In the gospel of Matthew, Jesus tells a story about a landowner who hires workers for his vineyard. He begins “the kingdom of heaven is like this,” and tells how the landowner finds the workers first thing in the morning in the town square, hires them for a set wage and off they go to work. At several other times during the day, he sees others who are looking for work, so he hires them, too.
When they get to the end of the day, he pays the last ones hired the same as the first ones hired. Those who worked the whole day grumble that the landowner is treating them all equally, though the others didn’t do as much work. The landowner replies that he is giving them what they agreed to and has chosen to give the others the same, it’s his right to do so. “Are you envious because I am generous?” he asks. And Jesus concludes by saying “so the last will be first, and the first will be last.”
Is this story about the generosity of God’s grace, that it’s truly for all regardless of circumstance? Could be. Is it a story about how those who receive the least from this life will be rewarded in the life to come? Sure, that’s another perspective. Jesus does begin the story by saying that this is what the kingdom of heaven is like. And, in the gospel, it does follow a story about Jesus meeting a rich young man and telling the disciples how hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. Maybe it is just about that heaven.
But Jesus uses the expression “the kingdom of heaven is like this” almost a dozen times in Matthew, a gospel in which Jesus begins his ministry by preaching “repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.” A ministry in which he consistently shows us how we could move that heaven from near to here.
So, what if this is a story about here. And now. What if this is Jesus, being Jesus, addressing society’s structures and calling for just treatment for all. What if the landowners generosity is simply upending the standard of what we consider fair reward for work done and instead responding to basic human needs.
The landowner agrees to a certain day’s wage for the first workers. But then he finds others who are unemployed and looking for work. They’re not just sitting around or being lazy, there’s no mention of standards or specific skills, they need to work. They likely need to feed themselves, maybe even a family. They would need shelter, clothing, they might even need health care or education. Bring this story into a contemporary context and the needs are many.
What if the landowner has simply decided to pay them what’s equitable. Not equal, not the same, but equitable, on the basis of what they need. Our needs can be very different, we all come from different places in life, but perhaps the landowner is simply trying to provide a basic level of support on the basis of need. All these workers needed a days wage.
In telling the story, Jesus acknowledges we struggle with how we see each other. Put yourself in the sandals of those who worked all day and I bet you’d grumble, too. Overcoming systems and structures we’ve learned and lived in for so long is hard. But Jesus’ life ministry shows us how to see each other as all worthy of love, care and respect.
Perhaps when Jesus says “the last will be first, and the first will be last,” he doesn’t simply mean a one time inversion of the existing structure. After all, it’s a loop, isn’t it? As we live through this life, when the last become first, they must then become last because they’re first now and so on. Instead, maybe he means to draw our attention to equity, to something more level and balance, that we might learn and understand what each of us needs and offer that with respect and dignity, creating a community of caring. That would be heavenly.
