Matthew
20:1-16
When I call the gospel “good news,” it
is not without a certain amount of trepidation. Because I know there are parts
of the gospel that don’t necessarily strike us as good news. There are parts
that makes us utterly confused. And there are parts that make us squirm
uncomfortably. And there are parts that, when we hear them, we just say,
“Nope.”
Not all of the good news feels good.
And I suppose that was intentional. Jesus didn’t want his listeners to just
feel good, he wanted them to change! Consider the conversations that have been
going on up to this point.
It was just a few verses ago that some
people brought their children to Jesus. They wanted Jesus to lay his hands on
them and bless them, which seems perfectly reasonable to us. But his disciples
were all into crowd control. There were so many people who wanted to see Jesus,
they felt the need to prioritize. They made themselves the gatekeepers – no one
could come to Jesus except through them. And as far as they were concerned,
there were no children getting through to see Jesus. They were too short. But
Jesus saw what they were doing and said, “Guys - Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for
it is to such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs.” So, that
happened.
Then a rich young man came to him –
the disciples let him through, and I don’t think it was because of his height. It
might have been because of his riches. He wanted to know what good deeds he
would need to do to inherit eternal life. Jesus said, “Well, you’re going to
have to give away all your wealth,” and this young man said, “Ok, thanks,” and
disappeared as fast as he could. He wasn’t expecting that answer, and he didn’t
like that answer. So, now he would have to go find a second opinion.
After he goes, Jesus makes that
comment about it being easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle
than for a rich man to pass into heaven – you’ve heard this one? You can tell
by their reaction the disciples find this as alarming as we do. Rich men won’t
get into heaven? That’s not what they had heard. Jesus tops it off with these
confounding words: Many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.
For the kingdom of heaven is like this – and he launches into this awful
parable.
Let me tell you, if you have a bad
reaction to the parable, that means it’s doing its job because a parable is
meant to convict you. You are meant to feel it before you even understand what
happened. With the parable of the laborers in the vineyard, you do feel it. And
it’s not hard to pin down the exact point at which you feel it.
It’s not at the point where he lines
the workers up just so – the first last and the last first. That’s weird, but
we’re not feeling it yet.
It’s not at the point where he hands
each one of the one-hour workers the usual daily wage – a denarius. That’s
surprising, but we’re still not feeling it.
It happens right at the point where
Jesus gives the first workers – those who have worked since the dawn’s early
light – how much? A denarius – the very same amount he gave the one-hour
workers. Oh. Yes. Now we’re feeling it.
Let’s take a moment to acknowledge
that a denarius was fair enough at the beginning of the day when they
negotiated their terms. It was fair enough all day long as they worked under
the hot sun. It was fair enough until that moment they saw the latecomers – the
one-hour-workday folks – receive a denarius. At that point, their mental abacus
started recalculating.
“Wait a minute … If these slackers are
getting a whole denarius, I must be getting more – maybe 12 times more.” And
just like that, they thought they deserved much, much more.
Because I was first. And they were
last. And you shouldn’t mess with that.
This idea that the first shall be last
and the last shall be first really messes with our heads. It completely turns
things upside down. Because we do a lot of ranking and ordering, and it
confuses us to turn that upside down.
But, maybe I’m being too literal here.
After all, Jesus spoke and taught in parables.
Perhaps he simply meant that in God’s
economy there is enough. For everyone.
There is enough food and water for
even the poorest. There is enough work for even the weak or disabled. There is
enough time for even the children. There is enough.
Like the manna that falls from the
skies, the story Israel told about their sojourn in the wilderness. In that
time when they had nothing but God, there was enough. There was enough for each
one, enough for each day.
The people of Israel had memories of
plagues and natural disasters, times of want and times of plenty, and
everything in between. And they knew
that the Lord had been with them through it all. They knew from their experience that the Lord
provides and that sometimes humans are their own worst enemies, when their insecurities
and greed and jealousies get in the way of their well-being.
And they knew, just as some of us
know, that when you are at your most inadequate, God is most present. When everything else is cleared out of the
way, God is there. People often say: God
helps those who help themselves. But that’s not what the Bible says. The
amazing truth the scriptures tell is that God helps those who cannot help
themselves.
The story of the manna in the
wilderness is a testament of faith. The gospels, full as they are of parables
like this one of the laborers in the vineyard, are testaments to faith. Our
life stories, as well, can be testaments to faith.
What does your life story look like if
you tell it as a testament of faith?
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