Jump Start # 808

Matthew 20:8 “When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the laborers and pay the wages, beginning with the last group to the first.’”

We continue our look at the wonder parable we know as “the laborers in the vineyard.” The parable begins with this reminder and comparison, “For the kingdom of Heaven is like…” Jesus is using word pictures to define, describe and detail what God’s kingdom is like. This parable, like so many of them, begins as a common story. Most in the audience understood the concept of landowners showing up early in the morning to hire day laborers. That was a common scene in the first century world. I expect many in the audience not only understood that concept, but they had lived it themselves. It may have been only yesterday that some were at the market place hoping to get chosen to go to work. The audiences that heard Jesus were made up of the common and often the poor. This story was something they knew and lived.

This parable, like most parables, takes a most unexpected turn. What happens at the end is not common. No one in the audience could say, ‘that happened to me.’ Those things didn’t happen. Jesus is showing that the kingdom of Heaven is unlike the world. God’s kingdom does not operate like man’s kingdom. Many in the audience would have thought, “Man, I wish that happened to me.” It didn’t. It wouldn’t.

There are three very unusual twists at the end of this story.

1. The laborers were paid last to first. That didn’t happen. The last hired only worked one hour. Those hired first, worked 12 hours. This is important to the story as we’ll see in a couple of days. Those hired first would be the best workers. That’s why they were hired first. It’s not unlike picking someone for your team in a game of pickup basketball. You want the best on your team. Having picked grapes for 12 hours, the master would need more workers the next day to process those grapes. The work wasn’t finished. The grapes would need to be quickly inspected, put into vats and stomped so the juice would be gathered for wine. The best workers would be needed again. In a normal setting, the first hired would be the first paid. Send the first hired home, so they could get a meal and some rest with the intention of coming back the next day and being hired again. That would be the normal thinking. In Jesus’ parable, the last was paid first. There is a reason. That comes in another Jump Start.

2. The laborers were paid the same. Those working one hour received the same as the one working 12 hours. Now that never happened in the first century world. It wouldn’t happen today. A person gets paid by the hour. If you work one hour that is what you get paid. The more hours worked, the more pay. Not in Jesus’ story. The pay was the same. That upset those that worked the longest. That will be looked at tomorrow. This wouldn’t be the normal course for a couple of reasons. First, the landowner is growing and harvesting grapes to make a profit. This is his business. Paying the workers too much cuts into his profits. A continual practice like this and the and would be out of business. Second, by doing this, he upset the work force. Imagine the scene at the market place the next morning when landowners and workers gathered. Instead of hiring people to work all day, there would be protests and resistance. The demands to work for one hour for a days’ wage would cause many to turn down the offer to work. Why work all day when some worked only one hour for the same pay. The owners would have trouble finding laborers early in the morning and the laborers would expect a day’s wage for just an hour of work. The labor force would be all messed up because of what happened.

3. The master explained himself to the workers, even using a term of endearment, “Friend.” He said, “Friend, I am doing you no wrong.” Friend? Masters didn’t not consider the common laborer as friends. They were hired help. They were viewed as a tool. They didn’t talk to them, be nice to them or owe them anything other than a wage at the end of the day. This master was different. He explained himself. He used a term of affection. It showed that this master was different. He cared. He did what was right. God is not like the masters of the world. God is compassionate, loving and caring.

Few, if any in the audience could say those things happened to them. It didn’t. Jesus’ parables had a wonderful way of taking a surprising turn to illustrate how different the kingdom of God was. This is not the only parable to do that.

Consider the shepherd who left the 99 sheep to go look for the one lost sheep. That’s a touching story, but would that happen that way? Where would the 99 be when the shepherd returned with the lost sheep? Still quietly grazing in the fields? We are talking about sheep, not cattle. The shepherd would return and find 99 missing sheep. Unusual twist to a story.

The parable of the prodigal son is another example. The guilty, ashamed and ruined prodigal comes home and the father throws a celebration. That wouldn’t be expected nor the normal course of things. Or, how about the man who owed 10,000 talents to another. He couldn’t repay. He fell to the ground and asked for patience. The master forgave him. Are you kidding? That was a huge amount of money. Do you think that would happen if you no longer could make your mortgage payment? Do you think that they would just say, “Consider your mortgage fully paid.” Never. They’ll take your home and they don’t care what happens to you.

All of this helps us to see that Jesus’ parables were more than stories. They were descriptions of God’s kingdom. Unique, unpredictable, beyond belief—God’s kingdom was unlike anything man had ever experienced.

Be careful about comparing God’s ways and God’s things to the things of this life. God is different. He treats us better than we deserve. There is no one, no place, no organization that comes even close to what God offers. That’s the point. Those in the audience hearing Jesus would love to have a master pay them a day’s wage for one hour of work. It wouldn’t happen. It would never happen. God’s kingdom is different.

There is an attraction to God and His ways. There we find what we long for: compassion, acceptance, hope, joy, substance and grace. Indeed, the way of the cross leads home.

Roger