Proper 20, Year A, 2011

Matthew 20:1-16

The Rev. Ronald N. Johnson

A wealthy winemaker went out early one morning and hired some workers for his vineyard.  It appears that he underestimated his labor needs though, because several more times during the day he had to go out and get additional workers. When the day ended, he paid them all the same.  He gave no consideration as to how many hours each had worked.  The first hired were paid the same as the last hired, something which produced considerable whining. 

None of this should surprise us.  Whether you are on the side of labor or management, what this owner did is simply not good business practice.  If anyone is an hourly worker, it is a farm worker.  You owe them for the time worked and nothing more. So logically, we have to side with those the vineyard owner hired on first. 

Many struggle with this passage, because it seems so unfair.  Where was Jesus coming from in his treatment of the laborers?  Why should those who worked an hour get the same pay as those who worked all day?   Or put to its higher level of meaning, which is what the parable is all about, why should God reward those who turn to him late in life get the same reward as those who have been servants of God throughout their lives?  This is what the parable is asking and explaining.

The answer is that is the way God is.  God loves us in spite of our inadequacies, in spite of our shortcomings.  And God values each of us simply because we are his children, his creation.  It does not matter whether we have been raised in the Church or come to Christ on our deathbeds.  Salvation is not merit based and there are no differing degrees of salvation.  It is an all or nothing thing, and the only thing that matters is faith in Jesus.  If you accept Jesus and are baptized into his death and resurrection, and turn to him for forgiveness of sin, you have nothing to fear.  Salvation is yours because Jesus died for you.

It’s so easy to buy into a reward and punishment system and in doing so fall deeply into the trap of jealously.  The jealousy is especially insidious when it causes us to measure Christian worth based on earthly measures.  The jealousy becomes, indeed, a mortal sin, not because God withholds grace from us, but because in our jealously we block out the experience of grace. Jealously causes us to see others as objects, not as people, and ultimately it causes us to see God as an unfair object, unfair because he is not dancing to our drum beat. So God, himself, becomes the recipient of our rage. 

This parable of the vineyard is not a parable about what is fair from our perspective. It is a parable about life in the Kingdom of God.  The parables of the Gospels always point to the Kingdom of God and tell us what the Kingdom of God is all about. In this case, the parable is telling us that all who turn to Jesus will be included in the Kingdom.  It does not matter how late it is in the day of life, if you turn to Jesus that is enough. Who is worthy of God’s gift of salvation?  The answer is that none of us are worthy, yet even in our human brokenness, even in our unworthiness, God comes to us in Jesus, God comes to us through the Cross, and cleanses us with the Blood of Christ.  Amen