The parable that Jesus tells today, from the beginning of Matthew 20,
about a landowner hiring workers for his vineyard throughout the day -
some who begin work at 6am and work for 12 hours for the agreed standard
wage, and then various other groups who are employed at 9am, 12pm, 3pm
and 5pm - is probably not your favourite - nor even in the top ten of the 40 parables that Jesus told. Many people find this parable annoying and unfair - particularly people who have been actively involved in the church for a long time!
Strangely, when it comes time to make payment, the owner calls the latest arrivals first and begins by paying them the standard rate - not for an hour's work, but for 12 hours work. Of course, those who had worked longer therefore expected that they would receive a more generous rate of pay - instead they only get what they agreed to in the first place. No matter how much the owner protests that he is not being unfair - he is paying what they had agreed to work for - the parable goes against our deeply ingrained sense of fairness and justice - a sense that even the youngest of children are able to know. To demonstrate this, just try setting unequal portions of icecream before a group of children, or cakes that are different sizes!
So how do we make sense of this parable?
Play MP3
Recorded at SJV, 8.30am (9'29")
Strangely, when it comes time to make payment, the owner calls the latest arrivals first and begins by paying them the standard rate - not for an hour's work, but for 12 hours work. Of course, those who had worked longer therefore expected that they would receive a more generous rate of pay - instead they only get what they agreed to in the first place. No matter how much the owner protests that he is not being unfair - he is paying what they had agreed to work for - the parable goes against our deeply ingrained sense of fairness and justice - a sense that even the youngest of children are able to know. To demonstrate this, just try setting unequal portions of icecream before a group of children, or cakes that are different sizes!
So how do we make sense of this parable?
Play MP3
Recorded at SJV, 8.30am (9'29")