’ve paid our dues.”
I don’t think that sits well with God. How long we stay on the field is His decision, not ours. He expects us to continue bringing in the harvest, and helping train the new hands. There is no concept of retirement in scripture. God will let you know when you’ve done your part here. He’ll tell me and I’ll tell you. : )
This parable of the laborers in the vineyard proclaims the grace of God. That’s a source of joy for some and of alarm for others. There are some people who find it very hard to believe that God loves them in spite of what they have been or have done. Others are insulted because God doesn’t love them because of what they have been or done.
But Jesus is very clear in the parable. The basic wage is the same for all. But what a wage. Life now and forever, abundant and glorious through eternity. The important thing is not when we have come to the vineyard, but that we have come to the vineyard.