Matthew 20:1-16
Matthew 20:1-16 [MSG]
1-2 “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.
3-5 “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.
5-6 “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?’
7 “They said, ‘Because no one hired us.’
“He told them to go to work in his vineyard.
8 “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.’
9-12 “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.’
13-15 “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?’
16 “Here it is again, the Great Reversal: many of the first ending up last, and the last first.”
Sermon Title: “The Obstinate God”
Introduction:
We’re going to read one of those “God’s Kingdom is like” parables for the Gospel today. Usually, these need a little cultural massaging to make them relevant, as well as some explanation of the roles being played out, before we can glean a useful message from them for our lives and times. But this particular parable, despite all the wonderful imaginings provided us by the commentators, is just wrong on so many levels it’s hard to slot it in as part of the same Gospel where the blind see, the lame walk, thousands are fed, and the Sermon on the Mount is preached.
There is, however, hope. And we’re going to see if we can’t find that hope ringing clearly from how Jesus enigmatically ends this parable. We just have to get past the fact that it’s not going to be our way, it will be God’s way, and He’s a very Obstinate God.
Sermon:
I think we’re all fairly familiar with the parable of the estate manager who likes to pay everybody the same daily wage. We know this is just a made-up story because, at no time in human history, is there the slightest possibility that this would ever happen, except possibly if the owner’s son worked the same job as you for one hour a day and received the same salary as you for a forty-hour week. That, I have to admit, probably did happen then, as it would now, but that is the exception.
I was a little disappointed with the commentators I checked up on, and I looked at more than usual for exactly that reason. Nobody wanted to tackle the injustices being perpetrated in this parable our Lord Jesus was telling.
Some scholars, to vilify Jesus in all this, went so far as to suggest that Jesus was implying that the workers hired later in the day worked much harder and therefore deserved more per hour. So much so that the lazy first employees who were in the field for ten hours, a normal day at that time, had only accomplished as much as the diligent hard workers who had laboured only one hour. A bit of a stretch, I think, but well, it solves the injustice issue. Whatever works, I guess.
Some of the more salient revelations arising from this passage contrast generosity against jealousy and greed, particularly that God’s generosity will not succumb to human jealousy. So those looking for reward and payback, beware. Those attuned to the Social Gospel will highlight what this parable says about how we treat people we employ. Either at a business, or the person who cleans our gutters or cuts our lawn at home. Are we generous? Do we treat people equally, being generous with what God gives us?
Or, as indicated by Matthew’s punchline, “Are you going to get stingy because I am generous?” is this simply about God’s generosity to his whole creation, sending rain on the just and unjust alike, as Matthew says in chapter 5 verse 45, “For he makes his sun shine on good and bad people alike, and he sends rain to the righteous and the unrighteous alike.” In fact, this is a theme particular to Matthew, and this parable only appears in the Gospel of Matthew.
Which isn’t startling, as there are many such instances throughout the Gospels, but this one in particular has an interesting structure that should draw our attention. If you follow the lead-up to this parable, Matthew is copying from Mark almost word for word. Leading up to our passage this morning, the authors have Jesus addressing the subject of cost and reward for seeking the Kingdom of God, which he equates with following him.
Matthew, Mark, and Luke faithfully record the encounter with the young rich man who has followed the Torah to the letter but is rich and balks at the idea of giving his wealth to the poor and following Jesus. This is followed by Peter’s observation that they, the twelve, have indeed given up almost everything to follow Jesus and receive Jesus assurance that the rewards will vastly outweigh any present temporal sacrifice. And this is where Mark has Jesus add this famous line, “This is once again the Great Reversal: Many who are first will end up last, and the last first.” Matthew and Luke both copy this phrase, but here, only Matthew seems to decide that a further explanation is needed.
Mark and Luke pick up the story with Jesus continuing the same theme he left off about the rich young man as they walk to Jerusalem. Matthew interjects this parable of the vineyard workers, which ends with a reiteration of Mark’s final phrase, “This is once again the Great Reversal: Many who are first will end up last, and the last first.” Mark, we may suppose, thought that the phrase spoke for itself, but Matthew, and I agree with his assessment, thought it needed clarification. So to understand the parable, it is necessary to look at the key phrase as the one about the first and last, rather than “Are you going to get stingy because I am generous?”
