Some parables of Jesus seem to upset people more than others. I think today’s is one of those. It seems to go against all our sensitivities about fair play and about justice. If God acts like the landowner in the parable, then that is not how we expect him to act. Of course, that is the point of a parable: to shock us and to make us ask questions. But what is the question that we ask after hearing today’s parable?
In many ways our question is just like the one Peter asked a little earlier in the gospel. He went up to Jesus and said: we have left everything and followed you; we have taken a risk, what is in it for us? What will our reward be? This seems a reasonable question to ask. No one takes on something whose outcome they are not sure of. You can imagine Peter thinking this through: he is a young man, his whole life is before him, and he needs to make decisions. He is making a great sacrifice, but will the rewards be worth it. He wonders if this is the right decision. The parable itself sharpens the question when the landowner comes to pay out the wages. All the workers are looking for a reward – their wages for the day. The landowner seems to tease them by first paying out those who had worked the shortest time. Those who had been there all day expected they would get more. After all, they had been labouring all day, and had sacrificed a lot more than those recently arrived. They saw the latecomers as lazy and not doing a full day’s work. In the end they felt more deserving than those others.
I think we face these sorts of questions at particular stages in our lives. Those who have been on the Christian journey for a long time can sometimes feel that they have been building up credit or good will with God, and that they deserve to be rewarded generously. They may even question those who seem to have spent most of their life ignoring the practice of their faith, and only late in life return to it. They ask why should those people be rewarded when I have conscientiously lived my life keeping God’s commandments. At another stage in life people may ask the questions differently. I am thinking of young people who often wonder how seriously they should take their faith. Some give up their faith, using the argument that it is not worth the effort. They may even ask Peter’s question, what’s in it for me. It is probably no surprise that this question will be asked often throughout life.
What sense can we make of these questions in the light of the parable Jesus tells today? I think there are two moments in the parable that can help us. The first is the way the landowner goes to the market square to get workers. He seems less concerned about the urgency of having his vines harvested, and more interested in giving people work. It is as though just being involved in this work is its own reward, even more so than the wages they receive. At the same time he doesn’t make a judgement that they are lazy but recognises that their livelihood depends on some landowner giving them work. He offers them work so that they can at least feed their family that night.
The second moment in the parable comes when the landowner confronts the disgruntled workers who expected a higher wage than promised. The way they put the question they imply that he is unjust or unfair. But he sees justice and fairness differently. He, in fact, is more generous than would normally be expected, by giving the latecomers enough wages to sustain them for the day. In telling the parable this way Jesus is turning on its head the way they normally think of God and God’s justice. It is so easy to think of God in terms of rewards and punishments, as if God will reward you according to the amount of work you have done. Jesus here gives us a totally different way of thinking about God. God is generous – full stop! God’s graciousness is so bountiful that there is always plenty for all people. Those who think of it as payment for work done imagine that there are limits to God’s generosity, as if there won’t be enough to go around. They don’t know God.
Let’s return to our questions about why we engage with our faith or what is in it for us. I think the parable tells us that there are rewards, but that they are different to what we expect. The best reward, to use the imagery of the parable, is in simply having work. In other words it is in being engaged with the gospel and with faith; it is being engaged in God’s plan for the renewal of the human community. The reward is in watching good things happen with life. But to work this way requires an attitude to God that trusts that there are no limits to his generosity. There is a powerful image in the Old Testament that helps us appreciate this. When the people were in the desert God gave them manna to eat. They were to collect just enough to last them for the day, and then God would give more the next day. This requires great trust that God is generous and that being engaged in the kingdom is worthwhile. That is the answer to Peter’s question, what’s in it for us. That is why throughout the centuries young people have committed themselves to Jesus and his message.
Fr. Gerard Kelly
