“That’s not fair!” (Matthew 20:13-16)
(30.05.24)
The story goes that a vineyard owner
hired different groups of workers at different times of day (9am, noon, 3pm, and 5pm) to work in his plot. He promised those hired first the usual amount for a day’s wage. At the end of the day (presumably around 6 – 7pm) he began remunerating each group, starting with those hired last and paying them the full day’s wage. Those hired earlier, particularly the 9am starters then expected to be paid much more but were outraged to discover that they were still only to be paid the agreed amount, the daily wage … “that’s not fair!”
Well, to be honest, I’ve always agreed and never have quite been able to make sense of this teaching, but here is what I’ve noticed in a recent re-reading, I offer it for your reflection:
- The first hired are (understandably) so consumed by their own struggle for life they cannot see nor express empathy for the plight of those who have stood all day waiting and hoping to be hired and paid, the difference in this social content of eating or starving (for their families as well as for themselves)
- If the first hired were able to take a step back from their own struggle they might notice that the grace they have received which was not experienced by those later hired has been that of a full day of psychological security, they have known, since 9am, that this day they and their dependents will receive daily bread
- Those hired later, and particularly latest, have spent large parts of the day in a torturous place of powerlessness and uncertainty. Perhaps the generosity of the vineyard owner may be viewed as a gesture of comfort and consolation
- The vineyard owner in this parable represents God. Notice that the response to the anger and frustration of the first hired is neither rebuke nor placation. The vineyard owner simply explains, quite patiently, that those hired first have received exactly what was promised and agreed and that he maintains the right to make generous choices with his resources. This is how Jesus operates; his teaching is often highly controversial and evokes reactions of many kinds. In the face of this He is neither angry nor apologetic, he holds the ground and offers a space for his listeners to transcend their assumptions and sense of offence.
- This parable may be offensive to us because it pierces the heart of our transactional bias, that which we are born and raised into, and that which distorts our own sense of what is fair. It touches a wound and evokes a reaction. If we can own our confession of this, we will find and encounter a patient God of kindness who maintains a stance of radical generosity and who calls us to a place higher than our own initial reactions. This is discipleship and friendship.
May God richly reward us in all our labours and open our eyes to see and celebrate the unique graces of our own stories.
A message from the Author
