It’s Not Fair!
January 27, 2022
Matthew 20:1-16, The Message - “God’s kingdom is
like an estate manager who went out early in the morning to hire workers for
his vineyard. They agreed on a wage of a dollar a day, and went to work.
“Later, about nine o’clock, the manager saw some other
men hanging around the town square unemployed. He told them to go to work in
his vineyard and he would pay them a fair wage. They went.
“He did the same thing at noon, and again at three
o’clock. At five o’clock he went back and found still others standing around.
He said, ‘Why are you standing around all day doing nothing?’
“They said, ‘Because no one hired us.’
“He told them to go to work in his vineyard.
“When the day’s work was over, the owner of the vineyard
instructed his foreman, ‘Call the workers in and pay them their wages. Start
with the last hired and go on to the first.’
“Those hired at five o’clock came up and were each given
a dollar. When those who were hired first saw that, they assumed they would get
far more. But they got the same, each of them one dollar. Taking the dollar,
they groused angrily to the manager, ‘These last workers put in only one easy
hour, and you just made them equal to us, who slaved all day under a scorching
sun.’
“He replied to the one speaking for the rest, ‘Friend, I
haven’t been unfair. We agreed on the wage of a dollar, didn’t we? So take it
and go. I decided to give to the one who came last the same as you. Can’t I do
what I want with my own money? Are you going to get stingy because I am
generous?’
“Here it is again, the Great Reversal: many of the first
ending up last, and the last first.”
Life is not fair. This is such an obvious truth that it should
be self-evident. Yet everyone must
confront this truth at some point in their lives. Maybe a sibling got a “better” toy for
Christmas. Maybe a schoolmate got a “A”
by cheating (and not getting caught) and you got a B- for working your tail
off. Comparatively speaking, we could
all make a case that we regularly find ourselves on the wrong side of unfair. Likewise, although most tend to do this much less,
we could also make the case that we are right side of fair. When we do this, we call it gratitude.
Here's the problem. Humans tend to focus on the negative. Instead of gratitude for what we do have, we
tend to obsess over that we wish we had but has escaped us. We exacerbate the problem by comparing what
we have to others that have what we don’t.
This is what happened in Jesus’s disturbing story above. To make my point, let’s change some of the
details.
An employer with four separate
vineyards finds some workers first thing in the morning. He sends them to work in Vineyard 1 with an
agreement on what they will be paid. At
noon, he finds more workers, negotiates the same wage and sends them to work in
Vineyard 2. He does the same with Vineyard
3 at 3pm and Vineyard 4 at 5pm. At the
end of the day, he goes to each Vineyard separately and pays everyone the contracted
amount. None of the workers even know
there are three other vineyards. In this
scenario, who believes the agreement is unfair?
Noone, because they got what they were told they would get. In fact, they are all grateful that the
Vineyard owner offered them work that day.
This gratitude is corrupted only when they begin to compare notes later. Comparison is the enemy of gratitude.
Let’s notice one more thing about
this story. If we put ourselves in the
place of the vineyard owner (let’s give this owner the name Pat), the story is
completely different. At 9am, 12pm, 3pm,
and 5pm, Pat sees workers who are wanting to work and offers them work. Pat. sees that all the workers have been
willing to work all day, but some were not offered work earlier in the day. Pat thinks about their families and imagines each
worker coming home with a full day’s wage and how that will provide for those
hungry spouses and children. Pat realizes
that it is feasible to give everyone the same and still get all the work done
and still make a profit. Pat decides to be
gracious and provide for all the same.
From Pat’s point of view, this is a story about a generous and compassionate
employer sharing abundance.
As we have said before, every
parable Jesus tells is about how God envisions life in the Kingdom of Heaven. In this parable, Heaven is a place where
comparisons are shunned and resources are graciously shared by the Owner-of-It-All. That’s a place I’d like to live. Jesus hears me say that and says, “Make it so.”
Question: What was a
time when something you were really grateful for was spoiled as soon as you compared
it to what someone else had?
Prayer: God, forgive
us when we call your gracious gifts unfair because we see that someone we have
deemed undeserving has the same as us. Amen.
Prayer Focus: Pray
for God to show you someone you can bless today.
Song: God is So Good
- Michael Bethany
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