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The route between my home and my office takes me past a day labor agency. This is an outfit that helps the unemployed find work on a temporary basis -- for a healthy commission, I am sure. Every evening as I drive home I see them already lining up for the next day. Some of them will sleep there in the shrubbery or behind the building. They hope to be near the front of the line when the first job opening is announced the next morning. The lucky ones will work tomorrow -- a day's labor for probably less than a day's wages. The unlucky ones will spend tomorrow roaming the streets. One or two of them will possibly even wind up in my office looking for a meal or a place to stay the night.
Imagine the insecurity of not knowing if there will be work and income for you tomorrow, to say nothing of today. Imagine the humility of being forced to recognize every moment of every day that your daily survival is at the mercy of someone other than you.
We need to imagine it because it is true for all of us. Whether we have ever stood in an unemployment line or not; whether we have inherited family wealth or not; whether we own our own business or not, we must learn to see that our moment-to-moment existence is sheer gift. And to help prod our imaginations in that direction, Jesus tells us a story.
Once upon a time there was a man who went into town about 6:00 a.m. to find workers for his farm that day. He found some men already lining up at the local homeless shelter, hoping to get on the list for a bed that night. The farmer offered to pay these men a denarius for their services that day. They agreed and went off to the fields.
About three hours later -- around 9:00 a.m. -- the man left the farm and went into town for a second time. He saw some other men standing on the corner outside a laundromat and invited them to also go work in his fields. Interestingly, they went without a contract stipulating their wages. All they had was the man's promise to pay them whatever was right.
Apparently the farmer had lots of business to take care of that day, because two more times -- once at noon and again at 3:00 p.m. -- he went back into town. Each of these times he found some men hanging out in the parking lot of a nearby convenience store. He invited them to go work in his fields for the rest of the day. They too went only on the promise of being paid "whatever was right."
Well this busybody of a farmer wasn't through yet, because one more time -- this time at 5:00 p.m., just one hour before quitting time -- he went back to town. This time he found some men already bedding down for the night outside the Labor-Ready office, and he invited them to work in his fields as well. Amazingly, they agreed to go without any mention being made whatsoever about wages. I guess when you are staring at the likelihood of another night without a roof over your head, you figure you can't be too picky. Any pay is better than no pay, right?
Finally the workday ended. The hyperactive farmer parked his truck in the barn and quit going to town long enough to get his foreman to gather all the workers together and pay them. The last ones to be hired -- those who had been there only an hour -- got their paycheck first. To everyone's amazement, they received a full denarius. Now, a denarius was usually nothing to get excited about. At best, it was subsistence pay. It took the average worker a bit more than a denarius to feed his family for a day, so these guys hadn't exactly struck it rich. But hey, for only an hour's worth of work it wasn't a bad deal. Just imagine what would have happened if they had worked all day at that same hourly rate.
This, of course, is exactly what the workers who had been worked all day were thinking. If a Johnny-come-lately got a denarius for only an hour's worth of work, surely they were in line for, what -- ten or twelve denarii? Much to their shock and disappointment, however, they also received only one denarius.
Angered, they went straight to the farmer to give him a piece of their mind. "Look," they said, "these bozos who were too lazy to get to get up this morning and get to the front of the employment line came prancing out here at the last minute and got a full denarius for only an hours' worth of work. Meanwhile, we worked in the hot sun for twelve full hours, but we didn't get one cent more of pay. This isn't fair. We're calling the union!"
But the farmer was undaunted by their complaints. "Look, friends," he said, "there is nothing unfair about this. I offered to pay you a denarius for twelve hours of work, and that is exactly what I have paid you. I kept my end of the deal, just as I said I would. As for these other workers, it is my money and I can pay them as much as I please. Now take your pay and go."
And this, said Jesus, is what the kingdom of heaven is like?
What an offensive story this is. Of all the things Jesus teaches us, of all the stories Jesus tells us, this one probably does more violence to our cherished notions of how the world is supposed to work. After all, there is a moral order to the universe. You get what you deserve. You reap what you sow. Even the Bible says that. If you wait until the night before the final exam to begin cramming, then you deserve to spend the night in a state of panic. If you fail to save for retirement, then you can expect to live out your old age in poverty, and you have no one to blame but yourself. The woman who calls the church office at 2:30 p.m. needing $185.34 by 4:00 p.m. to keep her power from being disconnected -- well she probably knew three weeks ago that she was going to come up short. Why is she just now getting around to doing something about it?
There has to be justice and fairness in the world, or else people will never grow up to be mature human beings. If there aren't clear connections between actions and consequences, if there aren't obvious rewards and punishments attached to our behaviors, then how can we learn the difference between right and wrong? If the guy who shows up an hour before quitting time gets paid the same as everybody else, then there isn't much motivation for him to get out of bed tomorrow and get to work on time.
All of which is true, but none of which has anything to do with what Jesus is telling us here. Yes, when it comes to our choices, we do reap what we sow -- at least sometimes. But this story isn't about us and our choices. In fact, if you read the story close enough, you will discover that the thing about these workers -- regardless of when they were hired -- is that they really had few choices. Why were men still standing around at 5:00 p.m.? Because no one had hired them! They were at the full mercy of someone else. And that is the tension that drives this story.
We have traditionally called this the parable of the workers in the vineyard, but that is a misnomer. It really isn't about the workers; it is about the irrational farmer who, for no logical reason, keeps inviting more and more people to come work in his fields and who, for no logical reason, keeps insisting that everyone gets paid the same.
