Workers in the Vineyard

January 31, 2009

Today's Reading: Exodus 11-12 and Matthew 20

There is a terrific story that Jesus tells about workers at a vineyard that I usually don’t see repeated in most sermons. Usually preachers focus on the Parable of the sower, or that whole prodigal son thing.

Perhaps it is the controversial subject matter, as it is about workers in a vineyard. You know, maybe preachers are afraid telling this story will justify wine consumption. Seriously, these guys could be working anywhere, and it wouldn’t matter.

The story is about workers. Some are hired in the morning and do a full day’s work. Some get hired around lunch time and work a half-day. Some get hired around some time before the last break.

The thing is, they all get the same amount of wages. Of course the guys who did most of the work complained that they should be paid more because of it, or the other guys who just worked an hour or two be paid less. There is a certain logic to their reasoning.

Of course, these men are forgetting the pie principle. This is something business CEOs use to justify their gross salaries that are several hundred percents above their workers. This is that the one who makes the pie gets the largest piece. Certainly no one would dispute that in a situation where a granny spends all evening to make a pie for her dinner party. No one would deny her a largest piece if she would ask for it.

In other words, the one who owns the business can do what he or she wants. If the workers don’t like it, then they can work for someone else or take the necessary risks to start their own business.

Yet even that isn’t the point of the story. Personally, I think this story will have more merit in the next life. You see, I believe that heaven will be full of all different kinds of people who will have received salvation at varying times. Some will have accepted Jesus at an early age of five years old, and others would have lived a life of sin and accept Christ on the eleventh hour of their deathbed.

I am willing to bet that in heaven, all of these saved will probably get the same type of mansion. And I’m also willing to bet that those who were saved longer on Earth will complain that they don’t have a better mansion. This is under the assumption that you can complain in heaven.

Let’s try to apply this story to now. If you get a wage, try not to compare it to others. Compare it to that which you need in order to live.