A word or two about the reading we’ve just heard. First question: is it good news or bad news? It’s not that long ago that hiring fairs and the like were still part of the rural scene in this country, as they were at the time of Jesus. In the days before there was any sort of safety net other than perhaps the poor house, a lot depended on whether you were noticed and picked and hired for whatever the daily rate might be. If you weren’t, you and your family went hungry.
Harvest time would be the best time for most people; more hands were needed, so more people were hired. But in the story Jesus told, even at harvest there were still men waiting hopefully in the market place each time the owner of the vineyard called to see. Just an hour before sunset there were still men there, so even that late, he hired them.
Now this story is generally called the parable of the workers in the vineyard, and not surprisingly we tend to view it from the workers’ point of view. Good news, then, or bad news? Good news for those who were hired late in the day. They were probably pretty much resigned to being out of luck, but not only did they get a bit of work, they were paid as though they’d been there all day. Bad news, you might think, for those who’d been sweating all day in the hot sun. When they saw what the others had been paid, they naturally assumed they’d get more, but they didn’t.
Well, that certainly seemed like bad news. But was it really? The rate agreed was a daily rate, and they got what they’d shaken hands on, the fair rate for the day. They’d not been underpaid - but it still feels rather annoying I guess to see the guy next to you get paid more per hour than you got. But look at it another way. The men who did just one hour’s work had wanted to work, it was just that no-one had wanted them. And they had just as much need for the money that would provide for their family needs.
So maybe this parable should have a different title, to encourage us to look at it from a different angle. We could call it the parable of the generous landlord. But, you may say, he wasn’t so generous to those who’d worked all day. And what about the answer he gives: "Don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money?" It’s arguable that one of the main problems with society is the gap between rich and poor; we could get offended when a rich person says, “Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money?”
So we might be upset a bit by this parable, and actually I think it’s OK to be upset. In general it’s surely true that those who work harder and longer should get more than those who’ve worked for less time and at less cost to themselves. It would certainly be wrong to suggest that this parable excuses the injustices and unfair situations there are in the world of employment. Because that’s not why it was told.
Jesus was using a scene from everyday life. That’s where the best parables always come from. People will have understood what he was describing, it was a fact of their own daily lives, for good or ill. Jesus wasn’t approving or criticising the system of hiring day workers, just using it to get quite a different point across. And no-one in the story was underpaid, remember. Those hired in the morning received what they’d contracted for: a day's work for a day's wage.
So let’s think for a moment about those guys. They’d had to work hard all day, yes - but right from the start they knew they’d got work and they’d got pay. But how about the guys who were hired last. All day they’d been passed over: would no-one hire them? Without work, how would they eat? What about their families? They weren’t slaving away in the hot sun, but I bet they wished they were. They needed the money.
But just as their last hope was about to fade away with the setting sun, they got hired after all. They’ll have expected only a tiny bit of the daily wage, but any little thing would be better than nothing, for day workers like them.
But then of course the owner of the vineyard unexpectedly - and to be honest, quite madly - paid them as though they’d been working for him all day. And that, says Jesus, is what the kingdom of God is like.
So was Jesus saying that the kingdom of God is unfair? Well, yes, I suppose he was: for the kingdom of God may well be unfair if we were to measure it in worldly terms, or with our trade union rule books in hand. For in the kingdom God gives not according to how much we’ve done, or how long we’ve been signed up, or how faithfully we get to church even; he gives according to his love for us, and according to our need. Not surprisingly, the temptation for the long term, hard working Christian may well be to be like the men who’d worked all day in the story: we may take issue, we may take umbrage: we may say, “Hang on a bit, what about me? I've worked harder, I've been here longer, I've done more.”
So this parable is about recognising our blessedness. It’s about the love of the God of love: we can’t earn it, we don’t get it by ticking all the appropriate boxes, or putting the hours in, or passing some test - it’s just here for us anyway. Divine love doesn’t measure what we’ve earned or might think we deserve.
And maybe that’s just as well. Those who worked all day in the story only did so because by chance they’d been hired first. They could just as easily have been overlooked till later. The difference between the guys in the story was in one sense a matter not of merit but of circumstance, it was how it happened.
So in the story the owner of the vineyard looked at those who worked for him, whether they’d spent an hour in the fields or been out there all day, and the question he asked himself wasn’t 'How much does each of these deserve?' but rather, 'How can I help them? What do they need?'
And that’s how God looks at us. The Bible word for this is grace: which is about a love that gives more than we deserve, that pays over the odds. Jesus said that in the kingdom, ‘Many who are last will be first, and the first last.’ Why is it that those who are first end up being last? I think because they (we, perhaps; me, sometimes, for sure) forget how it is we got to be first, that that was God’s gracious act and not our own right or merit. The danger if we forget that is that we’re led to question God's love for those who happen to come along later.
One final thing, then: our churches need to be like that vineyard. In the kingdom it doesn’t matter how late you come in, or what you were doing before, the same gracious love is available to you; all you have to do is to turn to God and answer yes to his call. And so for those who have eyes to see and ears to hear there is good news in this parable, good news of a love that makes space for all.
But there’s also a challenge for us: does the ministry offered where we are match up to that love? Do we make space for all, do we resist the temptation to resent God’s love for others who maybe come later? Do we do all we can to reflect God’s open and impartial love in the welcome we offer and the invitation we give? For all are called, however late in the day, to work in God's vineyard, and all who say yes to that call will by grace receive the same generous reward.
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