Scripture Reading Matthew 20:1-16 NRSVUE
“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius for the day, he sent them into his vineyard. When he went out about nine o’clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and he said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ So they went. When he went out again about noon and about three o’clock, he did the same. And about five o’clock he went out and found others standing around, and he said to them, ‘Why are you standing here idle all day?’ They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard.’ When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, ‘Call the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and then going to the first.’ When those hired about five o’clock came, each of them received a denarius. Now when the first came, they thought they would receive more; but each of them also received a denarius. And when they received it, they grumbled against the landowner, 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.’ But he replied to one of them, ‘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?’ So, the last will be first, and the first will be last.”
Meditation
In 1905 sociologist Max Weber wrote a book asserting that Protestant ethics and values, along with Calvin’s teaching of both predestination and the spiritual practice of abstaining from worldly pleasures through self-discipline and simple living, all these factors together, enabled the rise and spread of capitalism. The book was called The Protestant Work Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. According to Wikipedia,
Just as priests and caring professionals are deemed to have a vocation (or "calling" from God) for their work, according to the Protestant work ethic, the "lowly" workman also has a noble vocation which he can fulfill through dedication to his work.
I wonder what Jesus thinks about this theory of the Protestant Work Ethic. Having grown up well-versed in scripture, he should have agreed. He undoubtedly knew God’s instructions, given in the Ten Commandments, “Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God…” (Exodus 20:9-10). He may well have known the Proverb,
A little sleep, a little slumber,
a little folding of the hands to rest,
and poverty will come upon you like a robber,
and want, like an armed warrior. ~Proverbs 24:33-34
And yet, Jesus tells this parable, in which people who work just one hour are paid the exact same amount as people who toiled in the vineyard for a full ancient-Palestinian shift of twelve hours.
It feels wrong. It certainly felt wrong to the people who first heard it. I can practically hear the grumbling.
Let’s look at what’s led up to Jesus sharing it. In chapter 19, we have the famous incident in which little children are brought to Jesus for blessings, and the disciples try to chase them (and their parents) away. But Jesus says, Let the children come to me, don’t stop them. The kingdom of heaven belongs to them. To people of that time children were prized in the home but considered entirely unimportant anywhere else. But Jesus has declared that they are the most important, that God’s realm is theirs, not the grown-ups’.
Then a rich young man comes to Jesus, with a heart filled with love for God and God’s Word, and asks to follow Jesus. When Jesus accepts him with the caveat that first, he must go and sell all his possessions, and give the proceeds to the poor, the young man goes away sad. No one who is tethered to their wealth can truly follow Jesus’ path.
We can find both these dynamics in our parable about day laborers, people living on the edge financially, who are hanging around the town marketplace, waiting to be hired so that they can feed their families for a few days. Like the children in chapter 19, they have no status to speak of.
First, the day laborers, a part of the vast numbers of poor who lived in unceasing vulnerability. The lucky ones are found and hired in the morning. The others show up when standing around some other place didn’t result in paid work. Please note: whenever you read the word “idle” in this translation, the words behind it are “without work.” “Idle” plays into the offensive and incorrect notion that poverty must be a result of laziness (which is certainly the theme of the proverb I read to you). These are people who have been trying to get work, but haven’t been in the right place, at the right time, sometimes, for a long time.
Then the vineyard owner. This man, instead of being satisfied with the workers he has already hired, keeps returning to the marketplace, as if he can’t possibly get enough workers. He sees them asks why they stand around without work, and they say, they’ve been trying. And he says, OK. And sends them on, no matter the hour, no matter how many others have been hired, to work amidst the grape arbors. This is a man who, rather than calculate the exact number of people he needs to work his vineyard, instead, calculates how many people he can pay an entire day’s wage, no matter how much they work. Contrast him with the sad young man, who can’t untether himself from his riches. Instead, the vineyard owner uses his wealth to help a segment of his community who don’t know from day to day whether they will be able to feed their families.
There are spiritual interpretations of the laborers and the vineyard owners, of course. The vineyard owner may be seen as God, who is unceasingly compassionate and generous. The laborers who came late to the vineyard may be seen as the sinners and prostitutes who listen to Jesus’s preaching and follow his path to God, while the laborers who are early are those who have known God all along.
But for tonight, putting aside the Protestant work ethic, we are witnesses wealth being shared in a way that lifts up the community that is in the greatest need. We are witnesses to laborers in unceasing need being offered unexpected grace. And we are witnesses to Jesus’s promise of the last being first being lived out. The treasure of the parable is the unceasing compassion and generosity of God being lived among God’s people.
Thanks be to God. Amen.