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At the time of Jesus’ ministry, the day laborer system was common. Jesus’ parable of the laborers in the vineyard (Matthew 20:1-16) would have connected well with his audience. But Jesus offers a plot twist: At the end of the day, each worker receives a full day’s wage. Because of this, the early workers say they have been treated unfairly.
It’s easy to empathize with them. Our notion of what is fair gets ingrained in us from an early age. The “it’s not fair” refrain is behind the complaints of the laborers to tell the landowner that the last workers “worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.”
The landowner justifies his authority by explaining how he chooses to be generous. This parable is ultimately about God’s generosity. God’s generosity doesn’t fit our kind of formulas or metrics. It’s not one-to-one math. Instead, God’s generosity uses the same kind of logic as “the first shall be last and the last shall be first” (Matthew 20:16). Divine generosity takes seriously the humanity of the recipient.
This message is excerpted from “Just generosity” by Mihee Kim-Kort in the September/October 2023 Gather magazine. Today is the 17th Sunday after Pentecost.