Don’t Begrudge God’s Generosity (Sunday, Week 25, Year A)

The gospel reading (cf. Matt. 20:1-16) gives a message that may be very confusing to us: that the kingdom of heaven is like a householder/landowner who went out and hired laborers at different times of the day; and at the end of the day, he paid them equally. Let us bring the story closer to ourselves. Imagine having been hired by someone at 6am and sent to a field to clear grasses. At 9 am, another set of laborers joined you at the site to do the same job. At noon, more laborers joined you. At 3pm, more laborers arrived at the site. At 5pm, more laborers are sent there to work. Now, at the end of the day, how would you feel if you see the paymaster giving all of you the same amount of money as your wages? As human as I am, I would feel cheated and would see that very action of the paymaster as a stark act of injustice! Even if it is not openly expressed, the feeling won’t be different for many of us. What makes this story more interesting is that the seeming “unjust” action of the householder was not condemned by Jesus. Rather, he used the action of the householder to communicate something about the nature of the God that we have as a father. Now, in order to better understand and appreciate the message of this parable, we have to put the story into context. 

First, let us note that Jesus was addressing the disciples; and the disciples were Jews (Israelites). In fact, in Isaiah 5 and 27, the Jews are described as the vineyard of the Lord. So, the owner of the vineyard is God. The vineyard is God’s kingdom. The laborers who came earlier are the people of Israel (the Jews) and the latecomer are the Gentiles, the tax collectors and the sinners. The Jews or the people of Israel believed that they are the Chosen People of God and so thought that they should have a certain advantage over other nations or peoples. They felt that, being the first to be called into God’s service, household or kingdom, they should not be rewarded equally together with the Gentiles, sinners and tax collectors who may be called much later. They expected to be treated better than other peoples. Jesus told the parable in order to help them understand that “God’s ways are not their ways, His thoughts not their thoughts; and as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are God’s ways higher than our ways and His thoughts than our thoughts” as Isaiah told us in the first reading (cf. Isa. 55:8-9).

God’s specially packaged graces and blessings can locate anyone at any time, at any place. The grace of God may meet some in the womb; some at the time of their birth; some at their teenage age; some during their adulthood; some in the church; some in school; some in the club; some at their duty post; and so on. Some were born into wealth. Some became successful or “made it in life” (as we usually describe it) by dint of hard work; some unexpectedly rose to fame with little effort; and so on. Sometimes, our sense of justice makes us feel cheated because some persons didn’t go through the rigorous processes we went through and became successful. God’s ways are not our ways. God’s time is always the best. And everyone has his/her own appointed time with God. At such appointed times, God invites each of us and blesses our sincere efforts (no matter how little or big it may be) with a floodgate of His graces and blessings. When it happens in such manner for a brother or sister, let us try not to begrudge God’s generosity.