Vine and Whine

"Sure don't look none too prosperous."
--Tom Joad (The Grapes of Wrath)

When Christ speaks in parables, God's wisdom is revealed as if a brilliant light had just been switched on. He tells the story and, click, we suddenly see.

We have recounted several parables previously, including the Parable of the Talents, the Lost and Found Parables, and the Parable of the Rich Fool. In today's gospel, we are treated to the Parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard (Matthew 20:1-16).

Jesus tells us that the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who goes out at dawn to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the workers on the wage to be paid at day's end, the landowner sets them to work in the fields.

Several times during the day, the landowner finds groups of people standing around town and not being productive. He tells them to go to his vineyard and work, and that at the end of the day he will pay them what is just.

At the end of the day, the landowner told the foreman to pay the laborers in reverse order starting with those workers who had arrived latest in the day. To their surprise, the late arrivers were paid a full day's wage. When they saw this, those who started working at the beginning of the day anticipated a bonus because they had arrived first and had worked more hours than the late arrivers. 

To their disappointment, however, they were also paid a full day's wage like the others. They complained to the landowner, whining that, although they had worked longer and harder than the late arrivers, they were paid the same daily wage. The landowner then replies,

"My friends, I am not cheating you. Did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? Take what is yours and go. What if I wish to give this last one the same as you? Or am I not free to do as I wish with my own money? Are you envious because I am generous?" [emphasis mine]

Christ concludes, "Thus, the last will be first, and the first shall be last."

What do you see when the light switches on? I see God's message of helping idle people become productive late in life, the divine nature of contracts and property rights, the danger of envy and covetousness, and the chasm between earthly and heavenly notions of 'fairness.'