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. They agreed on a wage of a dollar a day, and went to work. 3-5“Later, about nine o’clock, the manager saw some other men hanging around the town square unemployed. He told them to go to work in his vineyard and he would pay them a fair wage. They went.”He did the same thing at noon, and again at three o’clock. At five o’clock he went back and found still others standing around. He said, ‘Why are you standing around all day doing nothing?’
“They said, ‘Because no one hired us.’
”He told them to go to work in his vineyard.
“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.’
“Those hired at five o’clock came up and were each given a dollar. 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. Taking the dollar, they groused angrily to the manager, ‘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.’
“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? So take it and go. I decided to give to the one who came last the same as you. Can’t I do what I want with my own money? Are you going to get stingy because I am generous?’
“Here it is again, the Great Reversal: many of the first ending up last, and the last first.”
March 10th, 2007 at 4:32 pm
“My thoughts are not your thoughts, my ways not your ways - it is the Lord who speaks. Yes, the heavens are as high above earth as my ways are above your ways, my thoughts above your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:6-9)
The workers that had “slaved all day under the scorching sun” where a bit naffed off that those who only worked for an hour got the same wages as them. That makes sense to me. It is maddening when you’ve been working your butt off all day long and someone else comes in and does a little bit of work and they get the same wage as you.
This reminds me of the parable of the prodigal son when the father organises a huge feast for the son that has just spent all his money on high living and debauchery, when nothing of the kind had ever been done for the dutiful son who stayed at home.
But, before I side too much with the grumbling workers / dutiful son I guess it also means that no matter how many times I fail, no matter how many times I do wrong, no matter how late in life I come to find Jesus, I am assured of the same welcome that the saints get.
Nothing I can do will make God love me any more (or less) than he already does. It is all a gift - God doesn’t owe me anything.