Jesus
told his disciples this parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like a
landowner who went out at dawn to hire laborers for his vineyard. After
agreeing with them for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his
vineyard. Going out about nine o'clock, the landowner saw others standing
idle in the marketplace, and he said to them, 'You too go into my vineyard, and
I will give you what is just.' So, they went off. And he went out again
around noon, and around three o'clock, and did likewise. Going out about
five o'clock, the landowner found others standing around, and said to them, 'Why
do you stand here idle all day? They answered, 'Because no one has hired us.' He
said to them, 'You too go into my vineyard.' When it was evening the owner of
the vineyard said to his foreman, 'Summon the laborers and give them their pay,
beginning with the last and ending with the first.' When those who had started
about five o'clock came, each received the usual daily wage. So, when the
first came, they thought that they would receive more, but each of them also
got the usual wage. And on receiving it they grumbled against the
landowner, saying, 'These last ones worked only one hour, and you have made
them equal to us, who bore the day's burden and the heat.' He said to one of
them in reply, 'My friend, 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?' Thus, the
last will be first, and the first will be last."
Matthew 20:1-16
This
is not a parable about the importance of repenting before the final whistle
blows.
In
Jesus’s time, it was thought that being poor or sick was a curse from God in
retaliation for something you or your parents did (See John 9). Being wealthy and healthy indicated you had
been blessed by God as reward for your good behavior. Jesus spends more time debunking this idea
than any other, and asserts over and over again that those who expect to be last
will be first. Unfortunately, all the
parables directed to this purpose are usually misinterpreted to be a command to
repent or face the music.
In
the Beatitudes, Jesus states that the poor are blessed and says the rich are to
be left out, in contradiction of the theology of the time. In the story of Lazarus and the rich man,
Jesus mocks the idea that the rich man was blessed in his lifetime and says he
has used up all his good fortune by the time he dies and winds up in (Greek) Hades.
In the parable of the prodigal son, the
elder, obedient son is shocked that his jerk brother gets rewarded. And, of course, we are shocked that the
shepherd leaves the ninety-nine sheep for the one that wandered off. The story of Job is often assumed to be a story
about heroic faith in the face of calamity, but it is really a vociferous rejection
of the idea that God rewards and punishes behavior – Job’s three friends who advance
that theology are cursed by God. Finally,
the story of Jonah is often assumed to be a story about a resistant prophet who
needed to be swallowed by a fish to be brought to heel, but that’s just the
opening, and it is really a story about how much Jonah resents God’s regard for
the Ninevites. Job, the first-arriving
vineyard workers, the elder son; each stand for the people who insist God is a
moral scorekeeper.