This parable isn’t, in essence, about social justice, or generosity, or fairness. The desperate commentators who tried to draw out Eco, Feminist, or Social Gospel messages out of this parable had a hard job twining the thread of the story to get to their point. And that’s not surprising since that wasn’t Matthew’s point at all. He is trying to illuminate our understanding of what Jesus means by the Great Reversal of first being last and last first.
And I’ll add here that the phrase, Great Reversal, is unique to Eugene Peterson’s translation, but I accept its accuracy. The usual translation begins with ‘but’ or ‘and’; however, this is used to imply what Petersen, for clarity, like Matthew, spells out explicitly. The last being first and the first being last is a great reversal.
At this point, you’d expect me to review the parable with you and point out all the wonderful insights I have that clearly explain from the text what this strange proverb, the first will be last and the last first, means. And, of course, how to apply that to our daily lives. After all, that’s my job, right? Well, I think I’m going to have to depend on your generosity like the kind estate manager because I don’t have a neat pill for you to swallow today that will open your understanding and send you home satisfied.
Like Peter, who told the beggar in the temple, “I don’t have a nickel to my name, but what I do have, I give you,” I will offer you exactly what I think Matthew is offering. You see, this story and its skewed sense of how real life works would have been as incredible, impossible, and unacceptable in Jesus’ day as it is today, and possibly even more so. Nobody would have thought for a second that this was about how we should act ourselves or treat others. It’s categorically unjust, and unfair, and unredeemable. Given that Matthew is a very good writer and literary craftsman who has obviously put a lot of work and thought into writing this Gospel, we must acknowledge that it is his purpose.
Matthew’s audience would have wrangled over the questions of what was just and what was fair, and what should or could have gone on to make this story work out right, just as the commentators and we do. Matthew has craftily sucked us all in to make his stunning wake-up call pronouncement right at the end. That no matter how you figure it, no matter what you think, argue or justify, it’s not going to be the way you see it. The ones you think will be first will be last, and the ones you set as last will be first.
It’s not you who is going to choose, or set the standard of right and wrong, just and unjust. It doesn’t matter how well, or long, or hard you figure this, it’s not going to play out the way you think it will, or the way you think it should. We blithely admit that God’s ways are not our ways and his thoughts are far, far from our own, but we really don’t believe that, and we don’t live it out in our lives day to day. We just can’t accept that we can’t figure this out. And Matthew has done a great job in this parable, showing us how far off we really are.
That’s not to say we can’t glean a sense of right and wrong from revelation in creation and in scripture. Nor that we should seek justice in the world for all people and creation as a whole. But it brings into clear relief the fact that this isn’t your world, it isn’t your plan that’s going to save it, or for that matter, yourself or anyone else. “This is my Father’s world. O let me ne’er forget That though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet.”
The hope is not that God will restore things to the way I think they should be. The guarantee is that both my life here and now and creation, as it will be restored, will be as God the Father and Jesus, his Son, through the Holy Spirit, are and will make it. If I have a right and humble understanding of myself in relation to God, then that revelation will make me very happy and fill me with peace.
I have faith that God will make everything right and that, when that comes about, and I see it as he has made it, it will look as good to me as it does to him. Even now, as all around me, to my understanding, the first are being made last and the last first, an enigma I neither accept nor fathom, I am compelled to follow Jesus in faith rather than understanding. Because, poor humble human sinner that I am, I’m never going to figure this out.
And thank God he has made it that way, for the only road to my redemption is through faith in Jesus Christ. I either trust that wherever God leads, whatever trials and difficulties he walks me through, are right, or I am lost in the enigma of Matthews clever parable, trying to figure out my own path of right and wrong, and thinking that I can spend my money as I see fit because I haven’t humbly learned that it’s not mine to spend, this is God’s world and he’s thankfully very obstinate about it.
Amen