For the kingdom of heaven is
like a landowner who went
out early in the morning to
hire laborers for his vineyard.
Matthew 20: 1
In the 20th chapter of Matthew’s gospel, Jesus tells a parable about workers who are hired to go out into the field to labor. Some are hired in the morning, some during the day, and others in the late afternoon. When evening comes, the owner pays them all the same. Those who have worked the longest, of course, are angry and feel that they have been cheated. It only makes sense that those who have done the most should be rewarded more than the others.
This is one of my favorite parables, because for years I was a member of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 320 as an employee of UPS. And now, when I read this parable, I can’t help but chuckle a bit. I can’t imagine my union representatives sitting down to discuss a contract and saying, “Well, here’s what we want. We want our people to come into work at all different times of the day…8 a.m.… noon… 4 p.m.… whatever… and still get paid for a full day’s work.”
That’s crazy. Efficiency would go out the window. Within days there would be packages stacked up to the ceiling waiting to get delivered.
And yet, if management demanded it, the union would reject it out of hand. You can’t negotiate a contract without a wage scale. The members who worked eight-hour shifts would never allow for a contract that paid people who worked for two hours the same pay and benefits.
Neither side would accept a labor contract like that, because it’s not how this world works. Not only do we want to be rewarded for what we do, we want to make sure that others aren’t rewarded for what they don’t do. But Jesus turns this all upside down. And he does it in such a radical way that both labor and management would be offended by it.
That’s quite a remarkable thing to pull off, and it’s what I love most about this parable. According to Jesus, God’s kingdom is nothing like this world. According to Jesus, the way we think about everything is wrong.
It’s challenging for us to accept that God’s grace is extended to each and every one of us. We look back over our lives and expect that we should be rewarded for attending church, or teaching confirmation class, or mowing the parsonage lawn. But according to Jesus, that’s not how God’s kingdom works. God extends grace and forgiveness to all, without counting either our good works or our sins.
Everything that we do, then, is in response to having already been forgiven and renewed by Jesus’ suffering, death and resurrection. We don’t give alms to the poor so that God will in return bless us. Instead, we share what we have in response to God’s love for us.
We care for those who are suffering because God has already reached down into our own lives and lifted us up. We share our story with others because we believe that our sins have been washed away through the power of God’s love for us. Our lives are centered on the cross and the empty tomb, and everything that we do is in response to the new life that we find there.
Jesus’ parable helps to define how we are called to relate to one another, and to God, in order to spread the gospel story out in our community. Jesus went to the outcast and the despised because they needed him the most, while the religious establishment rejected him. He reached out to those who lived on the margins, the poor, the sick, and the disenfranchised.
We are to go to these very same people and invite them to experience God’s grace. We are to welcome those who live on the margins of society to hear the words of salvation that we hear proclaimed each Sunday. It doesn’t matter what sins they have committed. It doesn’t matter how far from God they have lived their lives. It doesn’t matter whether they are little children, young adults, or living at the care center. We are to welcome others into the Christian community with open arms.
Jesus repeatedly points out in the gospel narrative that we should not make comparisons between our lives and the lives of others. People come to God in different ways. People hear God’s word in different ways. People respond to God in different ways. We all have faith journeys that travel a winding path. For some that path leads a long way away from God before recognizing that God has been patiently waiting all along.
What Jesus’ parable confronts us with is this…God looks at us all the same, whether we’re young or old, rich or poor, black or white, churched or unchurched, because God’s love is poured out upon us without condition. And that’s the Good News! Each week a member of the Cook County Ministerium will offer Spiritual Reflections. This week’s contributor is Pastor Tom Murray of Lutsen and Zion Lutheran Churches.
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