Matthew 20:1-16
Dear Friends, Each Sunday the Gospel message invites us into a new world, a world where the values of Jesus call and challenge us to change. In this world, we are told that the last shall be first, the leader is to be the servant of all. The response to violence is not revenge but to turn the other cheek. These are just a few of the world- shattering views Jesus has for us.
The parables are a particular method Jesus uses to crumble our clear and confident grasp on the common sense mentality of how we think that things really are.
Our immediate response to today’s parable is a clear and forceful, “No way!” How can the “dawn to dusk” workers not complain about the inequality of the “one hour crew” for getting equal pay?
Of course, as in all the parables, Jesus is setting us up for change. He is inviting us into a new world of God’s generosity. When it comes to justice and mercy we use the teaspoon to work at the right measurement. Jesus is teaching us that God’s mercy and justice are more truly portrayed like a torrential downpour where there is neither instrument of measurement nor limits on the outpouring of love.
A few years back I had a singular encounter with the reality of Jesus’ parable of the workers in the vineyard.
I was asked to visit a young man who was paralyzed from the shoulders down. He was the innocent victim of a drive-by shooting. Naturally, I felt quite apprehensive for I had little in my arsenal of pastoral advice that made any sense in this situation.
Immediately, the young man put me at ease. He shared the story of how some of the other, more veteran victims of a similar condition had ministered to him to cast away despair and call him to embrace life. He shared how grateful he was to be alive, to be able to see his daughter, even to enjoy the Lakers championship! His cousin was killed in the same time of his tragedy and he shared his sorrow for the family.
If ever there was a “dawn to dusk” worker in the circumstances of life, I was in the presence of it in the paralyzed young man. There was no pity party for the injustice of life though the whole rehabilitation hospital
was filled with victims of life’s arbitrariness.
Our encounter with Jesus’ parable invites us to appreciate the giftedness of life that places most of us in the “one hour crew” even though we imagine we have been in the vineyard of life for many long hours. Jesus wants to provoke us to count our blessings with new eyes and an open heart. The merger of God’s justice and mercy is always in our midst. Our task is to grow in an awareness of God’s overwhelming goodness and not be blinded by the passing burdens of our daily life.
