‘For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard. ‘About nine in the morning he went out and saw others standing in the market-place doing nothing. He told them, “You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.” So they went. ‘He went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing. About five in the afternoon he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, “Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?” ‘ “Because no-one has hired us,” they answered. ‘He said to them, “You also go and work in my vineyard.” ‘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.” ‘The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. When they received it, 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.” ‘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?” ‘So the last will be first, and the first will be last.’
Matthew 20:1-16 NIVUK
This, again, is quite some parable. Really quite eye-catching.
Right now, as I write these words, our country of Great Britain is reaping the whirlwind of a financial crisis, coupled with an unhealthy focus on rights versus responsibilities.
Even our schools have banners unfurled outside that say ‘Rights supporting school’.
But now we have strikes and protests demanding rights all across the country, bringing our economy to a partial standstill, disrupting our travel, hurting our healthcare, causing chaos on our streets...
It feels like it will never end.
Not that it is wrong to demand our rights. Of course it's not. Neither is it wrong to demand the same rights for others. Christians have often been at the forefront of movements that have demanded, and redressed, human rights.
However, I doubt that anyone would disagree that it's gone too far.
People are requesting rights that they are either not entitled to, or will cost other parts of the community dear.
And so we end up with an interminable, self-centred struggle over ‘my’ rights against someone else’s.
Let me say this starkly and directly: the Kingdom of Heaven is not about rights.
For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and receives human approval. Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification.
Romans 14:17-19 NIVUK
There are no rights movements in the Kingdom of Heaven because there is no need for one: participation in the Kingdom of Heaven is about love and service for each other and mutual edification. It is not a constant struggle to get what ‘I’ want.
That, in a roundabout way, leads us to this odd parable.
If ever there was a shock to our sense of rights and entitlements, this is it.
We must first understand the context, which is explained well by William Barclay:
‘If the harvest was not ingathered before the rains broke, then it was ruined; and so to get the harvest in was a frantic race against time. Any worker was welcome, even if he could give only an hour to the work.’
There were no labour offices or agencies in those days. Day rate labourers would simply gather in the town marketplace with their tools and wait for someone to hire them. And that is effectively what happens here. The landowners has a harvest to be brought in. The labourers need work. He goes to the marketplace and he hires them.
There are three batches of workers this parable.
The first is the early workers, hired at around 06:00, and promised a standard day rate for their work.
No issues there. Any union would be happy with that.
Then we have the day workers, hired at 09:00 and 12:00. Their hardships would be less as they would be working less hours. But they were promised what was fair, so that was fine.
Then we have the late workers, hired at 17:00, right at the end of the working day. The landowner still needs them. There is still harvest to be brought in as the sun is setting. The landowner is slightly incredulous that they have not been hired until so late in the day, but he takes them on regardless.
Then that brilliant time of day occurs: pay time. Everyone’s favourite time of day.
But this is when the landowner does something that confuses his workers.
He lines his workers up, starting with those who were hired last, with those who were hired first at the back of the queue, so they would be paid last.
He pays them all precisely the same amount – one denarius.
On the surface of it, the men who were hired first have an absolutely legitimate complaint. They have toiled since dawn. They have borne the heat of the day. They have sweated it out.
Should they not be paid more?
The landowner’s response is quite something.
He talks of fairness. The early workers accepted to be paid a denarius. That is what they were paid. Nothing wrong there. The others agreed to be paid what he, as the landowner, deemed to be appropriate. He believed it was appropriate to be generous and pay them a full day’s wage. Therefore, in his eyes, there is nothing unfair about it.
He talks of friendship. He calls them his friends, much the same way Jesus calls His disciples friends:
Greater love has no-one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.
John 15:13-15 NIVUK
Isn’t that remarkable: a landowner calling his hired workers friends?
We also see rights – in that he owns the land, he owns the money it generates and he has the right to do with it whatever he chooses. This is something the grumbling workers cannot dispute.
