A sermon for the fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost given at the United Church of Acworth, Acworth, NH on Sunday September 18, 2011.
Exodus 17:1-7.
Psalm 78:1-4,12-16.
Philippians 2:1-13. Matthew 21:23-32
The last will be first, and the first will be last.
Justice for Aristotle is based on proportion: what is received must be proportional to what has been done. Fairness for one person will not be the same as fairness to another person, but they will be proportionally the same.
“For if the persons are not equal, their shares will not be equal; and this is the source of disputes and accusations, when persons who are equal do not receive equal shares, or when persons who are not equal receive equal shares.” (Ethics, V.3)
this is the source of disputes and accusations, when persons who are equal do not receive equal shares, or when persons who are not equal receive equal shares.
Justice as Aristotle sees it is exactly the way most people in today’s world see it.
I get what I deserve.
If I don’t get what I deserve or if I get what I don’t deserve – it’s unfair, either for me or for someone else.
Human justice has been ingrained in our souls since we were very small.
But Jesus said, the last will be first and the first will be last.
If any one statement could crush our sense of what is good and right in the world, it is this one: the last will be first and the first will be last.
With one statement, Jesus undoes our false sense of superiority.
With one statement, Jesus elevates our sense of total failure.
With one statement, He gives hope to the miserable.
With one statement, He ignites outrage from those who pride themselves in all of their accomplishments.
the last will be first and the first will be last.
This statement is the point of Jesus’ parable of the workers in the vineyard.
We’ve dwelt a little on what all of us understanding justice to be with Aristotle as our spokesperson. But, this parable gives a portrait of God’s justice. It’s a little different than our version of justice. Let’s take a look.
The landowner has a lot of vines. Each of these vines have a lot of grapes. If those grapes aren’t picked soon, they’ll go bad. So, frequently during harvest times, 12 hour days would be expected (Keener, 306).
The landowner wants to get as many of the grapes picked as soon as possible.
This seems to be one possible motivation for his frequent returns to the market to gather more laborers.
There’s a lot of work to be done, we can use all the help we can get. Not the time to be selective.
So he goes out at the start of the day to the market. This was most likely right around sunrise or 6:00 am.
They make an agreement. The agreement states that they will work and the landowner will pay a proper day’s wage for their full day’s work.
So these lucky workers -- lucky to get a full day’s work during harvest time – lucky to get picked among the rest of the workers available – lucky to have had the strength, the well restedness to make it to the market for sunrise – these lucky workers head on over to the vineyard and get to work.
About 3 hours later, the landowner goes out again to the market hoping to find more bodies to contribute to the effort. He finds more people there waiting for someone to hire them and says “You also go into the vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.”
“Whatever is right”
The workers would understand by this, according to our human notions of justice, you’ll get paid an amount proportional to what you put out.
They agree to this proposal and join the early-risers in the vineyard.
Three hours later, around noon, and then again at 3:00 pm, the landowner went out to the market and each time found more help willing to work for:
“whatever is right”
“whatever is right”
At five, one hour before the end of the long harvest day’s work, the landowner again goes out to the market and again finds able-bodied laborers unemployed.
“Why are you standing here idle all day?”
“No one hired us!”
“You also go into the vineyard.”
Notice: the landowner said nothing more than “You also go into the vineyard.”
These last employees had no guarantee of getting a single thing for their work (what would an hour’s work earn anyways? Certainly not enough to put food on the table.)
These last employees went into the vineyard with a sort of resignation. I can imagine this being their thoughts:
“If we stay in the market we won’t work and won’t have a dime to bring home. IF we go into this person’s vineyard, we’ll at least have something.”
These last employees were the most desperate and vulnerable. They were the last-picked. The leftovers after all the landowners had gathered their stock of workers.
But they go, because it’s work! Something’s better than nothing.
About an hour or so after the last laborers were hired and brought to the vineyard, the day’s work was done. Time to get paid and go home.
