Are you envious because I am generous? So the last will be first, and the first will be last.

Matthew 20:15-16

I have a confession to make: Whenever I have read or heard this parable of the laborers in the vineyard (Matthew 20:1-16), I have always assumed that I was one of the laborers who worked the whole day. The story is told by Jesus to his followers, to remind them that the last will be first, and the first will be last. I am a follower of Jesus, so that’s how I approach the parable, as one of the first hired. And I suppose it makes sense to think of myself as one of the laborers who worked the whole day. But is it true? Should I really assume that? 

The story that Jesus tells is of a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers. Let’s suppose there were one hundred laborers standing around, hoping to be hired. The landowner, let’s suppose, was looking for twenty. Which twenty would he hire? The ones who pushed their way to the front? The ones who looked the strongest? Is it like choosing players for a game of touch football? Who do you choose first? 

Let’s suppose that you and I are not among the twenty first hired. We’re disappointed. We really need the money. Bills are piling up, food is running low. But that’s true for the others, too. We just have to hope for another landowner to come along. A couple of hours later, the same landowner comes along. He sees a few of us standing idle, and hires them too. Great! But what if we’re not in that group either? Now we are getting even more anxious. It’s now noon. Still no work. The hours tick by. 

We are hot, hungry, thirsty, and getting more and more anxious. It’s three o’clock. Now five o’clock. We are about ready to go home and tell our family that there is no food tonight. But the same landowner who came all those previous times has come once again, and we have been hired! Not for a whole day, but it’s better than nothing! We go to the field and get to work. When evening comes, we are called by the manager and receive our pay – a whole day’s wage! What an incredible surprise! We can feed our family another day! God is good, we say to our family when we get home. All the time, God is good. 

What’s Fair?

I don’t usually look at the parable this way, and maybe that is Jesus’ point. We get so focused on what is fair and on what we deserve that we neglect to look at things from the perspective of the less unfortunate. There are many in our world who simply can’t catch a break. If they finally do catch one, who are we to complain? Isn’t that the point of this story? That we shouldn’t complain about God’s unfair generosity, his gracious mercy? But it’s hard to do, isn’t it? 

When I was a kid, I worked at my dad’s candle factory. And one of my favorite jobs, believe it or not, was scraping the wax out of used sanctuary candles, like the one burning in our sanctuary. Why did I like this job? Because we didn’t get paid by the hour, we got paid by the amount of work we did. The more candles we cleaned out, the more money we got. I worked hard, and I was fairly compensated. At least it seemed that way at the time! 

And that’s how we want the world to work. Work hard, get rewarded. Don’t work hard, don’t get rewarded. We want the world to be fair. But this parable forces us to ask whether the world really is fair. The truth is that just because you want to work doesn’t mean that you will. And just because you work harder than someone else doesn’t mean you will get paid more. 

Born on Third Base?

In Max Lucado’s book, “Outlive Your Life,” he tells the story of going to Ethiopia and meeting a farm owner, Dadhi. Dadhi, he tells us, “earns less than a dollar a day at a nearby farm. He’d work his own land, except a plague took the life of his ox. His only one. With no ox, he can’t plow. With no plowed field, he can’t sow a crop. If he can’t sow a crop, he can’t harvest one. All he needs is an ox.” Dadhi, Max goes on to tell us, is “energetic and industrious. He has mastered a trade and been faithful to his wife. He’s committed no crimes. Neighbors respect him. He seems every bit as intelligent as I am, likely more so.” “We have much in common,” Max writes. “Then why the disparity? Why does it take Dadhi a year to earn what I can spend on a sport coat?” 

Part of the complex answer, Max concludes, is that Dadhi was born in the wrong place. “In the game of life,” he writes, “many of us who cross home plate do so because we were born on third base. Others aren’t even on a team.” So, what’s fair? And shouldn’t people like Dadhi receive as much as you and I? And if they don’t in this life, shouldn’t we hope that they do in the next? 

