Despicable Generosity

In Matthew 20:1-16, Jesus presents a parable to help explain the nature of the kingdom of heaven, and indeed the nature of God Himself.  

It is the time of harvest so a landowner rises early in the morning to hire day laborers.  (These would compliment the landowner’s full-time staff, who might otherwise be overwhelmed by the rapid demands of the harvest.)  They agree upon a fair wage – a denarius (average day’s wage) – and the laborers head to the vineyard and start working.  The landowner goes back out about the third hour (roughly 9am) and saw others idle in the market place.  He also hires them for the day, promising to pay them whatever is right.  

It’s possible that these had spent the earlier hours reaping their own harvest on their own, smaller estates before finishing and heading to the market place in search of additional work.  These would have expected to receive less than a full day’s wage on account of the reduced work-day.

The landowner goes back out at the sixth hour (noon), and again at the ninth hour (3pm), and even once more at the eleventh hour (5pm) when there was only about an hour of daylight remaining.  Each time, he makes similar arrangements with the workers, promising to pay them what is right, and each time, the workers would have expected less compensation due to their reduced work day.

So far so good.

But then Jesus goes and messes up the whole parable by throwing in a curve ball.  The landowner has his foreman call in all of the workers and pay them, starting with those who had worked for the least amount of time, and finishing with those who had been working for the full day.  To every worker, the landowner pays a denarius.  And to this, the laborers who had worked the full day grumbled, thinking it unfair that they should receive the same wages as the others who hadn’t worked as long.

But the landowner responds, “Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for a denarius?  Take what is yours and go, but I wish to give to this last man the same as to you.  Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with what is my own?  Or is your eye envious because I am generous?”  Jesus then finishes this parable by repeating his statement in Matthew 19:30, “Many who are first will be last; and the last, first.”

This parable is a problem for most of us 21st century Americans.  But to our defense, this parable was also a problem for most 1st century Palestinians.  And why is that?  I think it is problematic largely because we read it through stingy, envious eyes.

Jesus intended to show us the radical generosity of the Father and His kingdom, but we (and the original audience) despised it.  Our misguided sense of fairness and equality balk at this despicable generosity.  And yet, this need not be the case.

The first group of laborers, those who worked the full day, were the only group to negotiate and agree upon a fair compensation, and at the end of the day, they received precisely that.  So when it’s all said and done, they had received perfectly fair treatment and compensation.  On any other day and in any other circumstance, they would have been happy and content with the arrangement.

Out of the generous abundance of the landowner’s heart, he decides to also pay a denarius to every other group, so although the compensation is equal, the effective hourly rate is significantly different.  You can imagine the surprise of each group as they received their denarius, “Wow, I only worked 9 hours, but still got a denarius!”  “Wow, I only worked 6 hours, but I still got a denarius!”  And on down the line.  Truly generosity goes above and beyond what is expected.

Many scholars believe that Jesus was referencing the entitlement of the Jews and their disdain for gentiles.  The Jews were the First, at least in their own eyes, and the gentiles were the Last.  They had then assumed that their first-ness then entitled them to something greater than whatever the gentiles might receive, especially those who were only just now converting and choosing to follow God.  And sadly, this is not an unpopular sentiment even today.  Some folks ask silly questions like, “If I can get my ticket heaven on my deathbed, why would I spend my whole life trying to follow God?”  

This proves that we’ve been greatly deceived about the nature of life, sin, and God.  Jesus clearly states that the enemy ONLY comes to kill, steal and destroy, but Christ/God/the kingdom’s goal is that we would experience life to the max.  When our eyes are clear, we see that the real question should be, “If I can spend the rest of my life experiencing the best of the best – life abundant – then why on earth would I settle for wallowing around in a garbage dump all my life, only to emerge on my deathbed, if at all?”

 Borrowing terminology from this parable, we are “laborers” for the kingdom of God.  Do we expect anything different for those who accept Christ on their deathbed than for us who’ve labored longer.  If we think we deserve something more, it’s probably because we’re viewing our walk with God as a lousy job than as a beautiful relationship.  “The world of the generous gets larger and larger; the world of the stingy gets smaller and smaller.” (Prov. 11:24, The Message).

May we be refreshed in the joy of our salvation, and renewed in our heart of hearts to see God’s generosity as beautiful, and not despicable.