Workers in the vineyard - It just isn't fair! Matthew 20:1-16

Matthew 20:1-16 Gospel Reading for Sunday 18th September 2011

This is hardly a lesson in industrial relations for Lutheran Schools! Can you imagine paying the emergency relief teacher that we had to get in just for the last lesson the same amount as the one employed for the full day including yard duty at lunch time? (mind you to get one to come in for one lesson we would probably have to pay them a full-day wage!)

It is important of course that we don't try to take this parable and draw from it all sorts of analogies and applications primarily about how we are to operate in our world today. Parables in the main are not about us, but were spoken to give us a picture of how our God works. This is a parable in which God is revealing the mystery of His kingdom to us. Note that it contains a very similar scandalous unfairness to that experienced by the older brother in the parable of The Lost Son.

Jesus was struggling to get the people to see that the kingdom was available to all. The Jewish people had a view that (firstly only Jews) but secondly only the successful and upper class people would inherit the kingdom. Being rich was viewed as a sign of being blessed by God. The poor were apparently rejected by God and were poor because of the way they conducted their life. The parable of the workers in the vineyard is one of many attempts to correct this view. Day labourers were amongst the very poor in Jewish society. The day's wage that they would hope to earn would just provide enough to survive. So Jesus points out that God not only accepts people from all walks of life; he treats them exactly the same, offering the same reward REGARDLESS of what they have done.

Jesus was also progressively unfolding the controversial idea that there was now going to be a new way of being viewed as acceptable in God's sight.

This parable is actually classic Luther! The people that answer the invitation to be part of the kingdom all get the same unmerited reward. We see here a resounding reinforcement of SAVED BY GRACE. No amount of sweat and effort or putting in extra hours in the heat of the day made the first-hired any more favourable in God's sight. Everyone was IN, each person's reward was the same, just by turning up, just by responding affirmatively to the gospel call.

God's grace is radical, it is outrageous. Some might say unfair. This parable is a lesson in unbelievable generosity. The question is how do we respond to that? How do we respond to that amazing unmerited grace?

Just maybe though, there is another message hidden away in the parable that does speak rather critically to us today. This particular parable may not only be an example of Jesus' continued advocacy for the outcasts of society but also a warning to people in his community, who imagine they deserve special recognition because they have been church members or church leaders for a long time. What about in our schools? Do we fully value the perspectives of all of our community members, especially the "new-blood", or do we hang on with greater weighting to the views of the long-standing?

Perhaps also this parable is a subtle reminder to us that our schools are primarily about helping people in our community to see past "the thinking of the world" and to see instead our amazing God of generosity and grace operating behind the scenes.
Nev