Matthew
20:1-16
"God's
kingdom is like an estate manager who went out early in the morning to hire
workers for his vineyard. 2 They agreed on a wage of a dollar a day, and went
to work. 3" Later, about nine o'clock, the manager saw some other men
hanging around the town square unemployed. 4 He told them to go to work in his
vineyard and he would pay them a fair wage. 5 They went. "He did the same
thing at noon, and again at three o'clock. 6 At five o'clock he went back and
found still others standing around. He said, 'Why are you standing around all
day doing nothing? 7' "They said, 'Because no one hired us.' "He told
them to go to work in his vineyard. 8" When the day's work was over, the
owner of the vineyard instructed his foreman, 'Call the workers in and pay them
their wages. Start with the last hired and go on to the first.' 9 "Those
hired at five o'clock came up and were each given a dollar. 10 When those who
were hired first saw that, they assumed they would get far more. But they got
the same, each of them one dollar. 11 Taking the dollar, they groused angrily
to the manager, 12 'These last workers put in only one easy hour, and you just
made them equal to us, who slaved all day under a scorching sun.' 13" He
replied to the one speaking for the rest, 'Friend, I haven't been unfair. We
agreed on the wage of a dollar, didn't we? 14 So take it and go. I decided to
give to the one who came last the same as you. 15 Can't I do what I want with
my own money? Are you going to get stingy because I am generous?' 16 "Here
it is again, the Great Reversal: many of the first ending up last, and the last
first."
Food
for thought
This
week the Lord is in the market place, talking business. Monday and yesterday,
it was the rich young entrepreneur, who forgot all about social responsibility
in his business dealings. Today, the Lord, like a real estate manager, goes out
to hire labourers. What is the Lord teaching us? What is the lesson? Let's look
at the gospel reading of today.
First,
in it there is the comfort of God. It means that IT IS NEVER TOO LATE; no
matter when we come to the Lord, late or soon, young, in the strength of the
midday, or when the shadows are lengthening, we are equally dear to God. The
Lord has need of all of us, regardless of what we are.
May
we not go even further with this thought of comfort? Sometimes a man dies full
of years and full of honour, with his day's work ended and his task completed.
Sometimes a young person dies almost before the door of life and achievement
have opened at all. From God they will both receive the same welcome, for both
Jesus Christ is waiting, and for neither, in the divine sense, has life ended
too soon or too late. JESUS DIED AT 33 YEARS OF AGE, and he died saying, All is
accomplished.
Second,
in the parable there is the infinite compassion of God. There is an element of
human tenderness in this parable. There is nothing more tragic in this world
than a person who is unemployed, a man or woman whose talents are rusting in
idleness because there is nothing for him to do. In that market-place men stood
waiting because no one had hired them; in his compassion the master gave them
work to do. He could not bear to see them idle.
Further,
in strict justice the fewer hours a man worked, the less pay he should have
received. But the master well knew that one dollar a day was no great wage; he
well knew that, if a workman went home with less, there would be a worried wife
and hungry children; and therefore he went BEYOND JUSTICE and ECONOMICS and
gave them more than was their due.
As
it has been put, this parable states implicitly two great truths which are the
very charter of the working man--the right of every man to work and the right
of every man to a living wage for his work. Unfortunately, many of us pay our
workers at home and away from home JUST WAGES and not LIVING WAGES.
Thirdly,
there is in it the generosity of God. These men did not all do the same work;
but they did receive the same pay. There are two great lessons here. The first
is, as it has been said, "All service ranks the same with God." A
priest will not get more than a faithful married couple or a single man or
woman. They'll all get heaven. It is not the amount or kind of service given,
but the love in which it is given which matters. God does not look on the amount
of our service. So long as it is all we have to give, all service ranks the
same with God.
The
second lesson is even greater, all God gives is of grace. We cannot earn what
God gives us; we cannot deserve it; what God gives us is given out of the goodness
of his heart; what God gives is not pay, but a gift; not a reward, but a grace.
This
brings us to the supreme lesson of the parable, the whole point of work is the
spirit in which it is done. The servants are clearly divided into two classes.
The first came to an agreement with the master; they had a contract; they said,
"We work, if you give us so much pay." As their conduct showed, all
they were concerned with was to get as much as possible out of their work. But
in the case of those who were engaged later, there is no word of contract; all
they wanted was the chance to work and they willingly left the reward to the
master.
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