Sermon on Vineyard Workers

BAD BUSINESS

TEXT: MATTHEW 20:1-16 

INTRODUCTION TO THE SCRIPTURE

Today we'll be talking about another of the stories Jesus told. Again, he uses imagery that was be familiar to his listeners. Just like the skilled preachers of today use stories from contemporary culture, sports, business, he would have reached into the lives of his people for situations rooted in their experience. His audience tended to be the poor and marginal folks who did blue-collar work or who had no work at all. They, undoubtedly could identify with the workers who were hired as field hands on a certain sunny day in Palestine. Now we're going to do a little improv. I want you all to play the part of the workers who are the first to be hired. You'll a line or two later in the reading, so get in character, and let me hear what you might have said if you were there.

As Jesus was telling what the kingdom of heaven would be like, he said: Early one morning a man went out to hire some workers for his vineyard. After he had agreed to pay them the usual amount for a day's work, he sent them off to his vineyard.

Remember you are these guys. It's probably 6 or 7 AM and you are off to chop weeds in the rocky soil around the grape vines. It's cool now, but it looks like it's shaping up to be a hot day. The story continues. The landowner goes back to the town square later that morning.

    About nine that morning, the man saw some other people standing in the market with nothing to do. He said he would pay them what was fair, if they would work in his vineyard. So they went.

At noon and again about three in the afternoon he returned to the market. And each time he made the same agreement with others who were loafing around with nothing to do.

Finally, about five in the afternoon the man went back and found some others standing there. He asked them, "Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?"

"Because no one has hired us," they answered. Then he told them to go work in his vineyard.

That evening the owner of the vineyard told the man in charge of the workers to call them in and give them their money. He also told the man to begin with the ones who were hired last. When the workers arrived, the ones who had been hired at five in the afternoon were given a full day's pay.

The workers who had been hired first thought they would be given more than the others. But when they were given the same, they began complaining to the owner of the vineyard.

"The ones who were hired last worked for only one hour. But you paid them the same that you did us. And we worked in the hot sun all day long!"

The owner answered one of them, "Friend, I didn't cheat you. I paid you exactly what we agreed on. Take your money now and go! What business is it of yours if I want to pay them the same that I paid you? Don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Why should you be jealous, if I want to be generous?"

Jesus then said, "So it is. Everyone who is now first will be last, and everyone who is last will be first."

THE SPIRITUAL IS THE PRACTICAL

People often assume that the Bible is all about other-worldly spiritual stuff. Nothing can be farther from the truth. Oh, it's about spiritual stuff, all right, but in the faith of Moses, the prophets, Jesus, and Paul, the spiritual could never be separated from the way we lived in this world.

When Jesus says, "This is a story about the kingdom of heaven," he's not talking about the way things will be in the afterlife, but the way things should be in this world. The realm of God's intention. I think it is interesting that our first reaction, and probably the reaction of Jesus' listeners is, "If this is the way things are going to be in the society God sets up, I don't much like it. It's not fair."

A PARABLE OF COMPASSION

Isn't it interesting that we should get such a blatantly economic message after a week when the economy was at the top of every news story. And talk about unfair! Big corporations get bailed out when the little people lose their homes. The CEO of Lehman Bros. takes home $40 million as he presides over the collapse of his firm.

Let me get right to the heart of what I think is the economic message of this parable which, in some sense, is relevant to the current crisis in our markets. Jesus tells a story for the poor of this world. The key is found in the wage that each of the laborers received. In Greek, it was a denarius. Some current translations say "a dollar." But that's not a good equivalent.

In Jesus' time, a denarius was a day's wage-enough to put food on the table and house and clothe your family simply. After their work, each of them received enough to live on. The landowner was not like the financial CEO's of today-driven by greed, guilty of abuse of power. This landowner if accused of being unfairly generous!

Those of us who do not like the fact that the latecomers get a living wage, may be thinking of ourselves-of only the long hours we spent in the fields. We got what was fair. Why can't we bring ourselves to think, "Well, didn't they luck out-I wish them well?" This is due to a sense of entitlement and a failure of imagination.

