Pentecost 16A
September 24, 2017
Matthew 20:1-16
Grace to you and peace from God our
Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Someone once
said, “Whenever Jesus told a parable, he lit a stick of dynamite and covered it
with a story.” In other words, Jesus’ parables blow apart everything we think
we understand about God and how the world works. That’s certainly true in the
parable we just heard. Jesus even says as much in that last line he slips in
there: “So the last will be first and the first will be last.” What Jesus has to
say is going to turn everything you thought you knew completely on its head. So
for example, this is a parable about economics, about a business owner and how
he treats his workers. And by noticing how things get blown up and turned on
their heads, we start to get a sense not of our own understanding of how the
economy works, but of what God’s economics look like.
There are
several ways that this parable of the generous landowner blows our worldview to
smithereens. The first is in the motive of the landowner. We in America are
quite familiar and even comfortable with capitalism as our economic system. It
makes sense, and for the most part, it works, because it motivates us to work
hard and succeed. So if you are a business owner – or in this parable, a
landowner – then you will strive to make shrewd business choices, because that
benefits you. You will have only as many workers as you need in order to get
the work done, and you will pay them what is hopefully a fair wage for the work
they do so that they will be motivated to return to work day after day and be
loyal to you. Capitalism is, in the end, centered around the needs of the
business owners, the bosses, and in theory, when they benefit, so do the
workers.
But here’s
the dynamite: this parable instead centers around the needs of the workers.
Maybe you filled in the gaps in your mind as to why the landowner went out
looking for more workers. I know I have always assumed it was because he needed
more workers – why else would he go looking? But it doesn’t say that. It just
says he went out and saw more people in need of work, and so offered them jobs.
It says he asked them why they weren’t working, and when they said it was
because no one had hired them, he gave them jobs. Several times during the day
this happens – he keeps going out, not to satisfy his need for workers, but to
satisfy the people’s need for work.
So what does
this show us about God’s economy? It shows us that faithful living is motivated
by the needs of the less powerful. It shows us that in God’s economy, those who
are powerful – the proverbial landowners – go out in search of those in need,
listen to what those needs are, and satisfy them, even over and above their own
needs. Of course, we understand in this parable that the landowner is an
analogy for God – who we know will always seek us out and provide our needs.
But this isn’t a bad thing to keep in mind when we find ourselves in the more
powerful position as well.
The second
stick of dynamite hits in the motives of the workers. The first workers have a
chance to bargain with the landowner, and to agree with him about what they
will be paid: a denarius each, which is the going rate for a day’s labor. The
next batch are told only that they will be paid “whatever is right.” Those
hired toward the end of the day aren’t told how much they will be paid or even that they will be paid at all! The take
the job simply on trust of the landowner, that they will be treated fairly.
Would that
trust be well-placed in today’s world, especially the agricultural world?
Sometimes, sure. But by no means always. I was reading this week about the town
of Immokalee, FL. Immokalee is where 1/3 of our tomatoes are grown (90% during the winter), where many
of the tomatoes you would get on your sandwich at Subway or your burger at
McDonald’s are grown. The town is almost entirely migrant workers. It is
located in Collier County, which was one of the hardest hit areas in Irma’s
path. You can imagine a town of migrant workers didn’t fare too well. I have
been to
Immokalee – Collier County is where I did my pastoral internship – so I
was reading this week about how they are doing after the hurricane. And I was
reminded about the horrific conditions under which those tomato pickers live.
Twelve-hour days with no breaks for food or even drink. No tents for shade. And
they get paid a whopping two pennies per pound of tomatoes picked (the same ones
we pay $1-4 per pound for), and that pay hasn’t gone up in over 30 years. Would
a worker in Immokalee blindly follow a landowner into the field, trusting that
they will be paid fairly for their work? Doubtful. And this situation is
unfortunately not unique to Immokalee. (Click here to learn what workers are doing about this!)
 |
| Tomato pickers in Immokalee, FL |
And yet in
God’s economy, those in need can trust the landowner, because he is generous
and just. We, the workers, can trust in God, the landowner, because we know
that he will always provide us what we need, even when the rest of the world
will not.
The third
stick of dynamite is for the economy of compensation, and this is the one that
really gets our goat. The landowner pays in reverse order, first paying the
workers who arrived last. To their surprise and delight, they are paid a full
day’s wage, despite only working an hour! Surely the other workers seeing this
are thinking, “Our lucky day! If those guys got paid a full day’s wage for only
one hour, just think what we will be paid!” But then to their shock, they are
paid exactly the same. And their gut reaction is the same as mine would be in
that situation: “But that’s not fair! I worked hard all day, and in the
scorching heat, by the way, so I should get paid more than that guy!” The
landowner’s response, in essence is, “Who said I was in the business of
fairness? I’m in the business of justice.” Didn’t he say as much with the
second batch of workers, that he would pay them not what was fair, but what was
right? And so he did – he paid them exactly what they needed: a full day’s wage.
You see,
God’s economy is not about being fair. Capitalism is fair: you work hard, and
you get what you earn. And sure, it works… sometimes. It motivates hard work…
sometimes. And then, sometimes the deck is stacked in such a way that the same
hard work for one person only pays half or three quarters as much for another
person. See, fairness gets murky really fast.
But God’s
justice goes beyond fairness. In God’s just economy, people get what they need,
regardless of whether they have earned it. When God is the landowner, and we
are the workers, God seeks us out to learn our needs. We, the workers can trust
that God is good and just. And we can be certain that we will always get from
God exactly what it is we need – whether that is just the right amount of bread
in the wilderness, or a day’s wage for whatever we were able to work, or the
forgiveness of our sins, whether big or small, or the knowledge of love and
belonging that we receive at the font.
God’s
economy doesn’t work well as a business practice. This parable is not a model
for a business owner to follow. It really isn’t a practical economic system for
this world. Still, this parable allows us to see into a world, for a moment,
that operates on generosity rather than greed, ambition and competition. It
allows us to imagine and see a world in which all are valued for what they can
contribute – even those who stand ignored or discarded by society. It shows us
the generosity of a God who lifts up the dignity of each person, regardless of
their circumstances, and who offers all of us, every day, exactly the grace
that we need to live.
Let us pray…
Generous God, your justice doesn’t always
make sense in a world driven by greed and competition. Help us to pursue it
anyway, in the way we see and treat one another, especially those among us who
feel their needs are ignored and discarded. Help us to see the dignity of all
people, not through our earthly eyes, but through the eyes of your just
economy. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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