SPOILER ALERT!!!: This Sunday’s Gospel [Mt 20:1-16] is another parable!!! Parables, we may remember, are stories Jesus tells which compare the kingdom of heaven to realities familiar to his hearers. We all need those comparisons, for the kingdom of heaven doesn’t behave like the world we inhabit even though it already is in some way present to us [Mt 4:17]. The kingdom is not something we can make happen. It is totally the work of God, ushered in by Jesus and only gradually perceived by the faithful. The fullness of God’s kingdom will be revealed in beholding the divine glory, the time when we finally dwell in the presence of God face-to-face. Meanwhile, Jesus patiently tells us about the kingdom by comparisons which hopefully sharpen our senses and vision for living a life “…worthy of the Gospel of Christ” [Phil 1:21-30]. Sometimes Jesus’ senses-sharpening stories are like taking a big bite of horseradish. Distress is caused; we struggle to catch our breath; our eyes water and we panic, wondering if we’ll live through the assault. Parables won’t necessarily make us feel warm and snuggy.
It is no wonder that the parable Jesus tells folks this week causes their heads to spin. The owner of a vineyard hires folks to work throughout the day, adding laborers clear up to “quittin’ time.” Then the owner has the audacity, not to mention the poor business sense, to pay each worker a generous, full day’s wages. Understandably, those working the full day are angry that late comers receive the same wages. Where is the justice? The late shift hasn’t earned that money, the early shift decides, because they haven’t put in the same amount of time. Indeed, fair wages, appropriate length of working day, not to mention ethical decisions regarding racial, age, and gender biases are important issues in a just society. It’s good business practice, we assert. So, what’s the problem?
But we forget this is not a lesson in good business practice; it is a parable and Jesus is teaching with a difficult but important comparison. While the scandalously generous vineyard owner flat out tells the workers that he’ll pay as he sees fit, Jesus seems to imply a more subtle message regarding the kingdom of heaven. The Good Teacher may well be telling us: “The life of faith in service to God and others is just not my business.” That’s it in a nutshell. The Christian life is not Jesus’ nor anyone else’s business. It is not a business transaction based on reward for life-long hard work and good behavior [that’s works righteousness, Dr. Luther would gruffly remind us]. It is an abiding relationship established by God and nurtured in love and sacrifice. The life of faith is how and where God’s people – those God calls in love however and whenever – may dwell in safety “in the shelter of the Most High” [Ps 91:1].
This is the rub: there is a) the reality of Christian life as God’s gift which may be received at any stage of life, and b) the reality of our trying to steer the Church as an institution with fidelity, good business sense, but always led by God’s mission to creation. Regarding our care of the flock called Mt. Horeb, we are called to be generous, good stewards, wise leaders, faithful disciples ready to bear one another’s burdens and equally ready to give account of our actions and deeds. Moreover, we are also charged with having “the mind of Christ” which shapes and guides the institutional nature of Mt. Horeb or any other congregation differently than social agencies. When we learn this lesson, then Sunday’s parable becomes clearer.
The parable’s purpose is simple and direct. Earlier in Matthew, we heard that God’s harvest is unbelievably plentiful, but sadly lacking laborers with the vision to see that folks are “…harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd…” [Mt 9:37-38]. Whether these people in dire need are compared to lost sheep or a harvest of ripe grapes, God doesn’t check a “Santa Claus List of the naughty and nice.” First and foremost, Jesus always WELCOMES the lost, the lonely, the sinner, the forgotten, the needy, the angry, the beaten down, and those beaten up by life and their own misunderstandings or misdeeds, expecting the baptized to do the same [Mt 11:28; 25:40-43]. The Christian life is not a business that hires the “good” and fires the “bad.” Otherwise we’d all be fired by the end of the first day. Neither is it an enterprise which demands us to “…make ourselves right with God” in order to earn our keep. Assume that, and it is no longer God’s gracious gift. The full-day’s wages offered by the vineyard owner is the parable’s way of saying that God offers us everything out of love just because “…God so loved the cosmos…” [Jn 3:16-17].