Matthew 20:1-16
The Kirby Hall of Civil Rights is an academic building on the campus of Lafayette College in Easton…Pennsylvania.
- It’s an ornate stone structure that resembles a Greek temple.
- Kirby Hall is named for the man who gave the money to build it…back in the 1920s: Fred Morgan Kirby.
Mr. Kirby had done rather well financially.
- So…he committed his life savings to purchase a variety store in the northeastern Pennsylvania town of Wilkes-Barre.
- He had a partner in the venture…a man named Charles Sumner Woolworth.
- And together…they opened the first Woolworth’s five-and-ten…
- The cornerstone of what would become a retail empire.
But Mr. Kirby’s interest went further than architecture.
- He also specified exactly what sort of teaching would go on within its walls.
- There’s a dedicatory plaque…declaring that Kirby Hall is for instruction in the Anglo-Saxon ideals of the true principles of constitutional freedom…including the right of man to own property and do with it as he will…the right to life…liberty and the pursuit of happiness…and the right to sell his labor as he chooses…
Mr. Kirby…then…had a verse from the Bible carved into that stone plaque.
- That verse…Matthew 20:15…is part of today’s Gospel lesson.
- It reads: Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own?
- The Lord be with you.
It is not likely anyone ever explained to Mr. Kirby…that the person who speaks that line…in Jesus’ parable of the laborers…in the vineyard…is the landowner.
- He is anything but a dyed-in-the-wool…gilded age…captain of industry…like Fred Morgan Kirby.
- What the landowner does…in the parable…sounds like something a progressive would do.
- (I mean…how do we run a free enterprise system like that?).
- This is the boss…who…at the end of the day…
- Pays all his farm hands the same amount of money…regardless of how many hours they have worked!
- Christians have been trying to wrap their minds around this parable ever since.
- It’s a baffling tale…with a provocative surprise ending.
Let’s recap the story.
- It is harvest time…and the vineyard-owner is desperate to get his grapes picked before they rot on the vine.
- So…he does what farmers have always done when they have a ripe crop in the field.
- He goes out and hires himself some day laborers.
The boss meets the laborers at the muster zone at the crack of dawn.
- What’s the wage? the workers ask.
- Standard rate…he replies. One denarius.
- The denarius was a small silver coin.
- Off they go to the vineyard.
- The laborers notice other pickers coming in throughout the day.
- The last group of workers starts picking grapes at 5 p.m.
No doubt each of these later hires…had likewise…asked the landowner how much they would be paid.
- I’ll pay you whatever is right…he replied.
- The Greek word for right in this verse…is the same word translated elsewhere as
- He promises them a righteous
At the end of the day…all the workers line up to receive their pay.
- Each receives exactly the same: one denarius…no matter how many hours they had worked!
- The crack-of-dawn crew get mighty furious at this.
- You can understand why.
- Now…wait…just one minute…they say to the farmer.
- This isn’t fair. You paid everybody the same!”
- Did I break my contract with you?…asks the landowner…I did not.
- We agreed on one denarius…and that’s exactly what you’re holding in your hand.
- But what about the others? Their hourly rate is much higher!
Now here’s where Mr. Kirby’s Bible verse comes in:
- Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me?
- The boss continues: Or are you envious because I am generous? So… the last shall be first and the first shall be last.
So…what does this parable mean?
- Bible scholars have struggled to come up with an explanation.
- One of the most popular interpretations is that Jesus is addressing the problem of Jew vs. Gentile.
- The sunrise crew represents the Jewish Christians.
- They’ve been following God’s law for generations.
- But then all these Greeks and Romans waltz into the church…converts from paganism…
- And lo and behold…they get welcomed right in…without so much as a bar mitzvah.
But this interpretation does not make sense in this parable Jesus tells.
- Because Jesus is not telling the story to any Greek converts.
- His audience is all Jewish.
- There is no resurrection yet…no Christian church yet.
- Not until the miracle of Pentecost will it begin to dawn on them that their little community is morphing into something different.
So…if Jesus’ parable is not about the tensions within a multi-cultural church…then what is he talking about?
- Is Jesus fulfilling Mr. Kirby’s worst nightmare?
- Is Jesus turning out to be…God forbid…a progressive?
- Is the landowner’s righteous wage a matter of paying workers according to what they need to live…rather than what the market will bear?
- (And again…I mean…how do we run a free enterprise system like that?).
Well…there is a clue to the meaning of this parable in the very last line.
- Jesus concludes his parable with this saying:
- So…the last will be first and the first will be last.
So…let’s back up a bit (to Matthew 19) and see what leads Jesus to share that proverb the first time.
- He just laid on his disciples a very challenging teaching…
- It’s the famous saying: I tell you…it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.
- Well…Peter and the others hear this…and they are astounded and ask…Who then can be saved?
- What about people like us? We’re not rich. We’ve left everything to follow you. What are we going to get out of this?
Jesus’ answer may remind us of a parent…assuring a small child that Santa’s going to leave a truckload of goodies under the Christmas tree.
- Don’t worry about that…Peter… he says.
- You guys are going to sit on twelve thrones…judging the twelve tribes of Israel. Not only that…I’ll throw in a bonus: eternal life!
- It is then that Jesus lays that proverb on them for the first time:
- But many who are first will be last…and the last will be first.
Now…it becomes clear who the parable of the laborers in the vineyard is directed at.
- It is directed at Jesus’ disciples.
- His disciples are the first who will end up last.
- Those disciples were so delighted to hear about the twelve thrones with their names on them…
- That Jesus felt the need to take them down a peg.
- His disciples are the first crew of pickers in the parable.
- They will get what’s coming to them…but so will a whole lot of others.
So…Jesus makes a great point…here…about spiritual bookkeeping.
- Jesus warns us that bookkeeping is the only punishable offense in the kingdom of heaven.
- For in that happy state…the books are ignored forever…and there is only the Book of life.
- And in that book…nothing stands against us.
- There are no debit entries that can keep us out of the clutches of the love that will not let us go.
- There is no minimum balance below which the grace that finagles all accounts will cancel our credit.
- And there is no need for us to show large amounts of black ink…
- Because the only Auditor before whom we must finally stand is the Lamb…
- And he has gone deaf…dumb and blind on the cross.
So…what appears at first…in this parable…to be bad news for the crack-of-dawn crew…is actually very good news.
- It would not have mattered if the vineyard owner had given those early birds ten denarii apiece…or even a hundred…
- Because citizenship in the kingdom of heaven is not paid for with silver.
- It’s paid for with blood…the blood of Jesus.
- And that’s something none of us could ever earn.
Are you envious because I am generous?…asks the Lord.
- No…not envious. But
- Grateful that he welcomes us despite all our imperfections!