This Sunday we continue our sermon series on the parables of Jesus, guided by the book Short Stories by Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi by Amy-Jill Levine.
The focused parable is the parable of the laborers in the vineyard. It must have been frustrating for those workers who worked the whole day in the heat of the sun to receive the same pay as those who only worked for one hour. It just doesn’t seem fair. I imagine the other groups that were hired earlier also expressed their frustration, albeit at a lower level in comparison to the first group hired.
Have you ever been in a situation where you feel like what’s happening to you is not fair at all? Perhaps, your sibling is getting a better Christmas gift than you, or someone you know is getting through life so easily and everything is handed to them while you have to work so hard only to barely get by.
We all want what is fair for ourselves, but sometimes we do not recognize the lack of fairness for so many people around us. Is it fair that some people are born with diseases, heart problems, missing chromosomes, or even worse, stillbirth? Is it fair that children are left to wander the streets looking for food in poor countries? Fairness and justice are barometers that we use to help us assess our moral and ethical standards. Yet sometimes these measurements are skewed. How do we make sure fairness and justice are the same for all?
In a fair world, everybody would get equal treatment. We would all get what we deserve and not get what we do not deserve. Yet, that is not always the case. This parable helps us to consider the issue of fairness from an economic point of view, but it also helps us to consider deeper levels of commitment and responsibility we should have for our neighbors in the human village.
Matthew 20:1-16
1 “The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. 2 After he agreed with the workers to pay them a denarion, he sent them into his vineyard.
3 “Then he went out around nine in the morning and saw others standing around the marketplace doing nothing. 4 He said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and I’ll pay you whatever is right.’ 5 And they went.
“Again around noon and then at three in the afternoon, he did the same thing. 6 Around five in the afternoon he went and found others standing around, and he said to them, ‘Why are you just standing around here doing nothing all day long?’
7 “‘Because nobody has hired us,’ they replied.
“He responded, ‘You also go into the vineyard.’
8 “When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, ‘Call the workers and give them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and moving on finally to the first.’ 9 When those who were hired at five in the afternoon came, each one received a denarion. 10 Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more. But each of them also received a denarion. 11 When they received it, they grumbled against the landowner, 12 ‘These who were hired last worked one hour, and they received the same pay as we did even though we had to work the whole day in the hot sun.’
13 “But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I did you no wrong. Didn’t I agree to pay you a denarion? 14 Take what belongs to you and go. I want to give to this one who was hired last the same as I give to you. 15 Don’t I have the right to do what I want with what belongs to me? Or are you resentful because I’m generous?’ 16 So those who are last will be first. And those who are first will be last.”
Consider these questions:
- What was your reaction to reading this parable?
- How would you feel if you were the first group hired, the second group, the third group, the fourth group, the last group, or the landowner?
- How do you define fairness?
- What new insights, learnings, discoveries, or invitations came to mind as you read the parable?