Why are you standing around all day doing nothing?

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 of our age.

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, it 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 or her 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 fourth 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.

Yesterday, Peter asked the Lord, "What do we get out of it?" The answer involved everything but money! Why? Because the Christian works for the joy of serving God and his fellow-men, not just for money. Money is additional, not principal. That is why the first will be last and the last will be first. Many people in this world, who have earned great rewards, great money will have a very low place in the Kingdom because rewards were their sole thought. Don't work just for money, that's too little; see your work, your profession, your job as a service to ease some need in society; that is what God created you for. If and when you do it passionately well, you will additionally get money. Lots of money.