From the Daily Lectionary for Wednesday in the Third Week after Pentecost
Matthew 20:1-16
“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 market-place; 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.”
When we lived in Austin, Texas, we fell in love with the HEB Supermarket. It had everything. It was well run. The employees were knowledgeable and helpful. From what I gather it is the fifth largest grocery store chain in the U.S. even though it only exists in central Texas. Out in the parking lot of the HEB there were always Latino men and women, waiting on the “Labor Locators,” hoping to get a day job. These men and women had to keep their eyes open. It was to their advantage to spot the van first so they might be first in line; and then they had to keep an eye out for ICE, since many were undocumented, lest they be arrested and deported. Most of them couldn’t speak English. I can’t imagine such a life, such a daily grind; the anxiety of it. To top things off, they were paid something lower than minimum wage, because the nameless employers that hired them could simply get away with it.
The same scene exists in our parable in today’s reading. Laborers standing in the proverbial parking lot waiting to be paid something much lower than what it takes for subsistence. I’ve heard sermons on this parable that go this way: “The householder represents God… and God is generous to a fault (even if you laborers don’t understand)… and you laborers shouldn’t mutter among yourselves trying to figure out whether God is just or not. Just be thankful for what God gives you.” Clearly, I don’t agree with that interpretation.
Matthew is condemning the system. The wages for both the laborers who work all day, and for the ones who worked part of a day, are woefully inadequate. The householder represents the wealthy elite who are acquiring more wealth on the backs of the itinerant powerless… on the backs of the world’s “last,” the poor, and the beat down, whose daily grind we can’t imagine. Matthew’s audience would know well this unjust system. I would imagine a visceral reaction from them on hearing this parable.
And then the twist, the “Good News” of the parable. These last, all of these “day” laborers, are the ones to whom God will show compassion. In the kingdom of the powerful elite they are last, their lives unsustainable, filled with anxiety; but in God’s kingdom, they will be sustained and honored as equals. It is for the people of God, and in Matthew’s case, the ones who follow Jesus, to help make this so.
As far as Texas goes, in our own day and age, meaningful immigration reform would go a long way for these people struggling to survive. And for our nation: meaningful leadership would be a good start, and a reorientation of our collective soul towards empathy and compassion and advocacy. We have the resources to be economically just. Justice is always possible, affordable, if there were the moral will. Perhaps our role as people of faith is to name this breach in our society and then to nurture among the powerful such a gracious will, a long-overdue reorientation towards simple justice, until at last, no one will have to stand in a parking lot hoping against hope for one more day.
A Prayer for the Unemployed (BCP p. 824)
Most Holy God, we remember before you those who suffer want and anxiety from lack of work. Guide the people of this land so to use our public and private wealth that all may find suitable and fulfilling employment, and receive just payment for their labor; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