“Some people,” Max admits, “are poor because they are lazy. They need to get off their duffs. Others, however, are poor because parasites weaken their bodies, because they spend six hours a day collecting water, because rebel armies ravaged their farms, or because AIDS took their parents.” They were born in the wrong place, at the wrong time. 

Part of the value of an organization like ELCA World Hunger is that it seeks to help those who are born in the wrong place, at the wrong time. “From health clinics to microloans, water wells to animal husbandry, community meals to advocacy, ELCA World Hunger works toward sustainable solutions that get at the root causes of hunger and poverty.” And part of our Sunday offering goes toward supporting ELCA World Hunger. 

More Than Economic Justice

But this parable is more than just economic justice, as important as that is. It is about more than what it might mean to level the playing field and help those born in the wrong place at the wrong time. This parable also has a deeper, spiritual meaning. Just like all of Jesus’ parables, it offers layers of meaning into our life in this world and into our life with God. To put it another way, this parable is about grace and mercy as much as it is about food and housing. And if we are going to get our minds around the point behind Jesus’ parable today, perhaps we need to see ourselves as the laborers hired last. Given the same amount of grace and mercy as the others, whether we have earned it or not. 

I had a church member call me recently to share a joke with me. I don’t tell a lot of jokes, but this one seems to reinforce the point of this parable. So, a man dies and meets Peter at the pearly gates of heaven. Peter says to this man, you need three hundred points to enter this place. What good have you done in your life? Well, he answers, I was a faithful husband and father. Good, that is worth three points. I attended church as often as I could and usually gave a tithe of my income. Good, that is worth another three points. What else? Well, I worked hard and tried to treat my coworkers with respect. Oh, good, you get another two points. You only need two hundred and ninety-two more. What?! The man says. But that’s impossible! It’ll only be by the grace of God that anyone earns that many points! Peter says, “Yes!” and immediately opens the pearly gates to let him enter the kingdom of heaven. 

None of us have earned it. None of us ever will. You might get a point or two more than a neighbor, or more than me, but you still won’t have enough. And a thief on a cross who may not have done a bit of good all his life can say a quick prayer and go to the same place as you. That’s the nature of grace. It’s not fair. That’s the point of the parable. God’s grace upends everything. It’s not fair. And we should be grateful for that!

St. Augustine’s Prayer

There is a famous prayer by one of the great saints of the church that reinforces this point in a beautiful way. It is by the bishop and theologian, St. Augustine, who influenced Martin Luther and many, many others. In his autobiography, Augustine is reflecting on his need for God’s grace, and on his recognition that he, too, stands in need of God’s grace. He is reflecting on the fact that he got started too late, that he will never be able to do enough for God to respond to what God has done for him. And so, he prays:

Too late have I loved you, O Beauty so ancient, O Beauty so new. Too late have I loved you! You were within me but I was outside myself, and there I sought you! In my weakness, I ran after the beauty of the things you have made. You were with me, and I was not with you. The things you have made kept me from you – the things which would have no being unless they existed in you! You have called, you have cried, and you have pierced my deafness. You have radiated forth, you have shined out brightly, and you have dispelled my blindness. You have sent forth your fragrance, and I have breathed it in, and I long for you. I have tasted you, and I hunger and thirst for you. You have touched me, and I ardently desire your peace.

Too late has he loved God. Too late have we loved God. We will never be able to do enough in God’s vineyard to earn the gift of God’s grace. None of us deserves what we have. None of us deserves what God is eager to give us. We have loved God too little and too late. We have not done all that we could to labor in God’s vineyard. But at the end of the day, we will be astonished to receive a full day’s wage. The three hundred points we need to enter the kingdom of heaven will be given to us as a gift. We can’t earn it, and we don’t have to. And this parable is simply a way of reminding us of this gift. And of reminding us to receive the gift humbly, and gratefully, and not to be envious because of God’s generosity. 

The last will be first, the first will be last, but all who depend on God’s grace will be welcomed home, and when we get there, nothing else will matter. Thanks be to God. Amen.