Fairness In The Kingdom

As promised - something more important than the shallow end of the intellectual political pool.

From Matthew 20:1-16 comes a strange tale about what it is like in the kingdom of God. Often used as an overview of Jesus' grace, this story seems to have much more in it than simply what appears on the surface. In a few weeks, I will be doing a homily on this at our church, and I thought it might be helpful to break it down in the context of our modern moment. In America, we strive for fairness. We want what is “right” for our actions and our work . This is a meritocracy after all. The first will be first, and the last…tough luck. We love the leathery feel of the American story. Pulling ourselves up by our efforts and our bootstraps. To be certain, great things can come with hard work, but in the kingdom of God, work seems to be a less-than-dominant part of the equation of life.

I love the Jesus stuff in the bible. It is often like seeing a bright light in the darkness when I read his words. This incredible moment in history where the God of the universe humbles himself to take on human flesh and dwell among us. What we see in that incredible transformation is an intervention from the divine. He knows our struggles and our complexities. He knows why we are tempted and why we choose sin over the ways of grace. The miracle of Jesus is that scripture says he was tempted in every way that we are, and chose the right path. It’s hard to articulate how profound that is. I think sometimes we read scripture and brush it off—of course, he didn’t sin, he was God! But if we understand it from our own hurting souls, we must embrace the depth of the temptation. If it were easily avoided, the sacrifice would ring hollow. Jesus was tempted by what we are tempted by. Lust, greed, power, money —scripture says he was tempted in every way. That is profoundly good news in light of the depth that sacrifice means. There isn’t a temptation I have failed in that he has not overcome. That’s exceptionally good for the end of the story. It means that his full humanity had to wrestle with what I have. He was tempted by anger and cynicism, just as I am, and while I fail, he passed the test.

So as I opened up the Bible to break down this parable, I was stunned at the depth of what God was offering in this story. Of course, it is easy to see the parallels to the end of the story of sacrifice and death on a cross, but all of that understanding is in hindsight for us. At the moment he is telling this story, no one knows the ending of his time on earth. There is no crucifixion or resurrection when he sits his disciples down to tell them about a vineyard, a crazy owner, and the insatiable desire of man for fairness and earthly justice.

Human tendencies are the same in every season. Contextually, Jesus is wandering through a world controlled by powerful Jewish religious figures embedded in the Roman Empire. At the time he’s speaking, there’s no Adam Smith or Thomas Jefferson in the first-century Galilee. We are centuries away from any form of enlightenment or free-market capitalism. Yet here in this story, we see how working and money relate to the human spirit. In our moment, we like to blame the “capitalism” or the “system” for the natural ills of our society, but it’s incredibly clear in this parable that Jesus knows the human soul, regardless of the time or the fancy books that will eventually come that describe the exchange of labor for money.

The Parable of the Vineyard Workers

“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 marketplace 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 who were hired first came, 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.”

I can almost feel the resentment 2000 years removed. People have demanded fairness forever. What is often overlooked in our number-driven readings of the Bible is that just ahead of this, Peter is asking about his own life and sacrifice. "We have left everything to follow you! What then will there be for us?" Peter wanted to know what reward would be given to those who give up everything to follow Jesus. This parable is Jesus’ response. Instead of telling Peter that “life isn’t fair,” Jesus decides to tell a story about how the kingdom of God actually works.

What is interesting to me about this pivot is that sometimes I think we believe that our circumstances, desires, or sinfulness as humans are just modern phenomena, brought in by cultural influence or the debauchery of YoMTV raps. But what Jesus demonstrates, and why scripture is as timeless as it is, is that humanity showcases its fallibility regardless of culture. First Century Galilee is equally as depraved as our own moment, and our sinfulness never changes. We desire to elevate ourselves above others or to be celebrated for our goodness. We bathe ourselves in self-righteousness, making excuses for our need to be seen, or have purpose, or be significant. Peter is asking Jesus, what about us? Haven’t we given up everything to be here with you? What good things will come to us for having done so much for you?

Jesus, in his patient and good way, tells Peter a story about the economy of God. He tells him that the kingdom isn’t built on human expectations. On the surface of the parable, this is a story of grace. All who believe are going to be saved, and it is going to be difficult to understand how generous the grace will be. But deeper than that, Jesus digs into the expectations that people build by telling the story from the perspective of equal pay for unequal work. Somehow during the moment of being paid, the workers who were first build in an expectation, that their pay will somehow be more than what they had agreed upon. Jesus explicitly tells the story that the owner of the vineyard had them line up in the order in which they came to work; those who were last are to be first in line. Jesus understands that everyone who is listening to him is going to see this as a story of abundance. Of course, those who worked longer are about to get more because the people who barely worked are getting what they had been promised. “We’re going to be rich!” because this owner is so incredibly generous. Jesus knows that in the hearts of his disciples, they each are projecting a story upon the setting. The understood expectation is that being paid more is the “fair” way to treat the situation. The people listening would already be building up in their own minds how the story is going to end. The world will treat those who work harder with a better reward.

But Jesus finishes the story by saying that everyone was paid equally, and it’s discouraging to the ones who toiled in the vineyard longer. Why am I not being treated fairly? Why do I not get what I expected? Jesus answers their puzzlement by saying, "Why did you build up your expectations?” What about what I said as the vineyard owner would have implied that you deserved more than what we had agreed to?

We want fairness. We want equality. We think that efforts and work always translate to something more for us. But it simply isn’t true. The most rewarding things we ever do in life are the ones where the gain is less than we expected. Thankless things are often the most transformative experiences we can have as humans. God is gently reminding us that our life is not a series of trades and bargains to get ahead. And while our culture and our financial system and our governments all operate from the earthly perspective of work and rewards, the kingdom of God is exactly the opposite. Jesus casts a vision of what it means to be a human in the economy of God. Our work is for the betterment of the vineyard, and even if we are compensated for our efforts, it will often seem unfair on this side of the spiritual divide. The gospel tells us that grace is abundant, and that regardless of our own capacity and our failings, the grace and goodness of God are available for all. Thankfully, our ability to connect with divine things isn’t limited to our efforts or our own goodness, and our expectations about what we deserve don't reflect reality either.

The kingdom of God is not what we have on earth. Yet we operate within our faith as if it is. We build programs and constructs to help us “deepen our faith” or “be a better Christian.” All of which are the projections and expectations we put upon God about what we will deserve for all of our efforts here on earth. Jesus says that isn’t how this is going to go. There is no hierarchy in the kingdom based upon our earthly efforts. We should be willing to analyze that in our own lives and choose to embrace the reality of God’s good grace to us. Our striving is for us. The kingdom of God has its own design —and it isn’t what we think.