Week 7: A Householder Hiring Workers

“For the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which went out early in the morning to hire labourers into his vineyard.  And when he had agreed with the labourers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard.  And he went out about the third hour, and saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and said unto them; Go yea also into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right I will give you.  And they went their way.  Again he went out about the sixth and ninth hour, and did likewise.  And about the eleventh hour he went out, and found others standing idle, and saith unto them, Why stand ye here all the day idle?  They say unto him, Because no man hath hired us.  He saith unto them, Go ye also into the vineyard; and whatsoever is right, that shall ye receive.  So when even was come, the lord of the vineyard saith unto his steward, Call the labourers, and give them their hire, beginning with the last unto the first.  And when they came that were hired about the eleventh hour, they received every man a penny.  But when the first came, they supposed that they should have received more; and they likewise received every man a penny.  And when they had received it, they murmured against the goodman of the house, saying, These last have wrought but one hour, and thou hast made them equal unto us which have borne the burden and heat of the day.  But he answered one of them, and said Friend, I do thee no wrong: didst not thou agree with me for a penny?  Take that thine is, and go thy way: I will give unto this last, even as unto thee.  Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good?  So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many may be called, but few chosen.”  Matthew 20:1 -16

            Prior to giving this parable, Jesus says to Peter:

… “Verily, I say unto you, That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.  And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name’s sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life.  But many that are first shall be last; and the last shall be first.”  Matthew 19:28-30

My Summary & Reflection

In this parable, the kingdom of heaven is compared to a man who owns house with a vineyard. He goes out early in the morning to hire day labourers to work in his vineyard.  He arranges with the labourers that he will pay them one flat fee for their work for the day.  They agree to the rate and go to work.  A couple of hours later, he goes out and finds additional workers to work alongside those he’d hired that morning.  The vineyard owner went out again a couple of hours later and hires more workers.  Lastly, the owner finds and hires even more workers a couple of hours later.

At the end of the day, the workers lined up, in order from those hired last to those hired first, in order to claim their pay.  The vineyard owner paid the same flat daily amount to the workers hired at the end of the day as he had promised and gave to the workers who began work first in the morning.  Those who had arrived earliest began to complain.  They argued that they should be paid more than the workers who had arrived later in the day.  But the vineyard owner reminded the workers that he paid them exactly what they had agreed to earlier in the day.  Just because he was generous and paid the later workers the same amount, should be no concern of theirs.  He questioned whether they were complaining about his generosity toward others, more that their belief that they had been cheated.

Jesus provides this parable, after responding to a question from his apostle Peter.  Peter asks, “Behold, we have forsaken all, and followed thee; what shall we have therefore?”  Matthew 19:27 For the early Christians, becoming a part of a new religion meant rejecting the teachings of their youth, rejecting the beliefs of their parents, their spouses, their children and the community in which they lived.  Their new beliefs were considered blasphemous by those that they knew and loved.  Peter’s question is what do we get for all of the hardships we’ve had to endure for this new religion Christianity?

Jesus’ answer in this parable, is that everyone will receive the eternal life that has been promised.  That means for us, in our contemporary society, even though many of us were born into a Christian family, attend a Christian church, and are surrounded by others who believe as we do and who encourage us in our faith, we still receive the same eternal life promised to Peter and the apostles.  It also means that those who are not born into Christian households, or who come to the faith later in in life, will still receive the same eternal life promised to Peter and the apostles and available to us all.

We tend to think of rewards as finite resources, like the money paid to the workers in the vineyard.  In this parable, Jesus shows us that the kingdom of heaven is an infinite resource.  Like love, it doesn’t reduce, just because someone else gets some.  We don’t love our second or third child less than the first or reduce the love given to the first in order to give it to the second.  The kingdom of heaven is infinite and available to all, regardless of when we come to it.

Your Reflection

• Do you feel jealous of the good fortune of others?
• How can you change your perspective about resources to banish those covetous desires?
• How can you learn to appreciate your own good fortune, without comparisons with what someone else has?