Lastly we see envy. He is questioning the real motivation for their dispute. He sees them envying the other workers who worked fewer hours.
So what on earth could Jesus be talking about?
The thinking behind this parable has puzzled theologians for many years.
Allow me to provide a possible interpretation.
This parable portrays a Kingdom based not on rights but generosity and grace. Why?
Because, thanks to the sacrifice of Christ on the cross, the legal system is fulfilled and the law of grace prevails (Romans 5:20-21). Therefore, before the Throne of God, there is no need at all to plead for our rights or demand our entitlements – these have received their ultimate fulfilment in Jesus Christ.
Besides, our salvation is totally undeserved. If we demanded from God what we are due, we would be in hell.
Look at this stark verse that sums it up:
All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.
Isaiah 64:6 NIVUK
(And, by the way, the English translation is way too polite here. The ‘filthy rags’ here refers to a menstrual cloth a woman would throw away as both ritually and biologically unclean – and that is a picture of our best deeds!)
Therefore we have no claim at all to blessing. We have no claim at all to riches or health or glory or power. Everything we have – everything – is a work of generosity and grace.
If we were somehow entitled by law or by contract, that would mean there would have to be a power higher than God – an adjudicator, if you will – who could hear our dispute and judge between us. But there is none, because the highest power in the universe is God.
There is a wonderful example of the principle of this passage in a gentle encounter after the Resurrection. Jesus is addressing the repentant Peter with these words:
Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.’ Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, ‘Follow me!’ Peter turned and saw that the disciple whom Jesus loved was following them. (This was the one who had leaned back against Jesus at the supper and had said, ‘Lord, who is going to betray you?’) When Peter saw him, he asked, ‘Lord, what about him?’ Jesus answered, ‘If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me.’ Because of this, the rumour spread among the believers that this disciple would not die. But Jesus did not say that he would not die; he only said, ‘If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you?’
John 21:18-23 NIVUK
Do you see it?
Peter has more or less been told by Jesus that he will be crucified and he will not be able to do a thing to stop it. Peter notices John nearby and asks ‘What about him?’, thinking perhaps that there might be some form of favouritism at play.
What does Jesus say to Peter?
More or less, ‘That’s none of your business, Peter. You follow me.’
That, I believe, is the message of this parable. God is sovereign. He is not bound to any of our earthly ideas of what fairness or equality or entitlement are. He calls the shots.
Our job is not to look over the fence and wonder at what other people have and become jealous. Apart from bring shockingly immature, this is also against the law (Exodus 20:17; Deuteronomy 5:20), and contrary to the Higher Law of love (Romans 13:9).
And anyway, the grass is usually greener on the other side of the fence because it’s AstroTurf.
No, we are to respond to the call to work in the landowner’s field. We are to do the work we are called to do, for however long He gives us to do it, and we are to trust that the reward will be fair, just and generous.
Our Lord is full of generosity and grace. It is telling that a man who spent three years with Him in close quarters betrayed Him, while a crucified thief, who had neither the time nor the possibility to do any righteous acts other than to stand up for Jesus, was saved.
This parable is the death of entitlement at the hands of generosity and grace. After all, there is nothing we consider to be more deserving of reward than hard work and longevity. And yet:
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6:23 NIVUK
Our Lord is always fair. Our Lord is always just. Our Lord repays all men and women what they deserve.
Absolutely.
But our Lord is also full of grace and generosity.
And we wouldn’t be here if He wasn’t.
This is something we just need to remember.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, forgive me when I am envious of what other people have. I know it’s a sin and I want to repent. Help me to be grateful for the things you have given me and to rejoice in Your generosity and grace towards me. Amen.
Questions
1. Why did the landowner decide to pay all his workers the same, regardless of how long they worked? What prompted thus?
2. What does this teach us about grace?
3. ‘This parable is the death of entitlement at the bands of generosity and grace.’ Why? How should it change your attitude towards the blessings other people have received?
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