LOOKING AT THE PARABLE THROUGH THE LENS OF THE "LEFT BEHIND"

I've heard this parable interpreted by people who were not of the able-bodied white middle class. And it is heard quite differently:

THE MIGRANT FIELD WORKERS

An African American theologian knows this very scene and it's not in Galilee, it's in Galena or Galveston. It's the town square where day laborers-Black and Hispanic-hang out, waiting for field bosses in pick-up trucks to come by and gesture to 3 or 4 guys, "Hop in." They know that a few will get taken to pick strawberries, mow suburban lawns, spray insecticides on lettuce. The rest will stand around, smoking, squatting on the ground with a deck of cards, leaning on a spade, thinking about their newborn child, hoping for another pick-up truck-maybe later in the day for a bit of cash, maybe not at all. Do you think it is nothing to wait all day in the sun? To wait, hoping a pickup will come by and someone will stick up a thumb and say, "Hop in?"

THE ONES WHO CAN'T COMPETE

A parishioner of mine at another suburban church totally got this parable as it applied to her and her daughter with Down Syndrome. She made this eloquent comment.

"I sympathize with those people who waited in the sun all day, only to be passed over. I'm guessing the boss chose the ones that looked the most able. And at the end, it was the smallest and weakest-and maybe the most hungry who stood alone. I have seen my child being left to wait until next time. Does anyone think that there is no effort expended in being out in the city square every day waiting and hoping? Does anyone think that there is something good about not being hired for the job? There is work involved in keeping hope alive as you see time and again, that you are not going to be chosen. No. Those workers were not idle! They were expending enormous energy trying not to cry."

It seems perhaps that Jesus gets this. In Jesus' story, everybody gets a living wage, enough to live on. Including the people who are the last and least. This is not a parable of justice, but a parable of compassion.

A MORE SPIRITUAL INTERPRETATION ~ A PARABLE OF GRACE

And since parables are never about just one thing, here's another way of seeing it-a more spiritual or interior one.

The writer, Bernard Scott, is struck by the vineyard owner's repeated forays into the village-coming back 2, 3, 4 times to hire new workers. He sees in this a kind of "Hound of Heaven" image-a representation of God in constant pursuit, never resting until all are gathered into the vineyard, even the reluctant ones.

And the last people to be gathered in are equally rewarded. Some of us may romanticize John Newton, the slave trader whose conversion inspired the words of "Amazing Grace." But perhaps he's an example of the last who would become first. If we do not go too quickly to the confessional words of the hymn but think first of what he was, "wretch" is an apt term. The last person one might think deserving of God's grace. He abetted kidnapping, murder, rape, genocide, torture, and buying and selling human beings. We would have judged him harshly. But even this person was beloved of God and found forgiveness and acceptance.

This parable reminds us that our finite reason cannot fathom the grace of God. We focus on what we deserve, and God instead extends mercy. For that amazing grace, we must all be grateful.

END NOTE. YET A THIRD POSSIBILITY.

I didn't take the time to preach this interpretation; this one is rooted in the parable's historical context.

THE CHURCH QUESTION ~ A PARABLE OF ACCEPTANCE

The parable in it's historical setting. There is likely to be something here to address the situation in Matthew's church which was made up of primarily Jewish followers of Jesus. It was hard for them to accept gentile believers who did not follow Jewish religious codes. They were skeptical of these new converts. Can they be truly one of us? They do not follow the accepted rules.

This continues to be a common theme in churches-what are the expectations? Do newcomers have to adapt to the forms of Christianity that have defined our church for so long? Or could Jesus be saying they are equal in God's eyes. That can't be. We know the words to the hymns, we wear the proper apparel for churchgoing and know the right way to run a church bazaar. Friends, more people have been turned off by churches by just such attitudes. They hear the complaints, "These new folks have only been here one year. Are they to be regarded with the same respect and worth as those of us who have labored so long at making this church what it is?" Will the last really be first?

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