This isn't a children's fable from which we are intended to draw some timeless moral principle. Jesus doesn't tell us this story to teach us how to treat our employees or how to run our businesses. In fact, I dare say that if you did run your business like this you might soon go broke. Make no mistakes about it: the Bible has plenty to say about economic justice and the fair treatment of people. People ought to be paid a living wage for honest work. Nothing got the Old Testament prophets worked up like the exploitation of the poor and the working class. And Jesus spoke about money seven times more often than he spoke about love. When comes to how we make our choices, we must be fair and just. But that's not what Jesus is talking about here. You can't wrestle a business model out of this story.
What you can wrestle out of this story is a mind-opening and ego-shattering image of God. This is a kingdom parable, a story intended to show us something about the reign of God that we might otherwise miss. In the analogy of the farmer, Jesus shows us a God who isn't the least bit constrained by our ideas of how the world is supposed to work. For us, it is all based on earning and deserving. That's how we secure our place in the universe. That's how we keep ourselves in control of our own destiny. Whatever we've got, we've got because we've earned it, and whatever others don't have, they don't have because they don't deserve it. It's a great way of making ourselves at home with the status quo, especially when the status quo is stacked in our favor. And when it isn't, when things aren't arranged the way we think they should be, then at least we have leverage to complain. In our world, things are supposed to be fair.
But this story invites us to enter into a different world, a world where earning and deserving are not the driving forces behind the economy. In this world, the business of the economy is transacted in the currency of gift and grace. You see, in God's way of reckoning the world everything flows not as merit or earnings, but only as a free gift. In God's economy life is not sustained because we deserve it or have worked hard for it, but only because it is God's good and holy pleasure to give it to us.
The first workers hired grumbled against the farmer because they thought they deserved more than the other workers. They felt sorry for themselves because life wasn't treating them fairly. Well, maybe we should feel sorry for them too, only not for the reason they think. After all, they did get exactly what they deserved. They agreed to work for a denarius, and a denarius is all they got, or so they thought. But because their view of the world was so limited by their narrow understanding, they could not see that they had actually received so much more. We should feel sorry for them because they could not see how the fact they had been hired at all was a pure gift. The farmer was never under any obligation to put anybody to work for any pay at all. It's funny how the gifts that are most basic to our survival are the ones we are most likely to take for granted.
In one of his sermons on this parable, John Claypool challenged us to change the lens through which we view our world (www.csec.org/csec/sermon/claypool_4317.htm). He said we could look at the world primarily through the lens of justice. When we do that, we see everything in terms of what is deserved. That's either going to leave you feeling cheated, because you will always find reason to think that you deserve something more or something different from what you've actually received -- more money, more health, more happiness, etc.; or it's going to leave you feeling smug, because you will delude yourself into thinking that the world is a product of your own efforts. Self-pity or self-righteousness -- either way our humanity is diminished.
By contrast, we could look at the world primarily through the lens of generosity. When we do that, we end up seeing the world and even life itself as pure gift. Think about it this way: God was never under any obligation to create a world. In that time before time, when there was nothing but God, God was already complete in and of himself. God lacked nothing; God needed nothing. God wasn't lonely or bored or unhappy with his present life. God was perfect in all his fullness. But for no rational reason, God decided to make a world. We can only suppose that the life God shared with himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit -- that life was so glorious that He wanted to share it with us. So, God spoke in the void, created a universe, and placed you and me in it to bear His image and share in His glory.
When you look at life that way, the world starts looking more like a gift than a reward. And all the differences between us, all the things that cause us to think life isn't fair -- like the fact that so-and-so got the promotion even though you've worked there longer, or like the fact that the person who waited until the last minute got a better grade on her paper even though you started writing yours last month, or like the fact that other people are healthier or wealthier than you are -- well those difference start to look less like unfair imbalances and more like beautiful expressions of God's generosity. They were, after all, His gifts to give out in the first place.
If all that sounds like abstract theology, then try this approach. Think about the year and date of your birth - in my case, May 19, 1971. Now think about where you were exactly one year before that. That's silly, I know, because one year before you were born you weren't anywhere. In fact, you weren't at all. One year before your birth you didn't even exist as a thought in someone's mind. And what did you do in that intervening year to bring about your existence? Absolutely nothing! Between May 19, 1970, and May 19, 1971, my life came to me as a sheer gift, something I never even came close to earning or deserving.
Do you see the point Jesus is making? The things that are most basic to our existence are things that are not based on anyone's system of justice. They are based on God's free generosity. Once you recognize that, the world God created and the life He gave us to live in it starts looking marvelously wonderful, no matter how fair or unfair it may be at any given moment.
A few weeks ago I had a conversation with someone who is dying. The prognosis had just been given, and it wasn't good. Surprisingly, my conversation with her was one of the most upbeat and uplifting conversations I've had in a while. There wasn't an ounce of self-pity or anger or disappointment, only words of praise and thanksgiving to a God who is good. How could that be? I think it is because she knows something about God's generosity. Even when a disease is invading the cells of her body, she knows that her life is a pure gift in the first place, a gift God was never under any obligation to give her. How can she not be grateful?
If you want to be like the workers who were hired first -- that is to say if you want to have a miserly attitude about the world that only notices what you don't have -- well, then just let fairness and justice be the defining characteristic of your life. But if you want your life to be wide and full and expansive and joyful, then be like the farmer and realize that, thanks be to God, fair has never had anything to do with it.
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