The landowner asked the manager to pay the workers in order from last to first hired.
The last hired to their utter astonishment received from the manager a full day’s pay!
Immediately, the first hired thought: “Oh boy, if those that worked only an hour got that, I can only imagine what I got.”
The ones hired at 3:00 were next and they put their hands out and received a day’s wage each. A little confused, they went on their way.
The ones hired at 12:00 came next and to their confusion and slight frustration, they too received the same as the other two groups of laborers.
The ones hired at 9:00 came and their confusion and frustration was a little greater than the ones before them when they too received the same.
Then the first hired came. Actually they strut over to the manager proud of themselves for their loyalty, their early-rising discipline, their obvious physical superiority to other workers not picked first.
The manager gave them a day’s wage and they were considerably upset.
They went to the landowner and said, “These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat!”
“Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?”
The landowner had not done any kind of disservice to his first-hired employees. As far as their case goes, they were justly compensated according to the contract they had agreed to at the beginning of the day.
The laborers hired at 9, 12, and 3 all were promised “whatever is right.” Was it right for them to receive the same as the first-hired?
And the last-hired, the outcasts, the rejects, the ones who get stigmatized in the streets for being idle when it has nothing to do with their willingness to work, just the prejudices of the employers. These last-hired to their utter astonishment and to the great irritation of the rest of the laborers received a FULL-day’s wage. Their families will not starve, they will not go home embarrassed, ashamed, guilty of fruitless day spent watching others get hired in the market.
These last-hired are exhilarated. They’ve received so much above and beyond what they expected or deserved.
This is grace. This is the abundance of God’s generosity.
Grace is the great leveler.
We contrasted Aristotle’s justice with God’s justice. Here is clear:
For Aristotle, if persons who are equal do not receive equal shares, or when persons who are not equal receive equal shares, this is injustice.
But this parable reminds us that God’s justice is higher than human justice. It doesn’t stop at giving what is due to the one’s who’ve earned it. God’s justice gives what is not due to those who haven’t earned it!
God’s justice is his mercy. God’s dealing with humanity is not according to what we deserve. God’s dealing with humanity is according to his mercy and love.
The generosity of the landowner is impartial. It does not give according to circumstance, duration of work, physical ability, amount of grapes picked.
The landowner gives what is needed by all to all regardless of their merit.
Impartial generosity, pointing to the unconditional grace and love of God toward humanity.
But Stanley Hauerwas notes: “It is not impartiality that characterizes God’s grace in this parable, but rather the sheer abundance of God’s grace. God’s love cannot be used up, making possible the wide diversity characteristic of those whom Jesus calls.”
God’s grace is the true equalizer. All receive favor out of the abundance of God’s storehouse of grace.
When we think of Aristotle’s understanding of justice. We realize that God’s justice as displayed in this parable transgresses that understanding.
We and Aristotle stand with the confusion and frustration of the first-hired and criticize the landowner for not being fair.
But the landowner responds, “Are you envious because I am generous?”
The first-hired received what they deserved, they just thought that others shouldn’t receive the same as them. They didn’t do as much. According to our commonly held notion of fairness, this is unfair, this is unjust.
But God’s love transcends justice. The first hired are just as loved as the last hired. There is no power hierarchy in God’s kingdom. True equality is the equality resulting from God’s abundant grace toward humanity. The last shall be first and the first shall be last because there is now no distinction between the two inasmuch as both have received abundantly from God’s great love.
Let us not despise God’s generosity, but learn how to live in response to such abundant grace. Let us participate in the abundant generosity God has shown us by extending that generosity to our neighbor. The neighbor who’s capable, on top of the world, wealthy, influential – but also the neighbor who might be among the last-hired. Let us not treat either one with impartiality, but in response to God’s abundant and impartial grace, extend our love, friendship, and care to all equally.
And when we do, we manifest the kingdom in which the last shall be first and the first shall be last.
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