It seems like one of the earliest things that we learn as children is the concept of fairness.
It's something we pick up on so early, the ability to judge if something in particular
is equal or right or just.
This is especially true if you have a sibling.
If we couldn't articulate when something necessarily was fair, my sister and I could always tell
you when something was unfair.
Everything was on the table to be judged by fairness, where we sat in the car, what toys
we got to play with, who got to pick the next movie or book or TV show, who got what piece
of dessert, who got to stay up later than who.
Everything was a conversation or more actually a complaint about fairness.
We instinctively watched for who we thought was getting more than they deserved.
Perhaps you have your own memories of this, perhaps you have watched your children do
this with their siblings or friends, that bitter and impassioned search for true fairness.
And as often as adults try to impress upon children the age-old adage that life is in
fact fair, it seems to be a concept that we fully abandon as we age.
We still want to live in a world that seems fair, where things are pretty much equal,
where they work out the way that they should.
We want to know that if we work harder we'll receive more.
We want to know that if we do good things we'll get good things.
And even as life in this chaotic and unpredictable world shows us that fairness is not always
being out, we still want it to be so.
Today's parable from Jesus, the parable of the laborers in the vineyard is a crash course
for us in God's economics, a lesson for how God views possessions and money and how what's
fair in the kingdom of heaven may not look like what it does here on earth.
In this parable, Jesus turns inside out the idea of fairness and examines what true fairness
in God's kingdom will be like.
Our parable today is the culmination of a section of Jesus' teachings on rewards and
money.
There are stories before this that we've heard before.
And the first, the disciples ask what they can expect when they get to heaven.
They remind Jesus that they've given up everything, that they have given up their families, their
homes, their jobs, their lives, and they want to know that what they're getting in return
will be worth it.
The next story is a rich young ruler who approaches Jesus.
The gospel tells us that he's a good person.
He's faithful, he's kind, he's true, he's a loyal follower of God.
And he asks Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life.
Jesus tells him that he must sell everything, give it to the poor, and come and follow.
And you know how the story ends.
The rich young ruler leaves heartbroken, dejected.
Jesus has pushed him just a bit too far, demanding of him just a bit more than he's willing to
give.
It's a scene that invites us to wonder what Jesus could demand of each of us that would
be just a bit too far.
Perhaps it's family or power or prestige or perhaps I'm willing to bet that for just a
few of us this story hits home just a little too closely.
That money, in fact, might sit just a little too close to the center of our lives.
This of course brings us to today's gospel reading, the culmination of this section and
the summation of these stories in Matthew.
This parable, like the other two stories, deals with rewards and what we think we should
get versus what God is willing and ready to give.
In this parable, Jesus turns on the idea of fairness and justice.
And Jesus invites us to consider who is being left out and how we can be a part of the solution
to make this world just a little bit closer to the one God intends for us.
This parable begins with a wealthy vineyard owner who needs laborers to go into his field
to help him tend the harvest.
So he sets out into the city to hire laborers for the day.
He encounters his first group at 6 a.m.
They agree to work for a typical daily wage, a silver denarius.
This is not a meager or an extravagant amount of money.
It's what a laborer who works a full day would expect to receive.
This group agrees to the contract and they set off into the field.
And now our story starts to get just a little bit interesting.
Again, the vineyard owner goes back into the market to hire more laborers, this time at
9.
And again, he encounters people who agree to work with him in his fields.
But missing from this second group and from all the subsequent groups that follow is the
agreement for payment.
Our parable states that they will be paid, quote, whatever is right.
Our story then shows the vineyard owner going into the marketplace to hire laborers three
more times at noon, at 3 p.m. and as late as 5 p.m.
When the end of the day arrives, the owner of the vineyard tells his manager to pay the
workers in reverse order of which they arrived.
To the surprise of the latest arrivals, they are offered a full day's wage.
We assume next to 3 o'clock arrivals are paid the same in the noon and the 9, all leaving
with a full day's wages in their pocket.
And finally, the 6 a.m. group is called, the ones who have been here for 12 hours, who
have worked the full day.
They've seen what the other groups have received.
They have eagerly noticed how generous the owner of the vineyard has been.
And now it's their turn to receive.
But when they get there, they receive only a single silver denaris, the exact same payment
that they agreed upon only a few hours before.
And it's this moment when they're angry.
They had thought that they would receive more.
They had thought that it was only right, that it was only fair, that they who had worked
the longest and the hardest should receive more.
And you're not alone if reading this creates some friction.
In fact, I think you're doing it right if reading this creates some friction for you,
if it trips your innate sense of fairness.
What about those who worked longer?
Why did they get the same as those who worked only one hour?
This tension is the point, and Jesus invites us to lean into that, to examine the part
of ourselves that this parable offends.
This is a parable about generosity, generosity that is grounded in the sincere belief in
God's abundance and God's goodness, generosity that is concerned first and foremost with
whether people have enough long before we start worrying about whether we can get more.
This is a parable that suggests true fairness can only be achieved when everyone, all of
our brothers and sisters have what they need.
And this is a universal lesson that echoes through the years.
How can anything be truly fair in a world where there are still people around us, our
beloved brothers and sisters in Christ, still struggling and failing to make ends meet?
How can anything be fair in a world where people around the world and in our own backyard
don't have the ability to cover their basic needs?
Amy Jill Levine, a professor of New York, writes in her book, Short Stories by Jesus,
that we do well to pay attention to the vineyard owner and what he's doing in this parable.
Why is he going into the marketplace so many times?
Is he so incompetent that he doesn't know how many laborers he needs for his land?
Is he so incompetent that he doesn't know how many fields he has, how much the work
will be?
Does he not do this every day of his life?
So perhaps something else is going on here then.
In his repeated trips to the market, the vineyard owner asks them, why are you standing here
idle all day long?
Amy Jill Levine suggests that a better translation is, why are you standing here without work?
To which the laborers reply that they have had no one to hire them.
No one has come, no one has sought their labor, no one has offered to pay them.
So seeing this, the vineyard owner then hires them and sends them out into his field as
well.
And at the end of the day, he makes sure that they have enough to take care of themselves
and their loved ones.
So it is in God's kingdom where we are invited to worry about whether people around us have
what they need.
Where we take the good things that we've been given from God and that we use them to care
for each other.
Trusting and believing that if we are ever in need, we too will be cared for.
God's gift for us is divine generosity.
It is an abundance so extreme that it seems possibly wasteful.
That God gives and gives and gives again and by the grace of God, God does not stop and
consider what we deserve.
God instead chooses to keep blessing us with good things, grace, and with love and with
mercy.
And God invites us to live into that same spirit of abundant generosity with each other.
To give and to give and to give again until we live in a world where everyone has enough.
Where all people hear the good news that they are invited into the vineyard because that
above all else seems truly fair.
Amen.