God’s going to go out of business if He keeps this up!
I mean, look at this ridiculous behavior:
1"For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire men to work in his vineyard. 2 He agreed to pay them a day’s wage for the day and sent them into his vineyard. 3 About 9am he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. 4 He told them, 'You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.' 5 So they went. "He went out again about noon and 3pm and did the same thing. 6 About 5pm he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, 'Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?' 7 'Because no one has hired us,' they answered. "He said to them, 'You also go and work in my vineyard.'
8"When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, 'Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.' 9 The workers who were hired about 5 came and each received a full day’s wage. 10 So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a day’s wage. 11 When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. 12 'These men who were hired last worked only one hour,' they said, 'and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.'
13 "But he answered one of them, 'Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn't you agree to work for a day’s wage? 14 Take your pay and go. I want to give the man who was hired last the same as I gave you. 15 Don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?' 16 So the last will be first, and the first will be last." – Matthew 20:1-16
This is no way to run a business! You can’t just throw your money to the wind that way, and you certainly don’t want to alienate your most faithful workers.
And make no mistake. The landowner is intended to be God. How you take this parable probably depends on whether you feel like a worker who’s been bearing the burden of the work and the heat of the day, or whether you identify more with the 5pm crowd (in Greek “the eleventh hour”). It's not a huge revelation to think of God as merciful, but Jesus here puts it into such concrete terms that it makes us scratch our heads, and start thinking of exceptions to a pretty exceptional picture of God.
Let me add a little more fuel to this fire. Why were the 5pm people unable to get hired to work before?
Two possibilities spring to mind (and there are likely more – the beauty of a parable):
1. There was something wrong with them. Potential employers came and went and passed this group by, mentally moving their resumes to the bottom of the pile. Whether physical infirmity or just an unsavory look about them, nobody was hiring – at least not them. If this is the case, then God in this parable is the one who accepts the otherwise unacceptable – and treats them as equals with the fittest and the finest. The last shall be first.
But there’s another possibility.
2. The 5pm crowd is lying. When asked, they tell the landowner they were ‘standing around all day’ because no one hired them. What if that’s because they weren’t trying very hard to get hired? Are they trustworthy narrators? What if they slept till noon, had a leisurely lunch, watched ‘Days of Our Lives,’ ‘Jeopardy,’ and ‘Oprah’ and THEN decided to try to find some work? And they get hired and paid a full day’s wage! If this is the case, then God is …what? Beyond merciful? Ridiculously redemptive? Rewarding bad behavior? In a more famous, but similar parable, that was the older son’s take on the situation when his wasteful, wanton brother got a celebration feast for dragging his butt back to the home he never should have left. It’s scandalous!
Is it unfair to the early morning crowd? I asked the youth “If the early morning crowd sued the landowner for unfair labor practices, and you were the judge, how would you decide the case?” They all said for the landowner. One astutely said “There was a verbal contract!” Yet there is something about this that makes us shift in our seats.
And verse 15 is the crux of the matter. That last sentence, “Are you envious because I am generous?” says in literal Greek “Is your eye evil because I am good?”
Brothers and sisters, I am afraid we have not yet realized the depth of the mercy of God. We create systems and schemes and detailed criteria to determine who’s in and who’s out. If we were running the vineyard we’d have flow charts and sliding pay scales, and we probably would decide it wasn’t worth the effort to hire anyone at the eleventh hour!
But God doesn’t think like we do. Apparently God wakes up in the morning, stretches His Almighty arm and His Righteous right hand, and asks Himself “What undeserving wretch can I shower my blessings on today?”
God, may our preaching and teaching and lives and ministry do justice to Your scandalous grace. Help our eyes not to become evil because You are good
