“Let the wicked abandon their way of life, and the evil their way of thinking. Let them come back to God, who is merciful and lavish with forgiveness. ‘I don’t think the way you think. The way you work isn’t the way I work – it is God who speaks.’” Isaiah 55: 6-9
“The men who came last”, the disgruntled workers said, “have done only one hour, and you have treated them the same as us, though we have done a heavy day’s work in all the heat.” The landowner answered them: “My friend, I’m not being unjust to you; did we not agree on one denarius?… Why be envious because I am generous? Matthew 20: 1-16
While we might wonder what a modern-day Fair Work Commissioner or Trade Union Boss might make of the employment practice of the landowner featured in today’s gospel parable, we have to remind ourselves that the parables Jesus told belonged to the context of the world in which he lived. Two thousand years ago, landowners were very powerful people, almost a law unto themselves. If anything about the character of the landowner emerges from today’s gospel parable, it is that he was more interested in the welfare of the labourers he hired than in the amount of work they did. In addition, we might recall that many of Jesus’ parables were designed to disturb the rigid thinking adopted by many in his audiences
It was thinking like this that motivated Jesus to present to one of his audiences a detested Samaritan traveller as an icon of mercy and compassion. In an attempt to get us all to reflect on our proneness to self-righteousness, Jesus told the story of the Prodigal Son, who, despite his degenerate life-style through which he had alienated himself from family membership, was still the object of his father’s relentless love and boundless forgiveness (See Luke 15: 11-32). Jesus used stories like these and today’s gospel parable to unbalance anyone who relied on inflexible legalism or unwavering accountability.
A close reflection on the First Reading from Isaiah will prepare us for the surprise we find in the landowner’s employment and payment strategy in today’s gospel parable. In that First Reading we hear God telling Isaiah that humans, despite their best efforts will not be successful in hanging their various agenda on God. In fact, God elaborated on that with underlining emphasis: “My ways are not your ways; my thoughts are not your thoughts. As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are my ways above your ways.” (Isaiah 55: 6-9) There are times when we catch ourselves assuming that we know the ways of God instead of taking the time to quietly discern them. As Isaiah directs: “Seek the Lord while he may be found, call to him while he is still near!” (Isaiah 55: 6)
To understand the parable in today’s gospel-reading we need, yet again, to look at the context. In the previous chapter of his Gospel, Matthew had just told the story of the rich young man who could not accept the challenge to sell his possessions and share the proceeds with the poor. The message there for us is surely that we all have to grow to the point of being prepared to care about others as much as we care about ourselves. Today’s gospel-reading comes from the start of the very next chapter in Matthew’s Gospel where Jesus is compared to a wealthy landowner. The landowner in today’s gospel parable is clearly far more interested in the labourers he employs than in the work they will do for him. After all, we are told how he spent the whole day from dawn to late afternoon going to the market-place to hire as many workers as he could find. The implied message is that the workers needed employment if their families were to be fed. We could argue that, if the landowner had used his smarts, he would have paid first those he had hired at the crack of dawn. They would have taken their pay and gone on their way, without worrying about how much the latecomers received. But that would have left Jesus without a parable. Almost certainly, the last ones to be hired would have been the least promising in skill and energy. Had they impressed because of their potential, they would have been snapped up by employers searching for good workers. When it became clear to those on the end of the pay queue that the late-comers were receiving the same wage as those hired first, grumbling broke out.
The point of the parable, then, is that while we all want justice, we can be gripped by envy and jealousy when we think others are getting preferential treatment, even if they are lower down the social or employability scale. This reminds me of the story of St Peter giving a Protestant a tour of heaven. As they were passing a fairly large, comfortable looking building, Peter urged his guest to speak in a whisper. When the Protestant asked why, Peter answered: “Oh, that’s where the Catholics reside, and they think they’re the only ones here.”
It is worth our noting that this parable was used in the early Church to distinguish between Jews and Gentiles. Jews were equated with those hired at first light, while the latest hired were equated with Gentiles. God’s gifts are shared generously with every member of the human family. When we truly appreciate how God has blessed each of us, there is no room for jealousy, envy or complaint. So, there is no room for any of us to tell God how to distribute those gifts.
Today’s readings ask us if we are big enough to let God be God and to entertain the possibility that God’s understanding of justice might be different from ours. It would be sheer arrogance on our part to think that we can measure and evaluate who ought be the beneficiaries of God’s gifts. Let God choose those on whom God’s gifts will be bestowed and in what measure. We can rest assured that if and when we are admitted to God’s kingdom, we will be surprised by those whom we will encounter. And they won’t all be Catholics and Christians. Let’s be grateful if we get to be included among the very last labourers to be hired. We don’t earn God’s gifts and favour. They are simply an expression of God’s love, bestowed freely. Let’s just be grateful.