The Parable of the Generous Landowner (Sept 21 2014)

Homily:  Yr A P25, Sept 21 2014, St. Albans

Readings:  Ex 16.2-15, Ps 105 1-6, 37-45; Phil 1.21-30; Mt 20.1-16

The Parable of the Generous Landowner

Over the years, I’ve heard a lot of different interpretations of the parable we just heard.  Sometimes people will use this parable to talk about salvation, how it doesn’t matter whether you become a Christian as a child or on your deathbed, you will still receive the reward of eternal life.  I have also heard this parable interpreted as a teaching on social justice, how God wants a world where there is full employment and income equality, where everyone is paid a living wage regardless of how much and what sort of work they do.  I’ve heard this passage used to justify an increase in the minimum wage and I’ve heard this passage used to justify the inclusion of the Gentiles in the early church and I’ve heard this passage used as a critique of legalism and envy and hard-heartedness and competitiveness and so on.

The problem I have with all of these various interpretations is that they all tend to focus on us, the labourers in the context of this parable.  In most of the Bibles and commentaries that I’ve seen, if there is a sub-title given to this bit of scripture it’s usually “The Parable of the Labourers in the Vineyard”.  But I’m not sure that’s a very good title.  Because it’s not about labourers, really.  It’s about the Landowner.

Jesus says so himself.  “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire labourers for his vineyard.”  Sometimes we get so focused on the grumbling amongst the labourers that we barely even notice the landowner.  But with Jesus’ opening words, we’re getting a hint that this is no ordinary landowner.  Why is the landowner hiring labourers?  That’s not his job.  Most landowners rarely even visited their vineyards, they were absentee owners who lived in the big city. It was the job of the vineyard manager to hire the workers, not the landowner.  Did this landowner have no manager?  No, there’s a manager alright, he shows up later on in the story.  It just seems like this landowner really likes to hire labourers for the vineyard.  So he goes himself to the market-place at 6am, the crack of dawn and hires some labourers.  Then he goes back at 9am, and again at noon, and then 3pm and once more, if you can believe it at 5pm, just an hour before the work day is done.  And each time the landowner goes to the market-place, he hires every unemployed labourer he can find to come and work in his vineyard.  It seems that this landowner really wants to have as many labourers as he can in his vineyard.  In fact you might say that it’s something of an obsession.  Going back and forth to the market-place to search for labourers and bring them into the vineyard is pretty much the only thing the landowner does all day long.

I’ll bet that if you were the manager of the vineyard, you’d find it to be pretty frustrating to be working for this landowner.  Imagine the conversation between the landowner and the manager as the new day dawns.

Manager:  OK we need 5 labourers for the vineyard today, I’ll go to the market-place and hire them.

Landowner:  No you stay here, I’ll go and do the hiring.

Manager:  But the last time you did that you came back with twice as many workers as we needed!

But the manager’s words fall on deaf ears.  The landowner is already out the door and heading to the market place.  An hour later he’s back with ten workers.

Manager:  But I told you we only needed five workers.

Landowner:  Don’t you worry about that, you just put them to work.  I’m heading to the market-place again to see if I can find any more.

By the end of the day there are fifty labourers working in the vineyard.  The manager, looking a bit frazzled, turns to the landowner:  “It’s time to pay all these workers – should I pay them by the hour?”

But the landowner replies, “No, pay each one the usual daily wage – they all have to go home and feed their families.”

Because you see, in those days the usual daily wage was just enough to feed a family for one day.  Those who didn’t get work didn’t get to eat.

You get the picture.  What we have here is a landowner who is a little crazy by normal standards.  He’s certainly not a good businessman working to maximize profit.  He is rather obsessed with bringing as many labourers as possible to work in his vineyard, and he really wants all of them to have what they need to feed their families.

Now, the people listening to Jesus tell the story, and those of us who are familiar with our Bibles, would certainly notice some resonances here. 

In the Bible, the vineyard wasn’t just any old farm.  The vineyard is the image the prophets had been using for thousands of years for the people of God.  Bringing someone into the vineyard meant that they were being welcomed, chosen and included as one of God’s people.  And the landowner’s insistence on paying a full daily wage so that people can feed themselves can surely be seen as a response to the request that we make each week in the words of the Lord’s Prayer when we pray “give us this day our daily bread.” 

And the Landowner’s obsession with repeatedly going to the market to seek out those who are unemployed and bring them into the vineyard reminds me of the shepherd who leaves the 99 sheep to go and search for one who is lost, or of the Father who welcomes home the prodigal son, or of Jesus himself who eats and drinks with outcasts and sinners.

And just as in the case of the Pharisees who see Jesus eating with outcasts and sinners, and the elder son who hears the sounds of the party being thrown for his younger brother, there is grumbling.

Because the God who is revealed by the landowner in this parable is a generous God, a God who’s generosity will not be limited by our standards of fairness.  And when that generosity comes into conflict with our natural human tendency to think that we should get what we deserve, we grumble.

“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.”

I understand why the 6am’ers grumble when the 5pm’ers get paid the same as they do.  I’ve grumbled like that.  I suspect we all have.  And I think the generous landowner understands too.  Because not only is the landowner generous with the 5pm’ers in the way that he pays them; he’s also generous with the 6am’ers in the way he responds to their grumbling.

“Friends, 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 want with what belongs to me.  

And then finally the landowner asks, “Are you envious because I am generous?”

It’s a good question.  I like it even better when it’s translated literally:  “Is your eye evil because I am good?”

How do you see things?  When something good happens, do we see evil?

When others, the late-comers, the less qualified, the outsiders, are made equal to us, do we see that as a good thing or a bad thing?

When the 5pm’ers, to their great surprise, are given a full day’s wage so that they can feed their families, do you share their joy, or do you get offended?

Is doing the work that God calls us to do, laboring in God’s vineyard, is that something we see as a joy or a burden?

“The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire labourers for his vineyard.”

This is the parable of the generous landowner.

God is generous.  God’s generosity will not be constrained by any of our standards of fairness.  So deal with it!  Learn to see with a generous eye.  And may you too be generous with others as your Father in heaven is generous with you.

Amen.