Gospel MT 20:1-16
Jesus told his disciples this parable:
“The Kingdom of heaven is like a landowner
who went out at dawn to hire laborers for his vineyard.
After agreeing with them for the usual daily wage,
he sent them into his vineyard.
Going out about nine o’clock,
he saw others standing idle in the marketplace,
and he said to them, ‘You too go into my vineyard,
and I will give you what is just.’
So they went off.
And he went out again around noon,
and around three o’clock, and did likewise.
Going out about five o’clock,
he found others standing around, and said to them,
‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’
They answered, ‘Because no one has hired us.’
He said to them, ‘You too go into my vineyard.’
When it was evening the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman,
‘Summon the laborers and give them their pay,
beginning with the last and ending with the first.’
When those who had started about five o’clock came,
each received the usual daily wage.
So when the first came, they thought that they would receive more,
but each of them also got the usual wage.
And on receiving it they grumbled against the landowner, saying,
‘These last ones worked only one hour,
and you have made them equal to us,
who bore the day’s burden and the heat.’
He said to one of them in reply,
‘My friend, I am not cheating you.
Did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage?
Take what is yours and go.
What if I wish to give this last one the same as you?
Or am I not free to do as I wish with my own money?
Are you envious because I am generous?’
Thus, the last will be first, and the first will be last.”
Reflection:
“What if I wish to give this last one the same as you?
Or am I not free to do as I wish with my own money?”
Against all human standards of fairness, the landowner paid the laborers who worked a few hours the same amount of money that he paid those who had worked from dawn to dusk.
I can only imagine the reaction of my teenage grandson if he raked leaves and cut grass for 12 hours for my neighbor, and then another boy who only worked two hours was paid the same amount. My grandson would be incredulous and indignant.
Today’s parable does not make sense by the human precepts of equity and justness.
God, however, is not bound by human precepts.
To grasp the spirit of this parable, we must first understand that the lesson being taught by Jesus is not about equity; it is about love.
Is not the last child born into a family of five children loved just as much as the first child?
Isn’t the wayward child loved by his mother as much as the perfect child?
In the story of the Prodigal Son, isn’t the son who left home and squandered his father’s money on desolate living loved as much as the son who remained at home and worked for his father?
The love of God is not limited to our human understanding of fairness. God’s love has no limitations or boundaries.
The sinner who repents on his death bed is forgiven, loved and welcomed home by Our Father, in the same way as the boy who went on to become a priest or a bishop.
Is that fair? Of course not. But love is not about fairness.
God is “love,” and we who are made in God’s image are called to love as He does, without “limitations or boundaries.”
The landowner asks, “Are you envious because I am generous?
Thus, the last will be first, and the first will be last.”
“I came not to save the righteous, but sinners.” Mark 2:17