I have been starting to write this blog in my head for a few months now, but something more pressing or important always seemed to budge in front and take priority before I could actually write it.
Most days, I have a fairly substantial commute to work. Usually, I don't mind the heaviness of the traffic (although the apparent lack of intelligent drivers is disconcerting), the amount of time spent in the car or the suffocating concrete that covers pretty much everything. In fact, as long as I keep a sharp eye out for drivers who aren't keeping a sharp eye out, I generally have some good time of reflection and talking to Jesus. But no matter how lost I am in my own thoughts as I exit onto the interstate, He always points out the migrant workers that are standing underneath the mammoth concrete overpass just waiting for someone--anyone--to drive by and hire them for the day. Always. And then He always reminds me of the parable of the hired workers (in Matthew 20.1-16).
Finally, after months of driving by these men and being reminded that they teach us about the Kingdom, too, I looked up the parable and read it through in its entirety this morning.
The owner of a vineyard goes out one morning and hires a few day-laborers, agreeing to pay them a day's wage for their work. Then he goes out later in the morning and hires a few more day-laborers, agreeing to pay them what is right. Again, at noon and 3:00pm he goes out and does the same thing. Finally, at 5:00pm he once more goes in search and finds some day-laborers who still have not been hired. He asks them why they aren't doing anything and they answer simply: because no one had hired them. So, he tells them to come work for him in his vineyard.
An hour later, the day-laborers line up to receive their wages. The owner starts paying the last-hired first--and he gives them each the equivalent of a day's wages! The workers hired early in the morning begin to get excited because they think they will now receive many times more than a day's wages, as the owner has shown some extravagant generosity to the least worthy.
But the owner pays all the workers the same. The ones who have worked 12 hours get the same salary as those who have worked one hour. Those who worked all day are shocked and angry. "When they received [the day's wage], they began to grumble against the landowner.‘These 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.’"
I admit I identify completely with the seemingly nubbed day-laborers. That is not fair. It is infuriating, it is insulting, it is unjust...it's just plain wrong. I can hear the empathetic, grumbling voice in my head. What could possibly be right about this situation? How in the world is Jesus going to pull out a 'teaching point' from this one?
But he answered one of them, ‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius?Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’
Ouch.
My mind went two directions:
1) Have I made some sort of agreement with God to lock myself into a good deal?
and
2) I actually thought of two people that God has been generous to in ways that I consider significant. I realized that yes--I am envious of that generosity. It's not fair that they are doing things I want to and should be doing. It's not right and it's...insulting.
As I hear the grumble rising in my throat, I realize that my response reveals the true state of my heart. The point of the parable, you see, is that generosity by its very definition is unfair. Jesus reminds me that the receiver is always indebted to the Giver. And everything He gives--no matter how big or small--is unfairly generous. How could I question the Owner about the quantitative distribution of His resources?
God help me.
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Those migrant workers are hired some days. Other days, they are still waiting when most people are driving home. But hired workers fit right into God's economy:
“So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”
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