Perspective: Offensive Thoughts About an Offensive Parable

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Offensive Thoughts About an Offensive Parable

So the last will be first, and the first will be last.

Matthew 20:16 (NRSV)

Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is rapidly agin'
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'

From "The Times They Are A-Changin'" by Bob Dylan

In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus tells a story about a vineyard owner who hires day laborers to harvest grapes.  Early in the morning, the vineyard owner hires a group of workers, agreeing to pay them a denarius, the standard daily wage at the time.  A few hours later, at nine o'clock in the morning, he goes to the marketplace and hires additional workers, agreeing to pay them "whatever is right."  The vineyard owner goes out three more times that day - at noon, at three o'clock in the afternoon, and finally at five o'clock - hiring more and more workers to harvest grapes.¹

At the end of the workday, the vineyard owner sends his manager to pay the laborers he hired, instructing him to start with those he hired last.  The workers who were hired at five o'clock receive a denarius, as do all of the other workers who were hired throughout the day.  Naturally, the workers who were hired first expect to receive more, since they worked the entire day, but they too receive a denarius, the same amount paid to those who were hired last.²

As one might expect, the laborers who were hired first feel cheated.  They complain to the vineyard owner, saying, "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."³

The vineyard owner replies, "Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for a denarius?  Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you.  Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me?  Or are you envious because I am generous?"⁴

What I'm supposed to tell you about the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard is that it teaches us that, whether a person turns to God early in life or late in life, the person will be met with God's abundant grace.  That said, I've wondered if maybe this typical interpretation is actually an over-spiritualization of this parable, and recently I've started to wonder if maybe we over-spiritualize this parable in order to make it less offensive.  A literal reading of the parable is a shock to our system, and the real-world implications of such a reading would be unthinkable to many of us.

When we encounter this parable, everything inside us screams that the laborers who worked all day should be paid a lot more than those who were hired toward the end of the day.  Someone who worked twelve hours should be paid twelve times as much as someone who worked only one hour.  It's only fair, after all.  The idea that someone who worked only one hour should be paid the same amount as someone who worked twelve hours offends our sensibilities.

Notice that, when the vineyard owner hires the first workers early in the morning, he agrees to pay them the standard daily wage but that, when he goes out later in the day to hire workers, he agrees to pay them "whatever is right."  Apparently, in the vineyard owner's eyes, the right thing to do is to pay all of his workers the standard daily wage, regardless of how long they worked for him.  He gives his workers both a living wage and also the dignity of having worked for it, even if they only worked one hour.

Jesus says that the Kingdom of Heaven is like this vineyard owner.⁵

What St. Matthew calls the "Kingdom of Heaven," other Gospel writers call the Kingdom of God.  This Kingdom is not Heaven itself but rather the place where God's will is done "on earth as it is in heaven."⁶  It is where God reigns.  It is the world as God intended it to be.

When Jesus begins His public ministry, He proclaims, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near."⁷  Repentance is not merely feeling bad about the sins one has committed.  As I've noted countless times on this blog, the Greek word metanoia, which is translated into English as repentance, literally describes a change of mind.  Repentance is a change in the way one thinks that ultimately changes the way one lives.⁸  The world as we know it is not what God intended it to be, so if the Kingdom of God is indeed breaking into this world, then we need to be ready to rethink anything and everything.

Maybe we even need to rethink something as basic as the idea that a person who works twelve hours should be paid twelve times as much as someone who works only one hour.  If the Kingdom of Heaven is indeed like the vineyard owner in Jesus' parable, then maybe God wants us to care about what people need and not what they deserve.

Maybe, dear reader, when you hear Jesus call people to repent in preparation for the coming of the Kingdom of God, you are tempted think that He is talking to everyone besides you.  Surely Jesus doesn't think about things differently than you do!  After all, if your opinions were wrong, you would have changed them by now, right?

Maybe you need to let go of some of your most deeply held beliefs, including your beliefs about politics and economics.  I've heard it said that, though people commonly leave their churches over politics, they rarely ever leave their politics over the Church.  What if Jesus is not the good conservative, progressive, capitalist, or socialist you think He ought to be?  Would you still want to be part of what God is doing in the world through Him?


Notes:

1. Matthew 20:1-7
2. Matthew 20:8-10
3. Matthew 20:11-12 (NRSV)
4. Matthew 20:13-15 (NRSV)
5. Matthew 20:1
6. Matthew 6:10 (NRSV)
7. Matthew 4:17 (NRSV)
8. Wikipedia: "Metanoia (theology)"

Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard was painted by Christian Wilhelm Ernst Dietrich in the 1750s.