[Jesus said:] “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius for the day, he sent them into his vineyard. When he went out about nine o’clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and he said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ So they went. When he went out again about noon and about three o’clock, he did the same. And about five o’clock he went out and found others standing around, and he said to them, ‘Why are you standing here idle all day?’ They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard.’ When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, ‘Call the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and then going to the first.’ When those hired about five o’clock came, each of them received a denarius. Now when the first came, they thought they would receive more; but each of them also received a denarius. And when they received it, they grumbled against the landowner, saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’ But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?’[a] So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”
Matthew 20:1-16 (NRSVue)
My sermon from the 16th Sunday after Pentecost (September 20, 2020) on Matthew 20:1-16.
One thing you might not know about me is that I was a high school athlete – for exactly one semester. I played lacrosse because a friend of mine was on the team and you didn’t really have to try out to play. I wasn’t very good but I enjoyed cradling the ball, stick checking other people, and learning how to brace myself when someone body checked me. I enjoyed most of my time playing lacrosse but one thing I didn’t like was all the running. Now during practice, one thing my coaches liked to do was have everyone run a team relay race. We would be broken into groups of four and told to sprint around the track. They imagined, I think, that having us compete against each other would somehow improve our skills. But when you’re already the slowest person on your team, running a team based race doesn’t always help. My teammates always had a look on their face when I lined up behind them. And I know, if they had the choice to pick their teams, I would have been picked last. But since they couldn’t, the look on their face told me they were trying to figure out how to work around me. Because if they wanted to win team bragging rights, my slowness would have to be something they endured.
Today’s reading from the gospel according to Matthew is a continuation of a conversation Jesus and his disciples started in chapter 19. A young person came to Jesus and asked: “what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” Jesus responded by telling them to follow the commandments, sell everything they own, give all their wealth to the poor, and then follow him. That young person left sad because no one wants to give up the things they feel they’ve earned and that they’re entitled to. Now the disciples watched this whole conversation go down – and the Bible tells us they were astounded. They asked Jesus – who could be saved – and what was the kingdom of God all about? As they talked, the disciple Peter pointed out that they had already done what the young person couldn’t and wanted to know what their giving up would earn them in return. And so it’s during this back and forth between Jesus and the disciples when we get this parable about a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for their vineyard.
Now, as you listened to the text being read out loud, which group of laborers did you identify with? We sometimes, I think, focus most of our attention on those who were picked first. They were, after all, the group that’s really busy in the story. They negotiate with the landowner for how much they would get paid and they spend all day working in the vineyard. When it’s time to be paid, the only reaction we hear is from the first group laborers as they watch everyone else get paid. And when the landowner addressed them with the last two sentences in the story, we never get their response – and so everything is left open ended. It makes sense that we focus on those who were first. But what if we choose to do something different? What if, instead of focusing on those picked first, we paid attention to those who came last?
I wonder what their day would have been like. And I wonder what they felt while they watched others get picked first. They, like all the laborers, had woken early and assembled in the marketplace before dawn. Each one of them was willing to do the work because they needed money to buy the food and to take care of their families. When the landowner first showed up, each person was ready to be picked. But, for some reason, only a few were initially chosen – and they were the ones allowed to negotiate their liveable wage. The ones who weren’t picked had to endure watching their friends be given the opportunity to earn enough to eat. After a few hours, the landowner came back to hire more workers. Once again everyone was willing to work but only a few were chosen. But unlike the first group, these new laborers weren’t allowed to negotiate their wage. The landowner told them they would need to accept what they were paid. They headed to the vineyard not knowing if they would earn enough to support their families. And that became a pattern – because the landowner returned to the marketplace several more times. As it got close to evening, the ones who were still not picked – were probably worn out, tired, and exhausted. They had spent the day watching others receive the opportunity to earn money while standing in the marketplace. As they waited, they heard business being done. They saw food being bought and eaten. They witnessed wealth being generated and being spent. They saw people participating in the activity of life but they weren’t able to join in. All they could do was wait for an opportunity that they knew might never come. They had to endure watching others living their lives while they waited for the chance to live theirs.
That opportunity, though, eventually. And the ones who had endured worked only about an hour. With the day over, all the workers gathered together again. They knew who had worked all day and who had worked for an hour. I imagine there was a lot of anxiety and uncertainty in that moment. They weren’t sure what the future would bring. And when the manager came to those picked last to offer them their wage, they probably expected to receive only a tiny fraction of what the others did. But that’s not what they got. They received a full day’s wage – and that changed the thinking of everyone else in the group. Those who worked longer started to shift their expectations. They assumed they were entitled to more. No one could really believe how much the last group got paid. And when it was time for those who got picked first to be paid – no one could believe what they got paid either. It didn’t seem fair that those who didn’t do what they did – and who didn’t have the opportunities they had – could still somehow receive everything they did. It didn’t make sense that those who were last were valued as much as those who were first.
And we, I think, struggle with that too. We identify with those who were picked first because we like to imagine that’s who we are too. We tell ourselves we work hard, that we’ve earned everything that we’ve got, and that we’re entitled to the goodness that life has given to us. We live our lives as if we were the ones picked first because we don’t want to endure being picked last. But when we only focus on the work done in the story – we actually miss what this parable is all about. The kingdom of heaven isn’t a vineyard that we’re invited to toil in. Instead, the kingdom of heaven – God’s presence – and God’s vision of what life is all about – is a landowner who sees us as we are and chooses to give. The landowner saw the laborers as they were and the system of so-called fairness and competition that was part of their lives. The landowner knew how idolized the idea of earning – and instead, gave them generosity. Life with God is not something that we earn. You cannot make God love you anymore than God already does. Jesus is with you because Jesus is with you – and in your baptism and through your faith – God has already made you God’s own. You have already been chosen; already been picked; already accepted; and you are already loved because you are worth more than just what you do. You have a Jesus that sees you; knows you; and has been with you every time you were picked first and every time you were picked last. The love that God gives you every day – is a love that knows what it’s like to endure. And when we start to grumble and start identifying with those who were picked first, that’s when we should stop and imagine how things might be different if we see ourselves who came last. When we do that, we stop turning everything in this world into a competition over what we think we’re entitled to. Instead, we realize that God’s kingdom, in the words of Pablo Jimenez, is really about generosity, mercy, and love. And since that is what God’s kingdom is all about – we, as the current and latest followers of Jesus Christ, are called to make our lives and our communities that generous too.
Amen.