Matthew 20:1-16 - Fair?

Matthew 20:1-16 (NRSV)

“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard. When he went out about nine o’clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace; and he said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ So they went. When he went out again about noon and about three o’clock, he did the same. And about five o’clock he went out and found others standing around; and he said to them, ‘Why are you standing here idle all day?’ They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard.’ When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, ‘Call the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and then going to the first.’ When those hired about five o’clock came, each of them received the usual daily wage. Now when the first came, they thought they would receive more; but each of them also received the usual daily wage. And when they received it, they grumbled against the landowner, saying, ‘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.’ But he replied to one of them, ‘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?’ So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”

Is there a tougher parable for many of us than this one? Well, maybe.

But I'm going to guess this is up there.

We like things to be fair. Don't we? Starts when we are about two and we first begin to be told to share our toys. It's not really fair, is it?

I've been the person in the corporate job who watched while a new person was hired after me for more money than me.

I've been the person was last served at a meal and got less because of it. Who maybe didn't even get a taste of the food I couldn't wait to eat.

I've been the person who was waiting the longest in a doctor's office and saw those who came after me, treated before me.

I'm guessing you've been those people too.

The urge for fairness bubbles up out of us usually without our being able to help it. We are taught fairness at an early age and our self-justification feeds the desire for it as we get older.

And yet, God isn't fair, huh?

Instead, God is just.

Justice and fairness aren't always the same thing. In fact they are often not the same thing.

Sometimes God's justice will rain down on you fairly. In your favor.

And other times not.

Other times, God's justice will serve someone else first.

And you will be last.

And yet that justice shows over and over again God's generosity. And God's call for us to be just as well.

Rather than fair.

Generous rather than self-justifying.

And there...

right there...

Is the Kingdom of God.

Just and merciful God: widen my heart beyond fairness to generosity and justice. Amen.