The parable of the landowner and the labourers can easily generate outrage. This is not fair! Those who have worked the full day receive only the minimum wage that was promised; while those who started their work much later in the day, even at 5 in the late afternoon when the sun was about to set, receive the same wage. Those who worked the full day complain, for this arrangement is surely not equal pay for equal work. Indeed, we are apt to agree with them and wonder why Jesus told such an apparently unfair parable.
But this story is not about labour relations or equal pay for equal work, at least not initially. We have to come back to that introductory comment of Jesus, “The kingdom of heaven is like….” There is a truth of the kingdom buried in this story of the hard life of day labourers in Jesus’ time.
First, it is important to note that this parable occurs only in Matthew’s Gospel. It has not come from the earlier Gospel of Mark, nor from the early tradition Matthew shares with Luke, so-called “Q”. This is a story that was remembered and cherished by the early community that Matthew was writing for. We know that Matthew’s community was largely Jewish Christian but there were also Gentile Christians.
One common interpretation of the parable is that it speaks to the relation of Jewish and Gentile Christians (especially in Matthew’s community) and that perhaps there were Jewish Christians who were claiming priority in leadership and status because they had known Jesus from the beginning and the Gentile Christians were latecomers. Indeed, they were still walking through the doors, wanting to be baptized.
But God, like the landowner, is wildly generous and Jewish and Gentile Christian are equally and totally accepted in the Kingdom. The Kingdom of God does not respect claims based on how long one has been a Christian or a special affinity to Jesus. All are forgiven, all receive mercy, all are offered generosity.
However, some commentators suggest an earlier concern of Jesus about the leadership of the Twelve. Not long after this passage, James and John, sons of Zebedee, the very earliest of the disciples, ask to be placed at the head of the Kingdom, over against others amongst the Twelve who joined Jesus later. He squarely rebukes them: that length of service or a special link with Jesus is not important; what is important is servanthood. And sometimes those who come later are better servants than those who were there from the beginning.
Thus, a person who is baptized today enters the full Kingdom today, a Kingdom no different than the one we who were baptized as children so many decades ago entered at that time. The Spirit can work through newcomers with the same power, or even more power, than through those who have been around a long time. But, of course, the Spirit can also work through us who have been around a long time, as long as we do not try to quench the Spirit in others.
In a few months, we’ll be electing a new diocesan bishop. There might be a candidate (this story is entirely hypothetical, I do not have anyone in mind) who argues, “I have been a faithful parish priest for thirty years, it is my turn now, I have the years of service”. Today’s Gospel suggests that years of service alone are not a good criterion for leadership, for God’s generosity of Spirit extends equally to those who have arrived later, even much later, and even those who will arrive late tomorrow. And so it is appropriate also to look at candidates who do not have the years of service but have other important gifts, shown in other ministries, even in other dioceses.
Likewise, this parable encourages us if we are in some sense late to the Kingdom. Wasted time no longer matters, God’s full love and mercy is with us. There is still hope for new ministries, new ways of service. Nor, if we have been faithful over many years, is our work discounted in any way.
The parable reminds us of God’s indiscriminate and reckless generosity. If one were a landlord, that is not the way to run the business. Sometimes it seems like that generosity – and I mean much more beyond money – is less and less common. On Friday, I was in Jackson Square and needed to sit down to adjust my shoe. I went to the bench I have often rested at just outside the steps up to the bank. No bench, it has been removed. I went further east, remembering another bench. It too had disappeared. Finally, I went west and found a bench that had not been removed. Why do shopping malls, parks, apartment buildings and airports remove benches? One reason is the suspicion that undesirable people will congregate around them and we really don’t want them. Perhaps we want to keep people moving because we think moving people are shopping people. There is a lack of a generous spirit there. It would be an interesting experiment to put a welcoming bench on our strip of lawn on Forest Avenue to provide rest for those who are walking along and to express our generosity to the neighbourhood. Our bench is now hidden, inaccessible, in the courtyard.
Needless to say, God’s generosity in the parable is the same divine generosity that provided manna in the wilderness to a complaining and sometimes disobedient people, in this morning’s Old Testament lesson.
In the Gospel story, those who have worked the full day and complain about the late comers being treated with generosity, remind one just a bit of the elder brother in the parable of the prodigal son. God is simply boundless in forgiveness and generosity. And that generosity is for us as well, as long as we are willing to share it with others, including those who come, so to speak, late.
Today’s Collect begins, ‘Almighty God, you have created the heavens and the earth, and ourselves in your image”. We are created in God’s image of reckless and inclusive generosity. Our temptation, of course, is to pull back, to judge, perhaps taking God’s generosity to us for granted but not very interested in sharing it. Sometimes those who come later have felt the generosity more intensely and respond with greater fervour. We are created in the image of God the generous giver of manna. But if we are only satisfied and complacent, we, though initially the first, may run the risk of being the last: the final warning of today’s Gospel.
Thus, the ongoing renewal in Christ that Paul has been espousing in Romans over the past weeks and in Philippians today is so important. Even the latecomer, maybe especially the latecomer, needs to let the power of Christ – living Christ’s death and resurrection – abound and flourish, especially in relations with others and in participation in God’s mission in the world.
Finally, to go back to the Gospel, it might be tempting to read it only in terms of the internal discipline and relationships within the church. But God’s reckless generosity extends beyond the bounds of the church to the whole world. And, created in God’s image, we are invited into that generous stance with the world – generous even to those very difficult from ourselves, to refugees, to people of other faiths, to those on the margins. The measure we give will be the measure we receive, multiplied by God’s generosity. But if we are stingy and ingrown in our love, growth becomes difficult indeed. Let us be at least a little bit unpredictable and crazy in our generosity, like the landlord; not measuring out every penny for every hour of work given, but generous even to those who are late, or may seem to have nothing to offer us, for in doing so, in a mysterious way, we are helping to facilitate the growth of God’s kingdom of heaven on earth and beyond. And the justice of that Kingdom will eventually reach even the poor day labourer who will now receive a living wage. Let God’s boundless generosity be our generosity.
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