Matthew 20,1-16.
This parable occurs in Matthew’s gospel immediately after Jesus has responded to Peter’s question about what reward they will receive for having left everything to follow Jesus (19,27-30). The phrase “many who are first will be last, and the last first” (19,30), forms a bracket (inclusion) with 20,16 where the same phrase occurs, but in reverse order.
The reversal character of this parable reminds one of the parable of the Prodigal Son and of God’s paradoxical ways in rewarding unexpectedly the least deserving. His ways are not our ways, as today’s first reading reminds us.
The market place was the ancient equivalent of our employment exchange. The vineyard is here a symbol for the kingdom. The vineyard owner hires people at 6 am, 9am, 12 Noon and 3 pm and 5pm. He agrees a daily wage with the first group he hires. Presumably that is the “fair wage” he promises to the second group also. For the people hired at the eleventh hour the concern is not what they will be paid but why they have not been hired earlier in the day. Their answer shows how casual labourers were at the mercy of market forces and the whims of the employers. They are very fortunate to be hired at this late hour.
The parable comes to a climax with the payment which comes at the end of the working day, on “the last shall be first and the first last” basis. This first surprise is followed immediately by a second – namely that the latecomers get a full day’s pay. The third surprise is based on the expectations that those who have worked all day will receive more than those who worked just one hour. They don’t.
The vineyard owner’s generosity is a pleasant surprise for the latecomers, but his justice is a huge disappointment to the first- comers who received their just wage that was agreed, but a raw deal in their opinion, when compared with the late-comers.
The parable is about the kingdom of heaven and the way God deals with people. The crux of the parable is the contrast between God’s generosity and human reckoning. The first-comers got what they deserved, what was agreed. The latecomers got more than they deserved, although they got no more than the first comers.
The parable certainly applies to the relations between Jews and Gentiles in the first century church. Gentiles were latecomers to the faith. The observant Jews may have felt a right to a better/higher reward in the kingdom. It applies, too, to the Christian community. Latecomers to the faith are treated by God on a par with those who are longer in the faith.
The attitude of the early-comers seems to put God in their debt. Their logic was if God paid the latecomers a day’s wage then they who had done a full day’s work deserved more than a day’s wage. But they didn’t. They got what they deserved, but the latecomers got more than they deserved.
The parable highlights the ultimate paradox of God’s ways. His ways are not our ways. We can’t earn what God gives us. We can’t deserve it.
He does not deal with us according to the standards of human calculation, competition, merit or rewards or worthiness, but instead, according to love, generosity, mercy, and compassion for all, which is what the kingdom of heaven is ultimately about.
Fr Geoff O’Grady